Saturday, March 1, 2014

ED 722- Week 9 Academic Mindsets

      This week's DLMOOC really got me to think about mindsets and how we can really get set into the way we think.  Growing up I was pushed into the upper level classes and always felt like I was not as smart as some of the students I has classes with.
      Many of my classmates from high school are doctors, lawyers, and stock brokers.  To know that makes me feel like I somehow did not fit into those classes.  My parents wanted me in the "smarter" classes so I took them.  I had this fixed mindset that I was supposed to be there.  Some of the classes I struggled with and some I did not, but when I got to college, I had a shock.  I was somewhat unprepared for what I walked into.  I ended my first semester with a very low GPA and it took me an extra year to get into the education program because I had to get my GPA up.  Because of the fixed mindset I had in high school on taking these upper classes and sort of "skating by", I never realized that it would come back to get me.
      This is something I try to explain to my students.  I try to tell them that high school is much easier than college.  Even as freshmen I have students that are in a fixed mindset of, "If I can't do it, I won't and I am not going to try."  I continually make an attempt to get them to succeed but they do not have the support from anywhere else, so it is a very difficult process.  I learned a lot from this week's readings and it really got me to think about ways I can try to engage my students.

Here is the link to my storify:
Week 9 Storify-Academic Mindsets

No comments:

Post a Comment