4 Strategies to Coach Kids into a #GrowthMindset

We have all seen at least one example in our lifetime of a person who overcame tremendous obstacles to discover unbelievable success.  Can you see that person?  Do you remember his personality?  Can you visualize his perseverance? Recollecting your person's tremendous accomplishments, you may be thinking to yourself the following questions:

• What made them beat the odds?  
• How did they succeed?
• What do they have inside them that others don't?  

The answers to these questions typically leads us to the concept of growth mindset and how these excellence models intentionally put the GROW in their growth mindset through both their daily actions as well as their mental fortitude.  In today's post, I want to share with you how excellent people put the GROW in growth mindset, and how we teachers and leaders can coach kids into adopting this mindset.

The GROW in Growth Mindset
To help all kids to grow, we need to first define what the GROW looks like and then articulate how we can help all kids develop the skills that will help them grow into the success that is already deep inside them.

Goals that Grow
These people don't just have a long term goal.  They set daily and weekly goals for themselves that help them grow toward their goal.  They track their progress toward reaching their long-term goal and reflect on their daily efforts.  Based on goal-setting and reflection, they make adjustments to keep them on track and accelerate their growth.

Resiliency
These anomalies have never heard the word, quit.  In fact, they look failure in the eye and say, "You may have won today, but you haven't beaten me."  If they get knocked down 7 times, they will stand up 8.

Order
There is an unbelievable discipline to these people.  They have a routine to their daily lives that is abnormal.  That is why they succeed.  They do things that ordinary people can do but choose not to.

Wins & What's Next
Successful people on the grow don't win or lose.  They win and what's next.  In other words, they celebrate their successes and determine what they need to do next to stay on their path of excellence.


How do we teach kids to GROW?
It can be a challenge to convince kids to believe in their ability to grow, but with the right growth coach and the right strategies, we can persuade kids to give growth a chance.  Here are four strategies to help you coach your kids into a growth mindset.

• Growth Coach - We must first accept the notion that we don't teach kids.  We coach them by showing kids how to set goals that are based on improvement.  If kids base their excellence on the same standard, they will always compare themselves to one another.  Every kid is different; therefore, they need goals that stretch them from where they are to where they need to be. Our job is to help them create and commit to growth goals that are attainable. 

• Relationships of Resiliency - When you base your relationships with kids on being their success coach, you are teaching the importance of commitment to a goal and then growing closer to it.  Sometimes kids don't see where they can grow, and they want to give up too quickly when they fail.  But if they have a positive relationship with you, they will listen to you and trust your advice and encouragement, even when they want to quit.

• Organization - Kids don't naturally have the ability to structure themselves around their growth goals; therefore, they need you to give them organization that will help them do the right work that is directly tied to helping them reach their goal.  The key to growth is doing things that aren't fun or easy, so be sure to sell the importance of doing the work especially if it's hard.

• Win-Maker - The best coaches can find the win in kids now and leverage that win to help them grow.  They do that by giving them specific feedback that tells them how well they're doing and how they can do even better next time.  They celebrate the now and the potential in what could be.

Growth is a hard thing for kids to chase because it is such an illusive and never ending target. Our job as leaders and teachers is to create systems and structures that are aligned with and promote growth. When we can create both a culture and a structure where growth is a the center of all work in the school, kids will not only accept growth as a goal, they will believe in it and ultimately grow from it. 

If You Truly Love Public Schools, then VOTE

Valentine's Day has come and gone, and with all of the love in the air, I would like to pose a very important question. How much do you love your school? If you truly love your school, you want to see it improve and you want to see the government make decisions that helps facilitate that improvement, right?  Sure, everybody wants schools to improve, but there are two differing beliefs on how that can happen.

1. Put more funding, support and realistic accountability in public schools.  

2. Take money away from public schools to support privatized options and continue punitive forms of accountability. 

That's it. 

Now you and I can lobby all day long but at the end of the day, our elected officials have already made up their minds. They've already made their choice on whether to support public education or destroy it.  

So what's the point???

If you truly love your school, there is one way and only one way to save it. You have to vote and you have to vote for people who actually believe in all kids, not some kids. You have to support schools by electing candidates who truly support all schools, not some schools. You have to research the candidates and find out who wants to take public schools to the next level and who wants to universally dismantle them. 

But if you really love your school and public education...

