Confidence 101

Well, I was reading some internet tips on how to feel confident. That made me feel actually like a huge dork, but I did find one tip that was helpful: visualize yourself being successful. I am really analytical. I think about what could go wrong. So, this week, I am going to visualize myself being successful.

It's going to be a hard week for me because we have parent conferences and Fall Festival and I have graduate school. That makes three nights this week that I will be working past seven. I could visualize myself falling asleep on the floor of my classroom, but that would be counterproductive. So, let's see how would this week look if it went exactly as I wanted it to?

Fall Festival will be fun. I love my costume for the Fall Festival. I wish I could wear it every day, BUT I don't think I would be taken too seriously. I love seeing the kids' costumes too. I actually really like the Fall Festival. It is the only after school event I feel that way about.

My conferences would take a positive tone and be empowering to parents as partners in education. I am excited to share all the data I have. I think the parents will benefit from and appreciate the suggestions for helping their children at home. I really want to focus on how they can effectively help with the Writing homework.

Reading would leave the kids engaged in the story. In Reading, there are some things that I think will go particularly well. I expect that my lesson on comparing the Fantasy Selection to the Expository Non-Fiction Lesson will be powerful. The kids have to read and raise their hands between subtitles. This works well with my active class. I also think the four-square writing activity to summarize the main text will be a nice compliment to the summaries we wrote last week in Writing.

Math would leave the kids with an in depth understanding of what multiplication is. I think using math tiles to make arrays and singing the three's song will help my students still lacking an understanding of the concept of multiplication. I also really like the brainpop on arrays and the kids usually respond well to that. In today's number this week I am using virtual manipulatives and I think it will be a positive change.

Writing would be productive and result in high quality How-To Essays. I am looking forward to sharing "Puppy Chow" with the class and I think they will be very very excited to write how to make it. I am also looking forward to reinforcing the 4square framework with the lessons.

I don't have to play this stupid game with graduate school because I already feel confident about that.