WEEKLY BULLETIN FOR FEBRUARY 15, 2016
Monday, February 15
NO SCHOOL - Holiday
UPCOMING EVENTS
Feb. 19 Scoring Deadline ICA’s
Feb. 24 Dr. Snavely Spring campus visit
Tuesday, February 16
Girls BB & Boys Soccer – SEQ @ SCCA
Wednesday, February 17
Girls BB & Boys Soccer – Lindsay @ SEQ
Thursday, February 18
Friday, February 19
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. No School – Holiday on Monday, February 15,
2016.
2. Thank you to Mrs. Bledsaw, our site assessment
coordinator, and all the teachers that help score
ICA’s last week. It was a learning experience for
both students and staff as we forge ahead in
implementing Common Core instruction as an
educational practice and assessment tool.
3. Dr. Snavely will be conducting his annual Spring
site visit on February 24, 2016.
4. Sports update – Good luck to our coaches and
scholar athletes competing this week in
Basketball and soccer. Our teams travel to
SCCA on Tuesday and play at home on
Wednesday.
5. Basketball intramural games continue this week.
Encourage students to participation.
Professional Development Minute
Overcoming Fixed Mindset - Kristi McCracken
Carol Dweck’s research findings conclude that praising
students' effort and persistence, lessens their fixed mindset.
The process of learning can be enhanced when setbacks can
be viewed as learning opportunities rather than failures. Helping
students refocus and overcome obstacles can be enhanced
with various improvement strategies such as correcting
negative self-talk.
Negative thoughts like, “I’m so dumb” can be reframed as “I’m
learning! I just need more practice.” When students say, “I wish
I was smart,” teachers can respond, “Your brain is like a muscle
that can be trained.” When kids say, “I hate when I mess up,”
parents can respond, “You are resilient and can learn from your
mistakes.”
David Dockterman, the chief architect of Learning Sciences at
Scholastic, said that kids don't mind failing because when they
play video games, they fail 80 percent of the time. Failure in a
gaming situation is seen as an opportunity to learn. Educators
are working to help students translate and bridge that same
attitude over to classroom and homework learning
environments.
When teachers train students that insufficient effort is the
cause of their errors and encourage them to try harder, this
begins the process of growth mindset which is linked to greater
student achievement.
Dweck studied 250,000 middle school students using the
online Khan Academy program to learn about fractions. Minor
changes were made to their feedback to incorporate growthmindset teaching practices. Providing improvement-related
praise rather than general encouragement increased student
persistence.
The implications for educators and parents are far reaching,
but in essence this means that rather than praising intelligence
which can result in a fixed mindset, praise effort which triggers
a growth mindset in students.