This
week we continued to explore the very popular words “growth mindset.” It has
been said day in and day out in every class and in our conversations at the
library, at school during group projects and even at the coffee shop. There is
no denying that having a growth mindset about teaching is one thing that will
help make teaching a little bit easier. Being a teacher is not an easy
profession but it certainly is an extremely rewarding profession. This week we
explored more online videos outlining the importance of a growth mindset versus
a fixed mindset, the message of math and the message you as an educator deliver
to your students and the power it has.
I
explored the web to see what inspirational images were downloaded regarding
growth mindset and I came across this one image posted on a webpage, HRZone.
 |
| Growth Mindset (2017). (Online Image). Retrieved from HRZone |
I
really thought this image captured the message of both a growth mindset and the
positive messages we can deliver to our students. It wasn’t until arriving at
Teacher’s College that I went from having a fixed mindset on math to a now more positive and growth mindset. I knew
that if I had to teach it to my future students I would and I would do my
absolute best that I can but after having Math last year and this year again I begin to change my outlook from a fixed mind set to a growing mindset;
and it really has made me think more positive about teaching math and many
other subjects as well. I have become more confident in my abilities in
mathematics and approach different problems with more of an open mind. Having
confidence in myself has helped to maybe pass forward the same confidence in my
students. Getting them to understand the power of having a growth mindset as
opposed to a fixed and closed mind. It sometimes takes one’s perspective to
help shape another and change how they feel about math. This also goes together
with the message we give the students and the positive effect it can make for
them.
When
we encourage our students to push themselves outside of their comfort zone to
explore new avenues of problem solving we are giving them the ability to
increase their confidence in mathematics, other subject area and real life
scenarios. With the added importance of having our students understand that
mistakes are okay and we in fact learn from them and help our brains grow in
the process.
 |
| Power of Making Mistakes (2017). Online Image. Retrieved from YouCubed
“Our
brains grow when individuals are challenged.”
Looking forward to the next
couple weeks before we move onto our placements there is still lots of
knowledge to be gained in the subject of mathematics and how we as educators
can continue learning how to best teach the diversity of learners we will have
in our classroom. I look forward to learning different teaching strategies,
different learning styles, incorporating financial literacy into our teaching
and not to mention report card writing. Presenting these topics in the form of
webinars will also be a new way of teaching and delivering information that has
me intrigued to finally do some future ready teaching with technology
|
Hi Patricia,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post this week. I’m glad to hear that you are becoming more confident in math. I also share this feeling. The image on growth mindset vocabulary that you have included in your post is an excellent resource for teachers because I think that it is easy for us to say that we are going to encourage a growth mindset in our classrooms but some of us may not know how. This image can help us to identify ways in which we can change our vocabulary that we are using in the classroom and it can also help us teach our students to use positive vocabulary in their learning. Positive vocabulary in the classroom can help our students build confidence in mathematics and teach them to have a growth mindset.
Kevin
Hey Patricia!
ReplyDeleteI really love your Developing A Growth Mindset chart and I think it would be great to have it in our classrooms. I agree that we need to change our own ways of thinking if we're going to set a good example for our students.I'm also really looking forward to our webinars and all the great information we're going to receive. Great blog post!