Taming the Mindset

I hope that someday I get to meet Carol Dweck so that I can thank her. Her research and writing has probably made the greatest impact on my home-educating-professional-learning knowledge. More than my undergraduate degree in Elementary/Special Education...more than my graduate studies...more than my 10 years in the classroom. If I had known, 20 years ago, what she's been talking about for the last 8, things would probably have been a bit different. Frankly, what her research has turned up is nothing short of educationally earth shaking!

And now her stuff keeps coming to the surface, like in this Education Week  article by Alina Tugend, author of   Better by Mistake: The Unexpected Benefits of Being Wrong  . 

A key piece of Dr. Dweck's work is summarized in this:

Here’s a fascinating experiment that shows how children absorb what we say about effort vs. results. Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, has conducted groundbreaking research in this area. One of her experiments asked 400 5th graders in New York City schools to take an easy short test, on which almost all performed well. Half the children were praised for “being really smart.” The other half were complimented for “having worked really hard.”
Then the students were asked to take a second test and given the option of either choosing one that was pretty simple and that they would do well on, or one that was more challenging, but on which they might make mistakes.
Of those students praised for effort, 90 percent chose the harder test. Of those praised for being smart, the majority chose the easy test.

                      ....

One way we can do this is by understanding the concepts of “fixed mind-sets” and “growth mind-sets.” Those with fixed mind-sets, as Professor Dweck says, believe either we’re good at something—whether it’s math or music or baseball—or we’re not. When we have this fixed mind-set, mistakes serve no purpose but to highlight failure.

Those with what Professor Dweck calls growth mind-sets, who believe that some people are better or worse in certain areas, but we can all improve and develop our skills and abilities, are much more likely to be able to accept mistakes because they know that they’re part of learning.
And it’s been shown that when students are taught about growth mind-sets, their motivation to learn improves.

What a mind shift! It's not about talent, it's not about success or failure. Son of a Gun! It's about persistence and learning!  It's about believing that hard work will get you somewhere...and then continuing to try hard.  I've tried to explain that to one of my kids, but that just doesn't seem to compute.

Is it because it's easier to believe in "I can't do that as well as she, because she is more talented," than it is to believe "She may master things sooner, but if I persist, fail...and continue to try...I can probably get it too"?

Is it perhaps unpleasant to understand that some have to work harder in order to attain the same things? Does that make us "unequal" and in a nation of  "one size fits all" education and practice?

Is it because trying and failing means that I'm less intelligent, so why try?

Is it easier to give up trying than to work at it and discover the possibilities?

Motivation.

What's your motivation? What is your kid's motivation? Should they do it for a grade or should they do it because by stretching they discover the possibilities? What are we telling them by asking them to work for grades?

Tugend gets right to the heart of it. And I will be the first to tell you that I am as guilty as the rest. I'm a Momma-Bear...yesterday, today and always...but here it is:

Of course, much of this onus to shift the way we look at and react to mistakes falls on parents. We have to be willing to let our children struggle and fail and make mistakes without always rushing in to protect them or fix the problem.

Wrong answers are ok...when you use them to grow and stretch and learn. It's so hard though to not desire that our kids succeed above all else. It's so difficult to watch our kids struggle. Some of you know that today this message is very  hard for me...but I've restrained myself.  Perhaps the Momma-Bear can find a grumble that says, "I want you to succeed, but failure has its benefits and reward too. It's fine." Can I want both? Perhaps.

Dweck is on my Kindle. I'm betting that Tegund joins her soon.

Look, Link and Learn! The Nina and the Pinta

Columbus Would Be Proud.

My friend, Connie, sent this link to a newspaper article about a visit to Kittery, ME from the Nina and the Pinta.  (Quick! What was the third ship? BINGO! Santa Maria! But, no, it's not coming to port.) It got me thinking about another field trip, of course, but also digging into links is another of my favorite things to do. You never know what cool stuff you'll find to share with the kids.



The Columbus Foundation is committed to building, sailing and showing these floating museums all over the world and they are doing a great job doing it! According to their website, the best reasons for visiting them while in port are:

  To see a near perfect example of a type of sailing ship-the caravel- of such clean, sculptured, honest design that it was produced for upwards of 125 years. with its Scandinavian style bow and midsection and its combination square and lateen rigging it was probably the best open water sailing vessel of its time- that pivotal time referred to as the ' Great Age of Discovery'.

