Book Club: Mysterious Benedict Society

Students brought in their projects for book club:  they read The Mysterious Benedict Society for their first book.  

The projects were very impressive and demonstrated the students knowledge about the book, and their understanding of 10 important events.

 I enjoyed how each of the students made their own meaning of the assignment.

 This was a very original way to display information; I used this student's project as a model for my astronomy adventures students, and one student was eager to use this format to present his learning!

Great ideas..
The next book we read was Magyk...and the students are writing articles about the book which I will share soon.

Welcome Astronomy Adventures Students!

Here are samples of projects that students have done in the past in Astronomy Adventures; I hope this will give you some ideas as to what you can create while you are at the Challenge Centre:

I am looking forward to working with you for four days!

Welcome Astronomy Adventures Students!

Here are samples of projects that students have done in the past in Astronomy Adventures; I hope this will give you some ideas as to what you can create while you are at the Challenge Centre:

I am looking forward to working with you for four days!

Fixed Mind Set vs. Growth Mind Set

I have just been looking at this great poster that I downloaded about "Fixed and Growth Mind Sets".  There has been a great deal of research and writing about this concept over the last few years, and here is an interesting article in the NY times magazine about the research of Carol Dweck and her book.

Lately, I have been talking about this with my sons and using the language that  we have a "growth mindset". This poster

is on my fridge.   Yesterday we were talking about challenges, persisting in the face of roadblocks, and using effort as the path towards mastery.  My one son is involved in ski racing, and he is just beginning to learn about being in a competitive sport with lots of talented athletes.  So we used this chart to talk about how to persevere when things may not be going our way.  It was great to have the visuals and the language to discuss how we can think about set backs and challenges in our lives and in our learning.   

I would like to use this as a topic of discussion with students in the challenge centre.  It would be interesting to have students talk about their own mind sets.  If we can empower students to understand how their intelligence can be developed, then we are giving them tools for life.

As well, I have Carol Dweck's book on my reading list!