Work Harder, Get Smarter

I know I have told you all several times how wonderful my students are this year, but today it was proven to me once again!

We have been working on our "Number of the Day" packets for a few months now, but today I challenged my students a bit more.  As we started back to school in January our new number of the day packet include: place value, skip counting number patterns, greater than/less than, 1&10 more/1&10 less and tally marks.  

All and all my students have done really well with these concepts.  The 2 areas my students have struggled a bit with are skip counting number patterns and place value.  They have been able to work through these whole group, but when it comes to completing them individually, my students lack confidence and are hesitant!  I have all of the confidence in the world that they are capable of doing this! So, today I challenged them.  

Together, we talked through these two areas and even completed them on the front board together, but when it came time for my students to complete their own packets, I erased our work!  As you can imagine, my students were not happy about this!  It sparked a conversation about working harder to get smarter.  I know this is one of those cheesy sayings, but it just came out!  Anyhow, my students were extremely motivated by this!  They fell right into my little trap!  ALL of students happily completed their number of the day independently!!!

While my students were working, one of my less motivated and low achieving, but very capable students starts telling his table neighbor, "No, I don't want to copy your paper anymore!  I am smart!" Of course my ears perked up and I started listening.  He continued to tell his classmate how he can do it on his own and that he doesn't need to look at his work.  I am so very proud of this student!!  He is finally beginning to believe in himself!!!  Don't get me wrong, he does not regularly copy his friends work, but there have been times that I have stopped this from happening.  I was just thrilled to hear and witness that he is recognizing his skills!

It was absolutely one of those days reinforcing the positive impact I can make on my students!