Musings from Mrs. Galvan

I was a little swamped last week and had to delegate the coding, so a big thank you to my student worker Calyx for making this for me.

I have been saving interesting articles and blog posts lately that all point to the importance of certain non-cognitive skills for our students to be successful. Below are links to recent good reads. Also, discussed here on This American Life  and in my blog a bit here . Kids need these skills for success: Focus  - Avoid Distractions Positive Attitude  - Never saying "I'm bad at Math" Resilience  - I haven't mastered factoring YET GRIT , hard work, growth mindset matter most. As teachers, we can't just teach the concepts. We won't be successful unless we are encouraging these skills too.

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I heard two interesting reports on NPR while driving to work this morning about two issues facing high school students: they are sleep deprived and stressed out . Key Quotes: Because teenagers need eight to nine hours of sleep, waking up at 6 a.m. can lead to a pattern of sleep deprivation. And that puts them at higher risk of a whole range of potential problems, from depression to automobile accidents. "A little stress is a good thing," Alvord says. "It can motivate students to be organized. But too much stress can backfire." As educators we are always trying to create a rigorous, challenging academic environment for our students to grown and learn. I am constantly preaching the importance of grit and hard work in my math classroom . Still though I often worry about the pressures we put on our students so I was happy to hear this report this morning. Because we only see our students 40 minutes a day, it is easy to lose perspective. My algebra class isn...