Curiosity is not sedentary and passive.

This cat is inspired by a quote from Jackie Gerstein's blog post: The Future Belongs to the Curious: How Are We Bringing Curiosity Into School?

And here are some more cats inspired by Jackie Gerstein.

Curiosity is not sedentary and passive.

The image is from cheezburger.

Take risks: go out on a limb!

This cat is not afraid to take risks! The image is from cheezburger.

Take risks: go out on a limb!

Even geniuses have to work hard.

The quote comes from Carol Dweck's Mindsets: Even geniuses have to work hard for their achievements.

The image is from cheezburger.

Even geniuses have to work hard.

Effort ignites ability and turns it into accomplishment.

The quote is from Carol Dweck's Mindset: No matter what your ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment.

More quotes here: Dweck Collection.

Effort ignites ability

and turns it into accomplishment.

The image is from Cheezburger.

You are capable of more than you think.

The quote is from Carol Dweck's book Mindset: "With the right mindset and the right teaching, people are capable of a lot more than we think."

You are capable

of more than you think.

(cheezburger)

The hand you're dealt is just the starting point.

Today's cat was inspired by this quote from Carol Dweck's book Mindset: "In this [growth] mindset, the hand you're dealt is just the starting point for development. This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts."

The hand you're dealt is just the starting point.

The image is from cheezburger.

Creativity requires thoughtful observation.

Today's cat was inspired by a blog post by Josh Birdwell.

Creativity requires thoughtful observation.

The image comes from cheezburger.

Constant, endless curiosity

The quote is from Carol Dweck, Mindset: "Most often people believe that the “gift” is the ability itself. Yet what feeds it is that constant, endless curiosity and challenge seeking."

Constant, endless curiosity

is what feeds your abilities.

(image from cheezburger)

English: Pay attention and stretch your knowledge.

This growth cat is inspired by a quote from Carol Dweck's book Mindset: "Only people with a growth mindset paid close attention to information that could stretch their knowledge." The image comes from Cheezburger. I've written a short essay about this one which you can read below, and I've also crossposted this item at my Anatomy of an Online Course blog.

Pay attention and stretch your knowledge.

The context is a study that Carol Dweck conducted comparing people with traits of a fixed mindset to people with traits of a growth mindset, looking for how people respond to feedback about performance. This is an incredibly important topic for teachers and students, so I will quote that section of the book in full here. This is the kind of finding that reinforces my conviction that grading is one of the biggest problems with traditional schooling: by focusing only on right/wrong instead of feedback for growth, we reinforce the self-limiting habits of the fixed mindset.

You can even see the difference in people’s brain waves. People with both mindsets came into our brain-wave lab at Columbia. As they answered hard questions and got feedback, we were curious about when their brain waves would show them to be interested and attentive. 

People with a fixed mindset were only interested when the feedback reflected on their ability. Their brain waves showed them paying close attention when they were told whether their answers were right or wrong. But when they were presented with information that could help them learn, there was no sign of interest. Even when they’d gotten an answer wrong, they were not interested in learning what the right answer was.  

Only people with a growth mindset paid close attention to information that could stretch their knowledge. Only for them was learning a priority.

I'll compare Dweck's experiment to something that happened to me in my first semester of college teaching, something which was a revelation to me and which began my transformation as a writing teacher:

In the Fall of 1999, I was teaching what was for me a large Mythology class (50 students), and the students had turned in a short paper at the beginning of the semester; this was back when I taught in a classroom, before I started teaching online. I knew I could not write extensive comments on that many papers, but at the same time I was dismayed by the quality of the papers: some of the papers were very good but some of them were in pretty bad shape (it was my first class at the University of Oklahoma; previously I had been a graduate student instructor at UC Berkeley).

So, I didn't know what to do, but it seemed like a good opportunity for an experiment. I told the students that they could choose: I had graded the papers and would give them back with the grades on them but no comments, or I would write comments on the papers on the condition that the student then revise the paper — but not for a better grade; it would just be an opportunity to work on their writing in order to improve it.

In that class of 50 students, exactly one student asked me to put comments on the paper so that he could revise it. All the other students simply wanted to get the grade and move on. That little experiment showed me that the students really were focused on the grade and they had come to my class to get a grade; learning was not their primary goal, even though many of them really did need help with their writing and were surely aware of that fact.

Since my own goal really was to help students with their writing, I realized that I needed to do something dramatically different in my classes; to find out more about how I changed my teaching practice completely, see this post: The Shift from Teaching Content to ... Teaching Writers.

We all struggle.

This cat was inspired by a useful article about stress: How Harnessing the Positive Side of Stress Can Change Student Mindsets by Katrina Schwartz.

Quote from the article; "McGonigal" is Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University.

