Hello again! Since my last blog, our incredible students at Belmont Ridge Middle School successfully put on 13, The Musical. A hilarious coming of age piece about growing pains in middle school (originally starring Ariana Grande on the West End). We were also able to attend a musical awards night hosted by the incomparable NYA (National Youth Arts) and Rob Hopper to graciously accept our awards for last year's shows: Grease, Crybaby, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The students who won offered eloquent and thoughtful acceptance speeches and the pride in the eye of the kids and their parents encompassed exactly why we as educators do what they do. They have found their people and are doing what they love. What could be better?
Continuing on with my takeaways from summer reading, today I will share with you my thoughts on the professional texts: UNCOMMON LEARNING by: Eric C. Sheninger (and published by Corwin) and THE GROWTH MINDSET COACH by: Annie Brock & Heather Hundley (and published by Ulysses Press). I have no idea why I just introduced these books in this order because I am going to speak about them in reverse. Summer brain! Here we go!
THE GROWTH MINDSET COACH
1. Defines and encourages a growth mindset. Also defines a fixed mindset and discusses how easy it is to fall into this line of thinking and why it can be so counterproductive.
2. Discusses the importance of sharing the idea of growth mindset with your students' parents so they can help perpetuate that mindset at home as well.
3. Encouraged brain breaks in class to re-energize students' neurons. Use these breaks to continue developing rapport with students.
4. Suggested being transparent with kids about your pedagogy and teaching them metacognition so that they can think about their own line of thinking and share that with others.
5. Used the image of three kids looking over a fence at a baseball game to explain the difference between equality and equity. Look it up - it is such a classic.
6. Advocates that ALL students can learn and grow. We as teachers should hold high expectations, nurture our students at all levels, differentiate, and praise kids for HARD WORK (not for intelligence). This also improves equity. Everyone can work hard and hard work is a life skill that makes one successful later in life. This also allows students to move away from trying to maintain an aura of "smartness."
7. We should teach students GRIT. They need to know how to bounce back from setbacks. They will not always win. Students should create a routine for when they fail: highlight the positives, analyze how to fix, and how to engage others in problem-solving.
8. They offer a comparative between video games and teaching and how students find video games fun and engaging because they are so well scaffolded and they increase in rigor as a student develops their skills. This is exactly what the English classroom should look like too. (Including players "leveling up" or earning badges for acquired skills (mastery).
9. Grades should not be about FAILING. They should be about growth mindset so students can get valuable data and continually improve.
10. Finally, practice what you preach: if you expect students to have a growth mindset, you better have one too. (Including areas where you are the student: faculty meetings, professional developments, etc).
My takeaways: I plan on using this mindset in my Creative Writing and Public Speaking electives this year. These classes are typically areas where students believe themselves to be fundamentally weak. Very few students identify as a powerhouse writer or speaker and they often speak with fixed mindsets. I believe teaching them how to think in and utilize a growth mindset (including all of the aspects mentioned above) will set them up for great success and exponential rewards (in writing, speaking, and life).
UNCOMMON LEARNING
1. Create environments that foster student autonomy and choice. The classroom is for students not for teachers.
2. Model any new initiative. Don't boss impersonally from afar. If you integrate technology - work with it yourself and show the students your thinking and where you struggle.
3. Social media follows a lot of the same narrative as an English classroom. Utilize this and support it with time-tested and sound pedagogy (like teaching rhetorical devices in APLang) to engage kids.
4. Create maker-spaces in your classroom and encourage genius hours and student designed/led inquiry projects.
5. Get on Twitter and establish a PLN! :-) (Follow me @misteramistera)
My takeaways: I plan on using much of these themes in my sophomore English classes this year (paired with leadership activities that worked last year) to not only improve my students' skills in their social interactions and oral presentations but also to engage them in their reading and writing of British literature.
Stop back tomorrow as I review my final two for the summer!
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