Positive Panther- 7 Mindsets
September 2019- Family Edition
The Positive Panther Project- 7 Mindsets for Success
Each month the district has set topics to be covered that will help your student to reflect on how they interact with their peers, family and our community. We encourage you to have conversations with your son or daughter on these topics and to reinforce the importance of these skills at home.
You will receive this newsletter each mo'nth. It contains an overview of the lessons provide to your son or daughter on our designated "Panther Day". This is the first Wednesday of each month. When you receive this newsletter, they will have already covered these topics so you can begin discussing them at home.
September- 100% Accountability
1- OWN YOUR LIFE
Tips for helping your teen take ownership of their own life:
- Talk with your teen about their goals. They should be setting goals in different aspects of their lives.
- Career goals will help them start to envision where they see themselves in the next 5-10 years. Be mindful that you don't set undue pressure on them to have everything figured out but help them start thinking about the specifics of what careers will give them a sense of purpose for their adult lives and how that career may impact their other personal goals; such as, family, hobbies, etc.,
- Education goals should include short term goals; such as, increasing the amount of time each week studying, learning how to keep a planner, etc and long term goals like qualifying for Bright Futures or earning a high enough GPA to get into a competitive university.
- Personal goals should be based on a student's strengths, hobbies, family goals, community organizations. While education and future career goals are important, parents need to encourage students to think about who they are as people and what impact they want to have within their family and community.
- Talk through situations that you have faced as an adult when you had to take responsibility for your actions. It is important for teens to realize that these skills are not just for young children. We will all face difficult situations and have to admit/accept that we were wrong and figure out how to correct the situation. On the other hand, teens also need to see that not everything is within their control and we often have to make corrections or changes based on a situation that was out of our control but we are greatly impacted by.
2- FOCUS YOUR ENERGY
How do we help our teens stay focused and spend their time on what matters most?
3- OVERCOMING LIMITING BELIEFS
How to help teens recognize their own negative self-talk:
- Be mindful of your own limiting beliefs. We often pass these to our children without realizing it. For example, if you have always struggled in a particular subject in school, don't assume they will. Encourage them to give 100% effort in every way possible.
- Encourage your teen to try new things and when they struggle, focus on how much they are learning about themselves and the world around them.
- If you hear or see your teen talking negatively about themselves or a situation, help them refocus it in a positive way.
4- GROW THROUGH LIFE
Tips for developing a Growth Mindset:
- Encourage teens to look for examples in real life of people who have a growth mindset
- Focus on the process of developing goals and not just the goal it's self
- Allow your teen the space to experience failure. We as parents want to make things easier or smoother for our children, but if we don't allow them to experience failure while we are able to be supportive, they will not learn how to reevaluate what they did and how to do it differently in the future.
- Do frequent check-ins with your teen discussing problems they are facing and try to help them problem solve without being judgmental of what they are facing or how they have tried to solve it on their own. You can offer suggestions but let them problem solve and make their own decisions when it is safe for them to do so. They need the practice even if you would approach it in a different way.
- Keep your reactions to small infractions from making more out of a situation then necessary. When we overreact to even the small things, teens and children are more likely to not try and will shut down from discussing their problems. Teens should have consequences but they need to be proportional to the infraction.