If you’ve read my blog for a while, you know I am a huge fan of happy, positive teachers and classrooms. For years, I’ve been talking about how much I love teaching and my students and my classroom. For years, I’ve always given this advice when people were struggling with a negative school environment: “Find one positive in each day and focus on that positive moment!”
At the beginning of this year, I teamed up with the amazing Kayla Delzer from Top Dog Teaching to start our #happyclassrooms mission to change the conversation about teaching. No more negativity. No more viral posts about teachers who quit teaching. We decided to use the power of social media to change the conversation and show the world how awesome teachers and students truly are and to show the world the awesomeness that happens in our classrooms!
You also know I’m always looking for new ideas for my classroom and finding new ways to engage my students and keep them exciting. I’m always seeking to grow as a teacher. As we all are. I mean, who doesn’t want to be better?!
And now…the big conversation in education is about creating a growth mindset and changing our mindsets. People, I’m on board with this and I’ve been on this mission for a while.
Growth mindset is all about our idea of our ability and where that ability comes from. A growth mindset says that intelligence can be developed! A growth mindset is being open to new ideas and activities and new thinking. It’s about changing our thinking and changing our teaching!
The big push in education now is to get our students to realize that their ability is not fixed. Their ability is up to them and we need to help them develop that growth mindset. And for teachers, it’s time same concept. Our teaching ability is not fixed. We need to have a growth mindset so we can continue to grow as teacher and give our students the best possible education. Every day. We also need to change our mindset from negativity to positivity and excitement and #happyclassrooms!
Here is a great blog post from Angela at The Cornerstone For Teachers on developing a growth mindset!
So…I was super excited when my friends at ClassDojo contacted me recently and asked if we could connect! Of course I said yes and I got to have a great Google Hangout with Manoj from ClassDojo and was totally pumped when he revealed that ClassDojo was releasing some growth mindset videos for kids (and teachers)!
What’s happening?
ClassDojo is launching a video series and accompanying discussion guides that can help any and every classroom learn about growth mindset and how to start developing one. The series will be five episodes in length that follow Mojo (ClassDojo’s much loved green monster) and his friend Katie as they explore different aspects of growth mindset. The video series can be used in any K-12 classroom!
Who created this video series?
The ClassDojo team led the development of this Big Idea video series with guidance by a new partner in Stanford University’s Project for Education Research That Scales (PERTS). PERTS is an applied research center that partners with schools, colleges, and other organizations to identify educational practices that improve learning outcomes and to drive the effective adoption of those practices on a large-scale.
Here is the first of the five videos:
I showed my class this video and we’ve been having great discussions about growing our brain muscle and how we have to do the exercise and work to get better! I’ve already noticed a change in my students and their mindset!
So, I’m encouraging you to think about your own mindset and find ways to change your mindset and to discuss growth mindset with your students!
And definitely check out these videos from ClassDojo!