Tag: Mindset

Perseverance or Obsession

This is my 25th year teaching. In that time I’ve gotten 38 grants. I have been getting at least one grant a year for the last 17 years straight. I’m working on making that 18 years straight. Of those 38 grants, 17 were awarded for one project, my environmental stewardship project. I’ve learned that there …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/05/10/perseverance-or-obsession/

A 6th Grader’s View On Mindsets

Here’s the latest 6th grade post in our class’s World Solutions Blog: Does Having a Growth Mindset Over a Fixed Mindset Really Matter? Click on the link above and read her post, it’s really good and has a fantastic Animoto video! Leave her a comment and share her post, please!

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/03/17/a-6th-graders-view-on-mindsets/

Are Students Learning?

In our last round of training on our new WA State evaluation system, Teacher/Principal Evaluation Project (TPEP), many of our small group discussions came back to the question of student learning (as it should!). I became fixated on one particular core idea from the CEL 1 Foundational Ideas Applied to Instructional Frameworks that read: “If …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/02/10/are-students-learning/

Test Remediation

I have question about standardized test remediation courses. I know the answer to my question but I still have a strong, almost masochistic, desire to ask it. So let me start with the answer to my question. “You’re right, Al, and I agree with everything you say but (yes, I, Al, know there is a …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/02/07/test-remediation/

Let Nature Take its Course

I’ll be the first to admit it, I don’t seem to have much of a green thumb. I have to work hard (see the growth mindset there) at successfully growing plants, especially from seeds, even though in nature they seem to grow just fine. Something about me meddling or maybe over thinking it. I also …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/02/04/let-nature-take-its-course/

How We Learn Math

Or better yet, how we SHOULD learn Math! [This is part of a series of posts I’m writing as I reflect on another online course I’m taking this summer, Stanford University’s EDUC115N How to Learn Math. Sure, I’m a Science teacher but I have taught Math so I’m familiar with Math instruction. Besides, we do …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/08/16/how-we-learn-math/

Growth Mindset

[This is part of a series of posts I’m writing as I reflect on another online course I’m taking this summer, Stanford University’s EDUC115N How to Learn Math. Sure, I’m a Science teacher but I have taught Math so I’m familiar with Math instruction. Besides, we do use Math in Science so it’s not like …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/07/26/growth-mindset/

Changing Math

[This is part of a series of posts I’m writing as I reflect on another online course I’m taking this summer, Stanford University’s EDUC115N How to Learn Math. Sure, I’m a Science teacher but I have taught Math so I’m familiar with Math instruction. Besides, we do use Math in Science so it’s not like …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/07/24/changing-math/

When is Extrinsic Motivation Okay?

I’ve been looking into gamification and how it can help motivate students to have fun and learn Science. I would love to make certain lessons, projects, or activities look like a game to motivate students to learn boring things like vocabulary. I’d like to do that without points, badges or too many rewards. I’ve abolished …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/06/18/when-is-extrinsic-motivation-okay/