Mindset: The New Psychology of Success – Chapter 1

Hey, hey and welcome to the first week of our Summer Book Study…Mindset: The New Psychology of Success – Chapter 1.

Before we get started on our recap of chapter 1, I want to thank my friend Greg Smedley-Warren for being an amazing educator, an inspiration to many, including myself, and an excellent co-host for our summer book study! You can check out his blog post on chapter 1 HERE.

So if you are just joining us and not familiar with how this works…here are the details:

Summer Book Study

Book: Mindset The Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

Hosts: Greg Smedley-Warren from Kindergarten Smorgasboard and Me!

Weekly Guest Hosts: TBA 🙂 Stay tuned…

Read 1 chapter a week or read the whole book…the choice is yours! Then come back to the weekly host’s blog to read their thoughts and opinions on the chapter and add your own. You can also join Mr. Greg and I on FB Live and Periscope (@lovinourchaos), as we do ‘live’ chats on each chapter. Hope to see and ‘hear’ from you!

So, now let’s get back to reviewing Chapter 1, The Mindsets.

From the beginning of time there has been a continual question about nature versus nurture. Are we born with specific ways of thinking and ‘wired’ a certain way or does your family, genes, and/or outside circumstances determine your approach to learning, handling of ‘life’ and your mindset? Carol Dweck has studied this immensely and has so many great points, that it truly caused me to ponder myself as a person and reflect on what mindset I embrace. And Carol Dweck’s answer to nature, vs. nurture? It’s neither one specifically…it’s both of them, giving and taking, your entire life.

What are the mindsets?  Growth Mindset and Fixed Mindset

Fixed Mindset : Believing your qualities are carved in stone and you only have the cards to play that life dealt you.

Growth Mindset: Believing you have basic qualities the you can cultivate through YOUR efforts and that your potential is unknown!

I really like what Carol writes at the beginning of the chapter, “the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life.” I have been studying growth mindset for a few months now and see myself as a growth mindset individual.

What has made me realize that? Growth mindset people reflect, evaluate, accept challenges, take risks, and keep working on/with their deficits. But this almost makes growth mindset people seem like robots, just going through the motions. Do growth mindset people have feelings and get upset? Yes, of course, but they don’t focus on the failure, only reflect on what they can change the next time!

So how does this mindset play into my role as educator/teacher?

1. Not ‘labeling’ students. ALL students can learn and grow!
2. I can continually learn as a teacher. I have not ‘arrived’ at the golden rainbow of ‘all-knowing, master’ teacher.
3. There is always a better way to teach. Don’t get stuck in the rut of , ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.’
4. Try new ideas and be open to others and their suggestions, techniques, etc.

As a teacher, do you judge your students on their ‘test’ scores or what others have said? What about when other teachers comment on ‘Oh, you got THAT student…good luck next year’…you can change your mindset and maybe even affect the people around you!

A poignant part of the chapter for me was when Carol talked about the difference in the “intelligence mindset” and “personality mindset”. “Intelligence mindset” involves situations involving mental ability. For instance, learning new things or approaching a complex problem at work. “Personality mindset” involves situations with your personal qualities. Examples may include how dependable, caring, or socially aware you are.  Fixed mindset people worry about being judged by others, growth mindset people are concerned with improving and growing. How many of you sit in professional development and really want to ask a question or contribute to the topic, but you are intimidated by those around you, or even the speaker? Get a growth mindset!! You are there to learn and grow as an educator…if others don’t like your questions or contributions, that is THEIR problem…you are growing your brain!

Regardless of where you were born, who you were born to, where you went to school, or what ‘grade’ you received in 7th grade…the final message of chapter 1 is…You Can Change Your Mindset!

Thanks for joining me today as I reviewed Mindset: The New Psychology of Success – Chapter 1 and don’t forget that I will be live on Periscope tonight at 6pm pst. Now…what are your thoughts on chapter 1? Link up Here!