Changing a mentality is something that is one of the most challenging tasks I’ve ever had to accomplish. Years ago, I was working at a school that had not witnessed very much success as a whole. My job was to change the culture, the mentality, of the people that I encountered. Being young and inexperienced, I told the students that they would work as hard as they could and stand up to ANY person that doubts their progress. The problem was, I didn’t use those same words. The words that I chose were much more aggressive. What I wanted was for the students to believe in themselves and grow. It worked. It was the wrong way to get the message across, but it worked. Fast forward almost 15 years and you’ll find that same teacher learning how to teach the same message the right way. What I didn’t understand then was the “Growth Mindset”.
The Growth Mindset is one that teaches concepts of continual growth in a particular field compared to a fixed mindset where one has accepted the current situation as one that will be permanent. I believe that everyone will have a fixed mindset at some point. How long we have that mindset will be different for each person. We should strive to be better than we were in the past, but actually implementing change is rather difficult if we don’t welcome change.
My plan is to embrace the growth concept as I teach my students high school English 1. My campus has not experienced the necessary success in this subject the district deems valuable, yet. The demographics on my campus include a large population of students that are relatively new to the English language, yet are still expected to pass the state exams. As teachers, we are still expected to produce the same results as other campuses. Although it is ludicrous, I’ve found that I need to implement the growth mindset in order to help get my students and campus to reach expectations. The process won’t be easy, but using the “COVA” concept, I feel that I will be able to instill the necessary methods in order to help the students reach the districts goals.
COVA is a concept that states giving Choice, Ownership, Voice, and Authentic lessons will help the students take more responsibility in their education. My plan is to create daily, weekly, and semester lessons that institute the COVA model. Eventually I will present this idea to my colleagues and have them eventually incorporate the same ideas into their classrooms. I am anticipating backlash from both groups, but that is the point in which I will institute the power of “yet”.
The growth mindset has a vital component that we know as “yet”. This idea means that if it hasn’t happened already, don’t give up on it, it will happen soon. Many people believe that if they haven’t reached a particular goal, they will never reach it. That mindset is one that is fixed. There is a lack of growth in that frame of mind. My students and colleagues need to be exposed to the idea that growth happens over time and it is not immediate. We all need to have the understanding that we should continue to pursue our goals even if it didn’t happen in the timeframe that we wished.
When I begin to incorporate the COVA strategy, along with the power of “yet”, I will be able to help my students grow in areas that were once deemed unimaginable. It may not happen immediately, but I am patient enough to understand that growth does not happen overnight.
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