MOmentum

"No time for breakfast, Mom. I have to get to class on time. Today we open the box!" What is this…a Hollywood movie fantasy? No, it's from a real classroom with real students. Attitude can change a blob of sand into King Arthur's castle. Tenacity is a virtue, but the personal fortitude to stick with an arduous task takes time and experience to mature. Many students grow impatient with content not parsed into soundbites, and reading extended, logical rhetoric through each argument to its ultimate conclusion is almost unheard of. On the other hand, if the story is good, students will read books of more than 700 pages. They play online games working their way through 12 levels of difficulty for six hours, and they stay after school into the evening to practice for theater productions, get ready for sports tournaments and conduct fun science experiments for the public. Join us for a compelling session on the specific tiles to include in the strategic mosaic that helps students find the reserves to stick with projects and tasks, be they physical or intellectual. Examine the role of dopamine, goal-setting, descriptive feedback that does not invoke ego, meaning-making, executive function, constructive responses to anxiety/depression, teacher-student relationships, agency, and more. There is no such thing as laziness. Our students want to do demanding, complex learning, they want to persevere! To this, our students aspire; with this, our world was built. And what was in the box, you ask? Why, of course, it was a—Oh, darn. No more space. Join us to find out.