You have to spread the word and tell people not only who to vote for but why we need them elected. Many people are uninformed about the candidates' beliefs about public education because we are mostly focused on the economy, taxes, health care and national security. Those are more pressing and immediate issues to focus on, but public education is a long term national security issue, and here is the reason why.  The future of our country is sitting in the desks of our public schools. How we educate our future has a tremendous impact on our nation's future. 

If we elect the wrong people, we may get an immediate fix in the short term, but we will dismantle our country for the long term. Our democracy and way of life are at stake, and the hope of our countr continuing to be the best nation on earth will be determined exclusively by the education of those who will inherit it. 

If you truly love you public education, please vote and tell 3 friends to vote for public education as well. 

The Big Choice in our Response to Failure

I've been just a little obsessed with failure and rejection this week.  No matter if you are applying for your dream job or taking a big test, chances are that you will not succeed. But in that I want to remind you that no failure is fatal unless we allow it to be. 

Apply that Concept to Kids

When kids don't win the big competition, do they never try again?  When they don't get selected for the leading role or as captain of the team, do they see that as a reason to stop or drop out?  More importantly, when kids fail a test, do they see themselves as a bad math student or a poor reader?  

Well, it depends.

When we experience failure or rejection, we always have two choices.  We can see failure as a NO and let it stop us in our tracks, or we can see it as a NOT YET.  NOT YET means we have more work to do.  It means we're not quite there, but furthermore, it means that we're also not at the place we were yesterday.  If we want kids to believe in themselves as learners, we must teach them how to respond in the face of adversity.  We must teach them that they are a work in progress, and NOT YET is a powerful mental tool that can shape them into the person they were born to become.  Growth can't happen with a NO, but it always will with a NOT YET.

Failure is not fatal, but our response to it can be.  This week, let's teach all kids how to turn their NO's into NOT YETs.  Not only will you see a change in their performance as learners, you will also see a change in their confidence and self-esteem.

I whipped up this slide for you and for your students. When we experience failure, we must never forget that we failed for a reason. It wasn't because we weren't good enough. It's because we weren't ready yet. When you encounter failure or rejection, always remember that you have two choices: to accept it as a big, fat NO or to embrace it NOT YET

Talent is Nothing

Talent is overrated.  In fact, it can be downright debilitating if you let it go to your head.  If you're more talented than someone, but they're more disciplined than you, they're going to beat you.  Why do you think the most successful athletes in the world put so much time into conditioning and strengthening?  It's simple.  Talent is never enough to win championships, but talent coupled with an unwavering commitment to excellence is.

Heisman Trophy winner and NFL standout, Hershel Walker, said it best.

"My God-given talent is my ability to stick with something longer than anyone else."

If you want to be your best, it's not about the talents that you have. It's about what you do with the talents you have. Below, I found this instagram post from a theatre teacher friend of mine that perfectly defines what it takes to be your best. If you embody these simple reminders in your daily life, your success will be unlimited.  

Talent is nothing without discipline and commitment, but if you build a disciplined life that is focused on protecting and growing your talent, your talent will take you to moon.

CHANGE "PRACTICE" TO REHEARSAL ... AND YES!

A photo posted by CITRUS DRAMA (@citrusdrama) on Dec 23, 2015 at 3:49am PST

Unleash your Students' Talent and Creativity

This past week I had the pleasure of hearing Sir Ken Robinson and George Couros speak at the TASA conference.  It's rare that you get the opportunity to hear amazing thought leaders like this, but to hear two of them in one day was mind-blowing to say the least.  What I found interesting about them is that their messages emphasized the point that creativity in schools is not only essential but critical if we want more kids to be ready to inherit our rapidly changing world.

Now when we think about creativity in schools, we naturally gravitate toward a mindset of more difficulty, more work, or a vast departure from our normal way of doing things, but that was not the case in both of their keynotes.  In George's message, he drove home the point that in order to create the schools that kids deserve, it's all about establishing and maintaining meaningful  relationships with kids that unleash their creativity.   It's about knowing them as individuals and creating the conditions in our classrooms where we leverage our relationships with kids that inspire them to dream and create a future that goes well beyond the confines of the curriculum.

"Your job is to unleash their talent!" +George 

Robinson's message was similar but his approach to making change in schools focused on how we must engage and then empower our kids daily.  We don't know what kids will be when they grow up and neither do they, so we must remember that our job is to create an engaging environment where kids slowly discover that for themselves.  When kids develop confidence in themselves, they unleash their innate passion which is essentially the purpose for which they were born .

