Professional Development: Mind Sets

As part of our Professional development we have been learning about Fixed mind sets and Growth Mindsets. I have taken a great interest in mind sets and found it very fascinating.
This theory was created by " Carol Dweck". She talks about how having a "Growth Mind set" can grow our minds capacity to learn and solve problems. A “growth mindset,” thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities. 

Below I have have included a visual image about the two mind sets Fixed and Growth mindset.

I am looking forward to find out which mind set the children have in my classroom and guiding them and supporting them to have Growth mind sets so that they able to succeed in their learning.

I have also included Carol Dweck's Video on " The power to believing that you can improve" which I found very interesting. 

The video talks about how fixed mind set people run from the challenges/errors and failures where as "Growth Mindset"people embrace the challenges and struggles to grow as a person as well as in their learning. They are more engaged in their learning. They learn from their mistakes/failures and they correct it. 

Carol talks about how as Educators we should praise children on the process praise such as prising the child on their strategies, efforts and progress in their learning. With this process of praise children then to gain more confidence in their learning and their self esteems.

Inspirational TED video "Every child needs a Champion"

In one of our staff meetings in Week 1 Term 3 we were shown an Inspirational TED clip called "Every child needs a Champion". This video was presented by Rita Pierson. Before being shown this video I had not heard of her or had seen her video. I found what she had to say in her video very inspirational. In her Video she quoted "James Comer says that no significant learning can occur without a significant relationship. George Washington Carver says all learning is understanding relationships. " I believe that this is true when it comes to a teaching context. We need to build effective bonds with the children that we teach and we also need to understand them too. When you have an effective relationship with the children that you teach and create meaningful bonds and understanding with them and they like you than effective learning is established.

I also believe that having good relationships with the teachers I work with at my school is also important. Being able to like each other and converse and have effective communication will also help with being able to learn from each other and share ideas so that can provide better learning environments for our learners.

Term 3 day One!

Monday 20th July 2015

Today was the first day back at School after a 2 week break. During the holidays I came into school and I played around with the setting of my classroom. So today when my students came in they all had huge grins on their faces and were all astonished at how different our classroom looked. They were all excited and the first thing that they said was "WOW MISS THIS LOOKS AWESOME!!. WE LOVE IT!"

Before, the classroom had a more closed atmosphere and I felt that in regards to that the children's learning was impacted and certain behaviours arose which made it hard to manage. So during the School holidays, being it my very first own classroom and being a BT  new digital immersion teacher it got me thinking of how I could better change the classroom environment so that this could be eliminated and more learning could be achieved in a more positive manner.
 
I found that before the teachers desk was in a position where I could not view all the children and it was hidden in a corner so firstly I moved my desk to an area of the classroom where I could see all the desks and see all the children. I also moved my student teacher table around so that I was facing the students instead of having my side or back to them. This was I could teach my group as well as monitor the children that were doing independent activities.

Our classroom did not have a library corner before where it actually looked inviting for the children where they could relax on the bean bags and couch and grab a book from the Novel shelves and reading shelves and sit down and read. I felt this was an important area to work on as I wanted to create an area where children felt comfortable and where they could be encouraged to go and read for enjoyed so that they could develop on their passion for reading as well as their understanding/comprehension and reading skills.

When looking at rearranging my classroom some other aspects that I thought about were:

1. Ways to maximize my ability to see and be seen by all of my students
2. Facilitate ease of movement throughout the classroom.
3. Minimize distractions so that my students are best able to actively engage in their learning.
4. Library corner: So that children know that that area is a quiet area and that whey they are in that area they are either reading quietly or working quietly.
5. Children's tables spread out and each group having their allocated tables- So that they know when they are at those tables that is where they are working together and working collaboratively. 

When designing my allocated tables I decided last term when I first began fulltime in my classroom that I would have allocated table groups. I decided to mix the students up so that they all were in different group. The reason for this was that I found that majority of the class needed to work on their co-operative learning skills and team skills, communication and oral skills when working with other peers in their class that they didn't usually work with. Each able group was named after popular animated cartoon that the students were into: Dragon Ball Z, Digimon, Naruto, Pokémon.

From day one of Term 3 I have made sure that I went through the rules and expectations with the children reviewing them from Term 2. I made sure that the children understood that this classroom is our learning environment and we need to respect it by keeping in clean and organised because when it is clean and organised it makes learning easier and makes our classroom have a more positive happy nature to it instead of it being all cluttered and unorganised. I have found that if I show the children my mind set of being organised and that I care about organisation then the children will also develop that attitude too.

I also learnt that it is important to balance having structure and guidelines with having fun and enjoyment with the children as well and being that bond with them and that strong relationship. I wanted my class to know that even those I have this structure and guidelines I am also a fun teacher and enjoy doing fun activities with my class.

Overall I was impressed at how my students took it to having the classroom being changed around. They defiantly grasped it with open arms.

I am definitely looking forward to the rest of Term 3 with my awesome class!!