Growth Mindset: Beyond School

I feel as though I will continue using growth mindset on a daily basis in my job later on. I want to be a physical therapist and this requires interacting with people and getting them as healthy and functional as possible. With this, I will face many challenges. I believe that I will spend an exponential amount of time teaching growth mindset in order to keep my patients motivated. I also think I will constantly be using it myself as every person is different and some exercises may take lots of trial and error.

Today, I use growth mindset to motivate myself to keep trying my best. With this same mindset in the work place, I will be able to excel to be the best physical therapist I can be!

(Photo from Flickr.)

Growth Mindset: Cats

(The image is from cheezburger.)

I chose this as one of my favorites because it describes me at the moment. I get some work done and then I have to change locations to get another burst of creative energy.

(The image comes from Cheezburger.)

This is another favorite of mine because I feel like I have been paying a lot more attention now that I am getting closer to graduation. I keep noticing new things I love about the university.

(Photo by Emily Magruder.)

This was another favorite because it is my motto for these next 2 weeks as I cram some assignments I have procrastinated on in order to graduate with the grades I am aiming for. I got it!

Growth Mindset: Explore Growth Mindset Beyond School

I honestly did not know or apply much of the growth mindset theory to my life until I got to college and it changed my academic career. Once I learned about this, I started applying it to my everyday life and now it is just a part of how I view everything. I think this is so important in what I want to do in the long run. I want to be a physical therapist and, after an injury of some sort, it's easy to think that you will never get back. By teaching others growth mindset, I will be able to teach them to praise their process and to do their best because they can and will get better. 

(Photo from Flickr).

Growth Mindset: A New Theory On Human Intelligence

This week, I am watching, "A New Theory of Human Intelligence." I decided to watch this video because I feel like I haven't heard much on multiple intelligences lately and I want to see if anything has changed. This topic has always been very interesting to me. 

I have never heard about the "twice-exceptional" category and I actually found it to be very interesting as it sounds a lot like my brother! This is something that I am excited to see come together over these next few years. 

I feel like this will definitely be hard to use in schools as it is so individualized. But, I definitely see the importance of this. I love that we have access to the internet now because I feel like anyone can find out how to do their passion by simply searching.

(Image from WikiMedia).

Learning Challenge: Sleep

I read an article about why sleeping may be more important than studying. Most of this was familiar to me from psychology and previous studies. I feel as though sleep is a point of interest for me as my boyfriend is on the OU men's gymnastics team and they have morning practice almost everyday at 6am. I am curious to see a study done on people like this. Does this lack of sleep decrease their ability to perform? Can naps make up for lost sleep time even if you don't get into the REM sleep cycle?

Many, many questions flood my mind when it comes to brain function in general and I can't help but think about it all when reading about sleep.

Overall, I definitely got the take-away that sleep is necessary to build those neurological connections that aid in understanding material and, without it, your are making the trade-off.

(Photo from Flickr.)

Growth Mindset: Learning from Other Students

"The process of getting up from falling down was more mentally challenging than physically challenging. It was hard to get up when I knew I was going to fall."
This quote was about snowboarding and I think it applies to other aspects of my life as well. Many times when something is difficult for me, I put it off until the last minute due to fear of failure. Instead, I should acknowledge this and start early so I can fail but still have time to get help and get back on my feet.

"Every failure can be turned into a lesson."
I think this is something I sometimes struggle to see in the moment. When something goes wrong, I don't automatically think about the learning lesson from it. I hope to keep this in mind as I encounter my next failure as I feel the simple thought can help ease the anxiety that comes with failure in the moment.

(Image from PxHere.)

Growth Mindset: Motto

This week, I chose to make a motto graphic. I love this motto and had such a great time making it into a fun graphic! I may even use this as my laptop and phone background!

Growth Mindset: 29 Ways to Stay Creative

This week, I chose to explore the 29 ways to stay creative.

