I’ve previously posted about my classroom practice of having students share three good things that have happened to them during the week, and shared studies that demonstrate its value in enhancing a positive classroom environment. At the same time, I ask students to share about something that was “not so good” and what they could have done to make it better.

It’s always gone very well.

Today, though, I read about an exercise that I think can make it even better.

Tom Peters wrote about an idea called the “Three Good Things Exercise” from Martin Seligman, founder of the Positive Psychology Movement. Here is how Peters described it:

Each night before you go to sleep:

1. Think of three good things that happened today.

Anything from the most mundane to the most exalted works, as long as it seems to you like a good, positive, happy thing.

2. Write them down.

3. Reflect on why they happened.

Determining the “why” of the event is the most important part of the exercise, and can open up your mind to ways you can increase the positive experiences you have.

As I read this, I realized that though I have asked my students to reflect on why an event didn’t go very well, I’ve never asked them to think about why their three positive experiences were so positive.

Duh! In retrospect, I’ve clearly missed a great opportunity for reflection and metacognition.

But it’s never too late to learn. I’ll start trying this out and blog about the results.

I’m adding this post to My Best Posts On Why It’s Important To Be Positive In Class.

(NOTE: You can see videos of my student’s final projects for this unit here)

As regular readers, I’m a fan of Carol Dweck’s work, notwithstanding my critique of her recent New York Times op ed on willpower.

I was recently watching a video of a group discussing Professor Dweck’s book, with her participating via Skype. I was struck by one comment she made, saying “we should celebrate mistakes.”

So, today I began to experiment with a lesson on doing just that. I’m going to refine it a lot more, and I think my colleagues might try it out in a number of different classes and make it even better. Here’s what I’m doing — I’m all ears if you have some ideas. My final version will be adaptable to all levels of students — mainstream and ESL:

Today, I began to very briefly talk about how we learn from our mistakes and, if we aren’t making any, then we’re not taking enough risks. I asked my ESL Beginners to write down what they felt were two common mistakes they made in learning English. They were all pretty broad — pronunciation, remembering new words, etc. They then shared what they wrote in groups of three.

Tomorrow, I’ll ask them to review what they wrote, and then try to remember specific times when they made mistakes in those more general categories. Then, I’ll ask them to write what they learned from each of those experiences. I’ll give the example of “I said ‘bottle’ the wrong way and people couldn’t understand me. My friend helped me learn the correct way to say it.” Students will then share what they wrote in small groups.

Later tomorrow, I’ll create an inductive data set (read more about inductive data sets here) listing each specific example and what they learned from it separately.

On Wednesday, students will need to cut each item out and paste them on a sheet in categories (I’ll probably just use the common general problems they wrote today for the categories they’ll use). I’ll use the typical “moves” of an inductive data set (see the earlier link for information about those, or see my books).

Thursday, they will review the content of each category, think about them, and add new examples they can think of — including mistakes they made and what they learned from each one. Students will share them in groups, and I hope students will see what a vast amount of knowledge they have learned from making mistakes.

Friday, each student will get a Post-It. I’ll ask them to pick one mistake they listed and what they wrote they learned, have them share in the Friday groups where we review weekly homework, and paste them on a “Mistake Wall.” We’ll make this a regular weekly event.

What do you think?

The title of this “The Best…” list is pretty self-explanatory. What you’ll find here are blog posts and articles this year (some written by me, some by others) that were, in my opinion, the ones that offered the best practical advice to teachers this year — suggestions that can help teachers become more effective in the classroom today or tomorrow. Some, however, might not appear on the surface to fit that criteria, but those, I think, might offer insights that could (should?) inform our teaching practice everyday.

For some, the headlines provide enough of an idea of the topic and I haven’t included any further description.

You might also be interested in:

The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010

The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2009

Here are my choices for The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers In 2011:

The New York Times has a fascinating article about Lincoln and The Mormons. It explains that he basically made a deal to leave them alone and they left him alone. This is what he told a Mormon leader:

When I was a boy on the farm in Illinois there was a great deal of timber on the farm which we had to clear away. Occasionally we would come to a log which had fallen down. It was too hard to split, too wet to burn, and too heavy to move, so we plowed around it.

In other words, there are some battles not worth fighting, which also happens to be a community organizing axiom. I also think it’s also a good classroom management guide. We need to “keep on our eyes on the prize” and not get sucked into distracting conflicts. If a student just keeps on forgetting to bring a pencil to class, I just give him one from a big box of golf pencils I buy at the beginning of each school year. If they don’t have paper, I have stack. I’ve got bigger fish to fry, like helping them developing intrinsic motivation to read the first book in their lives and develop an appetite for learning.

