Some days I leave my classroom totally pumped over the learning that had occurred in my classroom.
Some days I leave totally perplexed at what just happened.
This got me thinking about what I had learned in the book, "Mathematical Mindsets" by Jo Boaler.
Were my students more growth minded or did they have a fixed mindset of what they were capable of learning.
Using Schoology, I posted the following statements in a poll.
"I believe the more I learn, the smarter I will be."
"I believe that I was born with a fixed amount of intelligence, either I have it or I don't."
Today I checked the results.
2/3 of my students have a growth mindset.
This gives me hope.
How do I start to convert the 1/3 that believe they only have so and so much intelligence?
It was also eye opening to see the distribution of these mindsets within my five math classes.
In one class, 70% of the students have a fixed mindset.
I think I need to keep reading to determine the best way to turn this mindset around!
Moving forward is a good thing. If you don't move, you become stagnant. If you become stagnant, you smell. (I'm going with a creek bed analogy here...stay with me). "It Is What It Is" helps us to keep our sanity as we try new things, but at the same time we should never settle for "what it is". We should constantly reflect and learn to move our teaching and our student's learning to higher levels so the classroom doesn't turn stale.
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