Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Resources for Teaching Growth Mindset


Understanding Growth Mindset

Strategies for Addressing Mindsets

Growth Mindset Within Math

Giving Better Student Feedback

  • Embracing Failure: Building a Growth Mindset Through the Arts: Learn how educators at New Mexico School for the Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico teach students how to integrate critical feedback. (Edutopia, 2016)
  • Nurturing Intrinsic Motivation and Growth Mindset in Writing: Review tips from a high school English instructor about how to conduct better conferences with students; take a look at specific examples of process praise and feedback that can encourage autonomy, purpose, and choice. (Edutopia, 2014)
  • Praising the Process: Watch this video of a writing workshop from a first grade classroom to see how to use process praise to encourage a growth mindset. (Teaching Channel, 2015)
  • Using Praise to Enhance Student Resilience and Learning Outcomes: Explore Do’s and Don’ts, FAQs, and other information about how to use feedback to alter student mindsets. (American Psychological Association)
  • The Secret to Raising Smart Kids: Read an article authored by growth-mindset researcher Carol Dweck about research into growth mindset, and learn how to give valuable feedback by focusing on the specific process a child used to accomplish something; at the end of the article, there are several useful examples of effective praise. (Scientific American, 2015)

Link: https://www.edutopia.org/article/growth-mindset-resources

AN EASY ACTIVITY TO PROMOTE GROWTH MINDSET




I love to start the year with Peter H. Reynold's books like The Dot and Ish. Both books are great for teaching kids that it is okay to take risks and make mistakes. Those books also go very well with this growth mindset activity we worked on. Read on to find out how this activity worked out in my classroom.


I started this school year with an activity that I saw on Twitter. I wrote out these words on plain paper and then read each word to my students so they would know what each said. For each word I asked for a show of hands to see how many kids had an idea of what each word meant. The only ones that I didn't get every hand up for were persistence and dedication. So we talked about those words as a class and I shared what those words mean to me. I also gave a specific example for each of those words.

Then I spread each paper around the room with markers and asked students to go to each word and write or draw what the word means to them. I told them it had to be a silent activity so that their friends could really think about each word.



I have a fairly chatty class but you could hear a pin drop during this activity. Some of the ideas they came up with were just so great.



The most important part of the lesson came at the end when we shared all of their ideas. I asked them to tell me why they thought we were talking about this, why was this an important conversation.

Here is the answer I got from one student, "...because it's okay for us to make mistakes. If we don't make mistakes we can't learn from them. And in order to make mistakes we have to have courage to take risks sometimes, even if we are worried we might get it wrong. In order to take risks we have to put in some effort and persistence and we will eventually be successful".

WOW!

Just. WOW.

Kids are so bright!

Give this activity a shot in your classroom.

http://www.createdreamexplore.com/2016/09/an-easy-activity-to-promote-growth.html

We are excited to announce that we have created two new group activities designed to help students practice, learn, and reinforce growth mindset concepts in a fun and interactive way: the Mindset Works Hot Potato Game and the Mindset Works Popcorn Game! And best of all, they’re free!
In the “Mindset Works Hot Potato” game, students review core concepts and ideas straight from the Brainology student curriculum. In groups, pairs or individually, students test their understanding of the growth mindset, how the brain works and learns, and effective study strategies. (Grades 4-12.)
The “Mindset Works Popcorn” game also introduces students to many of the main core concepts and ideas underlying the growth mindset, how the brain works and learns, and effective study strategies to boost learning. This game is perfect for students who have not used Brainology (or for Brainology students who would benefit from more scaffolding). (Grades 4-12.)
We hope you'll enjoy the brain-games. If you try them, let us know how it went and how your students liked them.
The Mindset Works Team


Friday, July 14, 2017

Highest Good Education

One Community is developing an open source and free-shared all-ages Highest Good education® program we call The Education for Life Program. This page is the overview of this program and includes links to all the major open source components. This page is organized like all our other open source portals and includes the following sections:

