The Growth Mindset Playbook Chapters 1 & 2 Reflection

    In order to be an effective teacher, one must have a Growth Mindset and not a Fixed Mindset. Having a Growth Mindset means you are willing to continue forward to make changes and improvements. Essentially, it means that you are willing to grow. Having a Fixed Mindset means that you already believe that you are predetermined to fail if you have already, and you do not wish to push through to make improvements. Essentially, it means that you are already "fixed" on your destiny. In order for a teacher to be effective and teach children to have a Growth Mindset, they must first have a Growth Mindset. They must be willing to see that, even if their students have made mistakes or failed in the past, that there is always room for improvement. To promote a Growth Mindset in students, an effective teacher should praise them for when they do good or for when they succeed. Don't necessarily praise them for absolutely nothing, as that accomplishes nothing, but for when they are respectful, score good, or other positive attributes, share with that student how proud you are of their accomplishment. Growth Mindset teachers see the potential in all their students while Fixed Mindset teachers only see the bad in them.     

   Relating to having a Growth Mindset, teachers with a Growth Mindset find it essential to develop strong personal relationships with their students. When you develop personal relationships and establish trust, students are known to perform better in school and return that respect. While Fixed Mindset teachers typically only scold students for the bad they do, which in return does nothing but make matters worse, Growth Mindset teachers think on how to understand their students on a personal level and how to have empathy for them, for they could have other factors outside of the classroom that are making them act a certain way. I thought it was very inspirational the story that was explained in Chapter 2 of The Growth Mindset Playbook about Shane and his teacher Laura. It explained that in the beginning, Laura though of Shane as one of her most "difficult students" as he was "insulting, rude, and completely disinterested." She would "snap at him, sit him away from the group, or tell him upfront - before he did anything wrong - that she was watching him and he'd better behave." Though Laura did this, Shane would still act up in class, despite other teachers saying, "He always works hard in my class" and "I'm surprised about how he's behaving for you." After Laura learned the real reason for Shane's actions which were that he was going through a difficult time with his parents' divorce and that he has not gained trust with Laura yet, she decided to approach him differently. She changed her attitude about him and turned to get to know him more personally as well as compliment him for the good he did in class. After this, his behavior improved. I thought that this was a very inspirational story and shows that personal relationships with students are key to an effective classroom setting. Just like how you have to establish trust with a new friend, so do a student and a teacher have to develop that trust. And as shown through this book, when a student trusts their instructor, they show them more respect. 

    I learned a lot from these first two chapters of The Growth Mindset Playbook. I learned the significant differences from having a Fixed Mindset and a Growth Mindset, Growth Mindset teachers are necessary to teach a class of Growth Mindset students, personal relationships with students are key to success in the classroom, and you have to think of the students' lives outside of the classroom and what they could be going through. These are all essential pieces of information that I will use in the future classroom I will teach. I indeed appreciated the charts and other ideas these chapters provided on ways to develop good relationships with students and what essential qualities a teacher needs to have in order to have a Growth Mindset. I have a feeling that in my future classroom, I will have a Shane, so I will take a similar approach to Laura when she turned to develop that deep personal relationship and trust with him in order to gain his respect.