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Sing Your Way to a Growth Mindset!

Sing Your Way to a Growth Mindset!

There are myriad ways to foster growth mindset behaviors in young people and song is one terrific way to communicate that we value growth mindset thinking! We are excited to share this artist with you.

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I Am Not Impressed: Under-Achieving Learners in Our Schools

I Am Not Impressed: Under-Achieving Learners in Our Schools

While teaching in California, I had a unique teaching assignment: Honors English 9 and Reading 10. So my school day went from thinking about how to hold "high-achieving" students to a high level of challenge in an honors environment to actually doing the same thing for "underachieving" students in a remedial environment. I loved the challenge and experience of watching non-readers become successful readers, writers and speakers while also pushing the higher performing students to stretch themselves to reach greater heights.

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Recent Comments
Veronica Berry
Hello, When I received an email from Just For Teachers Update, the quote from Ms. Deihl's latest post caught my attention. It sto... Read More
Thursday, 03 November 2016 16:00
Darlene Ab
My colleagues and I at my school talk about this all the time. And I actually was an under-achiever myself when I was a kid-just b... Read More
Wednesday, 23 November 2016 19:12
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Setting the Stage: Instilling the Growth Mindset in our Students from the Start

Setting the Stage: Instilling the Growth Mindset in our Students from the Start

My co- teacher, Courtney Zaleski and I teach an inclusion 7th grade class.  In order to set the stage for the year, we teach them that mistakes are not only OK, they are necessary:

Ask an adolescent how they feel about making mistakes and they will be very honest (sometimes brutally so).  This year, on the first day of school, we asked our students to write down their thoughts on a post it note and compiled their responses on chart paper titled “making mistakes.”  The students are then asked to stay and read their classmates’ comments.  Words like “dumb,” “foolish,” “angry,” and “bad” were common responses.

No wonder so many kids don’t take academic risks.  Who wants to feel like that?

As the students returned to their seats, we handed them each a personalized envelope.  Inside, they found a pink eraser, a pencil with “Think Different” inscribed on it (“Think Different” is our class name), and a Maichin Welcome Back Letter. We asked them to open the envelope and read the letter silently.

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Lisa Blackwell
Jenn, I really wish that you had been my teacher in JHS!
Tuesday, 09 October 2012 21:02
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A Growth Mindset Year at Lenox Academy

A Growth Mindset Year at Lenox Academy

Located in the heart of Brooklyn, New York, Lenox Academy offers an academically accelerated program for middle school students in grades 6 through 8. Yet, while the overwhelming majority of our students exceed New York State standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics, a deeper analysis reveals a disturbing trend. We discovered that as the curriculum became more challenging over the course of middle school, many of our high-achieving students retreated from putting forth effort. The result was that academic performance actually declined over the three years for a large number of our students.

Fixed Mindset

Reading about the work of Dr. Carol Dweck and her team at Mindset Works, we were able to more clearly understand the nature of our dilemma. Students who retreated from putting forth effort, we now realized, were exhibiting the characteristic fixed mindset. These were students who, for the better part of their young lives, had been praised for intelligence based on their performance in school and on NY State standardized exams. Acceptance into Lenox Academy brought more praise for intelligence—but when the accelerated curriculum began to present the kinds of challenges they had not previously encountered, they retreated.

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Free Download: Mindset Works Brainology Bingo!

Mindset Works® is excited to announce that we have created another new group activity designed to help students practice, learn, and reinforce growth mindset concepts in a fun and interactive way: the Mindset Works Bingo Game! And best of all, it’s free!

In the “Mindset Works Bingo” game, students review core concepts and ideas straight from the Brainology student curriculum. In groups, pairs or individually, students test their understanding of the growth mindset, how the brain works and learns, and effective study strategies. (Grades 4-12.)

Link to Brainology Bingo PDF

You can find our previous free downloadable games HERE (“Brainology Hot Potato” and “Brainology Popcorn”)

We hope you'll enjoy the brain-games. If you try them, let us know how it went and how your students liked them.

For more information, please visit www.mindsetworks.com or contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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