"When I was five,
my mother always told me happiness was the key to life.
When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I wrote down, "HAPPY."
They told me I didn't understand the assignment.
I told them they didn't understand life."
-John Lennon
On June 4th, soon after the last day of school, our school district organized a day of learning centered around collaboration through Teacher-Based Teams while investing in a Growth Mindset. The book, Mindset by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. was given to every participant and will be used throughout the year as a book study.
I must admit that I just started reading this book while on vacation, but in the same breath, I will also say that already it has been most influential for me as an educator and as a person. It's one of those books where you find yourself nodding your head while reading and looking around thinking, "Is there a hidden camera somewhere? Is someone setting me up?," because you wonder if this book was written for you. All in all, it's fairly simple, we can live and lead with a fixed mindset where our qualities such as intelligence and talents are pre-determined for us or we can choose to take every opportunity in life as an opportunity to learn and improve through hard work and commitment. And better yet, teach our students how to live and learn by understanding their current mindset first and evolving into a growth mindset.
As a building principal, it is always important for me to encourage our high school teachers to commit to these growth opportunities, like our district day of learning (Worth U Learning Leaders Academy). However, I am very careful as to how I encourage their presence and investment not just because it's a day of Summer vacation but because it's a day of Summer vacation immediately following the last day of school. I talk a lot with our school family about creating a sense of balance in their personal and work life and here I was, typing an email that explained the agenda for the day, including a keynote from Dr. Brian McNulty about the importance of TBT's in our work and asking them to attend. Included in that email, I encouraged teachers to plan for a 15-minute forum sharing an instructional best-practice used successfully in their teaching.
I'm not sure why the feedback from my email surprised me. We had teachers willing to present and 25 or more teachers and staff attend our Worth U Learning Leaders Academy (WULLA). During the sessions, we sat together as a staff, shared new ideas, challenged one another, laughed and reflected on how we might implement change in our school based on our current learning. We were having fun! We ate lunch together, outside in the sunshine and the mood was right, so I asked the question, "Would any of you be interested in meeting this summer to continue our growth mindset conversations?" Unanimously, they responded positively, maybe it's because I offered to serve breakfast and lunch...it's always important to eat well, right?
We met at my house and started the day with all 25 of us standing in the kitchen, drinking coffee and partaking in coffee cake and yogurt parfaits. We eventually moved into the family room and began to review our agenda for the day. The teachers chuckled a bit after the review as I am always a bit overzealous about the amount we can get accomplished. After attending WULLA, I knew we needed to start our day by evaluating our current mission and vision statements. We had a process planned, but for some reason, we were all very quiet. I finally asked three simple questions;
1. Why do we exist?
2. What do you hope for of yourself and others?
3. What responsibilities do you have when making this happen?
The family room immediately erupted with conversation. We grabbed chart paper and markers and divided into groups. We began by listing words and phrases. These conversations varied and included both fixed and growth mindset responses. One might consider these fixed mindset responses as negative, but I truly believe we have to first be able to recognize this style of thinking before before we can engage in growth mindset thinking. It was just a small hurdle for us as the collaboration and discussion that took place energized us enough to work on our mission for the remainder of the day.
Each group had common thoughts that focused on the importance of happiness in our work and in our life. It's a simple word, with much importance to student growth - "HAPPY!" Our initial focus is not on GPA's, test scores or college scholarships. We believe at our core that if students are happy in their environment and with themselves that they will evolve and excel in all aspects of their life. Happiness will empower students to find their own purpose.
I'm so thankful to be a part of a team that embraces the growth mindset and continues to be excited about learning more. This mindset view as stated by Carol Dweck, "creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishments."
Oh, how could I forget...here is the draft of our Worthington Kilbourne High School mission statement. We will continue to collaborate with our students, teachers, staff and parents as we complete the final draft. We are "Stronger Together" and believe in the value of the voice of our entire school community.
"The mission of the Worthington Kilbourne High School community is to inspire happiness through developing positive relationships, demonstrating responsible actions and achieving/maximizing personal growth."
Learn * Grow * Contribute * Evolve
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