“If you are able to look back on your life and tell yourself a story about your stress that includes how you learned from it, it continues to create a narrative of strength, learning and growth,” McGonigal said.
An easy intervention to help students build a growth mindset about stressful situations is to break into small groups and share stories of facing challenges and persevering through them. The stories don’t have to be academic, but it should be a time when the student got better at that skill or learned something. Then students can write about the strengths they drew on, reflect on who or what supported them, and think about what they learned and how they grew. This is particularly powerful when adults share, too.
Sharing with a group can help students see that struggle is common to everyone. It can also help highlight different strategies people used in those moments of adversity and how productive challenges can be.

We all struggle.

(image is from cheezburger)

Errors are portals of discovery.

I saw this quote come through Twitter yesterday: "A man's errors are his portals of discovery." - James Joyce

I checked Wikiquote, and found the fuller version there: A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals to discovery. It is from Joyce's novel Ulysses.

So I made this cat with cheezburger:

Errors are portals of discovery.

Sometimes you win; sometimes you learn.

Sometimes you win; sometimes you learn.

Made with cheezburger. I started with this graphic:

The higher you climb, the more you can see.

If you keep on learning, you will gain more perspective! Or so says today's cat:

The higher you climb, the more you can see.

 (cheezburger)

It takes time for potential to flower.

The quote is from Carol Dweck's book, Mindset: "People with the growth mindset know that it takes time for potential to flower." More cats inspired by this book: Carol Dweck's Mindset.

It takes time for potential to flower.

(image is from cheezburger)

The bigger the challenge, the more you stretch.

The quote comes from Carol Dweck's Mindset, and you can find more cats inspired by Carol Dweck here: Dweck Collection.

The bigger the challenge,
the more you stretch.

 Image made with Cheezburger.com. 

Just keep going: action overcomes fear.

Just keep going: action overcomes fear.

I was inspired by this tweet today: Reject thoughts of fear immediately. Action overcomes fear. The Secret: Keep Going. It came with this graphic:

And then I used cheezburger to make my version, paraphrasing.

I drive my own learning ... and Canvas due dates

Today's growth cat is making her own choices about where her learning will take her... and since I invoked the metaphor of the car's emergency brake in an email I sent around to both classes this morning, I've pasted in that email below for future reference. :-)

I drive my own learning.

(made with cheezburger)

Email sent on 10/13/2016:

Hi, everybody! I don't usually do this, but there is an important item about due dates in today's announcements, so I wanted to let everyone know about that via this email: Class Announcements.

And if you mentioned something about due dates in the midterm survey, there is more information below.

CANVAS DUE DATES:

Yes, there are due dates in Canvas... and I know the due dates are not going to be convenient for everybody. That would be impossible, right? But here's the thing: you can have whatever due dates you want!

Some people said on the survey that I should make everything due on Saturday or on Sunday: great! You can totally set up the class that way. Other people said they wanted me to make everything due on Monday: that works too! Other people want Friday. And so on and so on.

That is all possible right now. You can arrange the schedule to be anything you want — ANYTHING at all. And you are the only person who knows what due dates you need.

But — here's the real challenge — you are also the only person who can enforce your due dates. I cannot do that; Canvas cannot do that. The Canvas due dates are like the emergency brake on a car; they are there in case things get a little out of control... but you don't drive a car using the emergency brake. And you are the driver of this car, not me. If you like the Canvas due dates, great! But if you don't like them, then you should change the due dates to what works better for you.

Think about it like this: for each classroom class, you have 3 hours of classroom time per week. You have to get there on time, and the clock tells you when class starts and when it stops. So, the reading and storytelling posts each week in this class are like "being in class" for 3 hours. Every week. Same time, same place. Routine. It's your schedule.

Then, think about your project plus the feedback and comments as homework, time "outside" of class. Overall, it will also average 3 hours per week, but not with a strict start and stop time. You just know more or less that the weekend is a good time to do that, or Fridays, or Thursday nights, or whatever, etc.

With an online class you have to schedule BOTH the "class time" AND the "homework time" — ALL the scheduling is up to you.

So, please, get in touch with me if you want to give yourself new due dates for the class. ANY schedule will work, and I am glad to help you set that up. Given how busy things can get at the end of the semester, now is actually the perfect time to fine-tune your schedule for this class, and I'm glad to help — just let me know!

Standing still is not growth. Take a step forward.

Standing still is not growth. Take a step forward.

This was inspired by a Twitter post, and thanks to the layout of the cheezburger picture, I was able to include both sentences!

Courage means you don't let fear stop you.

At Twitter this morning, I saw a simple quote graphic with these words, and I used a cheezburger cat to make the cat graphic.

Courage doesn't mean

you don't get afraid.

Courage means

you don't let fear stop you.

Later, I saw a graphic shared by Dictionary.com that attributes the quote to Bethany Hamilton:

English. I haven't got it . . . yet.

This growth cat is inspired by the contents of this slideshow: From Mindset: The Psychology of Learning and Achievement by Emily Magruder.

I haven't got it . . . yet.

(cheezburger)