Monday, August 24, 2015

Delightful Book Teaches Kids To Be Happy With Who They Are

Introducing a fabulous new book, Is There an App for That?  My students loved it! We are all used to having apps available to solve all kinds of dilemmas. From leveling our classroom libraries to tracking our health...there's an app for that! In this book a girl named Hailey discovers a mysterious app that can make her faster, smarter, taller, and more. After going through several changes she finally realizes that she is perfect just the way she is.

The author, Bryan Smith, is an elementary school counselor. He is able to use his unique experiences as a counselor to write books targeted to help kids with issues they deal with every day. Keep writing Bryan!

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Tool for Teaching the Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset

Wow! I just ran across this on Pinterest and then found it on TPT. It's a bulletin board that teaches kids and teens about the growth mindset. This should be actively referred to ALL year to keep it in the forefront of students' minds. Be sure to teach the concept of neuroplasticity along with it and I can guarantee you will have a positive lifelong impact on your students!


I've purchased it from Mrs. Moore's TPT store. Here's a direct link to the product. When I made mine I ended up using a tri-fold presentation board. I also made the words a little bit bigger and drew the brain myself on poster board. Here is my finished product...


The colorful statements on the right are attached with velcro so students can work together to determine which growth mindset statements best overcome each fixed mindset statement. I'm such a geek.

Kids/teens need to know that they are in charge of their actions/thinking/reactions/learning etc. I was not explicitly taught this life changing concept until college. Let's begin teaching our students NOW.

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Books that Teach PreK-3rd Grade Thinking Skills

Last week I had the opportunity to present classes about brain-based teaching at Learning@Lovejoy. I mentioned several books that I read my class in addition to the BrainSMART curriculum. Several teachers asked for a list of the books that I use. Here it is!