  To, in some small way, enter that age, to perhaps get a feeling for Columbus himself, that enigmatic and flawed human being, who, admire or despise him, is one of perhaps only three individuals in all of our long past who, by themselves, for good or ill, personally altered the course of Western history.

  To stand on the sloping deck of the Niña, as true a replica as will probably ever be built. It was Columbus' favorite ship, the one he very nearly died on in 1493, upon which he ultimately logged more than 25,000 miles.

WAY cool! I'm ready to check it out in June in Kittery. (and as usual, I'll have to drag 1 of the 3 kids along. He'll have a good time anyway, but he's at that age. You KNOW what I mean!) In the mean time though, even if you're nowhere near New England or the Seacoast area, you can check this great video from the City of Debuque that shows more about the ships and their trip up the Mississippi. I'm betting Columbus would have been amazed had he been able to do that! 
So. Thanks, Connie and keep those neat links coming!


Remember, check it out with your kiddos...and remember, Look and the sites First, then, with the kids, Link & Learn!


(Hope to hear from some others that might get up to Kittery to see the ships!)

Look, Link and Learn! NASA and The Space Place

NASA does so many amazing things, but they offer so much more than just Shuttle launches on TV. They have a wealth of resources on their http://www.nasa.gov/ site that can assist  home educators in science. Articles, videos, pictures...interactive features like this bio of Alan Shepard.

I appreciated this video entitled "This is Why We Test." What a great lesson in how scientists and engineers work and think...and need to test things out. So often I hear parents say..."We tried the experiment and it didn't do what it was supposed to do, so the whole thing was a failure. We hate science because it never works!" Lots of things on NASA's site show that even with directions, science experiments...science exploration...turns out differently...but it shouldn't mean failure, but rather helps explorers tweak how they do what they do to change the outcome. What a great lesson. Face it, even the simplest "plant the bean" experiment doesn't work the way you thought it would. That's ok! Asking the question, "Why?" is what we should be teaching the kids.


Don't miss the page for students where kids can find out how they can take part in NASA activities right from their own computer. How about sending your name to Mars?

Finally, don't miss The Space Place! From NASA's description:
NASAScience Kids and SpacePlace have combined to provide several new Web features with interactive graphic designs, in addition to having extensive rich science and technology content of the “old” SpacePlace -- with over 50 NASA science missions -- and content from NASAScience Kids. These sites offer the best of NASA material for elementary school students.

The site includes over 300 separate modules available in English and Spanish. Modules feature categories related to Space, Earth, Sun, Solar System, People and Technology, Parents and Teachers. Information mirrors the missions of the NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, as well as the agency’s commitment to education and public engagement. 


You can get your "Scientists and Astronauts-To-Be" over there and let them loose. There's some great stuff in there...

Remember, with all links...take a look first...and then let the kids link and learn!

You've Come a Long Way, My Girl!

 It was 17 years ago today that I gave birth to a beautiful, tiny little, blue-eyed girl with dark hair that looked like it had had its tips frosted with blonde.

Elisabeth Joy

 5lbs. 13oz.

She was a smiley little thing.

And the dark hair went away...leaving only the blonde.

  
And while she walked late, she talked almost before she could hold her head up, calling out the names of places we drove past while out doing errands. While not quite accurate, it seemed as though her first words might have been "HOME DEPOT!" The talking has yet to stop. I really think that if she had been sent to school she would have been in constant trouble for her chatter.

 The girl kept up with her brothers... the eldest...and the younger 2. She did everything that they did, deciding that karate looked cooler than ballet...and that climbing trees was a fine thing to do. If she could climb it, she did.

 

Publish Post

  

She started reading at age 3...and nothing has stopped her since. She's always been a sharp cookie; starting her first college coursework at 15 and consistently making the Dean's List.

We're very, very proud of her.

 She's enjoyed tenting and "playing outside" and I have to say that, more than the other 3 put together, dirt has been her friend. I have always believed that when dirt sees her, it leaps to her like iron filings to a magnet.
Thank goodness for Shout...Resolve...and Spray and Wash...alternately...and sometimes together.

Fortunately, pink has never been her color.

Glasses... yep.
The better to see the world around her and check it out.

 OK, yeah, everyone ONCE in a while I'd get her into pink.

Upside-down book reading.
Yep.
She enjoys reading anytime, anywhere.
Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Harry Potter...
and Scripture.
Just some of the things along the road.









Happy Birthday to my smart, funny, lovely, outgoing 17 year old daughter.
May you always have something to laugh about, something to hope for, and have Christ as your guide.

