A Growth Mindset vs. A Fixed Mindset

Which kind of mindset do you have?

 (Image retrieved from: http://www.cambridgeschool.org/blog/growth)

Having a growth mindset is a popular buzz word in education these days and for good reasons.  Carol Dweck and associates having been researching and writing about mindsets in education for awhile.  Dweck stated, "We found that students’ mindsets—how they perceive their abilities—played a key role in their motivation and achievement, and we found that if we changed students’ mindsets, we could boost their achievement. More precisely, students who believed their intelligence could be developed (a growth mindset) outperformed those who believed their intelligence was fixed (a fixed mindset)." (Dweck, para.2)

For these reasons and more I am committed to teach about and do all in my power to promote the ideas behind developing a growth mindset in my classroom.  Honest mistakes will be celebrated because that is a starting point for learning.  We will learn not to say "I can't do that"  but rather " I cannot do that YET but I am willing to try." In addition, self-evaluations and reflections will be an integral part of our assessment process of our progression.

I encourage all... student, teacher, parent and every human being to find out more about developing a growth mindset.  

Below is a site that I really think is beneficial in explaining the concepts of a growth mindset vs. a fixed mindset through videos.  Also the article cited below is a wonderful source of information.

https://www.mindsetkit.org/topics/about-growth-mindset/what-is-growth-mindset

I hope you will explore because it does matter for optimal learning which mindset you develop.

Work Cited:

Dweck, C.  (Sept. 22, 2015).  Carol Dweck Revisits the Growth Mindset.  Education Week. Retrieved from: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/09/23/carol-dweck-revisits-the-growth-mindset.html?cmp=cpc-goog-ew-dynamic+ads&ccid=dynamic+ads&ccag=growth+mindset+dynamic&cckw=&cc

Black Poetry Day

Today we celebrate Black Poetry Day.  

It is celebrated always on October 17th in honor of Jupiter Hammon's birthday. 

Hammon was born in 1711 into slavery at the Henry Lloyd's estate on Long Island, New York. "Hammon was purportedly allowed access to the manor library and was educated with the estate owner’s children, even working with Henry Lloyd in his business ventures."  Hammon's first work was published in 1760. He was largely considered a religious poet. 

(Information retrieved at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jupiter-hammon#tab-poems)

So today in honor of Hammon, we celebrate the importance of all black poets and authors and their contributions to the literary world.

I share here a few of my favorites:

(My mother had this poem framed upon our living room wall for years.  

It has always been beautiful to me.)

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams 

For if dreams die 

Life is a broken-winged bird 

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

Written by Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

Frederick Douglass

When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful

and terrible thing, needful to man as air,

usable as earth; when it belongs at last to all,

when it is truly instinct, brain matter, diastole, systole,

reflex action; when it is finally won; when it is more

than the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians:

this man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro

beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world

where none is lonely, none hunted, alien,

this man, superb in love and logic, this man

shall be remembered. Oh, not with statues' rhetoric,

not with legends and poems and wreaths of bronze alone,

but with the lives grown out of his life, the lives

fleshing his dream of the beautiful, needful thing.

Written by Robert Hayden (1913-1980)

Listen Children

Listen children 

keep this in the place 

you have for keeping 

always, 

keep it all ways

We have never hated black

Listen 

we have been ashamed 

hopeless tired mad 

but always 

all ways 

we loved us

We have always loved each other 

children all ways

Pass it on 

Written by Lucille Clifton (1936-2010)

(All poems retrieved from: http://www.afropoets.net/ )

Smithsonian Learning Labs

When I was living in Washington D.C. while working on a fellowship with the National Endowment for the Arts, my favorite past time was to wander the halls of the Smithsonian museums.   I would often get lost in the displays of historical artifacts and icons and think I could have lived there if food and drink were allowed.  Because the Smithsonian museums are thousands of miles from Gilbert, Arizona, I have often lamented their distance and regrettably not being able to share the joy of canvassing their halls with students.  

