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Narrative of Amazing Teaching Moment:

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Every week in my classroom i love to give what my students and i call Test of genius. Usual they are problem solving activities that promote abstract thinking. My very first activity was called no good. The children are tasked with manipulating the structure of a two dimensional goal post ( popsicle sticks  so that the football (a penny) is placed outside of the formation. The trick though is that you must solve this problem in as few moves as possible, and your ending formation must be the same original formation, and finally you are not allowed to touch the football (penny) at anytime. I do activities once a week to build perseverance and encourage abstract thinking. I present a problem and leave it up to my students to solve it with any strategy they want. These genius are often frustrating but the theme in my classroom is that we don’t give up, there is always a way. Students must be able to verbally explain their solutions and can come back to a problem at any point throughout the year. This simple mini lesson transformed my students into self confident learners who aren’t afraid to make a mistake as long as they strive for the solution.

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