The message of “yet” is a very powerful outlook on life. It helps us to understand that even though we may not be proficient or successful in something at that moment doesn’t mean that we won’t ever be. In my adult life I use the outlook of yet a lot when things that I want to happen haven’t happened “YET”. I call it “delayed not denied”. Meaning just because I haven’t received what I expected doesn’t mean it isn’t for me. It just means that in this season it may not be for me (may have more growing to do/personal development), but perhaps the next season I could experience overflow and fulfilled with the desires of my heart (after the personal growth). Which also leads us into the direct correlation of a growth mindset.
With the growth mindset, it changes our perspective regarding challenges we may face inside of the classroom and in our personal lives. As for me, in reflection, I can admit that for many years I operated in a fixed mindset. I grew up always doing well in majority of my classes. My sophomore year of high school I decided to take some AP courses. These courses were way more challenging than the classes I had been making A’s and B’s in. Instead of looking at my lower grades (C’s) in these challenging classes as a means for growth, I decided to just get rid of them the following year and return to regular classes (fixed mindset). Within my teaching career, I always preferred to teach math. Why? Because I was good at it, and it didn’t challenge me like teaching reading did. It wasn’t until being forced to teach 1st graders that I developed a completely different perspective on the growth mindset. I partnered up with our current reading instructional coach to find ways to become the best reading teacher to build those 1st graders up so that they would leave my room as fluent readers. Because I spent countless hours collaborating with the coach on skills for two years in a row my classroom showed the most student growth not only in reading but math as well.
So how does my experience translate to students? Well, I believe that if we incorporate more of a growth mindset within children from a younger age (elementary) they would accept failure much better and use it to become the best version of themselves. Rather than having to try to transform from a fixed to a growth mindset in their adult lives. This would prepare them even more for the challenges they would face in college where there’s more independence and no one to reinforce completing assignments etc.
Can the growth mindset change the acceptance of feedback? Absolutely. You look at feedback from through a whole new lens when you have a growth mindset. Instead of trying to figure out why they said all these things about you that need correction, you look at them as ways you can make progress to become the best version of yourself. Persevering through feedback and challenges builds character and many students in the current educational system lack the ability to embrace challenges and persevere through them and so they lack character as well.
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