In my classroom, I stress the importance of growth mindset.
We talk about how we don’t have all of the answers… yet. I allow all of my
students to redo any assignments or tests because it doesn’t matter whether
they learn the skills the first time or the 7th time – what matters
is that they learn.
I think this idea of growth mindset and the power of yet is
harder to apply in my own personal life. I am a perfectionist that struggles
when I screw up or don’t learn something the first time. However, preaching
this mindset to my students has helped to start to change my own thinking. One
of the biggest examples of how my mindset has changed is when it comes to
dealing with my own mistakes. When I used to say or do something wrong I would
circle on the mistake for a long time. There was no moving on – I would think
and worry about it for weeks until finally, I would do something else wrong and
begin the cycle over again. Recently, I was talking with a student who failed a
math test and she was upset and in tears and we talked about how in the grand
scheme of things… this one math test doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t dictate
whether you are good person or not or whether you are going to college. It was
that conversation that made me realize how petty I was being with my own
mindset.
Ultimately, this is not something I am good at… yet. But I
am working on it and will improve because I can do hard things.