When the rhythms of education match the rhythms of a student's learning, kids will never disengage from learning. Sir Ken Robinson

How Can You Unleash their Talent and Creativity?
As you look at your students this week, I encourage you to view them not as what they are or where they're from.  Instead, view them as what they could become and the ultimate place we want them to be one day.  When we look at our kids from the lens of what could be, we create empowering learning environments that change FOR the benefit of kids and their future, not for the content they must learn.

6 Questions to Break the "Same-Old Same-Old" Cycle

An old high school buddy of mine slapped me in the face the other morning with his Instagram post below. 

The Same-Old Same-Old Cycle

As this image cycled through my mind, this question emerged.

Are my thoughts generating the same old results?

Think about it. The same old thinking leads to the same old results, but if we're not careful, the same old results will lead back to the same old thinking.  The "same-old same-old" is a vicious cycle that solidifies the status quo and "the way we've always done it around here", the cycle is solidified by our thoughts more so than our actions.  After all our actions are dictated by our thoughts.

We owe it to our kids to break this cycle because the stakes are too high, and the consequences are so great. In order to find new solutions to the same old problems that we have been experiencing all year, we must ask ourselves this question. Is the problem really our result or is it our thinking?  If we truly believe in helping kids grow, and if we want to accomplish this goal of every kid increasing their performance by 10 points from last year, let's look inward before we look outward.  

6 Questions to Break the Same-Old Same-Old Cycle

Below are a few questions that can help you evaluate your thinking and how you respond when you encounter results that continue to resurface.

Question	Yes	No
Do you think about failure in terms of failure to grow and improve instead of the mindset of failure to pass?
Does your thinking about your response to a student’s failure to grow result in a meaningful change in the way you teach those kids who are regressing?
When a student fails to grow, do you initially reflect on your instruction and the ways it helped or didn’t help the student grow?
With respect to apathetic or disruptive students, do you think first about ways that you can change your approach to better meet the student’s deficits and how you can better connect with them?
With respect to academic deficits, do you reflect on how you teach concepts and whether or not they are truly meeting kids where they currently are in their ability?
When you don’t know what to do, do you look to your colleagues for guidance, suggestions and strategies to better meet the needs of your regressing students?

Do you have more checks in the yes column or no column?  

So how did you do?  If you have more no's, you may be stuck in the same old thinking.  If you have more checks in the yes column, you are headed in the right direction.  The same old results are precipitated by the same old thinking.  If we truly want our students to grow, we must recommit to our own growth and development first.  That will only happen when we honestly reflect on our own abilities and effectiveness and the thinking that reinforces them  When that happens, we will be more able to create new actions, skills and mindsets which will in turn lead to new and better results.

Escaping the Prison of Fear

Fear is a living breathing beast in schools.  No matter how talented you are or how successful your campus is, fear is lurking around your building and waiting to rear its ugly head.  The minute that scores drop, fear arises.  If anyone complains, insecurity mounts.  If an educator experiences divorce, death or difficulties in their own personal life, fear drives them into survival model.

But as I ponder fear and the effects that it has on teachers, leaders and a culture of learning, I am reminded of this picture by Tony Evans that I tweeted out a few months ago.

Fear is a prison. Is it yours? pic.twitter.com/zpjlsALVXt

— John Wink (@JohnWink90) November 17, 2015

As leaders, we must remind ourselves that we have two options in how we can handle fear:

• We can avoid acknowledging that fear exists, or 

• We can create a culture that courageously and collaboratively conquers their fears. 

A culture that fails to meet its fears head on will eventually succumb to the stress caused by fear and spiral into chaos. However, a culture that conquers its fears may suffer setbacks along the way but will eventually reach a new and better place. As leaders, we must remember that fear stifles creativity. It inhibits innovation, and it puts people in their place.  Whether its personal or professional, all fear stifles progress.

Fear is a prison, but it doesn't have to imprison us forever. A leader's job is not to remove fear from the organization. It is to challenge people to come together to courageously confront all fears. Fear will always be a part of who we are because we are human, but the best leaders ensure that fear doesn't strangle both the organization and the people who make it thrive.  Organizations that thrive, are composed of many people who care about one another, support on another in times of difficulty, and pick one another up when they're in trouble.  In these organizations, fear is not confronted in isolation.  It's conquered through collaboration.

This week, take time to work with your colleagues to:

• Face your fears and call them by name, 
• Eliminate your fears with a plan of action,
• Acknowledge that having fear is ok, but letting it stop you is not 
• Rise above your fears by telling your story. 

You won't believe the progress that will follow.