Ode to Michael
We had a tech class with Micheal,
Who loved the inquiry cycle,
We learned about FIPPA,
Blogs, Trello and Twitter (with a British accent),
What would we do without Michael?
Our Lab
Our class, in the middle of the lab
Distance-Ed, can be good, it can be bad
We like Open-Ed, it can save my time and it can also save my head
Our class in the middle of the lab,
Minecraft, taught by kids who are not daft,
Michael we love you, come with us on practicum and show us what to do!
Please come with us on practicum and show us what to dooooooooooo!!!!
Go back and check out what we have to say about/to you:
âIn a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard workâbrains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishmentâ (Dweck, 2010).
While intellectually, I believe in this quote and hope that I would be able to impart its sentiment to my future students, I am also well aware that I am still working on internalizing it for myself. Part of my struggle with growth mindset is a fixation with achieving top scores, marks or outcomes as opposed to considering my progress and development as the mark of success. This is something I see valuable not only for a practicing teacher, but for a mother. Although it is easy for me to be focused and most excited about progress for other people, I realize that if I am not modeling a growth mindset for my son and future students, I will be giving contradictory signals.
After watching Carol Dweckâs TedTalk I began to consider the changes that I have been making to develop a growth mindset and what I can do moving forward. When I started the program, I was very excited to learn for the sake of learning, but also very focused on the thought that I might one day want to do a Master of Education and should therefore aim for higher scores. There was not always a healthy balance between wanting to really internalize new concepts and wanting to complete assignments in exactly the way necessary to achieve a top score.
When discussing children of a fixed mindset, Carol Dwek mentioned that âthey run from the error, they donât engage with it.â I can remember the first assignment I received back in this program that wasnât at an A range. It didnât matter to me that it was still a B, only worth 5% of the final grade, or more importantly that the task had pushed me to read critically and reflect on ideas that could be applied to my future classroom. Although I was determined to get an A on the following assignment and did work for it, I donât think I engaged with my error or truly took the time to consider what I had learned or what I could learn from the task. As a result, I donât think I every really identified my errors in that first assignment. My scores on the next three assignments fluctuated, proving that I wasnât truly considering where my understanding could be improved but rather shooting around in the dark trying random strategies to improve my score.
In contrast, Carol Dwek mentioned that students with a growth mindset âprocess the error, they learn from it and they correct it.â I am very lucky to be taking this program with an incredibly supportive cohort. Over the first few weeks I was able to start developing support networks with other students and I think this is what really helped me to start moving toward a growth mindset. I started to talk a lot more about different subjects and assignments with my cohort. As my comfort level grew, I was able to ask others about assignments and share my own questions. As opposed to getting frustrated by lost marks, I was beginning to switch my focus to finding deeper understandings and connections between what we were learning and how they apply in both the classroom and life. Although I canât say that I am never focused on grades, I would say that I make use of my cohort to engage in errors and misconceptions. Although I might still be disappointed if I lose marks on an assignment, I allow myself to be vulnerable by sharing my mistakes with my peers. I seek out conversations or clarifications and look for ways that I can apply my new learning.
Because I was an untrained teacher for 8 years before coming into this program, I new that I was going to learn A LOT but also be confronted with many of my own bad habits and mistakes. I came into the program preparing myself to feel really uncomfortable and potentially embarrassed at times. I know that I have started to move toward a growth mindset because now I find myself purposefully thinking about what didnât work in my classroom and why. I focus on what I have learned and how much my understanding of class management has evolved.
In her Tedtalk, Angela Lee Duckworth mentioned that successful people have âgritâ. Grit is the perseverance and resilience to follow through and achieve goals. She connected having a growth mindset with grit and said we should live âlife like itâs a marathon, not a sprintâ. Balancing this program with being a mother and wife has been extremely difficult. There are definitely times where it is difficult not to see failure as a permanent condition both at home and at school and this is why working on having a growth mind set especially important for me now. I can see that I have already made progress, but I also think I have a way to go. I may not be practicing a complete growth mindset YET, but I am working on it.
I have found that reflecting and talking about ideas has been really helpful. With this in mind, I will make sure to seek out colleagues and peers both in this program and in my future career. Having a growth mindset is not natural for me yet, so I will also need to be mindful and remind myself of what to focus on.
I found this website that lists 25 ways to develop a growth mindset.
As a previous science major, I think the suggestion of following research on brain plasticity will be helpful. I also really like the idea of making goals for yourself and then creating a new goal as soon as the last is accomplished.
Having a growth mindset is something that will always take a bit of work and reflection, but I can see the benefit of doing the work and am looking forward to the journey!
So this was my first experience with Minecraft and I have to say, Iâm pretty impressed. I am by no means a gamer and although I was interested to see what all the fuss is about, I wasnât convinced that this would be a tool to consider for future classed.
However, the presentation highlighted how Minecraft can be used to explore curricular competencies and act as a tool to build on core competencies with little intervention from the teacher.
The grade 8 students that spoke today were able to easily explain how using Minecraft at school had helped them learn communicative and problem-solving skills. They were also able to draw connections between the game and their future career goals. They mentioned ideas and topics that they were able to learn more about through the game as well. Beyond this, I was blown away by their ease in the room of adults and how easily they took on the role of teacher. The interest and motivation that had been sparked through Minecraft was evident in all the students that came today.
I think the aspect that shocked and pleased me the most about our experience with Minecraft was how quickly it encouraged prosocial behaviour. The room was busy with chat, people were helping each other, comparing, joking and just really engaging with each other through the game. At one point I heard one of our cohort momâs say to her son âyouâre teaching me things, this is funâ. What a wonderful way to interact.
It sounds like Minecraft works best with Social Studies units and core competencies. The teacher discussed using Minecraft for students to work on ancient civilizations in relation to studying ancient Egypt. She also talked about a unit in grade 6 where students were asked to create extreme environments. In this unit, I liked that the teacher said the students were given a choice; some students created their environments on paper and some worked in Minecraft.
The teacher also mentioned doing formative assessments for core competencies by walking around the room and making notes about who is helping who, how groups are working through problems and what creative things are being built. She also mentioned doing in depth self reflections that related to core competencies at the end of projects.
I love the idea of bring Minecraft into the classroom and it seems like it could be used with a large age range. One student mentioned that she started playing in grade 1. Although the teacher mentioned that she didnât think teachers needed to have a whole lot of knowledge before using it, I wouldnât feel comfortable unless I had some experience and a better picture of how it could be used. I would need to do some research. That said, there are a TON of resources for both emerging Minecrafters and teachers wanting to implement Minecraft. Some are listed here:
Personally, playing Minecraft made me dizzy. I enjoyed the experience and will definitely give it another shot, but not being a gamer, the movements of the screens made my head spin. This is something to consider when implementing it in the classroom. We canât assume that all students are used to gaming and gaming screens. The teacher also mentioned that Minecraft has not been a spark with every group and that while it is a great tool, it wonât inspire the same kind of educational benefits with a group of kids that simply arenât into it. As with all teaching tools, it will be important to consider the students of the class, try it out and use what works when it works.
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