On Thursday of this week, I got to sit back, relax, and enjoy as a bunch of fearless, hardworking students took over my role as teacher. The week prior, I had presented an extra credit opportunity that had students developing a lesson plan to teach the class about nouns, verbs, and adjectives. The guidelines weren't very specific; they just needed a thought-out plan with the goal of helping the class define and identify these parts of speech. Why? Well, sometimes, kids can explain things to other kids in a way that makes more sense than when explained by adults. Although we’ve been doing a lot of practice around nouns, verbs, and adjectives lately, mastering these parts of speech is no easy task. Many students are having trouble identifying these types of words in sentences, and even those students who seem to be getting it needed some extra practice. The turn out? Well, FOURTEEN kids opted to take part in this assignment and design original lessons to share with their classmates. I was blown away by the effort and creativity, and it was so much fun. Kids had all sorts of lessons--Google Slides, whole class activities, small group games, handouts, Google classroom assignments--and the rest of the group were engaged, supportive participants for each student-turned-teacher. Not only that, but as I mentioned to them, if you can teach something, then that's proof you really know something. So by challenging themselves and taking on this opportunity, they truly needed to familiarize themselves with these parts of speech. I was very proud, to say the least!

Another neat activity this week took place on Friday. It began from an observation I've made recently around when students are faced with more challenging assignments. I've noticed that when students are having trouble or "stuck", it's tough to get them out of that helpless frame of mind. So, I brought in expert reinforcements to help me address this predicament: Ms. Tosches and her innovative brain. I shared what was going on with her, and we designed a lesson around growth mindset, mindfulness, and divergent thinking. It couldn't have gone better. We talked about how important it is to check in with ourselves and recognize our own feelings without judgement. We also emphasized that it's okay to be stressed or stuck at times, but it's what we do in those situations that can help us build resilience, move forward, and even strengthen the connections in our brain. Students were then given a few materials and told that they had five minutes to make something with them. They had to do this in silence, and we checked in with how we were feeling at the beginning and end of the five minutes. After time was up, we came together as a whole class to reflect and share the feelings we experienced throughout the activity. Many students voiced that the time constraint was anxiety-provoking, and that they ran into difficulties when testing out some of the components of their prototype's design. Students shared ideas of how they moved beyond those roadblocks, and we talked about what we can do and say to ourselves when we find ourselves feeling a similar way in the classroom. Then, they got a chance to try the challenge again. It was truly great, and I can't wait to use our talking points and problem solving strategies moving forward.

Our Bucket Fillers this week were James and Mihali. I was so proud of James this week when he read an entire paragraph in front of the class. I love when he reads out loud, because he is a strong reader! It takes more effort and energy for him to read aloud, but he is so capable, and seeing the giant, proud smile emerge on his face after reading immediately caused a giant, proud smile to emerge on my face. A little bit later, I saw James in the hallway when I was with my homeroom. I gave him a high five, and let this crew of kids know what a nice job James had done reading. Mihali immediately praised him and voiced his excitement on James's behalf. That's what I love about Mihali: he is not only bright and hardworking, he is a genuinely kind kid who is supportive of his classmates. He is humble, easygoing, patient, respectful, and reflective, and I think the world of him. Congrats James and Mihali!