I have been reading the book, Mindset, by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., and have been so excited about the ideas presented.  I’ m not sure how to implement them with the kids, but have been tossing in some elements of the book here and there.

This week, we had a discussion in social skills over the question: “Which is more valuable, Talent, or Effort?”

A really neat discussion ensued, and I recorded it and have it available via iTunes or directly at my Podbean.

We also started a discussion at my SchoolCenter Forum site.

I was looking for a place to put our student discussions – and found a free spot over at http://www.podbean.com

Room for 100MB of audio – so I can host my “podcasts” (though I don’t know if sporadic, once a month or less publications count as official podcasts).

Check us out – you can subscribe via iTunes or go to http://malcore.podbean.com and get it from there.

We did an activity today – the Human Overhand Knot.

Students were determined to meet the challenge and be the first to succeed in this (of my groups).

It was an excellent social skills challenge – perfect in bringing out the best and worst in many students.

Please reply below if you have any comment.

We have started a new discussion forum at my SchoolCenter site.

Please click that link if you are lost and looking for the forum.

If you’re not lost, good for you!  Head over there and feel free to join the discussion (even if you’re not in my class)!

Please leave a comment with your response to the above prompt.  Be thoughtful and detailed!

So they deleted the Elves

Nice.  Well, perhaps this post won’t bring such useless, non-participatory traffic to this site.

Our topic of assets took on a new look today as students wrote about how their families show support to them. The picture below is the result of our labors.

If you are a student of mine (or anyone’s), please respond to what you see.

• Does it make sense?
• Can you read any of it?
• What would you add to it?
• What is your FIRST impression/overall feeling of it?

If you get a chance, check this out.

Both our 7th/8th grade and our 9th grade social skills classes completed the Developmental Assets Checklist last week, and I have published the results online in a Google Spreadsheet. You may notice some interesting differences in the age groups.

Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts.

Here is the spreadsheet