Making a Plan Makes a Difference

"Where does all of our money go?" That's the question my hubby and I kept asking ourselves a year ago when we were living paycheck to paycheck. Now, only a year later, we are able to live off of 75% of our income, have money saved for emergencies, and are even contributing to our retirement and the kids college funds. One thing made that difference: now we have a plan! Every month we take time to talk about our budget, write down a plan, and stick to it. This reminds me of the process that helps students become successful problem solvers.

Problem Solving involves LOTS of thinking and planning, and then a little bit of solving, and then hopefully some more thinking about reasonableness. We help our students when we spend time having them practice the thinking A LOT. Here are some ideas that I have seen that really help students:

• Think about important vocabulary from the standards, like joining, separating & comparing and composing & decomposing (even use motions to help them remember the meanings).

• After they are able to describe what is happening in the story (we are joining boys and girls to find total students), then talk about what operation goes with that vocab word. “If I'm joining would that be adding or subtracting?”
• Remove the numbers until kids have thought through the problem and are able to tell you a "word number sentence" (number of books on each shelf x the number of shelves = total books)
• Talk about the differences in the operations (Joining can be adding or multiplying, but I know to multiply when my groups have the same amount, or are equal.) and have them "DIG" on each operation.
• Subtraction is when you take things away from the total, or separate things. When I take cookies from the cookie jar, it has less cookies.
• Instead of only having students share different ways to solve a problem, see if they can share/explain how they knew what operation(s) to use and/or why an answer is reasonable or unreasonable.
• Have them find some text evidence to show how they know what to do and why their operation fits. (Example: it told us how many blue flowers and how many yellow flowers and it's asking for the total flowers, which tells me I am going to add them together to figure out how many yellow and blue flowers there are all together.)
• Justify for reasonableness: thinking after solving to make sure your answer makes sense is important. Kids struggle with this, so the more we practice, the better! A great way to do this is by using estimation (rounding or compatible numbers). It's also a great time to bring in a tool to help them think about reasonableness. For example, if I'm doing 24x8 I could think about money. 24 is really close to 25, which is the value of a quarter.  My answer should be around 200 because I know that 4 quarters equal $1 and 8 would equal $2, which is 200 cents.
• Model this thinking aloud (for understanding the problem, the operation, or reasonableness) when you are doing the "I Do" (mini-lesson) to give them ideas of how to think deeply about story problems.

Just remember to always value and encourage the time our students spend and NEED to make a plan! This up-front work will make all the difference!

 

Curing Cancer

Did anyone get to watch 60 minutes on Sunday night? Holy cow! It was completely fascinating!! Apparently at the Duke Cancer Research Center they are getting amazing results with their latest cancer treatment trial. The treatment consists of injecting the polio virus into brain tumors in order to remove the protective shield that causes the cancer to be invisible to the immune system. When the virus breaks down the shield, it awakens the body's immune system so that it begins to fight the cancer. Isn't that absolutely AMAZING!?!?

As I think about the level of thinking it would take to even begin to figure this out, I am reminded of the importance of our job as educators. We are invaluable in this world. Our job, I would argue, is of the utmost value and importance. As teachers, we mold little human lives. We mold them by modeling life. Modeling how to treat others with respect and love. Modeling how to handle every situation that may come their way. Modeling how to be a problem solver and a thinker. Who would have believed someone that said, "I think injecting polio into this cancer patient's brain tumor has a chance of curing them."? Not a soul in the world in which my generation was raised. Thinking back to my years growing up, I have to be honest. Growing up in a one-way philosophy educational generation was discouraging for me. I vividly remember my inability to show my knowledge and capability through choosing the "one right answer". I was one of those kids. One who frequently ALMOST had it, but not quite! One who didn't think quite like everyone else in the box. Oddly enough, I was usually pretty confident in my thinking and could provide adequate and even thought-provoking evidence when prompted. The problem was, I was just never prompted. Hence the reason I grew up believing the lies. The lie that I was dumb, as I felt defeated trying to train my brain to fit "in the box". The lie that I would always barely be mediocre despite hard-core effort. The lie that my evidence and thinking didn't matter. The lie that some people just got "it", and I would never be one of those people.  I now know that the sole person telling this lie was the same person looking back at me in the mirror. The dilemma was though, I didn't have the confidence to come to that realization until I entered adulthood. Having a career that not only accepts independent problem solvers, but heavily relies on them, has taught me that there is more than one way. Teaching on a growth-mindset campus has proven to me that my thinking, as well as ALL other's thinking, does matter and often times is another way to answer!

