A Lesson from a Third Grader

Don't you just love it when one of your students teaches takes a simple lesson that you have taught and makes the content their own? It just makes my heart smile.

font: Eraser by David Rakowski

As we approach the upcoming testing season, I try to remind my students not to stress and to look at testing as a chance to show off how smart they are. Recently, I noticed a couple of my students working out a problem together in workstations. One of the youngsters was becoming frustrated by a problem that he was having difficulty solving. His partner patted his back and said, "You know Mrs. Jordan said that you shouldn't stress and that you should just do your best." I smiled for a moment. Another student walked by and said, "Yeah, don't stress. It makes a mess." I had never coined that phrase, but it truly hit home with me. As teachers, we are continually striving to do our best every day, and worrying about the success of our students and sometimes the more we stress, the less productive we become. So, take the advice of a third grader... Don't stress, it makes a mess."

Don't the implementation of the Common Core stress you out. Be sure to check out Teach Inspire Prepare at Teachers pay Teachers or Teachers Notebook for user friendly "I can" statements.