Momastry Article - Inspiring

"TEACH ON, WARRIORS. You are the first responders, the front line, the disconnection detectives, and the best and ONLY hope we’ve got for a better world. What you do in those classrooms when no one  is watching-  it’s our best hope.

Teachers- you’ve got a million parents behind you whispering together: “We don’t care about the damn standardized tests. We only care that you teach our children to be Brave and Kind. And we thank you. We thank you for saving lives.”

Read the rest of it here. 

Gratitude Journals Part 2

I wanted to do a quick follow up to the gratitude journals we did a couple of weeks ago. I am feeling so happy about them! I've asked the students to write at least two things in their gratitude journals each day. Most students have loved it and write more than two things. Some students don't write it down but share with the rest of the class what they are grateful for, and some students don't participate at all. I don't pressure them to come up with things, and I just hope that us discussing each day will still have positive benefits for them. 

I think it's important for the students to know that I am participating in this too. So I always write my gratitude items on the board. This also helps remind the students to write in their journals and hopefully gets them thinking about other things they can be grateful for. 

One of my favorite moments of the day is about ten minutes after the bell rings and right before we start math. I always ask the students to get their math assignment out, and as they are doing it I ask them who would like to share what they wrote. The responses are always interesting and range from everything like Angry Birds Go to family to friends to pizza to pets. A few of my favorite ones have been Miss Jarvie (It always warms my soul), my classmates (YES!!!), and forgiveness. I was blown away with that last one. Even sixth graders realize what a gift forgiveness can be. Overall, I am so happy that I did gratitude journals with my students. I am glad I started in January because I think it gave enough time for the kids to get comfortable with each other enough to share. This is a tradition I will most definitely continue on!

Gettin' Sciency

On Monday, I spoke to the students about our upcoming science fair. We went over a packet of information about what they can and cannot do. Except for the token few, all that I heard form the students were moans and groans about hating this assignment. To be honest, I can relate. Science was never my thing growing up, and I don't even think that I competed in a science fair. But since having an incredible science class at UVU I have tried to change my ways and look at science in a more creative, interesting, and investigative learning experience.So...to get the students excited about their science projects, we decided to do a few in our class.

This is my "I love SCIENCE" face. I look a 

little scared right? That's because I am.

 First up on our experiment agenda was "Blazing Benjamins". It involved, 91% alcohol, water, a little salt, a dollar bill (or bigger bill if you want it to be more dramatic), tongs, and a lighter. Long story short, the bill doesn't burn. You can read more about it on the link I shared below. After we tried burning the bill, we then put it in a vase of water just to be safe. We noticed the bill looked kind of funny. The students remembered that this concept is called refraction. Success! They remembered a previous lesson!

Next up was the Glitter Volcano. It didn't work as well. It mini worked - but didn't actually explode over. The kids got the general idea of the experiment and we then discussed why it didn't work or what we could have done differently. Even though it didn't work, it was a great opportunity for learning and discussion. 

Secret Messages are always fun....especially when they work really well and you can actually read them! They did work, but it took way too long to get to the readable message. I think if we would have had a better heat source, it would have worked much better. But the kids still enjoyed it and hopefully will be interested in trying it again. 

The best part of our experiment day was definitely the Ooie Gooie Cornstarch Mixture. It's a simply mixture of cornstarch and water - and we added food coloring. The kids loved this stuff! The fact that it's both a liquid and a solid kind of blew their minds. When mixing up the powder mixture, it was really hard and felt like wet sand. But as soon as you just let it sit in your hand, it gooed and dripped back down your hand. It was so crazy awesome!!! It was worth the mess we had to clean up. 

Having some hands on science experiments was a fabulous way for the students to get more comfortable with their upcoming project. They were excited and realized that science can be super cool and really fun. We finished the last 15 minutes of the day watching Steve Spangler videos and the kids left my room talking about what they wanted to experiment and all of their ideas. 

Today I learned that even when you plan ahead for everything, it usually never works out just how you think it will. But sometimes it's for the best! If you want the directions or ideas, check out this website. If you have any questions about what we did, comment below. 

Having an Attitude of Gratitude

One of my goals for 2014 is to live with more gratitude. My friend Becky (who takes amazing photos that you should check out here) made the suggestion when I posted about resolutions on Instagram and I thought it would be a great resolution for me to take part of too. So then I figured, well if I have to live with more gratitude then my students should too! And no...I don't have to do it...I'm just being sarcastic. 

So I started researching and I found out that living with gratitude and keeping a gratitude journal can actually lead to a better life and better health. According to the University of California, they listed the following benefits of gratitude and well-being:

• In an experimental comparison, those who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events (Emmons & McCullough, 2003).
• In a sample of adults with neuromuscular disease, a 21-day gratitude intervention resulted in greater amounts of high energy positive moods, a greater sense of feeling connected to others, more optimistic ratings of one’s life, and better sleep duration and sleep quality, relative to a control group.
• A daily gratitude intervention (self-guided exercises) with young adults resulted in higher reported levels of the positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy compared to a focus on hassles or a downward social comparison (ways in which participants thought they were better off than others). There was no difference in levels of unpleasant emotions reported in the three groups.
• Participants in the daily gratitude condition were more likely to report having helped someone with a personal problem or having offered emotional support to another, relative to the hassles or social comparison condition.
• Children who practice grateful thinking have more positive attitudes toward school and their families (Froh, Sefick, & Emmons, 2008

That last finding was reason enough for me to have my students participate with me in living with more gratitude. They may not appreciate it now, but hopefully one day they will see that gratitude has its benefits. I have searched Pinterest for various ideas and came across these cute little journals using mini composition books. Hopefully I can find them for about 25 cents a piece, and I have oodles of paper the kids could use to cover them. I'll report back and let you know how it goes!

Sometimes I wonder if I have time for these "extra" classroom activites. But then I realize, I don't have time to not do them. In my opinion, kids need more than just the curriculum. They need a teacher who will model for them exemplary behavior as a citizen of the community as well as a member of the classroom. Kids need to learn compassion, discipline, accountability, honesty, dedication, and so much more. As a teacher, I truly believe its my responsibility to help mold these kids for the better. Kind of overwhelming but it's really the reason that I wanted to become a teacher. And man, I love those little sixth graders!

Wow...kind of a rant. Would love to know your thoughts on what it means to be teacher - whether its from a teacher point of view, parent point of view, or even a student point of view. So share aware!