I need to challenge myself to become more reflective on paper (and not just via phone or over dinner with the same five people again and again). I've made plenty of excuses--mainly time restraints--as to why I couldn't keep up with a blog--and why my past blogs faded away. I'm going to try again.
Actually, this goes well with why I'm relaunching blogging for myself. Over the past four years I've become obsessed with Carol Dweck's work on mindsets, and I'm determined to share the growth mindset with students. While my obsession has flourished, I've become slightly stunted with the realization that no matter how enthusiastic I may feel about this work, I cannot solely enact change in the entire school, or even division. I can start where I am with the students I see on a daily basis.
Here's my plan:
- Show students the growth mindset in myself--which, hopefully will lead to a stronger growth mindset. I've been able to identify areas in myself where I lean towards growth and where I lean towards fixed, so I'm trying to shift into a stronger growth mindset overall. By sharing these experiences with students, I am not only becoming more human (compared to robot teacher), but I am also practicing what I preach.
- Have students continually reflect on progress. Each year during the first week of school we make equity cards in my classes (also known as the Cards of Fate or the Deck of Fate) that are used throughout the year to call on students. For my first year, students wrote down interesting facts about themselves. Last year they wrote about one thing they accomplished that they were proud of. This year they'll recall a moment they did something they didn't think they could do. Baby steps--but starting at the beginning of the year will help.
- I'm considering changing the test re-takes policy for my class. While I believe I offer abundant support before tests, I need to change my perspective away from "only failure gets a retake" to "let's discuss what you did and what you can do to improve." We know that summative grades are a sign of a fixed mindset--you get the grade, you move on for better or worse. Even if I have a conference with a student about a low grade (How did you study? How can you study differently next time?), to enact lasting change, a second chance needs to happen then--not the next time a failure happens--which could be a week away or five months away. How effective is that, exactly?
At this point I'm still mulling ideas over about the school year that starts entirely too soon. I've intentionally left the blog title vague so I won't limit my thoughts only to middle school teaching or only to using technology. We'll see how this goes.
