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  Teachers Resource Force

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How to celebrate a growth mindset mentality in your classroom

31/8/2017

2 Comments

 
90% of staff admit to having to provide "more support" for students suffering from mental illness over the past 2 years...  Although a range of factors can affect our young people, we have to admit that much of the anxiety they face is a result of stress at school and the pressure to succeed.

​Yes, we want our students to succeed and do their best but not to the point that they are self-harming, or worse. We can do some simple things as teachers to take some of that pressure off and start recognising students for their growth mindset attitude and positive character rather than just their grades. Here is an idea that you easily implement straight away!
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How to celebrate a growth mindset mentality in your classroom using motivational table tents @resourceforce

​You want your students to be recognised for their positive mindset, their effort, their resilience, their problem solving skills and support of other students - not just the grades they get. One effective way you can do that is with these growth mindset table tents! 
How to celebrate a growth mindset mentality in your classroom using motivational table tents @resourceforce
​The idea is simple: you hand them out to your students to proudly display on their desk when you recognise they are displaying a growth mindset quality, which will motivate them and build up their confidence and self esteem too! You can even let other students award them to one another when they observe demonstrations of a growth mindset to help build camaraderie and a positive classroom community!
How to celebrate a growth mindset mentality in your classroom using motivational table tents @resourceforce
These are quick and easy to make: simply print and fold! You can print them onto card stock for more longevity or shrink them down before printing to make them smaller to save paper. There are 2 options included: 20 pages with 2 different tents on a page, or 40 pages with 2 versions of the same tent on each page. This just makes it more convenient for you to print as many as you need for your classroom. Although there are 40 great designs and sayings to choose from, you may want to just focus on one growth mindset strategy at a time such as "problem solving" so then you can print a few pages of the problem solving tents for example!
How to celebrate a growth mindset mentality in your classroom using motivational table tents @resourceforce
These table tents have designs on both sides so that when they are on display they can be seen from both angles - plus, how wonderful will your students feel having another member of staff or their parents come in the room and see them with this proud achievement on their desks! (Pretty awesome for observations too, just sayin'....!)
How to celebrate a growth mindset mentality in your classroom using motivational table tents @resourceforce
Not only are they great for public recognition and appreciation, but they are so convenient for you too as you'll save so much time writing personalised notes and there's no need to spend anything on class rewards either - score!
How to celebrate a growth mindset mentality in your classroom using motivational table tents @resourceforce
Finally, let's talk design! Let's be real, sometimes the resources you download often have similar illustrations on them and one resource can quickly blend into another. I wanted to ensure that these table tents would turn heads in your classroom and be really special! So, you'll notice that they have a unique watercolor design with illustrations that have been created by me specifically for this resource - so you're guaranteed to be completely unique!
How to celebrate a growth mindset mentality in your classroom using motivational table tents @resourceforce
​​I hope you like this idea and try it out in your classroom! If you want to download the table tent seen below to see how it works, you can get it right here for FREE! (This cactus one is my personal favourite! 😉) 
How to celebrate a growth mindset mentality in your classroom using motivational table tents @resourceforce
If you want to learn more, check out this short preview:
If you want to get all 40 designs then you can download them here from TpT (USD) or here from TRF (GBP)!
Thanks for reading! If you found this valuable leave a comment below or share it out!
Recognising a growth mindset is arguably even more valuable than recognising achievement. It's important to reward positive characteristics that will help our students be their best in the future, even more than rewarding them on how well they can pass a test. So encourage your students to have a positive mindset and praise them on their resilience, grit, kindness, determination, problem solving skills, creativity, reaching their goals - and so much more!

How do you currently celebrate a growth mindset in your classroom? Leave a comment below!
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2 Comments

Fun centre station signs for the secondary classroom!

20/8/2017

4 Comments

 
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
Do you currently use stations in your classroom? I have started to use them more over the past couple of years and am loving the collaboration and movement that the students are experiencing, but I have just been laying resources out on the desk and it was bothering me that it wasn't immediately obvious where each station was! Hence for this school year I have upgraded my system and I've made these adorable station signs! I'm going to share with you how I made them as well as some suggestions for other ways you can use these signs in your lessons too!​
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
​First of all let's talk about how you can make your own! You can get the popular Tolsby frames from IKEA. (Or if you're more like me and prefer a home delivery, hehe, you can find them on Amazon too!) These affiliate links take you straight to the frames: 
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  • Click here for USA Amazon Tolsby Frames
  • ​Click here for UK Amazon Tolsby Frames

They're great as they are however the colours are a bit limited (my IKEA only had white ones) so I chose to decorate my mine to jazz them up a bit and suit my classroom style. Keep reading to learn how you can do these too!
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
​1) If you want yours to be a different colour, you're going to need to spray paint them! I chose a spray paint that was designed for plastics so it didn't disintegrate on me! I found that one can was just enough to give all 6 frames 2 coats each, although I probably wasted a lot due to the very windy weather we were having in England; most of my paint drifted away into the air... #sorryatmosphere

