C4T Final Summary

Diane Dahl: For the Love of Teaching 

Ms. Diane Dahl is very enthusiastic teacher who loves teaching very much. Based off of her blog posts I have read it is easy to see that she is a huge optimist. The two posts I chose to read are Positivity: An important component of brain based teaching and Metacognitive thinking skills for life and learning part one: Optimism. 

      Positivity: An Important Component of Brain-Based Teaching was the first post I read. This post dealt with how positivity is a must have for us as future educators move through our career. Diane says, "I begin the year by stressing the importance of optimism and positive thinking on the brain, and then continue teaching and modeling the other BrainSMART thinking for learning skills which include: optimism, listening, focus, understanding space, understanding time, systematic search, systematic planning, memory, comparisons, and courage. " When the students worked on these in class and had optimism to back them up as well as their teacher, great learning was able to occur. As a fourth grader, if the students can have positivity towards their schooling then they will continue on their path to success. Once the students learn how to be positive then they can also develop their skills on being positive to increase their optimism in the world. 

      The second post I read was called  Metacognitive Thinking Skills for Life and Learning Part One: Optimism. This was part one of here new series of thinking skills for life and learning. Diane's goal is to, "provide the reasoning, and practical implementation ideas for each strategy so that you can apply them in your classroom or individual teaching situation." Diane considers optimism to be the most important tool to an professional learning career. Optimism is the best way to start any day, if someone can wake up with the mindset that they will accomplish what they want that day, then odds are they just might. Ms. Diane goes on to talk about two distinct groups of students. One that believes that they will succeed and make good grades, and the other that is full of doubt. The group that is full of doubt has already taken themselves out of the game, while the positive group is on their way to success. If you don't think you can do something, you are never going to do it. The logic is easy. I enjoyed how she made a reference to the fact that some students believe their mind is unchangeable. They believe that they will either fail or pass, and their efforts have nothing to do with the outcome. Once students can master the belief that the mind can actually be altered and that it is all a matter of being positive then the students will learn and fight for success instead of accepting defeat. One of the best points she makes is in the end of her post when she says that we as teachers MUST model optimism.  Really Great Posts Ms. Diane. Thank you.