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Setting Yourself Up for Success with a Growth Mindset
In the School of Education, we want you to develop into a confident and competent educator. We care about your progress and your teaching goals, but we also understand that learning to teach is hard. It takes 10,000 hours (Cushman, 2012) of practice to make someone an expert in something. And practice is a key to your learning. Nothing comes from nothing...if you want to be good at something you will have to practice your skills.
A Growth Mindset and Practice
Practice is a process of stretching your understanding and applying your knowledge—in studying, in writing, in thinking, in the classroom under supervision. Practice is the work of learning (Doyle & Zakrajsek, 2013). The key to maximizing your learning and your practice is having a growth mindset.
What’s a growth mindset? A person with a growth mindset believes that learning and intelligence are NOT fixed (Doyle & Zakrajsek, 2013). That is, a person with a growth mindset doesn’t say, “I can’t do X, because I’m not good at X” (fixed
mindset). Instead, they say, “Wow, this is new and kind of hard, but I know with practice and effort I can learn this.” Rather, a person with a growth mindset understands that gaining mastery of new skills involves building their background knowledge, being comfortable with the discomfort of not knowing something, and practicing until they do understand something and build competence at that skill.
Teachers who have been teaching for decades still have bad days or encounter teaching situations that stump them, frustrate them, and exhaust them. So you shouldn’t work under the assumption that you are a good teacher....yet. You have the potential to be a great teacher, but to be great takes a lot of time, practice, and a growth mindset.
In the School of Education, we are guiding you through the earlier stages of your development as a teacher, so with a growth mindset in hand, you can expect that you will learn and grow A LOT during this program. You will receive abundant feedback, not because we are trying to be mean or overly critical, but because we know that you can improve and that growth takes feedback and practice.
In the subsequent sections of this handbook, we will discuss the ways we track your growth and progress in the School of Education as well as the Clinical Experiences of the programs and the importance of reflection. We will also include some of the many resources at Nazareth University that will support your growth as learners and educators.
Academic Policies & Procedures
At Nazareth University, the student assumes responsibility for becoming aware of, knowing, staying abreast of, and complying with the academic policies and procedures, departmental policies and Nazareth University policies. Please refer to the Nazareth University Undergraduate Catalog and Graduate Catalog for a full description of academic policies and procedures.
The list below includes some key academic policies and procedures students should be familiar with; use the links above for each catalog to further explore these and other policies:
For Undergraduate Students:
Academic Integrity
Academic Probation and Dismissal from the University
Attendance/Absence
Course Load
Core Requirements
Dismissal & Suspension
Drop/Add
Grade Appeals
Leave of Absence
Pass/Fail Option
Petitions
Registration
Repeating a course
Student Accessibility Services
Transcripts and Records
Transfer Credits
For Graduate Students:
Academic integrity
Academic Warning and Probation
Add/ Drop or Course Withdrawal
C Grade Policy
Commencement Procdeures
Degree Completion/Degree Audit
Dismissal
Grade Appeals
Leave of absence
NazNet Self-Service
Petitions
Repeating a Course
Time Limit
Transfer Credit
Withdrawal
Teacher Candidate Student Athlete Policy
During the Professional Semester, teacher candidates who are also student-athletes will need to communicate proactively with their coach, Program Director, College-Based Teacher Educator (CBTE) and School-Based Teacher Educator (SBTE) about their schedule. Student athletes are permitted to leave their clinical placement early for games and tournaments only; team practices do not take precedence over student teaching or practicum obligations. Arrangements to leave a placement early or to miss a day of the placement must be discussed with the SBTE and CBTE in advance.
Specifically, the teacher candidate is responsible for the following tasks:
Identify yourself as a student athlete in the Student Teaching Application that is submitted to the Office of Clinical Experiences and Partnerships.
Contact your Program Director and coach prior to the start of the Undergraduate Practicum Semester and the Professional Semester in order to make them aware of any scheduling issues that may arise as part of athletic competitions.
As soon as you know your clinical placement school schedule (including expectations regarding in person instructional planning times, teacher meetings, and other professional responsibilities), please discuss this with your coach to make sure that they know how your arrival time and attendance at team practices may be affected.
As soon as you know your athletic team competition schedule, please discuss this with your CBTE and SBTE to plan how you will attend competitions, and if you will need to leave early or miss any school days for travel.
If you need to miss any classes that you are responsible for teaching, you must provide substitute plans and materials for the SBTE for those classes.
All absences or early dismissals should be reported on the Attendance Verification Form.
Please Note: Any teacher candidate who misses more than 3 full days of their placement (for a 6 credit-hour clinical experience) or 2 days (for a 3 credit-hour clinical experience), will need to make up those days at the end of the semester, regardless of the reason. If the number of hours the teacher candidate misses by leaving early adds up to more than 7 hours, that will count as one full day missed.
Capstone Requirements
Across most of the majors/programs within the School of Education, there are capstone courses with portfolio requirements for degree completion. Students will find it helpful to save all of their work and syllabi from their education courses for potential inclusion in their portfolios. Portfolios will be developed on Nazareth University’s e-portfolio system: ePortfolio@Nazareth.
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