Students were very creative with their task of creating an imaginary friend puppet to mail to our "Art Pals" in Finland. Can you find your own puppet here?

We can't wait to get our imaginary friend puppets in the mail!  Check back to see what they look like in a few weeks...

K. Losey

We have been talking a lot in class about mindsets. We refer to our mindset as either a "Growth mindset" or a "Fixed Mindset". Research has shown that students with a growth mindset are more successful learners and are capable of increasing their intelligence through engaging in challenging problems that require persistence and effort on behalf of the student.. 
One way for students to change their mindset is to engage in positive self talk. Change your thoughts, change your words, change your mindset... I can't do it, yet!

During the classroom discussion on mindsets, a student mentioned that it took him a very long time to learn how to ride his unicycle. He said he practiced for about 2 hours a day for three weeks... and some of the first days were very painful from falling off.  

Hard work, perseverance and a great amount of effort eventually paid off and he was finally able to ride his unicycle... yay!

What are YOU passionate enough about to invest 42 hours of hard work and effort before seeing it pay off?

Let us know what you haven't figured out, yet.

K. Losey

During the first week of school, the students have been spending a lot of time getting to know each other, and reflecting on their personal interests, attitudes towards school, and various subjects, particularly math.  The students completed a math survey where we found out that most of the students prefer to work alone or with a single partner when they are working during math class.  It also appears that the students have a very mixed set of ideas surrounding their ability to solve more complicated problems.  Some feel quite competent and others feel out of their depth. In fact, when asked what they were looking forward to this year, many students stated that they would like to get better at math!

The students were later asked to draw what they thought it would look like "if MATH were an animal". The results were quite varied, much as the students themselves... from favourite animals to odd mixed up creatures that depict a variety of different of emotions in their artist.  

Check out a few of them below and let us know what you think!

K. Losey

I am very excited to be starting a new school year and getting to know all of my students this year.  I hope that each parent and student are just as excited for the start of the new school year as I am. 

Today at school we watched a YouTube video that is a pep talk for teachers and students. We used it to launch a discussion about the importance each of us has in the classroom, the school, and the larger community and the importance for us to, get your learn on! If you want to view the video at home, feel free to check it out!  Let us know what you think of it!

Some of the take away messages from the video were:
     * What are you teaching the world?
     * Everybody is a teacher and everybody is a student.
     * You're hear, you take up space, you matter.
     * History is made by ordinary people like you and me.
     * No matter who you are, someone is learning from you.
     * Teachers also see the person we can all become some day.

Be sure to subscribe to the class website so that you get an alert when new information is added such as regular updates and information.  Some items to look at on the website include the class calendar (we are now paperless!), deadlines and due dates for homework and projects, the twitter feed where each student will have a turn to be our "Tweeter of the Day" (see who it is by their initials!), and be sure to check regularly for pictures of all the great learning happening in class.  

Thanks for checking our website out!  Hope you visit again soon!

K. Losey