I hope you know how much you are loved...now and always.

Lots of Love,    

Mom

Stepping Back in Time...to 1627

Where: Plimoth Plantation (Yep, when you go to the Plantation...it is P-l-i-m-o-t-h, not Plymouth.)
When: April 2, 2011 or perhaps it was 1627
Stepped out with the bunch in April for a trip down to Plimoth Plantation. The official vote to go was:
3-yes,
1-no,
1- whatever-you-want-to-do-is-fine-with-me.
 Homeschoolers love field trips, but with a full-time job of my own, I have to grab the time with the family where we can. It doesn't matter how often we've been somewhere. Just like re-reading a good book, revisiting a great field trip location is always great. Kind of comforting to explore it differently than you might have before. These places are never the same twice....so....
while it's always easier for some to stay home and think it's a good day, I know there will be times enough in the future when everyone goes their own ways. For this, it was majority rule. We went.

The day had the potential to be cold and rainy, but sometimes looking beyond the weather can mean good things. I had everyone dress warmly and wear boots, anticipating some mud...well, lots of mud actually.  In this case the sun came out and, while a little chilly, it was a lovely day. Mud-free.

When the little brother becomes the bigger brother to the older sister, then the older sister needs a little bit of a boost to see over the rail of the fort. No offense, Lisa. Good things come in "shorter" packages.

Of course that boost meant that we couldn't get Ben in the picture...which makes this shot interesting... showing a smiling girl and a head sitting on the railing. How'd you do that, Sam?












This particular view is one that I always find pretty...no matter what the weather. Someday I'll get this picture with no people in it from "now."  Imagine what it might have looked like in 1627? Like this? Better? Worse?

Beautiful day for a stroll down the road into the past. You never know who you're going to meet, what conversation you're going to have, or what you're going to learn.

 Reading some 1600's scripture can be instructive...especially when you look up passages that you thought you knew...and discover that once you've transposed the "fs"and "ss" and more...that it still doesn't quite scan the way you thought it would. Well, scripture is still scripture...and it's all good.
I think they were looking up something in Joshua. I don't know why, but Joshua was on their minds that day.

 Peas porridge hot,
        Peas porridge cold.
             Peas porridge in the pot
                      9 days old.


(Of course it could have been something else, it was kind of hard to tell. Soap perhaps?)

Just one of the interesting conversations we had that day was with 2 women....one younger (perhaps a teen) and one older (perhaps in her 40s)...from different places and with different experiences and with different religious beliefs. Fascinating to hear these interpreters/actors speak in the dialects and with the experiences of their characters. My question of the day for each person we met was, "What do you know of William Shakespeare?"
        Answered were similar....
They all seemed to have some idea that he was a writer of plays.
(Except the woman who said, "I've never heard of him. Is he a Minister?" Lisa was entertained by that.)
They all were pretty much in agreement that his work was "baudy."
None of them would watch or read it.
And this woman made an excellent point.
" Mr. Shakespeare's work makes sport of unfortunates. It's not very nice."
Hmmmmm.

Heading over to the Wampanoag Homesite. Smiles...because it's been a pretty good visit to the village so far...and the camera was pointed that way...and they were having a pretty good time. Even the one that voted "no."

And on the way to the Wampanoag site we came across this branch.
Perfect branch, wouldn't you say?






It simply screamed, "Put your children on me and take a picture!"  So, I did... A few of them.

OK...more than a few.

(What can I say? They were cute...in a teen-aged kind of way.)

 

 The Wampanoag Site never fails to have something interesting going on. It's always neat to see the long houses or nush wetu and talk with the Native People. On this particular day though, we got one of the more interesting experiences we've had during our visits to Plimoth.

We stood and talked with this young man who has spent his life learning about and teaching about Native arts. He was working on a dugout canoe by burning a controlled fire in the log, making sure to only burn enough throughout the inside. We spent some time learning about the process and hearing about the canoe races on the marshes behind him. There were about 6 other hand made canoes like the one he was working on in or under the water behind him. Bailing wouldn't have been my favorite job that day, since it was still chilly, early April.
Nonetheless, the process that he was demonstrating was really interesting.

I think, when all was said and done, everyone had a cool day. Learned a bunch, laughed a bunch...climbed a hill and through the bushes, found a tower, sat on tree branches...









 And in the end, everyone was glad that majority ruled. Even the oxen.

(And when I buy fudge there, Sam is always happy. Ah well, we suffered through the fudge. Small price to pay. But none for the oxen.)