Reeves-Hinger has changed my life for the good in so many ways. One of the best parts of our job as RH teachers is that we learn truths in our profession that we can often apply to our personal lives as well.  A giant scoop of hard work, a heap of resilience, and a pinch of a determination is the recipe for truth. This recipe excites the senses enough with a small taste of improvement, that it leaves a never-ending craving for progress. Some people define these ingredients as grit.

Grit is something inside you that drowns out the lies that you aren't good enough. Everyday I get to witness inspiring teachers using these same ingredients to cook up confident, persevering, problem-solving students. I believe with all my heart the direction we are headed is going to be ground breaking! We are not there YET, but we continuously work our way up that hill, one step at a time. Each step getting us closer to YES! Along the way (and I believe most importantly) we can ensure our students don't believe the lies, but instead know the recipe for truth. We can change lives now simply through ensuring our students know the truth and motivating them to be the best at whatever they choose to be in life! This encouragement paired with teaching them to problem solve as a valued thinker, could create a life-changing generation. Armed with these tools, who knows what this generation will be capable of...curing cancer may just be the tip of the iceberg!

Put Me In Coach!!!

Torture, defined by Gage (my 8 year old), is staying on the bench during the ending of the closest game of the season. He could hardly stand watching his team barely loose their only basketball game this year. I wouldn't really say he "sat" on the bench after fouling out...it looked more like he was dealing with ants in his pants as he attempted to keep off the court. His passion for the game paired with countless hours of practice to improve his skills gave him such an excitement to play! What he would have given for the coach to somehow turn around and say "get in there Gage!" My wish is that our RH students will feel the same excitement, pride and anxiousness to show off all they have learned when they take the STAAR this spring. More importantly, I pray that the same enthusiasm for learning continues their entire lives.

Just as teachers make all the difference in their student's years, coaches play an important role in their player's seasons. They have the ability to jump in, side by side with their players and help them improve their practice. Great coaches not only know how important it is to practice, but they make the most of it. Successful practices happen when coaches take time to learn what each player does well and praise them for that effort. Also, they focus on each individual's weaknesses, giving specific feedback and encouragement until they see growth to celebrate!  Practice doesn't make perfect, but practice does make progress. A coach knows how to prepare the team for the game and ensures that each team member is ready before throwing them out on a live court. Playing games over and over is not preparation for game...but lots of practice is. Assessing kids over and over is not preparation for a test or life-long learning...but lots of teaching and learning is. As teachers, it's our job to support our kids over and over through practice, without jumping right into assessment. In practice when we miss, foul, or throw the ball away, there is no penalty like in the game. Instead, these mistakes are followed by targeted advice and then "let's try it again!" to build stamina, skills and allow growth from mistakes. This strategy develops confident players who are prepared to play the game.  They aren't just equipped, but readily anxious to put their hours of sweaty, hard work to the "test". Fueled with the belief in their ability to learn, grow, even fail, they ultimately experience the pride of accomplishment from hard work paying off.  

Most importantly, a coach has the possibility to do much more than teach fundamental skills. An effective coach transforms their player's work ethic, beliefs, and goals, eventually affecting the rest of their lives.  Teachers have the equal opportunity to transform futures. In fact, I would bet that an overwhelming majority of coaches and teachers chose their career based on this very principle. This time of the year it is easy to forget that dream. It's easy to forgot the importance of practice, practice, practice. It's easy to forget to encourage, encourage, encourage. It's easy to slip into testing, testing, testing. It's easy to forget that there isn't only one right tool, one piece of proof, or one way to solve. It's easy to forget that STAAR is just a test. It's easy to forget that we are a part of molding small human beings. It's easy to forget that these little lives look to us to show them what life is about and how they should handle it. It's easy to forgot what's important.

As we are on the downhill slide of the year, let's remember to keep practicing and adjusting before we throw our players in the game! I am hopeful. Hopeful we will see our student's enthusiasm for learning shine through on the STAAR. Even more hopeful that we will remember why we do what we do. The MOST hopeful that we will influence the future by developing children that look at challenges in life and say "put me in coach, I'm ready to play!"