SLE Focus On Learning
Mindset Is Everything
“Mindsets and Equitable Education” – Carol S. Dweck, Principal Leadership, January 2010.
…"when teachers had a fixed mind-set, the students who had entered their class as low achievers left as low achievers at the end or the year. When teachers had a growth mind-set, however, many of the students who had started the year as low achievers moved up and became moderate or even high achievers."
Communicating Clear Learning Targets for Success to reach CTE!
As I was reading an article by John Hattie(Visible Learning), he explained Collective Teacher Efficacy and what it is and what it is not. He defines CTE as “a group’s shared belief in the conjoint capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given levels of attainment.” In this definition, there are two words that make this definition profound in its simplicity..belief and execute. So essentially, we may believe that we can jump off the high dive, but if our execution is off, then our dive may just be a belly flop from an insanely high level. So, the first step in capitalizing on CTE is belief, or your mindset. Do you believe that all of your students can and will learn? When they step into your room is your mindset "challenge accepted, " or "OMG, they're so low." Step two is strategy. Are you coming in prepared, focused on the standards with a plan for effective delivery, and do you know which standards are your core power standards?Are you a chess player, or are you a checkers player? In checkers, you take what you can get, because your just trying to get as many as you can. While in chess, your going for the King and all his men with style and strategy. When we incorporate each quarterly Instructional Focus(Q1 Communicating Clear Learning Targets and Success Criteria), then both the teacher and student have a clear goal that the class community is working towards. Then we present the lesson, and presentation is everything! This is the execution phase, or step three, where our target is to get students to the place that Lev Vygotsky calls the "zone of proximal development." This is the unicorn zone of learning. The place in between the known and unknown where scaffolds and supports push students to reach higher levels of academic achievement. As these steps are completed, Collective Teacher Efficacy will work its magic, and the magic of CTE is you and your actions! I know that I continue to say these same things over and over again, but when you are on a mission you must continually refer back to the target.
“I don’t care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don’t harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there you’re never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants.”
Zig Ziglar