Enid Baines's List: The Leadership Mindset

• • I know that practicing mindfulness is meant to be an in-class conscious action, but tonight I experienced the best mindful practice I could have asked for. I went shopping with my daughter. She was on the state runner-up soccer team, and she needed a nice outfit for the recognition convo in two days. I initially told her to find something in her closet, but after some time there, we realized that her only nice outfits were for summer time. So at 7:30, we went shopping. And we had a great time. It was another case of me putting the needs of others ahead of my own, but it was worth it. We found a great casual sweater dress, and the time I spent with her renewed my energy and motivation and sense of well-being. It gave me the energy to push through this project, as well as to figure out a way to schedule time to finalize the first stage of my online curriculum project which is due in a week. Stress reduction can come in hidden packages, but they can be a huge benefit and motivator. 
• teachers often put the needs of others before their own.
• Taking time to practice and develop the qualities of mindfulness can help teachers renew their energy, motivation, and sense of well-being.

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• Use the following steps to challenge thinking using the Ladder of Inference:
• Identify where on the ladder you are. Are you: 
   
  • Selecting your data or reality?
   
  • Interpreting what it means?
   
  • Making or testing assumptions?
   
  • Forming or testing conclusions?
   
  • Deciding what to do and why?
• At each stage, ask yourself WHAT you are thinking and WHY. As you analyze each step, you may need to adjust your reasoning.
• • As I develop the online courses, I keep thinking about my experiences teaching summer school students. This keeps me in the realm of reality. I tend to be idealistic in my thinking about kids, but in reality, I have to be realistic. I have to ask myself WHY I have chosen this course of action and whether or not it was well founded. I have to create a curriculum with the end users in mind, not with the esoteric philosophy of a
    "student being" in mind. 

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• • As I build these courses, one of my goals--and what will probably be most challenging--is to design meaningful learning tasks. It will be hard to develop a growth mindset without face-to-face interaction. I will try to develop a collaborative culture so students don't feel isolated and will not feel threatened by assignments that are higher-level thinking ones.

• Creating a Culture of Risk Taking

   

  Teachers who strive to design challenging, meaningful learning tasks may find that their students respond differently depending on the students' assumptions about intelligence. Students with a growth mindset may tackle such work with excitement, whereas students with a fixed mindset may feel threatened by learning tasks that require them to stretch or take risks.
• Teachers can also ask their students to choose an area in which they would like to improve and then to establish a personal goal that would be a big reach for them.
• Emphasize Challenge, Not "Success"
• design in-class assignments that include some problems or exercises that require these students to stretch.

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• • As I develop assignments, I need to focus on being clear. The traditional classroom teacher can more easily assess understanding and adjust accordingly. Online teachers and students will need precise explanations and clear expectations. I need to be able to provide explicit examples of what I mean.   
• When you are reading, notice whether you are clear about what you are reading. When you orally express or write out your views (for whatever reason), ask yourself whether you are clear about what you are trying to say. In doing this, of course, focus on four techniques of clarification : 1) Stating what you are saying explicitly and precisely (with careful consideration given to your choice of words), 2) Elaborating on your meaning in other words, 3) Giving examples of what you mean from experiences you have had, and 4) Using analogies, metaphors, pictures, or diagrams to illustrate what you mean. In other words, you will frequently STATE, ELABORATE, ILLUSTRATE, AND EXEMPLIFY your points. You will regularly ask others to do the same.

• • I hope to be able to ask the right questions to inspire students to be curious about the issue that they are investigating. This case cracks me up--that Newton was quite possibly a passive-aggressive jerk. Just because people are revered in history books doesn't make them saints.
• Was Newton a jerk? Did Hooke notice or respond to the apparent insult?
• When students have the opportunity to formulate their own questions, their learning often proceeds in new and unexpected directions.
• As I explained the importance of withholding final judgment as we gather evidence and information, I saw a crooked grin creep onto his face. “I see what you’re doing,” he said, nodding as he prepared to walk out of class.

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• A creative process may begin with a flash of a new idea or with a hunch. It may just start as noodling around with a problem, getting some fresh ideas along the way. It's a process, not a single event, and genuine creative processes involve critical thinking as well as imaginative insights and fresh ideas.
• But creativity isn't just about coming up with new ideas; some ideas might be completely crazy and impractical. So an essential bit of every creative process is evaluation. If you're working on a mathematical problem, you're constantly evaluating it, thinking, "Does that feel right?" If you're composing a piece on the piano, part of you is listening to what you're doing and thinking, "Does that work? Is that going in a good direction?"
• creativity is a disciplined process that requires skill, knowledge, and control.
• • What I miss most about my current curriculum development project is the ability to bounce ideas off of others. I crave collaboration to curb my overly-zealous creative tendencies. I need to evaluate my ideas against a sounding board, to make sure it feels right and is headed in a sound direction.
• most creative processes benefit enormously from collaboration
• The great scientific breakthroughs have almost always come through some form of fierce collaboration among people with common interests but with very different ways of thinking.
• Edison's great talent was mobilizing other people. He had teams of cross-disciplinary groups working with him. They gave themselves clear objectives and tight deadlines and pulled out every stop to work collaboratively.
• I make a distinction between teaching creatively and teaching for creativity. Teaching creatively means that teachers use their own creative skills to make ideas and content more interesting. Some of the great teachers we know are the most creative teachers because they find a way of connecting what they're teaching to student interests.
• teaching for creativity, where the pedagogy is designed to encourage other people to think creatively. You encourage kids to experiment, to innovate, not giving them all the answers but giving them the tools they need to find out what the answers might be or to explore new avenues.

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• • One of my goals when developing an online curriculum is to provide presentation choices and establish an online collaborative community. I want to encourage students to create activities that fit their personality so they are more passionate about their work, and ultimately help to make enrich their learning. 

• 9 Statements Of Affirmation For Teaching (& Coaching) A Growth Mindset

   

  1. I can use technology to make both my own and my students’ learning richer.

   

  2. I can risk trying new learning activities

   

  3. I can bring my and my students’ passions into learning activities.

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