Patterns and Punctuation by Elizabeth Schlessman appears in the most recent issue of Rethinking Schools. It is clearly the best lesson plan I’ve ever heard about for teaching punctuation. I’m not going to go into depth on it since the article is available for now and is not behind a paywall. In summary, it Elizabeth used inductive teaching and learning to have students identify punctuation in what they were reading, identify patterns, and then apply what they learned to their own writing. In many ways, it’s similar to the inductive learning strategies I’ve often discussed in this blog and in my books. I’ve constantly used “data sets” — a list of 10-30 examples of writing — that students categorize and then expand. I’ve just never thought before about using them to teach punctuation, but it makes perfect sense.

An Effective Five-Minute Lesson On Metacognition is a post I wrote about a very effective classroom activity I did recently. I think it’s pretty good, if I say so myself

This Is My Simple Three-Day Lesson On 9/11 might be helpful for next year.

Simple, Great Chart To Show To All Students

Excellent New Edutopia Resource On Brain-Based Learning provides excellent practical advice.

The Seven Wonders….Of The Neighborhood? could be a useful lesson plan.

This next one doesn’t fall into the category of “advice,” but it’s an extremely practical resource:

I learned about APPitic, which describes itself as:

…an directory of apps for education by Apple Distinguished Educators (ADEs) to help you transform teaching and learning.

It has over 1,300 categorized apps, including a ton organized by Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Here’s another resource that isn’t “advice,” but is eminently practical: Most Big Cable Companies Agree To Provide Low-Cost Internet To Low-Income Students

Whenever You’re Tempted To Use Punishment As A Classroom Management Tool, Remember This Comic Strip

I’ve previously posted about the Bloom’s Taxonomy of Reflection that Peter Pappas developed. I just discovered that he developed this excellent Prezi about it. I’d also strongly encourage you to read his post that explains it further, as well as one by Langwitches giving an example of how to apply it in the classroom.

What Do Teachers Do On Twitter? is a nice slideshow presentation. Thanks to Joe Dale for the tip.

Asking if people are available and have time to talk with you instead of just immediately talking with them dramatically increases the rates of compliance, according to a study.. In the classroom, when a student is acting inappropriately, I generally try to begin with a “Can I talk with you, please?” before intervening. Just framing it as a request, even though the student knows it really isn’t, seems to help de-polarize the situation. And there have been a few times when a student has responded something like “Can you not talk to me right now — give me some time and let’s talk later” and that has also ended up working well.

I’ve written quite a bit about Daniel Pink’s book, Drive, here on this blog (see My Best Posts On “Motivating” Students) and in my new book. I recently saw what I think is the best short description and summary of the book’s key points. Check-out the post “What really motivates us?” at the Barking Up the Wrong Tree blog.

Extraordinary “What If?” Student Project

What A Great Way To Get Comments On Student Blogs!

“Write About A Success That One Of Your Ancestors Had”

Bloomin’ Mathematics is a great post sharing ways to incorporate Bloom’s Taxonomy into teaching math.

The Best Posts About The Power Of Light Touches In The Classroom

I had a fun online chat with over 450 educators at Ed Week. It was on my book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves. The transcript of the chat is now available.

Eye On Education, the publisher of my book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves: Practical Answers To Classroom Challenges, has placed the entire first chapter on “How To Motivate Students” online. It includes several lesson plans and hand-outs. In addition, you can access all the web resources for the whole book on a special publisher’s page. Just to to my book’s webpage. Right below the image of the cover is a link that says “Click for PDF sample chapters.” That will take you to the sample chapter. On my book’s webpage, if you scroll down a few inches, you’ll also see a link to “Online Resources.” That link will take you a listing of all the recommended links for each chapter of the book.

Asking “Why Not?” & “What If?” As Well As “Why?”

This Would Be A Nice Geography Assessment

How We Can Help Our Students Deal With Stress

These Three Slideshows On “How To Create Sustainable Behavior” Will Keep You Occupied For A Long Time

Top Ten Tips for Assessing Project-Based Learning is a new great — and free — classroom guide from Edutopia.

Students Annotating Text — Part Two

You can read an article I wrote for Teacher Magazine, What ‘Star Wars’ Can Teach Educators About Parent Engagement, without having to register first at this link. It’s a cute headline, but it provides very practical suggestions for teacher/parent meetings.

Ronnie Burt at Edublogs has published what might be the very best guide for helping teachers begin to blog (and for helping veterans get even better) — The ultimate guide to getting started with blogging!

Individualized Computer Support For Students Facing Challenges

Why Teachers Shouldn’t Blog….And Why I Do

What Are Good Inexpensive (& Simple!) Classroom Technology Tools?

Feedback is welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.

You might also want to explore the 800 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.

One of the most popular resources on this blog, and a lesson plan in my book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves, that I know is one of the more popular chapters in it, is about teaching students that they physically “grow” their brains when they learn new things.

