Fangirling over Jo Boaler's Growth Mindset...and Why You Should Be, Too

I love the fresh faces on the first day of school. No opinions formed yet, no knowledge of who will be my top student, who will struggle. I set the bar high, and I hope all will reach said bar. Of course, along the way, there can be some students who will not get there. But it won't be because I didn't try to get them there. Perhaps they gave up along the way due to circumstances out of their control. Maybe they still don't get that going to extra help really DOES help. Maybe they don't realize the amount of time the successful students are putting into their homework outside of class. Maybe their parents told them that they were not good at math as children, and, therefore, they are not good at math...here's where Jo Boaler, from Stanford University, comes in. She claims that all students can achieve a high level of mathematical success and that teaching with this in mind will dramatically improve student achievement. Her website, https://www.youcubed.org/ is well worth looking at, and her book Mathematical Mindsets is on my desk for summer reading. In it, she professes to "banish math anxiety and give all students a clear roadmap for success." Who wouldn't want that??

This video is well worth the 9 minutes, and next year I plan on showing it to my classes. But today, I got an email from Jo Boaler (as I am a youcubian--yes, that's what her followers are called, and I'm a big "fangirl" of Jo Boaler) in which she shared a short handout for parents. It's excellent, and I hope to give it to my students' parents next year.

Here is the actual link to the handout.

Here is another link to a poster on Positive Classroom Norms where she focuses on Growth Mindset. Below is the first page of it, but there is much more in the link. I will use these in my classroom next year. She has done a lot of research on it so we don't have to!

And finally, here is what she says about Growth Mindset: 

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As an aside, I am going to also add a little of the "play" that I lose from time to time in the name of my blog...something for health, perhaps. After writing my recent post on learning how to say no, I've been finding some things that have been coming my way, and this is one of them that I received in an email from Ted.com. I've only had time to watch the first one, but it was great, and it highlighted the importance of self care. Here is the playlist that came to my inbox: http://www.ted.com/playlists/299/the_importance_of_self_care?utm_campaign=social&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=playlist&utm_term=social-science. 

And here is a link to the first video. Enjoy!