Zen Pencils

I am fully aware that hanging posters in your room will not fix the problem that we are charged with. I am also fully aware that perhaps cutesy quotes are overused in order to try and solve major problems. However, I thought these posters and motivational quotes from Zen Pencils would be something that this group would enjoy. These are free posters available on the artist's website:

This one in particular is one of my favorites. This one is a paid one, and I want to buy a large print of it:

The artist also specializes in turning famous speeches or quotes into comic strips. Here is one of my favorites from one of the people I admire most, John Green:

These are just for fun.

Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk

This video relates I think to fear of failure. I'm not sure how workable her solution is in the classroom, but it's a interesting way of thinking of the fear of failure for the creative process.

Hey group. Here is an article that Quinton tweeted last night about finding meaning in your work. For me, the most salient part of the article is here:

The skill mastery she described and demonstrated provided her with meaning, as did the way in which she incorporated this mastery into her identity as a helping professional. Knowing that she was capable of reliably producing a result that she cared about amplified Joan's experience of her work as meaningful. In other words, Joan's recipe for work meaning was self-efficacy mixed with concordance with her personal values, seasoned with connection to and feedback from the beneficiaries of her work.

The person observed found meaning because she was successful and her tasks were aligned to her personal value system. How do we do this in our classroom?

Early Release Plan...

• Before September 26-
• Define your personal research component
• Post a reflection about your classroom culture
• On September 26-
• Talk about what checklists look like
• Working meeting to search/read/research/talk/post
• Before October 31-
• Surf the blog
• Come up with 5 items you would like to add to the checklist
• On October 31-
• Share each others items
• Create a rough draft of a check list
• On December 5-
• Establish a protocol of how to evaluate our rough draft check list in the second semester
• Second Semester-
• Collect data
• Reflect and analyze data
• Tweak and refine check list

Confidence

One important key to success is self -confidence. An important key to self confidence is preparation. Here is the link to Quotes about confidence

Before September 26th!

Before September 26th, please do the following:

• State your research topic for the group in the comments section below
• Create your own post reflecting on how you have begun establishing your classroom culture since the start of this school year 

Classroom Culture - Pacing

Classroom pacing is one of the tools we believe will help set up a positive emotional classroom culture.

Fear of Failure

Many students and adults alike walk into everyday situations with fear. Fear of failure is one that has plagued our society for centuries. Students within our classrooms are no exception to this.

Self advocacy should be incorporated daily into our lives to produce the desired results we want to achieve as we extend ourselves beyond our comfort zone.

This is the first post for the classroom culture blog. Here we will be able to create a space to collect ideas, research, photos, links, and other salient content for the group to share.

The book Mindset by Carol Dweck is something that will be part of our discussion.