Noelle heard Andy Andrews at Mastermind 2016 – he challenged her to grow by smiling when she talks and by making good decisions.
We are fully immersed in school in the Pellicane household. Being on a year-round schedule, we started on July 20 and are practically experts now at back to school!
I must tell you a happy school story. At Noelle’s 5th grade orientation, I was so pleased when her teacher talked about the growth mindset.
The growth mindset was introduced by Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck. She contrasts two different mindsets: the fixed mindset and the growth mindset.
In the fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities such as intelligence or talent are fixed traits. They simply use what they have, believing that talent and the cards you’ve been dealt determine your destiny.
In a growth mindset, people believe that your abilities can be developed through dedication, hard work and sweat. Brains and talents are the beginning point. A love of learning and resilience however are more important to success and accomplishment.
What kind of mindset do you have?
What kind of mindset does your child have?
Let’s get ourselves to say the words on the right side of this chart:
Noelle’s teacher has growth mindset posters around the room. This encouragement to keep growing is essential to our children. I don’t want Noelle to face a writing challenge and think, “I’m not good at writing.” That kind of thinking serves as an excuse and a bad habit.
Instead I want her to think, “I’m going to work at this essay and keep trying until it is excellent.”
One mindset brings gloom and doom. The other mindset gives HOPE.
Let’s turn “I won’t” into “I will try” – both for ourselves and for our kids!
