During one session on growth vs. fixed mindsets and on how the simple act of having students feel like they belong can greatly improve their academic trajectory, Rob Berger surprised everyone with an activity that put many outside of their comfort zone.
We were all going to do an art project.
He asked, "How do you all feel about that?"
Many people began to murmur and squirm.
I, in contrast, pulled out the watercolor pallet and pens I keep in my purse.
He then told us that we were all going to make thank you cards for volunteers that helped make the conference happen. People felt somewhat better.
I turned my seat around at my desk and drew the room full of teachers. These were teachers here to stretch their own minds, who at the moment were stepping outside of their comfort zones in order to express their thankfulness. I, in contrast, was completely in my comfort zone. I have been practicing drawing people in crowded, quick circumstances for the past year in Taiwan.
As I drew them, I thought how I needed to find some other way of stepping out. And as so often happens, we clearly know the name of the thing that makes us feel the most uncomfortable. For me: math (and not geometry and visually accessible math, but the type you need to comprehend through abstract equations.)
The next morning, the last day of the conference, I found the session called Achieving Deeper Learning Through Problem-based Tasks in Math, taught by Jeff Heyck-Williams from Two Rivers Public Charter School.
Math, like art, is a realm that we often have strong associations with from our childhood. Based on a few early experiences, perhaps a certain teacher, we often have a fixed mindset. In other words, we think we are either good at it, or we aren't. I've long known I'm an art person, not a math person--but that is my own mental construction.
Jeff led us through a way of learning that was intrinsically tied to a word problem.
"If a hen and a half laid an egg and a half in a day and a half, how long will it take 24 hens to lay 24 eggs?"
We were given the problem before we were given the skills to solve it. Instead, we were given tools to help us understand the problem. And though he taught us about ratios and rates along the way, he mostly left us open to puzzle out the problem in our small groups, to present, and argue our answer. I found it exciting, edge-of-my-seat learning. (And this despite the fact that I felt I couldn't cram any more in my brain that morning.)
As educators, we need our own experiences of turning from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. I was able to feel that I belonged in that room alongside the math teachers, and that the challenge of engaging my own mind--and the mind of students-- in mathematical thought, was something I could grow through. Even more-so, I can call upon this experience of practicing a growth mindset for my own teaching, regardless of the subject.
