This past week I had the opportunity to attend a conference hosted in my district for Conscious Discipline. It was a week PACKED with research based information as well as strategies we could immediately put into practice. The video below features Dr. Becky Bailey, the developer of the Conscious Discipline (CD) program summarizing what the CD program is all about.
I was fascinated by the research that was presented and the logic behind the activities and strategies they were suggesting. The issue I had was that some of the activities seemed to be geared to a very young audience (elementary) and did not see how that could be applicable for my 7th and 8th grade students. As I found myself reluctantly singing and dancing along to a song, I realized that I was suffering from having a fixed mindset. Suddenly, the knowledge I had gathered from Dr. Dweck’s book, “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” came flooding in. I was able to complete the first step of changing from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset, which is to recognize my fixed mindset voice. I then thought to myself, “You can sit here and be negative every time there is an activity like this or you can start thinking of ways to adapt it for your students.” Without realizing it, I had done the second step which is to recognize that I had a choice. The third step came naturally in which I had to speak back to this fixed mindset that kept lingering in my head. I kept telling myself, “you may not successfully come up with an abundance of ideas at first, but you can take advantage of the fact that you are surrounded by so many other teachers and see if they have any ideas to offer.” The fourth step was the toughest to achieve, but I did it, I stepped out of my comfort zone and engaged in meaningful discussions with many of the educators present. It was reassuring to find out that those of us teaching the higher grade levels had similar concerns. Our discussions produced great ideas that kept growing and growing the more we talked about them. The first couple of days were a struggle as I transitioned from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset, but the rest of the conference was much more enjoyable once I had a growth mindset. Upon reflecting I know that I would not have gotten as much out of this conference if I had stayed in the fixed mindset. Thankfully, due to the discussions I engaged in with the other teachers present, I was able to tweak my classroom management plan for the upcoming school year and even contribute to some changes we want to implement school wide.
Sources:
Dweck, C. S. (2008). Mindset: the new psychology of success. New York: Ballantine Books.L. (2008, January 04). Conscious Discipline Basics - Conscious Discipline Skills. Retrieved June 10, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j3gF1dh_t4&t=3s&list=PLE0DBE442E3E01146&index=10Dweck C. (n.d.). MINDSET. Retrieved June 10, 2017, from http://mindsetonline.com/changeyourmindset/firststeps/index.html
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