Mindset Works’ Blog

In November we wrote a post about the impact the mindset of a teacher can have about a student’s problem behavior. Related to this, Stanford researchers Jason Okonofua, David Paunesku and Gregory Walton recently published research demonstrating the power of teacher mindsets on student behavior.

This letter is written by a middle school student, Ellie, who attends a school that is cultivating growth mindsets through staff development, Brainology lessons, and other site-wide efforts.  The student insightfully shares HER growth mindset journey.

Ellie discusses what it is like to try to change your own mindset, and gives us a view into the mind of a really terrific kid.

Dear Mr. O,

This isn't another concern letter, I just wanted to share with you what has gone on academically in my life lately. In wellness class, science, and many other of my classes all I have heard is growth mindset, growth mindset, and growth mindset. In reality, I haven't really thought, "Wow, I can get through this problem with my growth mindset!" In wellness, I always think that my life doesn't truly depend on a growth mindset to get around. I mean, yeah, every once and a while I get a really bad score, and might need to get my growth mindset helmet on.

"Some schools actually grade students on Growth Mindset and grit. At Lenox, it doesn't make it to report cards, but kids do get evaluated on it, by other kids."

Exciting news for growth mindset schools!  Tovia Smith, NPR news correspondent, visited Lenox Academy, a school in Brooklyn teaching Brainology, and talked with students, teachers and administrator Joe Giamportone.

Lenox Academy has been explicitly teaching a growth mindset for several years and has been featured here on our blog.  Listen now to hear students and teachers talking about their work!

Maine Middle School teacher shares a growth mindset classroom moment.

One of the students in my special education class received the highest score possible on her mainstream health class test and was the only one to get a perfect score. She told me early in the year that she has "a third grade brain" and has "triple brain damage" due to traumatic events early in her life. Frequently, she was too discouraged to try anything she thought was going to be too hard. When she shared her great news about the test score, I asked her how she had accomplished such an impressive result. She let me know that she had studied really hard and that she could feel her dendrites growing. Then she shared a short song she had made up about learning and growing dendrites!

If you have a story to share, enter the Growth Minded Educator Contest this month!

My co- teacher, Courtney Zaleski and I teach an inclusion 7^th 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.