Benjamin Zander - Work (How to give an A)

This talk by Benjamin Zander is about learning in general, and about music in particular: I think you will find it very inspiring!

Work (How to give an A)

Perfectionism holds us back

One of the biggest obstacles to promoting learning and growth in school is the cult of perfectionism: the perfect score on a test, the 4.0 GPA, etc. In this TED talk, Charly Haversat offers some ideas for breaking free from that perfectionism in order to keep on growing and growing.

Charly Haversat: Perfectionism holds us back. 

The Power of Belief — Mindset and Success

Eduardo Briceño is one of Carol Dweck's collaborators at the MindsetWorks project, and if you enjoyed his other TED talk — How to get better at the things you care about — you will probably enjoy this one also!

The Power of Belief — Mindset and Success

How to get better at the things you care about

Eduardo Briceño is one of Carol Dweck's collaborators at the MindsetWorks project, and this TED video is a wonderful introduction to mindset as it relates to school and any kind of learning challenge you might face; you can also read the transcript here: How to get better at the things you care about.

Tips to Boost Your Confidence

This is a helpful video about the different dimensions of confidence and how you can grow to become more confident in yourself. Find out more at the TED-Ed page for this video lesson.

Picture your brain forming new connections.

The quote is from Carol Dweck's Mindset: "Picture your brain forming new connections as you meet the challenge and learn."

The image is from cheezburger.

Picture your brain forming new connections.

And neutral connections are just one of the many types of connections that help learning to happen, as you can see in this great graphic from Jackie Gerstein: Learning: It’s All About the Connections.

Random Growth Mindset Videos

Each time this page reloads, you'll see a video displayed at random. Each video has an accompanying blog post; click on the link below the video to learn morem about each one! To browse them all, visit the Growth Mindset Playlist at YouTube.

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Student Video: Summary of Learning

One of my colleagues at the University of Oklahoma who teaches in the College of Journalism shared yesterday (via Twitter) this wonderful video by one of his students: it's a personal account that echoes many themes of the growth mindset, and the animation is absolutely gorgeous to watch. Enjoy this Summary of Learning, which she describes as follows on the YouTube page: "A brief summary of what I learned in my Copy & Layout class. & YES, I made each piece and placed them by hand. A labor of love to end the semester well!"

I really like the way that the video itself is a demonstration of the things that she is passionate about in school: clean typography and meaningful design! And she is willing to work hard at these things — very hard in fact, as this video demonstrates:

Canvas-Friendly Growth Mindset Cats

Just this year, we've started using Canvas as the learning management system at my school (I'm blogging about the experience here). Unlike D2L, Canvas will not accept any javascripts directly, but I've come up with a work-around that makes it possible to display randomized widgets inside Canvas, and I've built a Canvas Widgets Warehouse to share those scripts with anyone who wants to use them.

Of course, you will find the Growth Mindset Cats there! That page contains links to the javascripts and also to the Canvas-friendly iframe version. Here's proof that I smuggled growth mindset cats into Canvas!

What Motivates Us

This is an RSA Animate adaptation of Dan Pink's ideas about "drive" and motivation: The surprising truth about what motivates us.

How To Help Every Child Fulfil Their Potential.

This is an RSA Animate adaptation of Carol Dweck's ideas about growth mindset and our potential as learners: How To Help Every Child Fulfil Their Potential.

Changing Education Paradigms.

This is an RSA Animate adaptation of Sir Ken Robinson's TED talks on education and creativity: Changing Education Paradigms.

The Journey to a Growth Mindset

I was really excited to watch this new Carol Dweck video. It's pretty recent (March 2016), and she talks in details about some of the misconceptions and sloppy applications of growth mindset. If you have time to watch a full-length video, this is a really good one to choose: The Journey to a Growth Mindset.

There are also some recent articles where Carol Dweck has addressed some of these same topics:

Carol Dweck Explains The ‘False’ Growth Mindset That Worries Her

Watch out for your own fixed mindset, Carol Dweck tells teachers

The Stanford professor who pioneered praising kids for effort says we’ve totally missed the point

Carol Dweck says mindset is not ‘a tool to make children feel good’

Growth mindset guru Carol Dweck says teachers and parents often use her research incorrectly

Recognizing and Overcoming False Growth Mindset

What Having a “Growth Mindset” Actually Means

Video: Why do we get grades in school?

As you already know, I am not a fan of grades (I prefer experimentation and feedback, not tests and grades!)... and this video from PBS Studios has some useful background about how we ended up with letter grades in school, along with their advantages and disadvantages: Why do we get grades in school?

All the good stuff is outside our comfort zone.

All the good stuff is outside our comfort zone.

At Twitter, I found this Jack Canfield quote graphic: If we are not a little bit uncomfortable every day, we are not growing. All the good stuff is outside our comfort zone.

I found the image at cheezburger.

Empathy reduces stress.

This cat was inspired by a useful article about stress: How Harnessing the Positive Side of Stress Can Change Student Mindsets by Katrina Schwartz. Reducing stress and connecting with others are both great ways to grow your awareness and learn about the world.

Specifically, today's meme is from the first recommendation in the article:

#1 Caring for others builds resiliency against stress. To help people reset their mindsets about stress, encourage them to care for others. The biological reaction to stress naturally includes a desire to connect with others. Nurturing that inclination can dramatically reduce the harmful negative effects of stress.

The other recommendations in the article are good too: #2 Purpose in life reduces stress ... #3 Focus on how stress can help students grow. Read the article for details! Here are some more cats inspired by Katrina Schwartz's article.

Empathy reduces stress.

(cheezburger)

English: Success is not coming to you; you must come to it.

I've seen this quote attributed to Marva Collins, like here at Twitter this morning (which prompted me to make this meme), but I don't know if that is a correct attribution or not.  You can find out more about Collins and her great accomplishments as an educator at Wikipedia. She passed away in June of this year.

Success is not coming to you; 

you must come to it.

The image is made with cheezburger.