Math Mindsets

Over April vacation in 2011, I read a book called Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Stanford professor and developmental psychologist Carol Dweck.  It shook my foundation.  I re-examined my teaching, my parenting and my self identity.  Probably many of you are familiar with the book which (in a nutshell) states that:

• Intelligence is not fixed, and the brain is strengthened through mistakes and challenges.
• Our self beliefs affect the way our brains work.
• It is possible to change our self beliefs (and therefore make our brains work better).

When I returned to my classroom after vacation, I put all of my plans on hold.  Fostering growth mindset became my first priority.  I developed this lesson for my seventh grade students: Ellen's Mindset Lesson.  My stated instructional goal was this:

The most important thing for me to teach you is that you are capable of learning math at deep, deep levels if you open yourself to mistakes and challenges. 

From then on, I started the year with that lesson and became obsessed with all things having to do with mindset.  I have been especially interested in improving my own mindset, because how else can I foster it in my students?  This graphic below helps to explain the logic...

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to attend a great workshop on math mindsets facilitated by math ed. rock star, Jo Boaler with three of my fabulous colleagues from the WCSU Math Steering Committee. 

Prime site for the workshop.  And it's still summer at Salisbury Beach...

There is so much good stuff to share that I feel ready to explode!!  However, I am going to save that for another post because my peers gave me the feed back that my posts are a tad lengthy.  Rather than feeling crushed, I am accepting their feedback with a growth mindset (thank you, ladies!).  So, I'll wait...

For those of you who like spoilers, here are a few links to check out:

• Youcubed - Jo Boaler's Website
• Mindsets in math - class norms poster
• Ellen's Mindset Tools
• A video of Jo Boaler talking about starting a math revolution: