Category Archives: learning

Growth Mindset: It’s working!

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I’m knee-deep in writing college letters of recommendation right now, and while I’ve been somewhat dreading writing these because I just feel so strapped for time, All.The.Time, I’m surprisingly really enjoying this experience because I’m so inspired by what our girls have to say about Math and Learning in their Naviance profiles (these are a gift, by the way, College Counseling, thank you!).  And, I just can’t keep these messages to myself.  They’re too good that they have to be shared.

I worked really hard last year (and continue this year) to insert healthy doses of challenge and growth mindset into my Algebra 2 with Trigonometry class (Junior/Advanced Sophomores).  And if you read any of my blogs last year, you know I was met with an equally (healthy?) amount of resistance.  So reading these comments makes it all worth it:

I am most proud of achieving a growth mindset. This was a new concept that was introduced to me throughout this class. Math has never been my favorite subject, primarily because it’s so black and white. However, I learned from this class that it doesn’t have to be. Like I said earlier, I learned it’s okay to not get the right answer all the time. Every time I made a mistake, I learned from it and my brain grew instead of me just getting frustrated with myself because I couldn’t get the right answer. I used to have a fixed mindset about math, but after taking this class I have grown to really like it because it taught me to look at math differently. Math can be fun and creative and thought provoking, it doesn’t just have to be simply going through the motions to get the right answer. My growth mindset that I learned in math class is something I have also applied to my other classes, and has changed my outlook on learning and school as a whole.

My favorite academic memory of this class was learning about growth mindset. I can say that I have learned a lot more than just math in a math class and it has helped me outside of the classroom as well. I think that having a positive attitude toward situations will help you to be successful in any situation. I love that some of the valuable life lessons I have learned came from my math class. We started out with learning how to perfect the growth mindset in our math problems but could later apply it to our daily life as well.  The thing that I am most proud of achieving in your class was perfecting the growth mindset. As we know, it was my favorite thing about the class. So technically, I was proud of each individual thing that I did in the class because every time I had the opportunity to improve, I would count that as an accomplishment.


I am most proud of achieving a growth mindset. Having a growth mindset was a major theme in this class and it really helped me learn information on my own. At first, it was hard because I was always used to teachers feeding me information, but after this class, I am able to understand information on my own.


I am most proud of always pushing myself in your class. Math is not a subject that comes easy for me, and I have always had to work hard to achieve a good grade in my math classes. However, I took every challenge test that was offered and I came in for extra help whenever I could. I also worked efficiently with my classmates to solve problems during group work periods and expanded my critical thinking skills by solving difficult problems. Throughout the year, I feel that I truly embraced struggle because I learned that making mistakes was okay. It is how I grew from my mistakes that helped me absorb the material.  I also learned that when there is a difficult task I am faced with, I should not get overwhelmed an give up, but rather embrace the challenge and grit it out.


My favorite part about this class was how you were so into growth mindset and gritting it out. I was so used to the same types of math classes all my life so hearing how you had new innovative ideas for the class made me really excited. The growth mindset Ted Talk’s were super interesting in class and I never thought I would watch a Ted Talk in math class. They showed me that it’s really beneficial to challenge myself and to be confident in the capabilities of my mind.


An experience that stretched me the most in your class would be when we were assigned with a Performance Task. These performance tasks were meant to be perceived with a growth mindset. The idea of the task was to try and fail. Although I would get frustrated whenever I was not able to get the answer, the idea of having a growth mindset pushed me to keep trying until I finally solve the problem. This stretched me the most in this class, because I was able to realize that if you push your mind and believe you can achieve something, it can happen.

The road to changing the way our girls learn can be quite bumpy, but reading these comments and knowing that these girls are leaving with such confidence in themselves and their capabilities makes it all worth it.

Reading and Connections or What YOU do!

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I recently read an interesting book, The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson.  It is the story of the theft of bird skins from a Natural History Museum. The birds were stolen because of the value of the feathers in salmon fish fly tying. The skins themselves have a fascinating history, connecting Alfred Russel Wallace with Darwin  and the deep interest in scientific inquiry in the 1800s. The author weaves together many stories, characters, environments, and historical eras. 

As I was reading it I was thinking about how much I was learning and also how this learning was affecting my understanding of what I had read before.  I made this mind map on Inspiration Maps for my amusement, connecting books I had read previously and listing how my perception of what I had learned from those books shifted slightly from the knowledge I gained from this book. Those deepened understandings are visually represented on this map by those ivory rectangles. I like to imagine my brain with these fired synapses.

What is super delightful is how this mind map can extend on and on. Books I read so long ago some of you weren’t alive get resurrected in my mind by new bits of information from this book. I ponder how learning happens, and I think it might be  like this. Information retrieval and deepening thought. You, dear readers, you are as skilled in this as is this author.  You shift and deepen understanding for our students.

Retrieving Happiness

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Over the holiday break, I participated in an online conference Ditch Summit http://ditchsummit.com/.  They provide a  new practical presentation each day for 9 days. I did not participate in them all, but the ones I did participate in were well done, and had nice takeaways   Pooja Agarwal’s “ How to Make Learning Really Stick for Your Students” was my favorite.

I also got (sort of) caught up on one of my favorite podcasts –Ted Radio Hour. I made a connection between a podcast episode “Simply Happy” https://www.npr.org/2014/02/14/267188672/are-we-happier-when-we-stay-in-the-moment and Agarwal’s advice on learning.    

“Dog retrieving a ball” by Ian D. Keating is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Agarwal says, “The reality is that students that struggle to learn something will have more long-term learning… Retrieval practice is more challenging but has greater long-term benefits. Therefore, as teachers, we need to help students understand this reality and be ok with the idea that challenging our students is actually good for them.” She advises students be challenged to retrieve, not just review information.  She likes flashcards and flashcard programs but does not like the “I already know this” feature on flashcards as she feels students might overestimate their knowledge.  She mentions exit and entrance tickets, sketchnoting after note-taking and spiraling the curriculum.  The struggle and the focus to retrieve information lead to learning that sticks. She says we should consider methods of getting knowledge out of students’ heads as much as we do getting it into their heads.


In the Simply Happy podcast. Matthew Killingsworth presented data that indicated strongly that staying in the moment was a way to happiness.  His app “Track your Happiness” https://www.trackyourhappiness.org ( which I would never use as it seems like I would be giving TMI)  has given his organization lots of data on what makes people happy.  One finding – when people’s minds wandered, they were less happy. Staying focused and on task- even, it appears, an unpleasant task- produced more happiness than getting off focus.


I see connections between these two presentations.  It is good for our brain to be challenged and expected to retrieve information.  At least for me, to retrieve information successfully, I need to be focused on the retrieval. This can be challenging for me.  But if I stay focused on my task, even if it is challenging, I probably will be happier in that moment.  This seems like a win/win for me!  We can learn, remember, be challenged, and be happy.

Stressing the Point

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“Stressing the Point” by Joel Penner is licensed under CC BY 2.0

My daughters call me the Stress Enhancer, and with good reason.  I am a worrier, and I like things done now.  Two traits that are not conducive to relaxation.* And traits that held me and a class back recently.

Christina Ditzel and Kate Cutright had invited me to work with them on their project using Scratch,  to code interactive scenes from Pride and Prejudice. Christina planned the lessons, but I would lead one section of the class on their journey, because she was teaching her own class.  I spent several hours over a few days with Scratch, drawing, uploading, causing movement and interaction and felt comfortable enough with my knowledge to be a demonstrator. My plan, developed under Christina’s guidance, was to demonstrate the basics of creating a stage and sprites and conversation the first day and then let students explore.  The 2nd-4th day would be used to show backgrounds, how to share,  and allow students to discover on their own the way to switch backgrounds and have sprites move, and create animation/game. Scratch has several elements, but the element react in similar ways, so once you understand one element, you are on your way toward understanding another.

Alas, an emergency came up and I discovered I would only be able to attend 2 days with the class.  The first day went fairly smoothly as I introduced the tool, students explored and asked questions.  Several students had already used the tool, and were able to act as guides for others.  All the students  were able to create a sprite, and understood the concept of the stage.   On the 2nd day,  the not-so- better angels of my nature came forth, and I started panicking that I was setting this class up to fail by demanding too much without grounding them in  knowledge first.  They needed to know about backgrounds!  They needed to understand costumes!  They  needed to understand the  X/Y axis and how movement occurs!  They  need to know the tricks of saving and sharing!  They needed to know sources for costumes and backgrounds!  And I only had 45 minutes for all this!

I jumped sternly in.  “Listen as I show you this”. “I need to show you this”!  Those lovely students soon recognized my stress, and were kind to me as I showed this tool and that tool. They said things like, “That makes sense, Mrs. Tracy” and, “Yes, I see how to do that now”.  Kate reassured me several times, and de-escalated some of my panic.  But what had I done? I had taken some of  the joy of self discovery away. I had enjoyed learning Scratch on my own, with a few sidebars with Christina.  I didn’t let that happen with these students.

The worst part of this experience for me was the why.  My family emergency was changing  the structure of this project.  That was a given – I could not be there for 2 crucial days.   I decided I, and I alone, needed to fix the structure.  I didn’t place my trust in the nature of Scratch, the joy of learning, the students, Christina or Kate – all variables in this project that were NOT changing.  I placed too much emphasis on me, and I only had the now.  A painful event.  Not my best moment as a teacher/librarian, but a lesson learned.  Trust is a much better atmosphere for learning.  And it will not happen NOW for everyone.   Give it the opportunity to happen WHEN.

* My daughters  have been saying this for years 🙂