Evaluating my Mindset

While working on my Growth Mindset Plan, I realized that while I aim to have a growth mindset, and I believe I am doing better now than in the past, I still struggle with a fixed mindset. The area that I seem to struggle the most is at work. I am currently in year two of my current position as our district's Technology Integration Specialist. Not only is it only my second year in this position, but it is only the second year that my district has had this position. The year I obtained this position was also the first year that our district went 1:1 with Chromebooks in the classroom. The introduction of the technology has lead to some fear and struggles with some of the teachers to implement it. This is where my job is supposed to step in. My job is to help our teachers incorporate technology in the classroom in the correct way.

While learning more about growth mindset and the steps to take to fix your mindset, I was particularly affected by what Jeffrey (2016) said about how step 1 is to recognize and learn to hear your fixed mindset inner voice. It was at this time that I realized that I was having more of a fixed mindset at my job than I thought I was. When I try to think of ways that I can assist my teachers, I now realize that it's my own fixed mindset inner voice that is getting in my way. When I try to think of ways to introduce new ideas, I hear myself thinking "No one will come to that after school training, why bother?" or "Do you really think they don't already know that? Aren't you supposed to be teaching them something new?", and other negative thoughts. Often times when I try to think of a new way to offer training sessions I have so many fixed mindset thoughts that I end up talking myself out of it. Instead of trying something, I find myself getting frustrated and doing nothing. Not only is letting my fixed mindset inner voice "win" hurting me, but it's hurting the teachers that I support and the students that they teach.

My goal now is to take it one step at a time. When I hear those fixed mindset thoughts enter my mind, I will look at the questions that Jeffrey (2016) shared. I like the idea of starting with the idea of looking for constructive feedback on what I've been doing and what they need me to do. If I hear from the teachers what they think of what I'm doing it can assist me in shifting to a growth mindset as I'll have more input other than my own. Iin addition, if I can find out what they would like to learn, I can work on focusing on their ideas instead of mine to help eliminate those negative thoughts.

I believe that developing and maintaining a growth mindset will be a constant and deliberate thing. I will work at making sure that my mindset grows so that I can be an example to my teachers that are struggling with their own mindset struggles.

Reference:

Jeffrey, S. (2016, December 26). Change your fixed mindset into a growth mindset [complete guide]. Scott Jeffrey.https://scottjeffrey.com/change-your-fixed-mindset/