Growth Mindset in ECS Classroom

This is definitely an area I need to improve on. In the past I have used a growth mindset during a programming unit in IT Fundamentals. I have used tutorials in Codecademy. Over the years, I the past two years, I have seen several students who have a higher interest in computers and have even been involved in Computer Camps over the summer have already experienced some of the tutorial. I let them continue and and show progress/growth from where they currently are. Others do not have experience outside the class, so I have them start at the beginning of a tutorial and I steer them towards programs that do not require pre-knowledge of another program (such as HTML or Python). But after listening to this presentation there is a lot more for me to do.

In this unit, I will not worry about the final answer a student comes up with during their problem solving activity, but I will award them with how they approach answer the problems. I want them to follow a strategy to answering problems which will help them in the future to approach a problem is a uniform way to come up with the best possible answer.

I try to model a growth mindset in what I do every day. I also try to give students the opportunity to complete any missing assignments during the quarter for half credit. So if a student didnt turn something in two weeks ago, they can turn it in for half credit, meaning they have less of a chance of failing.

I am using growth mindset in my classroom for my students as well as myself. I am a 63 year old teacher learning coding for the first time with my students. I have kept a journal from the beginning. So it is all about growth mind set.

The focus of my all my classes is students who are critical, independent thinkers. By providing opportunities for my students to explore and discover on their own and in groups, I implement a growth mindset.

We are working on the growth and fixed mindset right now as a book study in my school so it as interesting to see this post. Most teenagers are very literal so I constantly encourage them to try and think outside the box. You also must have a growth mindset if you want your students to have one too.

So many people have mentioned needing to have a growth mindset of your own first. I can completely relate to this, especially with learning a whole new way of teaching. You have to have that mindset to really believe in the curriculum and your own ability to transfer that growth mindset to the students. I like when someone used the word ā€œchallengeā€ with their students.

I expect my students to answer a daily journal. This is not a yes/no question but one that requires a deeper lever of thinking. I have explained to them that there is no wrong answer as long as they can defend their response with supporting sentences. I also ask them to think of a solution or ask an elbow partner or any other ā€œresourceā€ when they run into a ā€œproblemā€ or a ā€œroad blockā€ when completing assignments. I tell them that I want them to think the problem through before asking for my help.

I implement growth mindset all the time, my students are constantly being challenged. In particular this is ideal for small learning communities.

Raul

Showing my students that Iā€™m not afraid of making mistakes, that I always try to learn something from them, and always try to apply what I learned going forward.

The first thing I do is to get to know my students. If you dont know your students then how will you understand their growth mindset. I then collaborate with the parents and other teachers. Finally, I find a balance between what I have to teach and how I will teach it. This helps to keep a focus on creating life-long learners.

Where do you already implement growth mindset in your classroom? How can
you add extra focus on growth mindset during a unit focused on problem
solving?
Students are always encouraged to find more than one way to solve a problem. They are often given open ended assignments that allow them to process, create, make mistakes, and fix those mistakes.

Fostering a growth mindset has been a key component of my classes over the last eight years. As primarily a math teacher, Iā€™m constantly working with kids who believe they just canā€™t do math. My goal is to get kids to realize they can all DO math. Right now the best ways I implement growth mindset are through revision and problem solving. I spend a lot of time having students work on figuring out the best ways to solve a problem, which I think will go nicely with the problem solving of unit 2. But another big thing is revision. For most assignments I try to offer a chance for kids to make their work better. I like that idea of ā€œnot yetā€ and I think revisions allows kids the chance to reach their goals in their own time.

I think that by grading based mostly on projects, students are given the ability to demonstrate what they have learned, rather than being scored on whether or not they have memorized the answers to certain multiple choice questions.

Using group projects helps me see just how creative my students become when spring-boarding off each otherā€™s ideas. I am amazed what happens when I let them go!

The ECS curriculum is so engaging, friendly, and doable so far, I am not sure how the growth mindset will apply yet to ECS. For unit 1, most students who have wanted to do well ā€“ and most that I have this year do ā€“ have done well. There are some activities that some students have liked better than others and have gotten more frustrated with than others, but again, the curriculum has so far been sufficiently varied that it hasnā€™t been a problem.

In my math classroom, however, I have moved to a Rick Wormeli no-zeros, skills based grading system, which makes most of their grade depend on skills mastered versus assignments completed. Students receive a 1-4 for each skill. A typical test has about 5 skills. Students receive an overall score for the test as they traditionally would, but that is more like a reward for learning the skill within a certain time period. The rest of the skills are graded separately and given a score from 1-4, a 4 being ā€œmasteredā€ and a 1 being ā€œnot yetā€. Then during the week after school, teacher officer hours are focused on re-learning the skill that most students had trouble with. Then after a re-teach and practice, students can work to re-test on the skill they did not learn yet.

I try to have a growth mindset myself: Learn something new every day! Donā€™t understand? Ok, how do we fix that? I maintain a retest/redo policy with retake applications where students can show me what they have done to fix their gaps in knowledge.

What I find useful is to tell the students WHY Iā€™m having them do different activities - especially if it seems redundant to them or too easy. I explain why I am having them practice something and how their brain processes and why this activity is good for their brain. I see more buy-in when I can explain that an activity is not just busy work.

The unit 2 lessons help develop a growth mindset. By focusing on process instead of outcome.

I use growth mindset in my classroom by continually challenging students and asking them to think further and to question what they know (or donā€™t know).

Resist the temptation to help lead them to the answer, that is the hardest thing for me. You have to realize struggle is okay and encourage the process even if the solution is never quit figured out.