This is my first post on my new blog, I am very excited to try something new! I want to use my first post to reflect on the three years I have been teaching. During my first year, students were almost harassed for being smart or for earning good grades which resulted in students not trying, or worse yet- TRYING to fail. In the eyes of all of the teachers in my school, failure was a bad thing, consequences were given for failing, parents were called, etc. During that year, I was a first year teacher with a first year principal. The principal had read Carol Dweck's book, Mindset. Our principal brought the book to a staff meeting and presented us a quick summary about the book and tried to pump us up about reading it. With groans and grumbles and a few under-the-breath mumbles from staff members, we agreed to read it as part of a staff book study.
Little did I know that this book was about to change our school. It didn't happen overnight, it didn't happen within a week, and it didn't fully happen throughout the course of the year, but it DID change the culture of our school. Our school morphed from a culture of failing to a culture of success, a culture of competition to a culture of personal bests, a culture of negativity to a culture of compassion, a culture that I wanted to be a part of.
I will add more about Mindset in other posts, I just figured it was only fitting to start my first post with a book that has changed my teaching philosophy, my students' success, and my outlook on life. I hope everyone has a beautiful Memorial day weekend!