That is a regret no more.  The Smithsonian has made available their displays and artifacts to everyone digitally. This digital platform is called the Smithsonian Learning Lab and has the bywords of "Create, Discover and Share."

At this site  https://learninglab.si.edu/ you can discover all the Smithsonian resources with access all the time.  There are photographs, paintings, letters, works, newsletters, recorded and printed interviews, audio recordings of music, printed music, collections of works and the list could goes on. You can also create customized quizzes, lessons and collections for your students.  And you can share everything you create with your students, friends or others with that particular interest.

I recently made a personal collection of different recordings of the National Anthem being performed that I am sharing with students in a unit on our National Symbols.  The learning lab will allow my students to "walk" the halls of the Smithsonian in a relevant and meaningful way from thousands of miles away. 

Below is a screen shot of the collection I made.  It was easy, so you could do it also! 

So check it out and look up anything from of influence on America from the Civil war to the Beatles. The Smithsonian is sure to have something for your interest and topic. 

 It would be a great addition to any lesson plan!

Bullying Prevention

Why is it that after many decades that I can still remember the name of the boy in school that used to turn around in his seat often and tell me, "I rather be dead than have red on my head" but I cannot remember the names of all those other students around me that did not make negative comments on my red hair? 

Bullies have always existed.  Bullies have and do affect our lives in one way or another.  Bullies now days have been given even more arenas to injure through the use of digital technology.  Although these statements may ring true, bullying does not have to be linked to gaining an education. 

October is National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month.

We each can play a role in making sure that bullying and education are not synonymously intertwined.  With excellent resources at our fingertips we can utilize the information to help eliminate bullying in all environments.   One of the best resources  I have found is the website that the government established called,  stopbullying.gov.  

This site has abundant information on all forms of bullying, including the cyberbully and how to prevent and how to respond.  Many resources are listed for further research on this site, one being the laws and policies that connect to bullying.  Also, there are cited many facts about bullying.  Here is one fact cited; 

"When bystanders intervene bullying stops within 10 seconds 57% of the time." 

(Hawkins, D. L., Pepler, D., and Craig, W. M. (2001). Peer interventions in playground bullying. Social Development, 10, 512-527.)  

Bullying can be stopped and we each have a responsibility to see that it is 

"stopped on the spot" 

like this site reminds us to do.

"When adults respond quickly and consistently to bullying behavior they send the message that it is not acceptable. Research shows this can stop bullying behavior over time. Parents, school staff, and other adults in the community can help kids prevent bullying by talking about it, building a safe school environment, and creating a community-wide bullying prevention strategy."

( From the Stopbullying.gov home page)

As an educator, mother and citizen, I feel strongly about this issue and am committed to stop bullying on the spot but I can't alone.  In our communities it will take all of us working together to ensure that gaining an education does not have to include getting bullied.

Welcome to Ms. Dessie's Desk

Desktops have always fascinated me.  I remember loving to go to my dad's office and rummage through the things on and in his desk.  (That is if I could find the desk, amid all his stacks of paper and collections of periodicals.)  He was a professor and an administrator and between his many roles and interests there accumulated an ample assorted of facts and clues on his desktop.  When successful in finding his desk, it was sure to be an adventure in learning.  Those seemingly insignificant fragments of paper saved from fates in recycling bins were actual prized bits of information.  Scanning my father's desk was a visual and intellectual treasure hunt. A little know fact here, a thoughtful quote there, a relevant news clipping and often, if lucky, a sweet in the form of a candy hidden throughout.

My vision for Ms. Dessie's desktop is to represent the same kind of  treasure hunt  in knowledge that I experienced with my dad's desk.  Hopefully a bit more organized than my dad's and not such a fire hazard with the enormous piles of paper.  I invite the reader to enjoy rummaging around my desktop searching for gems of information on education themed ideas and topics. 

Here is my first gem thanks to Nelson Mandela.  I am ready to arm young minds with the best tools for defense and offense in changing this world ... Education!