GROWTH MINDSET

Last school year, my bulletin boards were full of positive quotes and positive alternatives to the typical response of “I don’t know” and “I can’t.” After reading several different teacher blogs, I kept seeing two words-growth mindset. As a result, I did research on it only to find out that my bulletin boards were all part of this idea. According to Carol Dweck, a Growth Mindset researcher, there are two types of mindsets-fixed and growth. Dweck states, “In the fixed mindset, when you fail; you’re a failure. In the growth mindset, when you fail; you’re learning.” Many students come into school with a fixed mindset because they don’t like school at all, or they struggle in a certain subject. Consequently, these students come to school with a road block in their minds. There is nothing more heartbreaking than to see students, who you know have so much potential, think that they cannot grow and learn from perseverance and practice. Either because their parents were not good at it, or they struggled with it in the past.

For this reason, I decided to implement growth mindset in my classroom by not only reusing the bulletin boards in my classroom, but by introducing growth mindset to my students. I want my students to know that it is okay to make mistakes and that mistakes lead to improvement and learning. I want my students to know that they are not alone, and that they can get out of the fixed mindset through determination and hard work. As my students and I take this journey through the school year on turning failures and mistakes into successes, we learn as a class to think positive. The students encourage each other to try and to not be afraid of failing, and I think it’s awesome!

Growth Mindset is also an excellent practice for teachers. “How can I stop myself from being complacent?” One of my colleagues asked me this question on the first week back to school for teachers. I told her about growth mindset, and she was all aboard the growth mindset train. We are currently coming up on our third week of teaching the growth mindset, and many students and teachers are really starting to think different and with a positive mind. There are some days where growth mindset can be a struggle, but we continually tell ourselves that with determination and practice it can be done. For example, those moments were you plan the perfect lesson only to crickets after teaching it. You feel like you are at a dead end until you reteach a lesson, or do small groups, to hear your students say, “Oh! I get it now”, or “that makes sense.” To know that you have reached a student even if it took days, weeks, months, or even the entire school year! In the end, the students were successful through determination and perseverance, and they now know that it is possible to move a mountain!

Want to get started? The Daring English Teacher on Teachers Pay Teachers has an excellent Growth Mindset Resource! Click her name above to check it out!