Growth Mindset: 25 Simple Ways To Develop A Growth Mindset

I read the article 25 Simple Ways To Develop A Growth Mindset

I wanted to read this article because while I find the growth mindset to be really fascinating, sometimes it can get overwhelming to think about implementing it formally into the educational system. We are years away from that, but I don't think that means that we can't encourage the children we interact with with a growth mindset in small ways.

Some of the suggestions were things I already knew, such as replacing failing with learning and learning to look forward to and tackling challenges.

Some of the suggestions really surprised me though. For instance, one of the suggestions is to stop looking for approval. While I don't know how we could implement this in children, I think this would have far-reaching benefits not only on intelligence but also on self-esteem and the person as a whole.

Source

Week 14 Reading Notes Part A: Zelinda and the Monster

-It makes no sense to me that the father would go home and tell his daughter that the dragon wanted to eat him or her- is he basically telling her that he will not be the one to be eaten? I understand that he said the family will be destroyed if he is eaten, and most likely in those days it would have been the end of the world for a family if the man was gone, but how could a father go home and ask his daughter to basically go and sacrifice herself?
-I love all the names in this story, the names of the daughters are so beautiful
-Okay so I HATE the ending of this story. So the girl does not need to love the dragon, just needs to consent to be his wife. Wrong. She needs to love him, that's what Disney told me. And, how does the dragon turning into a youth save the girl's dad from dying? i don't get that at all. He basically forced her to marry him, because what daughter is not going to try to save her father at any cost? (Maybe one who's father basically gave her to a dragon so he could live)
-This story is just way too based on physical characteristics, and I much prefer the Disney version and how she learns to love him despite his beastly appearance. Maybe I could retell the story but the father tries to sacrifice himself, and the dragon falls in love with the father (plot twist?). The girls would not be able to get along well at all and the dragon would have to let him go to go take care of his family, but then they all come back to live in the castle together and live happily ever after.

Story source: Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Frederick Crane (1885).

(Link)

Famous Last Words: Through the Looking Glass

This week I read about Britomart in The Faerie Queene, and I really enjoyed that story. As per usual, the women did not get a lot of the rights and respect that I would like, but I did enjoy that it was about a female knight who was breaking the mold and going out to find her love. That style of writing was really enjoyable to me, and flowed really well. I did not realize that The Faerie Queene was so long, and I do not know if I would want to read all of the books published for the entire epic, but I did enjoy the short segment that I read. I finished up the second half of Through the Looking Glass too, and was extremely impressed by the intricate detail of Lewis Carroll's writing. There were so many ways that he fit a chess match into his story without being obvious or obtuse. I would really like to go back and read the entire story. I also did not realize that Alice was only seven years old in both those stories, because she has been portrayed as so much older in recent movies that I have seen. There is kind of a darkness in his writing, or at least a queerness that is not childlike at all, although I think a child could enjoy these stories very much. But it is interesting to read them as an adult because you get the sense of something much different when reading the exact same words. I also think the text has a special prose that a movie simply cannot capture, particularly since Through the Looking Glass focuses so much on poetry. All in all I really enjoyed my readings this week and I am kind of glad I have forced myself into doing some extra credit so I can do these readings.

Life-size statue of Alice Through the Looking-Glassin the grounds of Guildford Castle

(Wikipedia)

Wikipedia Trails: From The Faerie Queene to The Lancasterian System

This week I read about Britomart of The Faerie Queene epic, so I decided to start there:

The Faerie Queene
This is an epic poem written in the 16th century by Edmund Spenser, and is one of the longest epics in the English language. This poem follows knights and inspects various virtues, and was praised by Queen Elizabeth I.

Chastity 
Britomart was the emulation of the virtue chastity, which involves sexual behavior that is considered virtuous by the culture involved. This commonly involves sexual abstinence before marriage and modest clothing, especially in history.

Shakers
One religious movement of the 17th century that took chastity to the extreme were the Shakers, who required celibacy upon admission to the belief system. Children were added to the group by adoption or other measures. This group believed in equal gender roles and women took a leadership role in religious affairs, which is pretty cool.

Lancasterian System
The Shakers practiced a Lancasterian educational system, which involved the older students helping the teacher and providing knowledge to the younger students. A variety of merit-based rewards were used for motivation. This seems fairly in-line with current psychological research on motivation and positive vs. negative rewards.

Count Confalonieri and Silvio Pellico attend a demonstration of the Bell-Lancaster method in the Piedmont, Italy (1860s).

(Wikipedia)

Learning Challenge: Procrastinator Types

I used this infographic  to determine what type of procrastinator I am - and determined I am an avoider, which is described as someone who procrastinates as a way to avoid being judged for their success or failure. I did not find that to be particularly accurate for me, but I also disagreed with the descriptions for the other two options as well. I do not find a thrill for working against a deadline (although I do work better against a deadline - but that's not a thrill, right?), and I am not indecisive. I feel like I procrastinate simply because I find more fun things to do with my time until it is absolutely the last chance I have to do something. However, I also don't think I am a very bad procrastinator, my college classes have kind of beat that out of me. I would have liked a quiz or infographic with more detailed questions and possibly more options for final categories.

(Link)

Growth Mindset: Eight Ways of Looking at Intelligence

This week I read an interesting article called Eight Ways of Looking at Intelligence (Link). This article focused not only on looking at intelligence not only as something that is fluid, not fixed (i.e. growth mindset) but looking at objects and situations that can affect our intelligence in specific ways. One thing that was confirmed by this article was that situations affect our intelligence. A high-stress or low-motivation situation is not going to nurture intelligence in the same way that a low-stress, nurturing environment will. One thing that I thought was really interesting was the article touched on how when we use tools, our brain can actually prune neurons to visualize the tool as an extension of our body. But tools can be good or bad, and can take our attention away from what we need to focus on. This article struck me as a practical application of the growth mindset.

(Link)

Typing Test Tech Tip

I did the typing test tech tip this week, because I consider myself to be a fairly quick typer. I grew up with computers and I am a scribe in the ER, which involves a fair amount of typing. I used KeyHero.com and was found to have a 90% accuracy rate and type at 80 WPM. My score went down to about 75 WPM when my accuracy rate went to 100%. I liked this test for the length, it was very short, but I did not like that it counted it as inaccurate even if you took the time to go back and fix the typo. Past typing tests I have taken do not count errors if you take the time to go back (thus sacrificing WPMs) to correct your mistakes. I think that is considered fairly fast, and has certainly been fast enough to serve my purposes in class and at work. Quick typing is crucial and will only become more of a required general job skill as time goes on and technology becomes more and more integrated into our daily lives.