Looking back at my goals, I realize I don't need to necessarily change them, but I can expand on them using resources from our class. For instance, I wanted students to become lifelong learners who can effectively use the resources around them to solve problems. I learned that in order to do that my students need to have a growth mindset which honestly is something new to me. I hadn't heard it before growing up in school and I learned about it somewhat this past year. In Even Geniuses Work Hard it said that "Students with a growth mindset may tackle such work with excitement, whereas students with a fixed mindset may feel threatened by learning tasks that require them to stretch or take risks." (Dweck, 2010). That's the kind of mentality I want to foster in my classroom. I want students to expect mistakes and to grow from them instead of turning tail and running the other direction. In order for me to foster this mindset I know I need to have a growth mindset as well. I need to "let it go" and allow myself to make mistakes here and there and to allow my students more independence. Once I can comfortably do that my students will see that everyone needs to grow and they'll have to rely on their skills to complete certain tasks because they need to learn how to do that. This will have to be taught during the first weeks of school and become a continuous part of our classroom. I have to make sure I have resources readily available and have taught my students how to use some of them (think dictionaries or technology) so that they can do it on their own. There is a lot to do on my part, but that's something I need to realize now so that my students can get where I want them to be.
Dweck, C. (2010, September). Even geniuses work hard. Educational leadership, 68 (1). Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept10/vol68/num01/Even-Geniuses-Work-Hard.aspx
You said, "I want students to expect mistakes and to grow from them instead of turning tail and running the other direction," and I completely agree. Fostering a comfortable learning environment seems to be step one, and then convincing them that they can actually fail seems to be step two. I did a little bit of working ahead, and one of the videos for next week is done by Laufenberg. She discusses the idea of blameworthy failure versus praiseworthy failure. With blameworthy failure, students are simply not doing the work. With praiseworthy failure, they are doing the work, and they are experiencing the failure associated with the learning process. For too long, students have been conditioned to think that failing is "bad." THIS is the part of inquiry learning that I can appreciate the most--the call for failure.
ReplyDeleteAgreed with you as well as Grace."I want students to expect mistakes and to grow from them instead of turning tail and running the other direction." I completely understand the concept of "letting go"- it took me a long time to understand that it is okay to fail (a few stressful college times). I feel like as educators, the pressure from parents, colleagues and administrators makes us "afraid" to fail for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI believe it's very important to encourage our students to do their best even if they make mistakes. It is also a challenge for teachers to continue their growth even though there might be mistakes on the way. Mistakes are what we can learn from and develop that growth mindset.
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