Start 2016 with a Growth Mindset

Modeling and teaching my students about the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset has resulted in huge shifts in thinking in my classroom over the past few years.  I have witnessed amazing changes in some of my students who often avoided risks because they were fearful of appearing unintelligent.  Those who have been on the same journey with me for the last three years now embrace challenges, learning from mistakes, and perseverance.

Teachers don’t often get to witness positive outcomes that result from their guidance, but it has been gratifying to see the effects of promoting a growth mindset in my classroom.  If you have not introduced this to your students, I strongly urge you to make a commitment to do it in 2016.

I’ve shared a lot of growth mindset resources on this blog, which you can find here.  Over the past couple of weeks I have run across some more:

• Thanks to @shellterrell, I learned that Larry Ferlazzo shared this new RSA film that animates one of Carol Dweck’s fascinating speeches about the impact of having a growth mindset.  It is a good film to show adults and older students (I plan to show it to my 4th and 5th grade GT students).
• This article speaks about “What Growth Mindset Can Teach Us About Our Brains,” and reminds us of some of the pitfalls some of us succumb to when we try to simplify the effect of a growth mindset.
• Research shows how detrimental it can be to praise our students by saying, “You are so smart!”  Head on over to the Schoolhouse Divas blog to see a free downloadable poster of alternative phrases for giving students positive feedback.
• Edudemic recently published an article by Sarah Muthler on, “Why a Growth Mindset is Crucial to Learning,” that gives a good summary about growth mindset for those who may just be beginning to learn about growth and fixed mindsets.

After looking at these resources, I hope that you will make the resolution to model and teach a growth mindset to your students and/or your own children.