Good Sunday Evening Folks!
I thought this week's blog would be a great time to take a look back at all we have accomplished this year. We often get bogged down in all of the day to day issues of school and forget to take a step back and appreciate how our flurry of action truly does create opportunities for better lives for our students. I am proud to be a part of this important work and I hope you are too.
Our beginning of the year DEA combined school average of students scoring benchmark in math was 48.5 and our mid-year average is 60.3. Our beginning reading score was 52 and our mid-year is 60.5.
Our beginning of the year score on DIBELs was 35 and our mid-year is 60.2.
All of the above scores indicate a significant increase in student achievement! You are making a difference! You are the change that counts!
We all know that in this game there is no such thing as being satisfied with where we are. We will always strive for continuous progress of every student! That is the difference in a good school and a great one; and I firmly believe that UTE is a GREAT SCHOOL for many reasons. Although we are judged by test scores, I like to self assess UTE on the warm and friendly conversations I hear between students and adults and the hundreds of smiles and kind comments I see in our halls. Not only are we on top of things academically, but our students know that we love them and they are special.
Please take the time to tell someone you care about, who doesn't work with us, about our success and let them share this joy with you. Congratulations and keep up the good, no GREAT WORK!
Have you ever heard this saying?
Greatness lies deep within failure. We must encourage our students to take challenges and to persevere within failure to come to success! Our actions and words directly affect students' self worth and concept. It is imparitive that every student at UTE understands that what really matters is not a number on a test, but how they prepare themselves and work toward knowledge. Thinking is the key! Please take a minute to read through the link below and respond with your thoughts. I look forward to hearing what you each has to say!
Developing a Growth Mindset
I agree that as educators we all should be in the growth mindset belief. If children are provided with experiences and learning activities they will learn but depending on the child will determine the level of learning. There are children that are not able to learn as much as others but that shouldn't be based on just looking at their family traits. It is important that as educators we must provide positive reinforcement through using CHAMPS I feel it is another means to do just that.
ReplyDeleteThe best example of growth mindset that I can think of is my feelings of reawakening that I have felt during the last two years. I had forgotten how great it felt to receive positive praise. Shawn reminded me ofe that feeling as a child when my fourth grade teacher would praise and encourage me to attempt new and difficult things. I wasn't strong enough to believe in myself, I needed that push. My fixed mind set said,"I can't blog!" My growth mindset says, " look at me blog now!"
ReplyDeleteI think the article puts the difference between the two into perspective. I have been guilty myself of telling someone they are smart instead of saying how hard they must have studied or tried at something. I have been working on talking about effort a lot even with my kids with a fixed mindset. I want them all to know that putting forth an effort is necessary to become better at anything. As the article states we need to compliment the process! Even if a child is "smart" a little effort could make them smarter! The positive praise for behavior and academics is making a difference!
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the article, I felt that at Upper Tygart we are pushing the students into growth mindsets. I feel as a faculty we had lost that mindset for ourselves and our students until Shawn stepped in and began to awaken this in our school again.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we should be in the growth mindset. Every child has a different way of learning, even the students who feel that they can't learn. As educators it is our job to present material in various ways that reaches all learners.
ReplyDeleteHere's my thoughts ... I feel that as long as we continue to encourage and praise our students for effort and dedication to their learning and progress toward individual goals that they will develop that growth mindset and feel successful. Never settle and always reach for the stars. "There's always more to learn at UTES!
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to lead children into a growth mind set when you yourself have a fixed one. I will admit I use to be more fixed than growth, not that I was not constantly looking for ways to better teach my students to succeed and love to read. I feel I have always done that. It is all in how we perceive and receive criticism. I didn’t do either well! History had taught me to be defensive. Now I have been focusing on accepting criticism for what it should be (building not destroying!). I know that I do the very best for my students and there are so many areas that could improve. I think it is just having the ability to change without judgment. Accepting that everyone around is changing and improving and that no one gets it right all the time! I am my own worst critic. Sometimes we have to believe in ourselves. If we don’t believe in ourselves how can others believe in us, and how can we teach children that they have to believe in themselves if we don’t!
ReplyDeleteOne of the most interesting thoughts I got came from the last paragraph of the article. “If organizations can build a culture in which the growth mindset represents the normal way of thinking this is likely to have many benefits, both for individuals and for the organization as a whole.” The word normal really stood out to me. As a school, I believe that we are accepting the growth mind set as the way it should be for everyone. When the children hear that from every aspect of their early academic career, they will tend to take on that as their type of mindset. This reminds me of the story of man I met. When he was 16 years old he quit high school. He had no confidence in himself or of his potential abilities. ONE person took him under his wing and told him they believed in him. They told him of the great possibilities they saw in him. That boy went on and finished high school, college and medical school. He is now a world renowned Neurologist. His name is Dr. Jicha. I feel very blessed to know this man. He was my mother’s neurologist and became a close friend to our family. His knowledge, understanding and compassion of my mother’s condition made the horrific disease easier to bare. My thoughts are; Where would Dr. Jicha be had he not met the one person who believed in his abilities and If one person can have this effect, can you imagine if everyone involved in your education made you feel that way?
