Helping Kids Find Their Strengths to Succeed in Life!

Be sure that kids understand the task that they are given. When they parade their papers in front of you, ask what they think about their work. Is it their best effort? Did they remember all of the requirements, like name and other critical matters? If yes, they can give themselves 5 smiley faces or stars!

It was an interesting experiment today. I was to meet with my lowest guided reading group and anticipated a bit of frustration all around. I had a cute book, "Frog" that seemed possibly "too hard" but I was going to do an experiment of sorts. What if I did a picture walk of the book and engaged the students in playful conversation about this frog who ventured out of his pond into the city? Would their amusement and curiosity about the story propel them into making an effort to read?
The answer: a resounding yes!
I am learning more and more that a positive classroom climate, filled with curiosity, fascination and humor enables kids to take risks in learning. Many kids, even at 5, have learned that it's sometimes easier to remain quiet than answer a question and be wrong. I don't let them remain quiet; I ask them to make a guess based on what they know. Because they have been with me for 132 days of school, they trust me. And they know I believe in them.
We need to keep expectations high, but find ways to lower the stress and anxiety that often cripples kids in their learning. A trusting student-teacher relationship is a great place to start.

Although pictured here as an astronaut at age 5, my son was destined to be an engineer. Building lego creations, begging me to take him to Radio Shack for parts, building booby traps for his room, and excelling at math at an early age: all the clues were there.
If I had known how this strength could be supported, I might have found ways to encourage him even more. Fortunately, I did not get too caught up about his "imperfect" handwriting, or his tendency to leave his room a bit messy. I gave him lots of time to create his original works of art, and encouragement to pursue anything he felt passionate about.
He went through phases of violin playing, piano playing, guitar playing, and shooting airsoft pellets at anything he could find. But he always returned to his building and creating.
This June, Nick will graduate with honors from UCLA engineering school. He will attend MIT in the fall for graduate work, pursuing a masters and then a doctorate. Am I proud? Of course! But more than that, I am grateful to the teachers, family members, friends and other caring supportive people in his life who helped me to support Nick's natural interests and affinities.

Humor often relaxes the students and lowers the anxiety of the classroom setting. Play is critical in kindergarten.

Kids love holidays and celebrations! Taking a picture with a St. Patrick's Day hat excites my students about learning new things. You can use the theme to teach probability in a math lesson: what is the chance we will catch a leprechaun? You can use potatoes, the official Irish food, to teach academic language of measurement and estimation. When kids are engaged in the topic, they will learn. Activities at home, such as cooking and shopping can be times to practice these skills as well. Math and reading can be learned and reinforced outside the classroom!

Fascination is one of the positive emotions that seems to flow naturally when students are truly engaged in learning. I decided to teach my students this word today, using my new "Cognitive Content Dictionary", a strategy I learned in GLAD ( Guided Language Acquisition Development) training a couple weeks ago. I was floored when I heard a student use this word spontaneously, only 10 minutes before I was to teach the lesson. He found it "fascinating" that Miss Brown, our new student teacher, had used such "cool" things to make her 100th day of school collage. Groups of 10: bottle caps, marbles, beads, pennies and other fun items studded the 100 outline and my student was "fascinated." And so was I, fascinated that this 5 year old had spontaneously used this word in my classroom while joyfully exclaiming that the collection was, so cool!
As we talked about fascination, I watched the little faces light up as they shared something they were excited to learn about. The energy seemed to take us, effortlessly, into the rest of our learning day.
Later in the morning, I had a brainstorm, perhaps fueled by the mindful time I had spent pondering my students' interest in the word fascination. I decided to give each child a small notebook with the words, "My Fascination Journal" on the front. I told them that they could write about anything they are fascinated about, whenever they have free time or have finished their work. The response was a group cheer, "Awesome!" One boy drew pictures of planets and copied the words "outer space" above. He wrote " I am fascination by..outer space!" It was adorable.
Fascination fuels discovery and work in a classroom. Kids were looking at picture dictionaries to write about space, bugs, tractors and more, and I promised that we would do some "research" to find facts for their new journals.
I am excited to explore more ways to bring positivity and engagement to my classroom. And I am fascinated by the simplicity in implementing strategies to fuel and harness the power of these emotions.