Growth Mindset
How will the Growth Mindset Enable Me to be a Digital Leader?
It is interesting how life happens. I had a professional development presentation during summer and the presenter was from Apple. I asked her how she ended working for that company and she told me that she was a teacher, that she finished her Masters, and that when she applied for the job she had to show an ePortfolio. I was so excited!
This has been a year of change. My daughter moved to college and now we are empty nesters. My first step to fill that emptiness was to find a Masters program that connected my two passions: technology and education. Every time I have the opportunity to share something about DLL I can’t stop talking. It’s fascinating to share how the learning is happening in a nonconventional way because I am in charge of it.
Now here I am, I am a teacher taking the second class of my Masters, and I am developing my ePortfolio. My growth mindset is jumping of enthusiasm!
Since I started learning about Growth Mindset it has changed the way I see life. I have been applying some of the concepts with my husband, my students and their parents, coworkers, and administrators.
My husband and I sometimes talk about the people he works with. We have discovered that most of the problems he has with them is because of their fixed mindset that doesn’t let them move or learn new things. They are afraid of change. We are trying to find ways to motivate a change of mindset on them, but it is hard because we are not experts and they are adults that are not aware of the situation. How can we talk about this without hurting their feelings? I guess we will have to find ways for my husband to try by being very polite and use positive language.
With my students, I have been encouraging them to try and experiment. I do not know if it is because of our Hispanic culture, but we are very scared of making mistakes. We have discovered that by making mistakes and understanding the reasons of those mistakes, we make real connections for learning. I can see how their faces illuminate with pride when this happens.
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The Growth Mindset has brought a complete change of the dynamic in my classroom. If my students don’t do homework, don’t work on an assignment, or they have a bad behavior, they need to reflect on those problems and they have to propose a plan for improvement. Then, they need to try it and see how it works and check if they have to make changes to their original plan. I can say that 99% of my students have improved in one way or another and it is very stimulating to see how the growth mindset has guided them to have the firm belief that there is nothing that they cannot change. We are celebrating every small or big improvement that we have in class and it’s powerful!
My coworkers have seen the changes in my students and want to learn more about it. The administrators already knew about this, some of them have a very basic understanding of it, but my principal enjoys this belief as much as I do so we have good conversations about it.
I am glad I learned the four steps for the growth mindset because very often I can hear the fixed mindset trying to convince me to not do something. Now, I can feel the freedom of listening the growth mindset instead. This voice is going to be my best ally in being successful in the digital learning and leading program.
I have been checking the classes that are coming and I think we will have to have an innovation plan and a change in our organization. My fixed mindset tries to convince me to do something small. My growth mindset starts dreaming big. I can hear the fight they have inside my mind and I enjoy it! That growth mindset fighting for the big dreams is the one that will carry me to be a better leader.
I still have like 10 more classes to go but I know that I will keep growing and dreaming bigger and bigger because I know that education opens doors to new experiences, and that is energizing. I see myself as a leader that believes in change and growth, where people will be motivated to adapt, reflect, transform, and find solutions, and where our Why will be our guide to be successful.
References:
Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. NY: Ballantine Books
Sinek, S. (n.d.) How great leaders inspire action. TED Talk. [Video File]. Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en#t-6666
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