The first week, students focused on Growth Mindset. There are two types of mindsets we can cultivate. One that embraces problems as opportunities to learn, and one that avoids them, often out of fear to fail. People who avoid conflicts can be described as having a fixed mindset. Those who see problems as interesting challenges have a growth mindset. Sometimes we like to switch from one to the other.

By focusing on positive statements and actions, we are telling our brains what we need to do in order to succeed. This is part of a Growth Mindset. During classes, we exchanged stories and gave example of growth vs fixed mindsets. I was excited to hear students share stories about persisting on a tough project they finished, math problems they practiced that are easy now, and learning how to play new games with friends. I am looking forward to watching our students learn how to use growth mindset to build their first prototype in STEAM and explain how it works, come up with binary questions in Programming, and learn all the parts to a Chromebook in Computer Maintenance.