Growth vs.Fixed Mindsets in Learning

The Growth vs. Fixed Mindsets in Learning podcast presented by professor of psychology, Carol Dweck was truly interesting. As explained by professor Dweck, the growth mindset is the belief that throughout a person's life they can become smarter. She related the growth mindset to body building. When someone learns new things they are strengthening their brain by using it. The fixed mindset, however, is the belief that a person is born with a fixed I Q, and they cannot get any smarter.

Carol Dweck has written a book and been a part of conducting studies on the growth mindset. In one study, two groups of students attended an 8 week session workshop. The first group of students were taught the growth mindset and study skills. The second group was taught only study skills. The teachers who taught the students during regular hours were not told which students participated in which group. The teachers said they had no trouble pointing out which students were placed in the growth mindset and study skills class. They also said the grades of the students in the first group improved, but the students in the second group who receive only study skills showed no grade improvement. A reason given for this is that the students in the first group learned how to learn from their mistakes and learned how to apply the method to their work, where as the students for the second group merely learned study skills.

As a teacher I hope to spur my students forward by teaching them that learning will help them to become smarter, more successful students. When students are told they can become smarter throughout their lifetime by studying and challenging their minds, I believe it will encourage them to work harder in their studies. Utilizing the growth mindset in my teaching career will enable me to become the best teachers I can be.

A Helpful Classroom Tool

Every time I see or listen to a podcast I am again impressed with their educational usefulness. I recently watched a podcast about the Energy Flow in the Coral Reef. This podcast introduced terms such as herbivores, carnivores, photosynthesis, and chloroplasts. An explanation of the life cycle and photosynthesis is presented in a simple but interesting way. The person who watches this learns the important interdependence of each member of the coral reef. Energy is obtained from the sun by plants which are eaten by herbivores. Herbivores are then eaten by carnivores. Carnivores are eaten by other carnivores or die of old age and then are eaten by scavengers and decomposers. The herbivores keep the underwater plant population in check, and the carnavors keep the herbivors population in check. Each member works together for the good of the whole.


In my classroom when we study the life cycle and photosynthesis I could let my students watch the Energy Flow in the Coral Reef. Watching it would help them understand a coral reef and the importance of each member for the existence of the reef as well as the role the life cycle and photosynthesis play in that existence.


We could also discuss how in our class or at home we each have to do our part to make our class and homes run smoothly just like the members in the coral reef. If each student participates in class and shares during discussion time they are contributing to the learning of the entire class. When they are at home and they do their chores they are sharing in the household work load and are helping their home to run more smoothly.

Mr. Sullivan's Presentation

Last week Mr. Sullivan came to are night class and spoke to us about different handicaps people have. He shared with us some types of technology that have been created to help people with handicaps compensate. He also taught our class how to make our blogs handicap accessible.


Mr. Sullivan's presentation opened my eyes to aspects of the life of a person with handicaps which I had never thought of. He brought a computer to class that had no screen. The computer had a keyboard, a braille pad and speakers. A person having vision problems could use this device to search the web and work on anything a regular computer could work on. The computer would read what a person with out vision problems could see. The braille pad was created so that it would receive a message and convert the message into braille for the user to read. The computer was amazing!

Alabama Virtual Library

The Alabama Virtual Library is an online library which house magazines, journals, and newspaper articles. The Virtual Library is accessible by all Alabama's citizens. To access this online Library a citizen of Alabama need only go to their public library and ask to get a home access card for the Alabama Virtual Library.

This site is especially useful for students. They can access the site from home whenever they need to and find the articles needed to do their assignments. Students from secondary school to college can utilize this wonderful tool to help them be more successful students.

Wow! This Is Really Cool!

Two great podcast to check out are The Edible School and A Night in the Global Village. Both of these podcast encourage educators to tie education to the everyday world. In a school which is featured in The Edible School they combined math, art, history and science to form a combined class. They used these subjects together to teach the children the material in creative ways. On the video an example is shown of a class studying circles. They took a trip to see how a water wheel works and then made their own water wheels. The children competed to see which water wheel worked the best. The excitement among the students about learning was quite evident.


In A Night in the Global Village, students visit the Heifer Ranch. At the ranch the children are given a tour and get to see what poverty level homes look like in Guatemala, Zimbabwe, Thailand, a refuge camp and a generic urban slum. After the tour the children are taken to a large room and assigned a country. They will stay the night in the dwelling that represents the country they become a part of and will experience a small part of what it would be like to live in that country. They have to trade with each other for food, find fuel for their cooking fire and do chores. This experience helped the children to have empathy for people who have less than they have.


These podcast open up many ideas for each teachers to explore and implement into their class. These ideas when implemented by a teacher offer students a chance to get excited and motivated about their education. In The Edible School they tell teachers that combining subjects and involving hands on activities does take more time but it is worth it.


The podcast presented here and others like them offer new ideas and helpful information to keep teachers fresh and excited about teaching. Educational podcast such as these provide information in an easily accessible form. A teacher can type in a title on itunes.com and choose from a list of podcast available on the topic entered.


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A Little About Podcasts

The first podcast was called Connect Learning. This podcast was done in a seminar setting for a group of Library Media Specialist. They shared their views and different uses for podcasts. One lady in the audience mentioned that a student in her school uses a podcast to share a rap song he wrote for his biology class. The song helped him to learn the information and helped his classmates as well.

The second Podcst,called Kidcast, had only one moderator. He gave some great examples of how podcast could be used to help students learn to make educated decisions. A teacher could assign an ethical issue and ask the students to research, analysis and respond to it.

Ed Teck Talk was the name of another podcast. Their focus is to encourage parents to partner with teachers in order to support students. On this podcast there were four people which shared the speaking time. Each one of the members broadcasted from a different part of the country. SMART Board Lessons carries a similar theme to Ed Teck Talk except that their focus is on teachers communication with one another.

Mac Break Weekly is a podcast featuring four men who talked about various things of importance to them. They talked about cameras and the stock market. This podcast was rather layed back. Catch Fly was a podcast which incorporated video as well as sound. The moderator presented The Calument Travelite Kit which is a photography kit. This podcast was helpful in that it showed the viewer how to use the products and gave them some feed back on the quality of the product.