Growth Mindset lesson plans (PDF) to help you teach a strategy-based approach to middle school and high school students.
This post is about incorporating social-emotional learning with a Growth Mindset:
Empowering students with a Growth Mindset is not easy, but worth it.
This transferable skill/attitude can help our students now and in the future:
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That’s why we’re here.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a quick-fix magic solution to encourage a growth mindset in your students?
Unfortunately, there’s no magic handout or silver lining.
Like anything, empowering a growth mindset takes time. It’s about making some epic mistakes along the way.
I’m learning. Just like you. Here’s what I think I know:
Simon Sinek was talking about millennials in the workplace but Deep Patel writes about how Gen Z are different, yet similar.
According to Sinek, these kids grew up with “failed parenting strategies.”
Students are told, “You’re special, you can have anything you want in life, and here’s a participation medal for coming in last!”
And yet, students in the real world discover they’re not special, you don’t get anything for coming in last, your mom can’t get you a promotion, and you can’t have it just because you want it.
So, now we have students in the workforce who can be hard-working, idealistic, and feel empowered to “make an impact”, and yet don’t have the patience or tenacity to succeed.
As Sinek puts it, they see the goal of “impact” at the summit of the mountain but don’t realize they have to climb a mountain to get there.
Our students are immersed in technology. They’re used to putting filters on things in Instagram and make things sound awesome… when they’re not.
So when life gets tough, our students respond to these challenges, by turning back to technology for a dopamine hit, instead of developing resilience strategies.
Students in our classroom are growing up in a world with instant gratification. You can have anything you want instantly… except job satisfaction and strength of relationships.
“The overall journey arduous, and long, and difficult, and if you don’t ask for help and learn that skillset, you will fall off the mountain”
Simon Sinek, Organizational Consultant
How do we teach students to communicate? What can teachers do to help kids build the social skills that they’re missing out on? How do we build trust?
If you don’t have your phone… you just enjoy the world. And that’s where ideas happen. Ideas happen when our minds wander. That’s called innovation.
If Sinek has to argue that companies and industry have the moral responsibility to make up the learning shortfall, then I have to wonder if classrooms adequately prepare students for life after school in the “real world.”
Sinek is calling on the business industry to help these amazing, idealistic, and fantastic students build confidence, learn patience, learn social skills, and find a better balance between life and technology.
So what does that mean for teachers and the education system if businesses need to teach new employees transferable life skills that they didn’t learn growing up?
Maybe we need a paradigm shift in how we teach students.
For many students, school is about playing the game, jumping through hoops, memorizing facts, and giving the answers that the teachers want.
SIDE NOTE: Want a high-interest critical thinking lesson to help students become more self-aware and socially aware? Check out the free Who is Invisible challenge.
How often have you heard your students say things like this::
Yup, there’s definitely a place for diagnostic quizzes, formative assessments, and summative evaluations. Marks can be great signposts to tell people if they’re headed in the right direction.
But in the 21st century, the kinds of problems that our students will be facing when they grow up haven’t even been invented yet.
And do we really want to (continue to) raise a generation of people who are waiting for an adult to tell them what to do and how to do it?
My self-worth and identity are based on a number that someone else gives me. Hmm…
And that’s just the way it is. Or is it?
As teachers, we can put the emphasis on process in the way we give feedback during back to school activities and our day-to-day lessons.
It’s one simple change. But, it’s a big paradigm shift.
Encouraging students for the process (as opposed to the end result) can be a game changer.
At the start of the school year, when we’re getting to know our students, we often give praise as we create a welcoming atmosphere.
