Growth Mindset plus CATS

Photo at cheezburger.

I chose this image because it reminds of what I need to do to help myself move forward: I need to listen. I don't like being criticized, and a lot of the time, it makes me angry when people try to tell me to change something. Most of the time, however, they're only trying to help, and I need to understand that they are trying to help me better myself in the long run.

Found on cheezburger.

Everybody makes mistakes (everybody has those days). Errors, especially if someone points them out to me, make me anxious, but I need to understand that those errors are going to help me build on what I've already done and they're going to make me and my work better.

Found on cheezburger.

Now I just have to learn how to take the feedback that I get and think about where I can go from there. I don't want to plateau and continue on the path that I've been walking, I want to change it up and make sure that I'm on a better path to being, well, better! Taking critiques and feedback from others is going to help me in the long run.

Growth Mindset

Photo by Kevin Hodgson on Flickr

Before this assignment, I had a vague idea on who Carol Dweck was. She was mentioned maybe once, or twice, during one of my education lectures, but it was so offhanded that I did not feel as though I needed to remember her. Her ideas about the growth mindset are intriguing and I really agree with her on most of her points made in her TED talk.

In my future classroom, I hope to give students the ability to come to me when they want a challenge. Not only that, but I hope to challenge them outright no matter whether or not they want to be pushed. Giving students the understanding that you believe that they can be more than what others have believed is an important and necessary part of my philosophy of teaching. Students that are encouraged and challenged oftentimes do better, and they are very much thankful in the long run.

With my own learning, I have noticed that I usually give up when things become to hard. I am a very proud person, and running to my teachers for help is not something I am used to; I did not do it in high school, and I definitely did not do it throughout my years in college. No matter how many times a teacher would tell my class "PLEASE COME SEE ME IF YOU NEED HELP!", I never did. I want to push my future students to come to me despite their pride; I want them to be better than I ever was when it came to confronting my shortcomings about what I can and can't learn without help.

I hope to learn more about this growth mindset, so I'm able to implement the strategy into my future endeavors in education and my classroom.

As for my classes, there are a few that I'm nervous about, just because they are classes that are important to the fact that I am supposed to be graduating next semester. It is not that they aren't hard - they are, but I like a challenge when I know that I can reach for my goals - it is that I hate the pressure that is put on me when something is extremely important to my future.