These were my favorites:

• Carry a notebook everywhere! This was one of my favorites because I do it and it has helped me SO much! You don't realize how many ideas get lost throughout the day until you have somewhere to always write them out.
• Take breaks! I love this because I notice that I am the least creative when I am warn down and trying to overwork myself. 
• Go somewhere new! Going new places sparks new thoughts and ideas like nobody's business! I am a huge fan of this.
• Clean your workspace! I personally get very anxious and overwhelmed if my workspace is not clean, so this one is always a must!

(Photo from PicServer).

Growth Mindset: Learning with Passion and Enthusiasm

For my first Growth Mindset activity, I decided to watch I video. I actually found the video I wanted to watch through my extra credit commenting that I did on a fellow classmate's blog. 

The video I watched was, "Learning with Passion and Enthusiasm."

Something I learned was the fact that our brain learns better when we are excited and enthusiastic about the content we are learning. Although, after thinking about it, it seems obvious, it sparked much more thought in my brain. Does this mean that we aren't exponentially talented in one area of study, but rather we are just more interest in it which makes learning about it come more naturally? This is something I am curious to explore more. I am going to try finding something in my chemistry 2 course that interests me and see if that material then seems "easier" to me. 

(Photo from Flickr.)

Growth Mindset: Changes Lives

Every semester at Peer Learning Assistant training through the Student Learning Center I get the opportunity to dive a little deeper in my understanding and application of growth mindset. We actually have watched Carol Dweck's TED talk. It amazes me how a thought that seems so simple truly does control much of what we do everyday and is much more complex once you begin making the change. I get to see both growth and fixed mindsets in Action Center every time I tutor Human Anatomy and my goal is to end the semester with more growth minded conversations than fixed.



This graphic is from a blog post by Jackie Gerstein: The Mindset of the Maker Educator. I am leaving this hear as these are many of the thoughts that go through my head after I leave a lab, tutoring session, class, workout, and more!

In case you are unable to read the text from the graphic, here is it typed out:
Was I resourceful in terms of finding information, resources, and materials?
Did I ask other people for feedback and information, to collaborate?
Did I share my work and findings with others?
Did I learn something new?
Did I play and have fun?
Did I try to either make something better or create something new, rather than just copy something that already exists?
Did I approach learning as an open-ended process, open to new and all possibilities?
Did I accept failure as part of the process and use it to inform my learning?
In high school, I most definitely had a fixed mindset. I did not want to be challenged and, when I was, I would blame my failures on everything but my lack of effort. I was not stimulated by the information or teaching methods and had to intention to ask for help.

My senior year of high school, I finally asked my mom if I could go to a psychologist as I could not even recall what subject we were talking about in a class the minute I walked out. After talking to someone, it turned out that I had a decreased amount of serotonin being secreted in my brain, just as was seen in the photo of a "fixed mindset" brain. I was diagnosed with both ADD and ADHD as all of my test results were off the charts.

After completing my first semester at OU knowing this about myself, I was able to adjust my learning and started to love school. My friends from home never believe me when I tell them that I am a tutor, making good grades, and wanting to learn more than I need to in courses. The funny thing is that I really thought it was purely this medication that was giving me some "instant smartness" that I could not acquire on my own. In reality, I did not put the fact that my Gateway professor and graduation coach both talked to me about growth mindset and it stuck ever since.

Once I became a Peer Learning Assistant and got to attend a training specifically over growth mindset, I gained the confidence in my own capabilities without giving credit to some "magic pill" that I have to take to get myself to shut up and sit still. Now, I understand the self-talk I must engage in that can completely change the way I approach a topic that may not have my interest, such as chemistry.

I have learned that, in order to perform well in a course, I cannot limit my learning to what's required. Some topics are more difficult for me and often times become easier when I dive a little deeper into details beyond what I will be tested over. I have learned that memorization is no good and I pay tuition in order to truly learn and better myself with the help of my professors. Without my introduction to growth mindset as a freshman, I am not sure I would still be on this campus as I took a 180 degree turn around in my academic career because of it.