Welcome to Mrs. Allen's JL Mann High School page! 

Mrs. Allen teaches English  I (honors and CP) in the New Tech at Mann program and one section of traditional Honors English IV as well. Mrs. Allen previously taught English I-IV and Journalism / Yearbook at Greenville Early College for four school years. She earned an undergraduate degree in broadcast journalism from the University of South Carolina and a Master of Arts in Teaching degree with a concentration in high school English from Converse College. 

Mrs. Allen is a die-hard Gamecock fan and enjoys going to see the Gamecocks play football, basketball, and baseball. Mrs. Allen is a lifelong, avid reader who is obsessed with the Harry Potter series, and hopes to inspire her students to develop a love for reading as well. She also enjoys traveling and going to concerts, and amusement parks. She is excited about the '23 - '24 school year and is looking forward to working with her students to build the ideal graduate.

This school year, as we continue working toward building the ideal graduate, we will be focused on building a growth mindset school culture. “In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment" (Dweck, 2015). This is opposed to having a fixed mindset.  "In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort. They're wrong."

We want to create an environment where students believe that everyone can grow their intelligence through effort and practice. We want them to know that struggling with a new idea or skill can be productive, and that, even when we fail, we can learn through failure as long as we keep going and learn from our mistakes. We want them to know that just because they may not be a master of a concept doesn't mean that they can't be a master. They just aren't there YET!

There are many ways that parents can encourage their students to develop a growth mindset at home. Much of this can come from speaking with children about the new connections that our brain makes every time we learn something new. This learning takes place through effort, practice, persistence, and not being afraid to take chances and not being able to even fail once in a while. According to Tom Kelly and David Kelley, "Fear of failure holds us back from learning all sorts of new skills, from taking on risks, and from tackling new challenges. You know you are going to drop the ball, make mistakes, and go in a wrong direction or two. But you come to accept that it's part of learning. And in doing so, you are able to remain confident that you are moving forward despite the setbacks." Setbacks and productive struggle are essential parts of learning. If every student came to school already knowing how to do everything without needing to practice a single skill, there would be no need for school! 

I want students to feel challenged in my classroom. I want them to know that there will be times that they will struggle - and that's okay! It's in that productive struggle while putting forth effort and practice to accomplish a new skill that true learning takes place. I also want students to believe that all students can learn, grow, and be successful, and to do that, they need a growth mindset. Having a growth mindset is also critical to learning. Knowing and believing that we all can increase our intelligence and our level of performance through effort, practice, grit, and resiliency will help make students successful this school year and beyond. 

 So, what can parents do to help develop these thoughts and beliefs at home? They can join me in using growth mindset praise with their children. Praise your student for their willingness to try, the effort that they have put into learning a new concept or skill. Praise their patience and their practice. 

They can join me in modeling flexibility. Things do not always go to plan. Some days, as a teacher, I show up to school and all of the wonderful presentations and lesson plans that I have put together are not accessible because the technology is down. Instead of showing students how frustrated I am or scraping the whole day and giving them free time (which they would probably enjoy), I try to redirect and provide a different approach to the material we are learning by taking a different course than the one that I had already planned. By showing that I am not going to be stopped by things not going the way that I wanted them to, I am teaching students that we all need to know how to be flexible when situations are not ideal and that learning to keep going despite setbacks is a real-world skill. 

Parents can join me in having a "glass half full" mentality. This means that even when we have hardships we can find a positive side to things. A student may not score where they would like to score on the first go-around of an assessment, project, or writing. The focus should be on what they learned in the process and then take what they learned to practice, analyze what mistakes may have been made the first time, and be willing to try again. I will always give students a chance to try again and praise their learning, effort, and growth in the process! 

Parents can also join me in helping their child find their own niche. A successful child is a confident child. Sometimes students have to try lots of different things and read different types of books before they find an area where they thrive or a type of writing that they really enjoy. I hope through the experiences that I provide my students in my class that they can find an area of interest for them and that they read something that hopefully can inspire a love of reading and a thirst for knowledge.