We watched this video in class today.  It has no real connection to anything we are doing, but I think it is very interesting and important so we took a couple seconds to talk about it.

Yes, your 6th Grader now has a Google account set up through BCS.  We haven't used it for much yet.  In fact, we're still spending a fair amount of time just trying to remember our passwords and spell "@bellinghamchristianschool.org" correctly.

Today we started to create blogs as well.  As we slowly get set up I just wanted to keep parents in the loop.  Ask your kids about their account, get their password, double check that they aren't using their last name anywhere (as we've talked about in class repeatedly), and let me know if you have any questions or concerns along the way.

...just so you know.

Keep in mind, Reading is a Standards-Based class.  Grades are not based on the traditional 100 point scale, but on meeting specific expectations for skills and knowledge.  

However, since Sycamore only understands the 100 point scale language, we translate the Standards-Based scale into numbers that Sycamore can understand.  For more information, check out the "Standards-Based Q&A" page of our website.  Specifically, watch the video called "A Crash Course in Standards-Based Grading".

You should have received information about the Middle School Fall Retreat at home last night.  Permission slips are due on Monday.

Thanks for your help!

For part of the retreat next week, we are going to need about 30-45 shoe boxes.  If you have one or two at home, could you bring it as soon as possible?

Thanks!

We will cover Ch.1 and 2 on a History test next Wednesday the 28th.  It will be a very fact heavy test, so flash cards or lists would be a good way for some students to study.  

As a rule of thumb, studying the chapter checkups at the end of each chapter will cover 95% of the material on the test.  Studying the bold and underlined words throughout the chapter will cover 100%.

Next week we will review chapters 1 and 2 on Monday and Tuesday with the test on Wednesday.  Start studying now to lock the information into your brain!

Don't forget that when you bring your quarters for the various desserts to also bring something for Mark, the boy from Ugand we sponsor

We've been talking a bit in class this week about the difference in thinking about yourself as smart vs. hardworking.  More importantly, we've been talking about the ramifications of those two very different mindsets.  

For example, today I handed out some timed reading quizzes.  I told the students right up front that they were just for practice and we would be throwing them away when we finished.  As we were discussing reading strategies prior to the quiz, I noticed some students sneakily reading ahead in their quizzes.  I allowed this, and when the quiz was over asked them to reflect about their mindset.  If you are concerned with looking smart, you might decide to sneak a look at your timed quiz ahead of time so that you can get more time and a higher score.  However, if you were interested in working hard (and learning as opposed to just looking smart) you probably didn't look ahead at your quiz.  You'd want a better idea of what you can do within the allotted time.  You'd want to see what your problems were and where you found success so that you could use that knowledge to do better next time. 

If you want to learn more about mindsets, I highly encourage you to sit down with a really important study done by a researcher named Carol Dweck.  You can read the entire article linked to here (focusing especially at the section toward the bottom of page 3), but the gist of it says the following:

When kids were told, "You must be smart at this," they responded by:
- believing they couldn't grow - their identity is "fixed"
- wanting easy tasks where they could continue to prove they really were smart
- losing confidence and enjoyment when they struggle on problems
- wanting to compare themselves with "lower" students to make themselves feel better
- 40% lied about scores they received to make themselves look better
- performing 20% worse on future assessments
- desiring to appear to perform well

When kids were told, "You must have worked really hard at this," they responded by:
- believing they could grow and improve at tasks
- wanting harder tasks where they could challenge themselves and get even better
- actually enjoying hard problems because they know they will grow from the experience
- wanting to compare themselves with "higher" students so they can see how to improve
- only 10% lied about scores they received
- performing 40% better on future assessments
- desiring to learn

I actually first came across this study in a book called How We Decide, by Jonah Lehrer.  It's a fascinating book on how the emotional and logical parts of our brains battle it out to get their way.