​At first I sprayed the base and the frame separately but then I found it a bit of a tight squeeze screwing it back together once the paint had dried, so for the rest of them I sprayed them as a one whole unit and it worked just fine!
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
​2) That alone might look good and you can just leave it there, but if like me you want your stations colour coded but don't want to spend £40 on a range of different spray paints, then you can decorate a little further with some washi tape! ​The "regular" washi tape is thick enough to cover the whole sides of these, but as I had gone through the effort of spray painting them I didn't want to cover them up completely.
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
​I found this lovely thin washi tape on Amazon and I totally fell in love with them! Look how pretty they are:
Washi tape! @resourceforce
They are so gorgeous and actually come with 10 in a pack! If you want to get hold of these too then here are the Amazon affiliate links for you:
​
  • ​Click here for Amazon USA thin rainbow washi tape
  • ​Click here for Amazon UK thin rainbow washi tape
3) I chose to just put the washi tape just across the top and bottom of the frames, but you could also do the sides too!

Now something to note about this tape, it is completely gorgeous but it's also quite thin, and considering the dark base they were going onto,  I decided to double up to get a richer pop of colour!

​You can see the difference in the photo on the right: the top bar has 2 layers and the bottom only has one:​
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
​4) Then once you're done decorating, you can put whatever signs you like in the frames! I have chosen to have one side which has the station numbers that I will probably keep at all times, and on the other I am free to swap around depending on the lesson I am teaching! Here are some ideas you could use for your lessons:
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
So aside from using these frames to identify station or group numbers, you could also use them to:

  • ​State the lesson's learning objective
  • Identify keywords for the lesson
  • Show the names of the members in each group
  • Provide a clear to do list for the lesson
  • Give extension work or support for differentiation
  • Explain an exit ticket task for students to summarise their learning

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​Now, it may not be realistic to change these up for every single lesson, but there might be topics you are teaching over a period of time which would be appropriate to  leave in the frames a little longer.

They really do give that splash of colour and also promote more independence in your students.
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
​5) If you want some ready made signs, you can download these station signs here. The text is fully editable and you will get 5 different watercolour themes in 6 different colours with options for station / group names / numbers for one side and anything else you want to add on the other!
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
Thanks for reading! If you found this valuable leave a comment below or share it out!
Using stations and centres in the classroom is an excellent way to encourage independent learning and collaboration in your lessons. Having the cute signs makes organisation more effective an ultimately makes everyone really happy!

How do you currently use centres or stations in your classroom? Leave a comment below!
Free resource library for secondary teachers @resourceforce
4 Comments

Fun and creative ways to end your lesson using technology

1/8/2017

1 Comment

 
If you're making an effort to embrace technology in your classroom, I applaud you! It is not an easy transition to make, so if you don't know where to start and you're feeling overwhelmed then I suggest you get started with exit tickets! They're quick, easy and a great way of assessing your students' understanding at the end of a lesson. Here are 4 ideas for digital ways you can end your lesson:
Fun and creative ways to end your lesson using technology @resourceforce
1) Create an exit ticket on Google Slides for students to complete at the end of the lesson. ​If you get your students to submit their exit ticket via Google Classroom, then you can dismiss them as you receive their exit tickets, live! If you want to get even fancier, you can use a QR code and display it on screen or on a poster for students to scan with their smart phone and complete! If you want to learn how to make your own exit tickets on Google Slides, you can check out this video e-course where I share step by step videos of how to do it. Or if you want to save yourself the time and bother of making them yourself, you can download these 9 ready made exit tickets here!
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2) Use just one resource for the whole class such as this interactive exit ticket activities resource. The way this works is a student comes up and taps a number. Each number is connected to an exit activity. This can be done collectively as a class or you could add the file to Google Classroom or link to a QR code, and have students complete a task individually / pairs / groups. I teach you how you can make your own here or you can buy the ready made interactive activities here:
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3) If you want a quick and simple snapshot of your students' understanding that can be viewed as a graph or exported into Google Sheets document (just like Excel) which can analyse their responses, when you might want to consider finishing the lesson with some set questions using Google Forms like these:
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4) Finally, this one might need more than a few minutes, but you could end the lesson with a class quiz such as Kahoot! Students just need access to a computer or smartphone which they can then use to answer the questions as they appear on your screen. You won't get individual feedback (aside from the top 3 ranked) but it is handy for general understanding as you see graphs for each question showing how many students selected which answer, plus it's bags of fun!
If you're interested in learning more about how you can create your own digital teaching resources and learning more about Google Classroom and Google Slides etc, then you're welcome to join this video e-course which guides you through every step!
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Thanks for reading this post :) If you found this valuable, leave a comment below or share it out!
Technology is a wonderful tool to use in the classroom and is important in ensuring our students are well-prepared for the world they are going into. It can be a challenge to begin integrating new technology into our classrooms, but it doesn't have to be scary: start small with simple exit tickets and just see how you get on!


What are some of your struggles with integrating technology in your classroom? Leave a comment below!
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