Start the school year with a Growth Mindset
August 13, 2012
Mid August comes and a new school year beckons. A growth mindset not only teaches children to love to learn but also determines the quality of their learning. In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for children to be successful learners. Put these beliefs in place and nurture a growth mindset.
• Most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point.
• Intelligence is not a static state. Intelligence is something you acquire and can be developed.
• Being mastery oriented is about having the right mindset, which encourages learning and is not about proving how smart you are.
• Emphasizing effort gives a child a variable that they can control.
• To be effective, praise needs to be specific. Learn to say, “I like how you keep trying.”
• Stress capability rather than a general feeling of self-worth.
New twist on bonuses for teachers.
August 2, 2012
New twist on bonuses for teachers: Give the money at the start of the school year—but yank it back if students underperform. In nine kindergarten-through eighth-grade schools in Chicago Heights, Ill., 150 teachers took part in the experiment. Some teachers got $4,000 in a lump sum at the start of the school year, but they […]
Parental expectations are key to a child’s success in school.
July 26, 2012
Charter Schools, schools that are publically funded but independently managed, are often a lightening rod in the perennial debate on how to provide quality education for all children, regardless of race and economics. To shed some light on the issues, I recommend two recent articles from The Economist. http://www.economist.com/node/21558255 and http://www.economist.com/node/21558265 I believe that all […]
Words have power
July 17, 2012
A recent article in the WSJ, ‘Taco Bell’s Canon” noted that students who don’t read sometimes have hilarious notions of how the written language represents what they hear. Here are a few examples of how words are erroneously used by some of these students. ~ One guy admitted that he had trouble getting into “the […]
Children need a dose of Dr. Seuss & Dr. Einstein
July 6, 2012
Giving children down time is akin to giving children the good nutrition they need to grow and thrive. The Fourth of July signifies summer is here. For so many families, unstructured time and lazy summer days are a fantasy. Children today are more over scheduled than ever before and the end of the school year […]
