Mindful Breaks - Collaborative Colouring / Colour Therapy

Taking mindful breaks throughout the school day is an important part of well-being. This year, I added a new station to my classroom. On the shelves, I placed "colour therapy colouring sheets" for students to use when they feel they need a break. Students love the station and have been using it often! 

I decided to have a few options on the shelf, students can take which ever colouring page they would like at that brea. We set the norm that the colouring pages are collaborative and we add onto each other's colouring; this has also created a respectful and collaborative culture. Consider adding a colouring station to your classroom :) 

Materials you will need to create a colouring station: 

- bristol board so that the pages stand up 

- foldback clips to clip the colouring pages

- colouring pages ( I bought a book that contained detachable sheets that have designs on the front and back) 

Growth Mindset Inspiration

Great video for Growth Mindset! ....First thing that came to mind when I saw the commercial on TV this summer break.

The Evolution of the Hardcopy Text?

It has been a great start to a new school year (Grade 6 has been awesome so far :) ) and as always, my resolution is to keep blogging as often as possible! :)

Over the summer break, I began delving into Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler. It is an insightful read indeed! As I was reading my hard copy, I realized I needed many tools. Not only did I want stickies, highlighters, pens to jot down and mark down my thoughts and important information, but I was also gravitating towards my laptop! This was an AHA moment for myself, I realized that I couldn't bring Mathematical Mindsets to the beach easily due to the amount of tools I felt I needed to lug with me! The nature of professional reading has changed.

There is a high need for technology use while interacting with hardcopy text. Boaler refers to many MANY wonderful links and online resource in their book. As I was reading, I felt a constant need to bookmark a page and also bookmark a web resource on my browser. There was a high level of interaction with the hardcopy text; no passive reading was happening here!

The 21st century hardcopy text is no longer just the information printed on the physical paper; but it is evolving to a physical space where the need to access online resources is increasingly becoming the norm. Therefore, students need to be taught the skills to decode the information in the black and white text in front of them, but also the online texts found in the hyperlinks as well. Students need to be able to interact with printed and online text simultaneously.

Some things I am wondering...... What tools do students need to help organize their information and for them to sift through the most important information from the wealth of information presented to them (print and online)? What are some effective strategies to help students develop these skills needed to interact with this "new 21st century hardcopy text"?