I was reminded this week about one of my favorite books that I read during my M.A.T. program and that is "Growth Mindset" by Dr. Carol Dweck. In the book, Dr. Dweck outlines that human beings have a fixed mindset that they can't or won't do something. The idea of success is instead an idea of being defeated. With a growth mindset, you believe that success is a process. It takes time. It takes hard work. It takes mistakes. Essentially, the journey is more important than the destination. The Milwaukee Bucks were the number one seed in the Eastern Conference NBA Playoffs and they were defeated by the number eight seed, Miami Heat in the first round. A reporter asked superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo if the season was a failure and this is what he said: Do you get a promotion every year at your job? No, right? So every year, your work is a failure? No. Every year, you work towards something, which is a goal: It's to get a promotion, to be able to take ...
Why do teachers have so much time off? The answer... We don't. It may seem like it as there are breaks and we are off for the summer, holidays, etc. But, the truth is that teachers are always working. There is planning. There is grading. There is thinking... SO. MUCH. THINKING. Thinking about how to solve problems. Thinking about how to reach a student. Thinking about getting a student the additional support they need. Thinking about how to speak to a parent (or fellow teacher or administrator) about an issue. Thinking about learning targets. Thinking about classroom management. Thinking about how to best utilize your time. The list goes on and on and on. It is brutal. I worked for years at a desk job in an office. I would come up with ideas, have meetings, send emails, track sales, etc. I would also sit down all day. Most of my day felt like a break. Now... I am constantly...
After viewing "Build A School In The Cloud", the Ted Talk from Sugata Mitra, I had many thoughts rush over me. Why are teachers even in a classroom? Is what we do meaningless? Can a computer teach students? I had A LOT of questions. But as I began to think about the questions some more, I inherently knew the answers to all of these questions. Schools were created over three hundred years ago by the British Empire. The technology back then, as mentioned by Mitra was the bureaucratic machine. It was technology built by people. If you were able to read and write, had neat handwriting and were able to add, subtract, multiply and divide...you could be a part of something bigger than yourself. Technology has changed throughout the years as have the ways that we use technology. My technology growing up in the late 70's and early 80's was vastly different than the technology that is used today. That said, people find a way to adapt wi...
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