We all know we are preparing children for jobs that don’t even exist yet. We are preparing problem solvers, leaders, and critical thinkers, not doctors, teachers, or mechanics. Yes, those things probably will be around in 20 years, and we will probably still need doctors, teachers, and mechanics, but being a doctor, teacher, or mechanic may look a lot different in the future than it does today. How do we do this? I’d love to hear your ideas below, but I can tell you how we do this in my classroom. We work in teams (not groups, but teams) to learn how to work well with others, we use technology like Google Expedition or Flip Grid to peak curiosity and learn how to create questions and explore, and we persevere with growth mindsets because we will always need to grow, change, and adapt to new challenges throughout our lives. For growth mindsets, we read The Dot on Dot Day (next year it’s on September 15, so mark your calendars) and do the activities found at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Growth-Mindset-The-Dot-Activity-Packet-2499170. For team work, we have roles and questions to answer while earning team points. I did not create the four corners talk map. I’m not sure who did. It was given to me a conference from a friend. If you know who created it, I’d love to give them credit! We also wear crowns sometimes (checkout the picture below) because not only should we be learning how to have growth mindsets and be leaders, but we should be doing it in a fun way!

This week we were also leaders. We put on our leader crowns because in other countries leaders wear crowns and completed our work. We also called them our thinking caps to help us on our quarterly testing.