Week 10 Growth Mindset

This week I became a manager at my job. Three long, hard years and I have finally made it! The only thing is, I am replacing another manager that is going on maternity leave. When I took the spot over I came to the realization that a lot of her duties were being put off. Nothing was in the right spot. We have boxes of supplies that were piled in the back. Blah blah blah. There was so much that needed to be fixed. I was just thrown into the mess without any help. I am one that gets overwhelmed very easily, but since this was my first time in a manager's position, I knew that I needed to prove myself.
Instead of just continuing the problem or ignoring it (or even crying about it and hoping it goes away - which I can say I have been guilty of in the past) I sat myself down and make a plan. I planned out exactly what needed to happen, along with where, when, and how. I also categorized those plans and decided what would be the most urgent matter if someone (state board, district manager, etc.) came in that day.
I was very proud of myself for making a plan and calming myself down. I had learned from the past that the only way to fix a problem is to actually try to be the solution. I asked questions, even if I felt like they were stupid because I wanted to make sure that every part of this transition was clear to me.

(Image Information: Growth Mindset in the Workplace. Source: Jess3)

Week 9 Growth Mindset

I have to say that I have really let myself down this week. It is like I have no concept of time at the moment. I started my manager position this week at Ulta, and it is wearing me out. I also think I broke my foot and still have not had time to go to the doctor, so I have been working on my foot for nine hours a day and having to go home exhausted and heal myself physically and mentally. It is not leaving a lot of time for my health or my homework. I had to make the decision to turn in my storybook writing a day late because I work tomorrow at 5. I decided sleep is more important than a 2 point difference. I am making a pact with myself to get on track and put myself above my work.

(Image Information: Me with a hurt foot, if I was a man. Source: toonvectors)

Week 7 Growth Mindset

I would like to talk about a blog I discovered through Laura's daily announcements.

(Image Information: Negative Thinking. Source: incidentalcomics)

I think a lot of the images this blog has seemed to correspond to the growth mindset. The one I chose in particular is about negative thinking. Perspective is a huge part of growth mindset. You have to be aware of your surroundings in order to succeed. Knowing what is happening and how you are feeling and why are huge aspects of succeeding. Don't give up, look at the big picture.

Week 6 Growth Mindset

I am very proud of myself this week. I actually spoke in front of my class the other day. Not only that, but I spoke in French! This is a big deal for me. I can read and interpret French perfectly, but speaking it is another thing. I am shy in the first place, so while I was learning French, I did not have a lot of opportunities to practice my speech and oral practices. I have recently been practicing on an app I downloaded on my iPad and it makes me read stories aloud. I was very excited when I finished speaking French, and my teacher was impressed! She had never heard me speak in French before and she said I did it perfectly. I guess you cannot succeed unless you try!

(Image Information: Draw me like one of your french girls. Source: Daily Kos)

Week 4: Growth Mindset

(Image Information: Whose Line is it Anyways? Growth Mindset Style. Source: The Human Potential Project)

This week I have decided to write my growth mindset post about this meme. I have been saving this one in my bookmarks for a while now and thought now would be the time to talk about it. I have to say, I absolutely love the show, "Whose Line is it Anyways?" and I immediately connected with this meme the second I saw it. I had read the blog post that the image brought me to, and I have to say that I agree with a lot that the writer is trying to argue.

The United States' school system is set up in a way that is supposed to fuel children to become a bureaucrat, a military member, or something of the sort. This got me thinking. On more than one occasion, I have been told that your degree does not matter. That the biggest reason you are hired after college is because the employers see that you actually stuck with it. That in the end, you were able to sit there for hours and come and go as your teachers wanted you. However, we are also taught that grades matter. We are granted with scholarships and high praises at the sight of good grades, but at the same time I'm being told my hard work does not actually matter to those trying to hire me. Then, you have the students that may have a better sense of what to do in the job force, but because I may have a higher GPA in a field than they do (because they may be bad at taking tests, but, in fact, they are much more well-versed in the material than I) I may get the job over them. I believe that there is a problem with our school system, but also a problem with what we tell students their priorities should be.

Week 2 Growth Mindset

(Image Information: Jake speaking the truth. Source: GJMueller)

I chose to write about Carol Dweck and Racheal Simmons' CNN article on "Why Women Fail". Basically, this piece talks about how women are the undisputed leaders of the classroom, and because of this they are despondent when they are faced with failure. It mentioned that when girls do not make an "A" in college, they seem to be more likely to drop a course than a boy would. They mentioned that it is because women are trying to pull a "trifecta" of being beautiful, smart and well-rounded. I thought it was really intriguing that Carol Dweck decided to write on the Growth Mindset in relation to women only.

My Opinion on "Growth Mindset"

I totally agree with the idea behind “Growth Mindset”. A lot of you may not know this (probably none of you unless you have been stalking me), but I used to major in Physics. All throughout school, I absolutely loved math, science, and anything that went along with the two. I took physics classes during my whole high school career. I won an award for having the highest physics grade in the whole school. I actually was offered a career in nuclear engineering with the marines before I even graduated. Saying all of this, however, is ignoring my teacher, Kristi Adams (she works at OU now, so give her a shout out if you know her!).

The way Mrs. Adams taught went along with the idea behind mindset. She applauded students even when they got the problem wrong. She gave credit for ideas that students had, rather than juxtaposing their work to what may have been in the book. She made the classroom feel more like a family because we learned to also work in this way. She had some of the highest AP passing rates because of the way she allowed us to construct our ideas. When I got to the University of Oklahoma, however, I noticed a change. I noticed that the teachers did not put as much effort into building up the students in the same way. I felt that everything had to go by the books, even if you showed enough work to support your idea. I actually took the same math class my first semester that I had taken in my last year of high school. In the high school class, my math teacher was young and he taught in a very “growth mindset” way too and I was able to pass the AP test. In the college math class, however, the teacher wanted the math shown in the way she was used to, the way the book taught it, and I ended up with a "C".

I definitely think that my high school teachers were a little bit ahead of the game for their teaching styles. I’m not sure whether the OU teachers were less inviting for creativity because they were PHD’s and maybe were not used to anything besides the specific methods they were taught, or they just did not have enough time to allow students to learn in the manner, or what. I do know however, that although I loved Physics and everything about it, I had to move on to something else which allowed students to grow rather than being restricted to certain guidelines. 

(Image Information: A kitty that probably got in a lot of trouble. Source: Growth Mindset Memes)