“Beliefs” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of diversity of beliefs (cultural, spiritual/religious, etc.)
“Caring and Kindness” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of caring and kindness
“Civilization” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of culture and civilization
“Cognition” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of cognition and learning
“Communication” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of communication
“Community” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of community
“Consciousness” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of thought/no-thought awareness
“Consensus and Decision Making” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of consensus and decision making
“Contribution” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of contribution
“Cooperation and Collaboration” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of cooperation and collaboration
“Cosmos” Lesson Plan: Structure, order, systems, organization, management, government
“Courage” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of courage
“Creativity” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of ideas, images, stereotypes, etc.
“Diversity” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subject in the context of diversity
“Dreams” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of both night-dreams and ambition
“Energy” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of the different types of energy
“Emotional States” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of emotional states
“Fall” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of the season of Fall
“Form” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of outside/our outer world
“Freedom” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of freedom
“Fulfilled Living” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of fulfilled living
“Happiness” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of happiness
“Harmony” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of harmony
“Highest Good” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of highest good
“Honesty and Integrity” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of honesty and integrity
“Human Body” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of our bodies
“Humility” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of humility
“Individuality” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of singleness and autonomy
“Information” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of information
“Love” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of love
“Matter and Materials” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of matter and materials
“Movement and Development” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of movement (physical activities (traveling, sports), mental activities (thinking), progress, direction, leadership, perspectives, experience)
“Nature” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of nature
“Open Source” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of open source sharing and collaboration
“Opposites” Lesson Plan: Day/night, light/dark, sensual (intuitive)/rational (logical), empirical/theoretical, male/female, life/death, good/evil
“Outer Space” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of everything outside of earth
“Personal Growth” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of personal growth
“Planet Earth” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of our shared planet
“Play” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of play
“Quality and Quantity” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of quality and quantity
“Reality” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of reality (idealism, subjectivity, and imagination)
“Recreation and Relaxation” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of recreation and relaxation
“Relative and Dimensional Space” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of relative and dimensional space
“Sharing” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of sharing
“Signs and Symbols” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of semiotics, symbolism, languages, etc.
“Social Relationships” Lesson Plan: Teaching within the relationship contexts of family, friends, business, etc.
“Spring” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of the season of Spring
“Summer” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of the season of Summer
“Sustainability” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of Sustainability
“Time” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of time
“Winter” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of the season of Winter
“Work” Lesson Plan: Teaching all subjects in the context of work and working

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Teaching as Leadership

http://www.teachingasleadership.org

Set big goals

Know exactly what success looks like

Set big goals

Students make dramatic academic progress when, from the very beginning, teachers develop a clear, ambitious vision of success. Highly effective teachers know exactly where they want their students to be by the end of the year and realize that a bold (and some might say crazy) vision of student success can actually drive student achievement.

Related reading


Develop a desire for academic success

Invest students & their families

Many highly successful teachers (and experts) boil the idea of student investment down to two factors: the students belief that they are able to achieve at high levels alongside their desire to do so. Or, stated more simply:
Student investment= "I can" x "I want"
For any endeavor, consciously or not, students are asking themselves "Can I do this?" and "Do I want to do this?". Your responsibility is to be sure that every student answers yes to both  questions. Here are three key elements of doing so:

Create a welcoming
environment

Create a safe, welcoming environment (I-5) that fosters self-worth, compassion, shared responsibility and academic achievement.

How to get from there to here

Plan purposefully

Before taking any action, strong leaders ‐ be they in a board room, an operating room, or a classroom ‐ define the ultimate result they want, make clear how they will know they have succeeded and only then choose and design strategies to that end.
Think of purposeful planning ‐ for any type of plan, large or small ‐ as comprised of these three sequential principles:

Vision

First, develop a clear vision of success from which you can "plan backwards"
Develop a clear vision by setting big goals (B-1)

Assessment

Now ask yourself, "How will I know that my students have reached that vision"?

Plan

With the vision and assessment in place, you are now ready to design your plan.
How to differentiate your plans (P-4) to fit your students
Follo

Every action matters - the large and the small

Execute effectively

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Effective execution happens in the details of our everyday work. It means we follow through on our actions, big and small, so that we are not just doing what we intend to do but are actually having the effect we intend to have. For strong teachers, effective execution means ensuring that everything we do contributes to the goal of student learning.
We see three general characteristics exhibited by strong teachers as they implement plans:

Do well what must
be done

Teachers must develop knowledge and skills that enable them to be effective executors: communication skills. management skills, pedagogical content knowledge, understanding of the community's cultural norms, etc.

    Insist on seeing reality

    Do students get it?
    Are they engaged?
    Are they meeting behavioral expectations?

    Adjust course as
    circumstances change

    What adjustments, if any, do
    you need to make to ensure that students achieve your vision of success?
    w this process for all types of plans, including: