Growth Mindset Week 15

I have tried talking about growth mindset with children and how having a positive attitude changes everything. This week I chose to talk about growth mindset with my roommate. She is finishing her first semester of grad school and is also taking her finals this week. She was familiar with the growth mindset project. She has applied growth mindset with her classes this semester. She had to learn new ways to study because the material was so dense. For example using her closet door mirrors as a dry erase board for studying. Her studying has also taken several hours of dedication and saying no to social events. I think as college students we struggle the most with self-discipline and time management. I think it is something we have to learn to be successful. 

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In honor of finals and Christmas.

Week 14 Growth Mindset: It works!

I started off my growth mindset challenege with my children at school. I currently run a “homework club” (at an afterschool program) where for 30 minutes they do their homework and then go to an activity. I wanted to see if having a positive attitude from all of the staff and being overly excited would help. I have to say I think it has. We really struggled with the kids not wanting to do worksheets if they did not have homework. There was a level of disrespect I was receiving from them. I feel like I have given them speeches until I am blue in the face. They have finally gotten to a state in which they accept that they have to get their work done. We also established a reward system with prizes and getting to do a different activity earlier for good behavior. I am proud to say that a positive attitude means everything! 

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Growth Mindset: Memes Week 13

One of the Growth Mindset challenges I have completed is finding memes. I have found several inspiring memes. I like the ones that have to animals. I have found that people really like to do commentary on their own cat or dog, which makes me happy because I do that with my own dog. I think memes are a quick way to tell someone to keep going or to give someone a quick laugh. I have liked using memes throughout my blog. Here are a few of my favorites.

 

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Week 10: Growth Mindset

In the first Growth mindset post I wanted to explore how talking to my children at school about not having a fixed mindset would help them succeed. I help them with their homework and during the last few weeks their math has gotten more and more difficult for them. Seeing as I struggled with math myself I tried to give them an encouraging example of how you just have to keep trying and it doesn’t hurt to try something different. We used marbles as an example to help with the math problems so they would get a visual image instead of just writing it down on a piece of paper. I found that when they did not have homework they wanted me to write down math problems they could solve because it had made math “fun” for them.

I learned from this a better way to teach them and to help them succeed. I try to apply what works when I study to what might help them. Even though some days are more difficult than others, I think the children are starting to realize it is okay to struggle but it is not okay to give up.

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Growth Mindset

I was recently in a class that studied the TED talk. I thought it was an interesting topic and tried to apply the positives of it to my own life. I struggled tremendously my first year at OU due to a new environment, old study habits, and lack of self esteem. I think that I started to develop a fixed mindset of how my career at OU was going to be and I was highly disappointed in myself. However, I managed to take some summer classes and a few more that I managed to excel in. Taking those classes boosted the confidence of what I can do if I change my mind set and apply myself. I realized that it was my state of mind that had to be changed. I think the TED talk radiates the idea of how we can achieve something we want if we change our negative attitudes into positive ones. I found that I needed to change my study habits, obviously my old ones weren't working. I figured out I did better if I had someone to study with and used a setting other than my home. I tried to eliminate all the distractions and stress of the outside world. I also realized that I needed to spend more time studying.

I think one of the Growth mindset challenges I could pursue is talking to the children I work with about not having a fixed mindset. I currently work at an after school program where I help kindergarten through fifth graders with their homework every day. I see them struggle and want to give up, but I also get to see when it clicks and they suddenly understand a problem. However, some of them struggle more than others and get very frustrated. I have to tell them to take a break and come back with a fresh start and try the problem again. I find myself doing that with my own homework. I feel that I am not accomplishing anything if I am too frustrated I cannot think clearly. I also have to express to them how important it is to learn and do your own work.



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I found this Meme very true and it reminds me of what I have to teach my students.