Written by On the opposite wall from the whiteboard in room 201 is a nicely decorated bulletin board, carefully constructed by my awesome colleague to catch the attention of our students. Its aim is to promote a growth mindset in our students. Instead of thinking, “I am terrible at this” the board encourages them to think, “I am working on getting better at this.” Change Your Words; Change Your Mindset. It’s catchy. It’s cute. And it has been staring me down every day since our first Cohort21 Face-to-Face.
It’s like it knew I had to start blogging.
Yep, that’s right. Had to start blogging.
Cue indication that I am a prime candidate for changing their words and in turn their mindset.
This past summer, I hiked the John Muir Trail with my friend, Hannah. While finding something to talk about beyond, “Wow, this is so beautiful”, I told Hannah about the PD I was going to be doing this year and how I was excited about it. The thing that worried me the most about it, I explained to her, was having to write a blog. While I believe in the importance of reflection, and I understand that blogging gives you an authentic audience (hey, don’t we want those for our students?), builds community and dialogue, it still made me nervous. “Who is going to read my work? I have nothing valuable to add, I am not an expert teacher, I’ll have to tweet it out? That will be so awkward and embarrassing,” I told Hannah. I truly felt intimidated by making my thoughts available to a wide audience.
When I got back from our first F2F, I realized my first step in blogging was to change my language and thoughts around blogging. I am actually looking forward to the process and I see the benefit, but having the voice inside my head say, “I have to start blogging” isn’t helping to get me going. These past two weeks (it’s been that long since I started this post!) I found myself thinking, “I have to finish that blog post” every night and never did. Today I thought, “I am going to work on my blog tonight,” and well, here I am. Changing the way I approached sitting down to write really did help.
I am committed to embracing the opportunity to think, reflect, and share my learning this year, even if it is a little intimidating. Since our F2F, ideas have been floating around in my head about what I might like to explore this year. I am a huge fan of collaboration and co-teaching. I am fortunate to be in a position where I am doing both this year with two different teachers. I’d like to look at how I can harness the power of collaboration to enhance and elevate my teaching. Another thought is to look at the structure of my grade 9 Geography class. I am struggling with the physical space of the classroom, the large desks, and lack of natural light. I question how physical space impacts student learning and collaboration, and how to get around the limitations of the classroom. In addition, I find I am at the front of the class too much. It’s not how I like to teach and while planning for the year I pictured a much different type of learning/teaching to be occurring. I’d like to reflect on what is working and begin to take steps towards incorporating project-based learning.
To start thinking and reflecting in earnest, and so that I can receive feedback on my questions and frustrations, I am taking the advice from the bulletin board. I am removing blogging from my “have to do” list and adding it to my “get to do” list, as cliché as it sounds.
So here goes – bring on this new and engaging world of blogging.
Way to go @nbendle !! Kudos for jumping in and taking the plunge. Last night @gnichols @lmcbeth @ddoucet @rutheichholtz @shelleythomas and I all got together to plan out the 2nd face to face and we remarked how great all the “first posts” had been. This is a great example.
If you are interested in PBL you are in good company. Many of our coaches and facilitators are really experienced in this area and can offer lots of support and ideas should you choose to focus your action plan there. @jweening come and @kwhitters to mind immediately
http://cohort21.com/jenniferweening/2016/04/18/lights-camera-action-plan/
http://cohort21.com/katewhitters/2016/04/20/my-action-plan-thus-far/
but there are so many more. You have come to the right place if you are keep on pushing your thinking in this area. See you next Saturday!
PS – My colleague @lmiller has similar “Mindset” phrases up in her math senior classroom last year. You should compare notes.
Thanks @jmedved for your words of encouragement! I am excited to check out @jweening‘s and @kwhitters‘ blogs and to bounce some ideas off of the Cohort team tomorrow.
I echo what @jmedved wrote above, and would also recommend that you extend this conversation with @dbailey by responding to his recent post: http://cohort21.com/danbailey/?p=52
Great to see you take this leap from a value-add point of view.
thanks,
garth.
Thanks @gnichols!
I will go check that out his post now. Gotta love Friday night blog reading to get me excited for our F2F tomorrow.
Hi Nichola!
I was feeling really similar about blogging as you earlier today. Blogging because I “had” to but also because I really wanted to and was just putting it off. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It has helped me to feel a little more at ease with this whole idea of blogging. Look forward to reading more of your posts!
Hi Sarah, that is exactly how I felt for weeks! Glad to know I am not alone. Although I am getting better, I still found myself saying, “Ah! I need to go onto my blog and respond to comments!”
Looking forward to connecting tomorrow.
Congratulations, @nbendle for finishing and publishing your first post! You’re already demonstrating the kind of growth mindset that Cohort 21 is all about — reflecting, trying new things, and never being satisfied with “good enough”.
I am totally in the same boat as you in the sense that I find myself too often at the front of the class rather than facilitating like is my hope for my project-based course. I tell myself that it is because it’s still early in the year and the students still have some information they need before I can let them go, but I know deep down that it is also because I’m so scared to start this totally new thing – letting go of the reins and losing control. What if it is a total disaster? But, like you mentioned, what is good for our students is also good for us – how can we model the growth mindset we want our students to have if we’re too afraid to try something new in case it fails?
I can’t wait to hear how the design thinking of your action plan goes this weekend; it sounds like you already have lots of possible areas to target! And good luck with your blogging journey – it definitely gets easier, believe me! 🙂
Jen
@jweening glad to know I am not alone! This is my first time teaching CGC1D and I think that has something to do with it as well. I am still becoming comfortable with the course – I am already excited to do things differently next year. That being said, you are right, it is still early in this year and we can still work to include more PBL in our classes. Looking forward to connecting tomorrow and bouncing some ideas off of you!
@nbendle – sorry that I wasn’t at the F2F on Saturday. I hope that you had a great day design thinking your action plan and I am looking forward to reading about the experience! Does project-based learning have a big role in your action plan?
Jen
Hi @nbendle!
Thanks so much for sharing these thoughts….I’m wondering if you have a second post in your drafts that you’re waiting to hit the publish button on. If you are, remember that we’re all here to support you and we really enjoy reading what you have to say!
Looking forward to seeing you Friday,
Les