Thank you for your support and involvement with this year's One School, One Book program. We will soon be sending you a survey to seek your feedback so that we can continue to improve the quality of this experience for our students and families. It is my hope that you enjoyed the podcasts and other resources available on our One School, One Book blog as you enjoyed The Lemonade War together. Several Village Elementary staff members that recorded chapters in addition to a number of special guests. These and past podcasts from previous books will continue to be available on the blog.
I would also like to thank you for your support of this year's Jump Rope for Heart challenge that took place on November 21. Our school community raised over $7,000 for the American Heart Association that will help fund cardiovascular research and treatments that will save lives. Many thanks to all involved as well as our staff that coordinated this annual event.
Finally, you recently participated in your child's parent-teacher conference. These meetings are an important part of the home-school partnership as we work together to ensure the success of our students. At the same time, your child's first report card recently came home. Having sat on the parent side of things for the past few year in addition to my work as an educator, these events serve as a reminder of the potential we have as adults to influence the growth of our children. The key lies in our own actions to support and nurture a growth mindset while making use of this approach ourselves as well.
Here in Hilton, we talk with students about having a growth mindset regularly. This phrase may be one that you have heard before from your child and/or your child's teachers. The concept of a growth mindset was developed by psychologist Carol Dweck and popularized in her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. According to Dweck, “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 great accomplishment." The opposite of this, the fixed mindset, centers on thinking that suggests our basic qualities, like our intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. Dweck instead has shown through her work that those with a growth mindset ultimately are far more successful in life.
Following the first report card and parent-teacher conferences, most students have some sort of goal or goals to work toward that will foster their learning. As families support these goals, we can all fall into the trap of fixed mindset thinking. Dweck's concept of mindset challenges us as adults to gauge our language to ensure that it centers on noticing and praising effort, strategies, and progress.
Dweck's research and that of other experts in this field proves that by focusing on improvement through effort, students understand that the brain can get smarter through hard work and thus do better in school. Over the next few weeks, consider the following questions from the Mindset Kit website published by Stanford University:
- How often do you notice and praise effort, strategies, and progress?
- What thoughts did you have this week when your child struggled? How could you frame their struggle in a growth mindset way by helping them understand that this is when their brain is growing most?
- What thoughts did you have when your child excelled? How could you frame their success in a growth mindset way, e.g., by talking about the process that went into their success?
- What kinds of fixed and growth-mindset statements did your child make?
Thank you for all that you do to support the home-school partnership.
-Dr. Rudd
