Welcome to 2nd Semester!
My goal today is to assess the work ethic — learning minutes on task — of the students in class, and to find ways for students to become more independent in their educational endeavors. It is important that students learn to survive in the wild of the outside world, and it is my job to allow them to try, to fail, to grow.
We are now writing Slice of Life stories, poems, and lists to get ready for the March Slice of Life Challenge. Each Tuesday, we focus on what we are thinking, remembering times of our lives, and making lists of items we want others to know.
It is a struggle to watch students fail. It is a struggle to lead students down paths they have not tried before. But I know that it will be a pleasure to see these students succeed this semester, doing more than they ever thought possible!
Steps to Growth and Success:
- Read and write. Every day.
- Focus on the learning.
- Celebrate success.
Reading Teacher Writes 
January 19, 2016 at 7:21 PM
No one wants to fail, but in the failure you have the opportunity to learn. Sounds like you are doing good things to prep for March.
January 19, 2016 at 8:58 PM
March? Bring it on!
January 19, 2016 at 8:40 PM
I think I am going to offer Slice of Life Challenge to my students this year for the first time. Could be interesting. It is hard to see anyone fail, but I know for me, that is when I learn the most.
January 19, 2016 at 8:58 PM
Slice of Life is so much fun, especially when you write along with your students inside the classroom. Plus, it’s a distraction from testing and low key/easy to “grade” with participation and discussion points. We love it! (Now, I’ve never actually done the classroom challenge on the blog — we are pretty low-tech at my school and we don’t have permission to blog. But we write anyway!)
January 19, 2016 at 9:23 PM
Stumbling is just part of the learning experience, sometimes we try to “protect” our kids more than is good for them…in the long run.
January 19, 2016 at 10:26 PM
I love your steps to success. They will work for life, not just the classroom. You are doing great work Jennifer.
January 19, 2016 at 10:42 PM
I often said to my students that if they didn’t risk, they would never know how much success they could have. Sounds like your writing & reading can have their ups & downs, but practicing really does bring results! Love hearing that you’re doing all this.
January 20, 2016 at 1:50 AM
Love your steps to growth and success. I plan to adopt them for myself!
January 20, 2016 at 9:05 AM
Love your determination and the grace with which you welcome the hard part of learning – failure. I think this post is just what I needed today because too often I focus on the failure as a reflection of a job poorly done (usually I internalize it to me MY JOB poorly done). Yet, failure IS part of the process. It’s how we learn what doesn’t work so that we can come at the issue from another angle. Thanks for sharing and for helping your students work through this process! Enjoy your month of slicing!!
January 26, 2016 at 6:42 PM
The ups and downs of teaching and learning are so real, Jennifer. It is great to hear that there are teachers in the field who believe in the growth mindset process of baby steps, a positive notion of failure, and student growth.