As a first-year teacher, I was filled with doubt and fear. Even though I had worked in the design industry for more than five years and was very familiar with the content, I was not confident I knew how to teach it. I remember my interview with the administration team, and my principal explained how unique the Digital Design class was. She informed me that I was the only teacher on campus that taught the content and that I would be on an island, but the upside was that I possessed a lot of creative control regarding how I could present the content to my students. I know she thought this was positive, but my ultimate fear was how to teach it at the time. I left that meeting excited to get the opportunity to try something new but terrified because I had never been a teacher of record. I planned, collaborated with colleagues, and researched tools and lesson plans that would help me get through the year. By the time the first day of school arrived, I was ready! 

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To my surprise, my students were not as excited about the lesson plans, activities, and projects I’d prepared for them. My classroom was littered with self-doubt, defeatist attitudes, and flat-out rejection of anything I put in front of my students. I was stunned! I was stuck. I didn’t have a plan B; I didn’t know what to do next; I was so sure that what I’d planned would be received with joy and excitement. I was defeated; my year went from project and collaborative-based learning to compliance and authoritarianism. Needless to say, I was exhausting myself and failing my students. 

Reading Dr. Dweck’s book, I realized I was stuck in a fixed mindset. I didn’t have the development of my students or myself in mind; I was prioritizing my ego. I wanted things to go the way I’d planned and left little to no room for change or adjustments. Fortunately, after Thanksgiving break, I decided to reach out to my principal and ask if I could use my “team time” (when core teachers met to plan) to collaborate with teachers from other campuses in the district that taught me what I taught. She said yes, and my classroom environment, student achievement, and mental health were the better for it.

 

Introducing The Growth Mindset to my Students

At the start of the school year, the students attended a school expectations seminar that briefly explained the Growth Mindset, but I didn’t see any long-term practices or goals put in place to measure how students were applying the practice. My presentation aims to create an easy and relatable way to explain growth and fixed mindset to my students. I used examples from Dr. Dweck’s book, “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” and other online resources to help develop a visual and interactive experience that would encourage my students to stretch themselves and grow. I am excited to add this presentation to my first day of school presentations and set the tone for a growth-focused year. This year's keywords for my students and me will be growth, development, effort, opportunity, and collaboration/student-led instruction. Whenever these words are used in the classroom, in context, someone will ring the bell, and we will celebrate the Growth Mindset in practice! I used the bell last year for students using academic language in class, but I think this is a better use because students will be able to ring the bell to celebrate their peers, which all pours back into us, creating a Growth Mindset environment. 

 

How will I maintain a Growth Mindset Throughout the Year?

Last year, as a way to get my students to stay encouraged, I added this small riddle to the blackboard, “Good for you, this is what you have already learned to do!” This riddle reminded them that they’d completed a unit of content that presented them with struggles, but they made it! They can have new skills and a growth chart demonstrating their mastery or growth in a content area. I will continue to use the riddle next year and also incorporate a new unit statement of affirmation; see below: 

 

We have committed to practicing a growth mindset. This means that our efforts shine bright and show that we are committed to learning and trying. It does not have to be perfect, but it does have to be our best, and we are only our best when we try. We will not fear failures, we will welcome them as opportunities to show effort to grow. Now, we are ready to learn!