March 7th, 2014-Quick Write

Based on the common core standards, I rate myself a 3. I feel as if I have understood the majority of the topic, however I believe that a person can never stop learning and that there is more substantial information in the depths of mindsets that I have yet to discover. I feel that if I put enough effort and study time into it, that I can find out so much more than about the different types of mindsets that I do not already know.



Final Reflection:

                      There was a time that my theater company and I had to do a show that consisted primarily of ballet dancing. Although I have ballet training, it is not my specialty nor my favorite type of dance style so I struggled throughout all of our rehearsals. I always believed that I had a growth mindset, so I never gave up when it came down to things that became difficult for me. In the beginning, I was truly enjoying it. I knew all of the basic techniques and all of the standard fundamentals of dance, so I loved to waltz around the rehearsal room and "strut" my stuff in front of all the other girls who were richer and more spoiled than I was. I didn't realize that my stubborn and ethnocentric attitude was about to fail me soon thereafter.

                        After about 2 more days of rehearsals, the dance routine erupted into something more complex. I taught hip-hop dance; all of that ballet choreography was like Latin to me. The director added steps into the routine that was beyond the fundamentals, and everyone else there had way more professional ballet training than I did. Majority of the training I received was usually by volunteer teachers. Not to say that volunteers are not just as experienced professional ballet teachers, just not necessarily as credited. You don't necessarily perform the same when you have been taught without the same tools and resources as everyone else.

                    Once I began to notice that I was behind all of the other girls, I gave up. What I thought was my growth mindset has completely disappeared at that point and I never wanted to see ballet again. I spent so much energy flaunting a talent that never really was to feel better about myself however in the end it backfired on me and I hated that. I dropped out of the show and didn't get involved with any theater companies for a while.

Grow Your Mindset: If I would have continued to keep a growth mindset all the way through the end of the show things would have been different. I probably would have pushed myself harder and probably taken some extra ballet classes on the side to improve both my skills for the show and for my personal knowledge. I would have admitted my flaws and the things that I didn't know and would have asked for help. I wouldn't have let my pride get the best of me. I would have practiced harder and harder until I got it right- or at least close enough that I can improvise if necessary. Do I regret my decision back then? No. I found a new theater company that I can apply my new-found growth mindset to. However, do I realize that what I thought was growth mindset back then really a fixed one? Yes I do. And thankfully I realized it early on. 

March 5th, 2014- Quick Write

Do I believe that I was born with a fixed or growth mindset?

What I believe is that this is a very hard question to answer, but nonetheless, my answer would be that I was born with neither. I believe that in certain circumstances (such as both parents being drug addicts, or both parents having severe mental illnesses), hereditary traits can affect one's mind, however I do not believe that these things define a person's mindset, just a their actions. I believe that all people are born with a brain that enables them to properly breathe, cry, use the bathroom and eat. I believe that a fixed or growth mindset is acquired as they get older.


Besides giving lip service, I believe that teachers can show their students that they believe in their potential by going the extra mile with them to help them succeed. For example, if a student (such as myself) has a hectic home life and often misses school days or school assignments, then a teacher can work with that student to come up to a strategic plan as to how that student can make up that school work and/or do extra things at home to get themselves back on track with the current lesson. In such circumstances, a teacher can also offer to meet with the student during their lunch break or other times that they are both free to help get that student back on track. These are just some examples of ways that a teacher can show that they truly believe in their students' potential outside of just giving them lip service.

In contrast, there are also ways that a teacher can make their students feel like a failure or discourage them. Believe it or not even the smallest things make a difference. I have witnessed teachers make small comments to students when handing back their graded work. Comments such as "I expected better/more from you" or "What happened here?" can make a student feel low or discourage them from doing better in the future. 

Quick Write- March 3rd, 2014

Open-Ended Questions Based on Mindset:

1) Why do you think that a fixed mindset involves more negative, defensive and pessimistic emotion?

2) Why do you think that this type of mindset is referred to as a fixed as opposed to a growth mindset?

Final Reflection on the Socratic Seminar:

I think that overall this was a great Socratic seminar. The discussion was very intuitive as well as engaging and I think all participants were very insightful. The most interesting comment that stood out to me was when Sophia mentioned that unlike people with growth mindsets, a person with a fixed mindset will not analyze a situation from the other parties' shoes. She stated that a person with a fixed mindset will never look at things from the point of view opposite of their own. The seminar, to me, was great. The only way that it could have been any better was if there were more people involved to input more opinions, however at the same time, I enjoyed the very small and intimate discussion.

I think that one way to grade this seminar is to break it up into categories based on what was discussed. Here is one way to format the grading from today's discussion:

Presentation- (Eye contact, Audible, Actively listening)

Discussion- (Was the student actively engaging in the conversation? Was his/her response or input related to the topic? Did this student understand the topic in its entirety? If the student had a difficulty understanding a comment or the topic, did the student still try? Was effort shown?)

Input- (Did the student give any input? Was the content of the student's input strong? How well did the student's input display their understanding of the topic?)

Feedback- (Did the student give strong feedback? Did the student give any feedback at all? Did the student understand any feedback given to him/her on his/her input? Even is the student didn't agree with another student's statement, did they respectfully disagree?)


I think if you followed these guidelines and had a numeric grading system for a 1 2 3 or 4 in each category, similar to a rubric, then this will be a good way to weigh out both the content of the socratic seminar and the quantitative score.