ReplyDeleteThe article was interesting, honestly with all the talk of growth and fixed mindset I had never thought of the two in this perspective. I thought a fixed mindset meant you didn't like change but this article described it as a mindset that people are unable to change and that we are born with what we got! How scary is that! If the fixed mindset were the way to go then we would all be out of a job. Don't we have to believe in potential and growth in order to do our jobs each day? The article had a wonderful statement: A fixed mindset culture encourages internal competition, defensiveness and an emphasis on judging people, whereas a growth mindset culture encourages cooperation, openness and an emphasis on learning. I think with a quick walk through our building it is easy to see that we are striving for a growth mindset. Our students are cooperating within stations, they are open during small group about errors made and look forward to learning new ways to correct those errors. (No I'm not talking about ALL my students but definitly most of them!). I think it is odd that this article as brought up the bad ol times in many of us, we made a connection to how our school used to be when internal competition, defensiveness and an emphasis on judging people was everyday life at UTES. It is so great to know that I don't work in that environment anymore!
ReplyDeleteWe are awesome because of the wonderful work that we do at UTE!
As I read the article and especially after I read Jackie Hargett's comments about Dr. Jicha my thoughts kept coming back to one of best examples of a growth mindset I know - Dr. Ben Carson. Dr. Carson's story has been inspiring to me. For those of you who do not know, Dr. Carson was the neurosurgeon who operated on Tanner Tackett (Tanner and his family gave me permission long ago to discuss Tanner and his connection to Dr. Carson) years ago for the seizures he was having. I had the honor to meet Dr. Carson at a check up visit with Tanner a few years ago. To quote him, "The American dream, to me, means that you have the ability to determine where you're going, formulate your dream, and then to put in motion all the building blocks that will help you achieve it. I am so grateful that I was born in America. There’s no place that offers the opportunities we have. All it requires is the right mindset and the willingness to work. People who realize that are already halfway toward realizing their American dream." and
ReplyDelete"Growing up where I lived, it was a macho thing to get angry, kick down the wall and punch in the window. But I came to understand that when you react on impulse like that, it actually is a sign of weakness, because it means that other people and the environment can control you, and I decided that I didn't want to be that easily controlled."
I think people with a fixed mindset are easily controlled by others as well as the environment in which they live. That control leads to the snowball effect that can result in trouble with drugs and the legal system.
Dr. Carson's mother had a growth mindset for her son she set in place with her modeling and expectations of him.
I feel as teachers it is our job to promote a growth mindset to our students with modeling and sharing our expecations.
I feel like there is nothing else to say...everyone has already said it all!! I do feel that Upper Tygart is full of people who exhibit a growth mindset, which creates a positive atmosphere. I think sometimes I get in a fixed mindset rut and when I realize that has happened, I have to make myself get out of it and move forward. My goal as a teacher is to help my students develop a growth mindset. I want my students to know they can do anything as long as they believe in themselves.
ReplyDeleteI think in the teaching profession we must have a growth mindset because we are always asked to change and try new things. I believe here at UTES we are also challenging our students to do the same. I feel by exposing students to many opportunities and choices we help develop their growth mindset as well.
ReplyDeleteI feel it is important for me and all students to have a growth mindset for ourselves. I'm asked to do things that challenge me at times and we all teach the students skills that sometimes will challenge them. I feel, my growth mindset builds all the time with the more opportunities I get to learn. For example, working with Reading Recovery. I have learned more ways to challenge students in reading with Reading Recovery and help them develop a growth mindset.
DeleteGrowth mindset is something that I see everyday at UTES. I was guilty of telling students that they're smart and now I say, "You're working so hard, keep up the good work!" I had never realized that I was evoking a fixed mindset until it was brought up in a past teacher's meeting. It absolutley makes sense. We want to positively promote growth mindset in all of our students. We need to enforce that skills and abilities are things that can be improved on through practice and effort. I think that our recent increase in scores shows that our students are heading in the right direction!
ReplyDeleteI really thought that I had a growth mindset until I read the article and have to admit that I probably do have a part of me that is still very "fixed"! I came across a quote the other day that I have taken to heart "The problem is not the problem, the problem is my attitude about the problem" and had begun to change my mindset already, this article really gave me a lot to think about and some ideas on how to "grow". Teaching art gives me a different view of the students we all teach. Everyday I hear "I can't draw, I'm not good at art or this is too hard for me because ...." and then they ask for help because they have already convinced themselves they are going to fail. This year my table groups have helpers and it's their job to "help" the others in their group before they ask me. I have seen children that struggle with other subjects areas gain confidence because now they are the one person that "gets" art and can demonstrate a skill or provide guidance with a project. Their confidence level rises and they are eager to learn more. So now I am learning from my students.........
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the article. I, as a teacher am a part of the growth mind set. I do think we are all capable of growing and achieving more than we can even imagine, by making good choices and practicing we can become better. By giving postive feedback and encouragment teachers can help students to believe they can accomplish anything.
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