I’ve posted a number of links to related resources on My Best Posts On “Motivating” Students list, but I thought it would be useful to bring some of those posts together with resources I’ve recently found and create a brand new “The Best….” list.

Here are my picks for The Best Resources For Showing Students That They Make Their Brain Stronger By Learning:

First, here is a series of posts where I specifically describe what I have done in my classes (though I’m in the process of revising those lessons):

Reading Logs — Part Two (or “How Students Can Grow Their Brains”)

“Now I Know My Brain Is Growing When I Read Every Night”

“This Is Your Brain On Learning”

“What Would You Tell You’re Parents You Learned In Class This Month?”

“I Know My Brain Is Growing…” Slideshow Of Student Work

Here are other more recent posts that include information I’m incorporating into those lessons:

“How Does Our Brain Learn New Information?”

“How to Take Better Advantage of Brain Plasticity”

What Does Learning From Mistakes Do To Your Brain?

Learning, adaptation can change brain connections, CMU researchers say

Neuroplasticity: Learning Physically Changes the Brain is from Edutopia.

Your Brain On Learning is by Barbara Bray.

In series of posts I wrote about my lesson, and in my book, I share links to some videos that actually show what learning something new physically does to the brain. I’ve recently found a few other videos that do the same thing. In each of these three videos, the relevant portion is in the first minute or so:

This is a very good short video on how our brain learns. It also reinforces the importance of deliberative practice:

Feedback and additional suggestions are welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.

You might also want to explore the 800 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.

I’ve written a lot about positive ways to provide student feedback, including applying Carol Dweck’s research. You can find those thoughts at The Best Resources For Learning How To Best Give Feedback To Students and in my book.

Ms. Dweck recently spoke at a San Francisco conference and, though it sounds like she didn’t share anything substantial she hasn’t reported before, I though one quote in particular from the column reporting her talk was the best summary I had seen of her research:

Praise for intelligence instead of praise for effort sends the wrong message. People who are praised for being smart “don’t want to risk their newly minted genius status,” and that fosters static, rigid organizations. Praise for effort keeps people engaged and willing to work hard.

Short and sweet!

The New York Times has a fascinating article today about Lincoln and The Mormons. It explains that he basically made a deal to leave them alone and they left him alone. This is what he told a Mormon leader:

When I was a boy on the farm in Illinois there was a great deal of timber on the farm which we had to clear away. Occasionally we would come to a log which had fallen down. It was too hard to split, too wet to burn, and too heavy to move, so we plowed around it.

In other words, there are some battles not worth fighting, which also happens to be a community organizing axiom.

I also think it’s also a good classroom management guide. We need to “keep on our eyes on the prize” and not get sucked into distracting conflicts.

If a student just keeps on forgetting to bring a pencil to class, I just give him one from a big box of golf pencils I buy at the beginning of each school year. If they don’t have paper, I have stack. I’ve got bigger fish to fry, like helping them developing intrinsic motivation to read the first book in their lives and develop an appetite for learning.

One of my students has great potential, but has continually been “slacking off” and not taking school seriously. I’ve tried multiple interventions, but have had no success.

Until the past week. “Karen” (not her real name) has really been on fire over the past five or six days.

At lunchtime today I asked her what had made the difference for her. Her response: “I promised you I would work hard.”

I had forgotten about it, but early last week I had half-jokingly asked her to raise her right hand and promise she would get serious.

Obviously, I would have preferred that she had decided to get to work because of her own desires, but we can build towards that on the success she’s been having.

It’s another commentary on the importance of relationships, since without a good one I suspect it would be unlikely that she would have taken the promise seriously. And it demonstrates the importance of us teachers having tons of items in our “toolbox” to try because you never know for sure which one is going to work….

Response: Several Ways To Respond To “Unpredictable” Student Behavior is the title of my newest post at Education Week.

I think people might find it helpful…

Several Ways To Help Students Develop Self-Control is the title of my newest column at Education Week Teacher.

I think teachers might find this one particularly useful…..

Here are three more additions to The Best Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced English Language Learner Sites:

The most important additions is a site just discovered by Richard Byrne — Pronunciator. It has simple lessons for 60 different languages, and its most important feature is that it allows you to repeat and record what is being taught, and then “grades” your pronunciation. English Central pioneered this kind of capability over two years ago, and the is the first time I’ve seen another web tool try it, too.

Web-ESL has lots of great resources. It links to other sites, but has many of its own exercises, and they are excellent. Their literacy exercises stand-out in particular. Their exercises on sight words are perfect — too bad they only teach ten of them!

Dolch Word Practice is a very good site for sight words. The recording quality could be better, but it seems to be the best place out there that’s free and covers most of the words.