Hey April, I'm loving your weather!   I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and great spring break!  We are on the down hill slide-woohoo!  This year-what can you say?  We have shown resilience, grit and perseverance!  The life lessons we have learned just might outweigh some of the academic lessons we have learned.  I am so proud of the students and hope that they remember the many positives they have encountered throughout the year.  I hope that the positives far outweigh the negative.

      This month's guidance lessons are focused on growth mindset, my favorite concept to teach!  The growth mindset concept was first introduced over 30 years ago by Carol Dweck.  She wrote the book titled, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.  The following is a brief description of Dweck (taken straight from the basic internet search of Carol Dweck):

"Carol Dweck is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and one of the world's leading researchers on motivation and mindsets. Her work focuses on why people succeed and how it is possible to foster their success."

 

If you google her work, you will find article after article, post after post of information about fixed mindsets, growth mindsets, brain plasticity and other neuroscience terms.  To sum it up in a nutshell, the concept of a fixed mindset is that what we know is what we know.  We either have the ability to do something or we don't.  The growth mindset concept is that our brain is like a muscle that can grow when stretched and challenged.  If a person isn't "gifted" in a certain area that person can still learn do do the task.  Sounds pretty simple, right?  Who wouldn't have a growth mindset?  If you want to know the answer to that question take a look at how a person handles a failure or mistake.  Seeing that failure or mistake as a step on the path of progress or thinking that the concept hasn't been learned yet are indicators of a growth mindset.  Meltdowns, quitting and a feeling of being dumb are part of camp fixed mindset.  I will be the first to admit that in the past,  I have had a tendency to lean in to the fixed mindset camp.  However, I am working hard on moving over to the growth mindset side of things.  Lead by example, right?  I want our students to be wholeheartedly in camp growth mindset!  Yet too often I hear of students getting upset when they make mistakes or struggle with learning a new concept.  If they don't have a clear path to "perfect" or an A, they do not want to try.  I tackle this in their guidance lessons.  All of the classes are learning about the differences between the two mindsets through videos on class dojo and every student will receive a book mark saying "Mistakes are proof that you are trying."  First grade students will be playing a puzzle/matching game to learn the difference between fixed and growth mindset statements.  The second grade students will be doing an interactive power point differentiating between the two mindsets.   The third graders will be making growth mindset "cootie catchers."  A handout suggesting "what?" questions for a growth mindset will be sent home to parents, so be on the look out for that!

As always, please let me know if there is anything that I can do to help your student, you or your family.  I can be reached through email at kim.bennett@owensborocatholic.org or by calling (270) 684-7583.