How might songs and stories engage us in considering our strengths and stretches in relation to our focus of growth mindset? 

During the Primary and Intermediate collaboration time, students learned the song "A Million Dreams" and read the story "A Walk in the Rain with a Brain". Then, students engaged in small group discussions about their strengths and stretches before sharing out to the whole group. Intermediate students also created representation of their strengths and stretches, which are displayed on our "Growth Mindset" tree. Here are our findings based on a sample of student responses: 

Primary students: 

"I'm good at sports. I like gymnastics." - A

"I'm good at chess." - A 

"I like art and birds." - M

"I'm good at taking care of people." - I 

"I am good at Minecraft." - W 

Intermediate students: 

"I'm good at Science." "I'm good at ringette." "I'm good at game programming." 

"I want to be better at drawing." "I want to learn to type faster." 

Knowing our strengths and stretches inform how we take up learning in different contexts. For example, if drawing is one of my strengths, how might I include art in new learning experiences to help me better understand new concepts? Collecting this initial information helps our school plan for learning experiences that align with students' needs and passions. We noticed that most students are more aware of their strengths and associate their strengths to activities they like. 

Our next step is to engage in a thorough scan to gain specific information about possible common language or common actions we can take to further the development of growth mindset in our community.