Impact of Growth Mindset Reflection

           Growth mindset is a marathon for the future of learners. Since childhood, I have always believed that you should never surrender under any circumstance in life, in order to achieve what you want or have planned. However, there are also many circumstantial things that are achieved along the way that shape you as a person. I have always the internal strength to persevere and reflect that it is decisive in whatever path I have taken.  Since middle school, I have questioned the brutal role that education plays in the face of the development of communities and the division of social classes. The great fight that must be done from childhood with dedication, effort and sacrifice; in order to break out from the cycle of poverty. It is not easy, getting out of that reality, you need many helping hands on the road, many voices of encouragement, and an intrinsic motivation that keeps your self-esteem and morale going. During this experience with Lamar University, I have realized that I developed my own growth mindset, in an education setting, where youths were led to learn under a fixed mindset environment.

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          In this new parenthesis of my life, as a learning facilitator, I saw every day in this school system, the same reality that is lived in most of the countries of the world. An inequality in the educational field that greatly affects the most vulnerable communities; due to resource limitations and the implementation of a traditional school, which is much more aggressive in poor communities than in wealthy ones. Because, it is meeting state standards and not in a strengthening of the learners, to promote the development of a critical and sensitive person seeking the growth mindset for the future. Where learning processes are praise more than intelligence, measured in the memorization and standardization of the school.

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             While observing that wealthy schools have enough materials, technology, robots, enriching extracurricular activities, and expensive summer robotics and coding courses. In the other communities, children do not have all of those opportunities, no money to pay for summer camps, and transportation to travel. The above circumstances remind me daily of the path I have traveled. This makes me reflect constantly on all the opportunities that exist in these marginalized communities and look for alternatives that transform the traditional education system. Because the potential is there in those children, however, you have to reach out to them, give them the opportunities and tools to seek an academic balance that is achievable and has been demonstrated. Where digital education embedded in an authentic learning environment is the cornerstone to expanded own knowledge.  

 

             During this great opportunity and experience created by Apple and Lamar University for Spring Oaks Middle School. The efforts that I have been making during the previous three years have been better consolidated. In those years, the focus was on working with minority girls, learning to code and maneuver robots to compete in the city of Houston. While in this new experience, the focus was on the growth mindset of the club members, both boys and girls.

 

             The fusion of my previous experience, my socio-cultural sensitivity with the theories of learning has been very positive and successful. Since, it has allowed me to understand the trend in teaching and get to know the students better, from a motivational and sociological perspective. I have been able to improve the process of creating an authentic learning environment. Where young people can build their grit that is developed through the growth mindset in a digital world and where it is clearly understood that making mistakes and starting again is an opportunity to improve and not a defeat for the future.

 

             80% of the members of the club have the grit and persistence in a collaborative dynamic way, with projects that seek to contribute in solving the challenges presented in  their community.  During this time of COVID19 crisis, most of the members have been proactive and helped to search for free online pages to code and continue to meet us a club through zoom. This is an authentic example of  grit that they have developed through a growth mindset.

 

             As a club facilitator, I have grown parallel to my scholars in digital knowledge and I could think outside the curriculum and I have been able to model them through my experiences and my example as a person who has moved in the growth mindset from a very young age. This has allowed the members of the club and classes to come with a good attitude to seek and learn for life and not to  work for a grade.  Emphasize daily the importance of believing in yourself, of understanding that the processes of learning, persistence, and determination are more relevant than praises to intelligence.

 

               This pandemic time has allowed me to reflect that the COVID19 crisis should be seen as a clear opportunity to reevaluate the role of traditional education in a digital world, where the growth mindset of the student is emphasized and the learning processes of the child are applauded. This time is an excellent opportunity to generate growth mindset habits in learners under an authentic learning environment.

            

               Next year, I will continue to develop my growth mindset and start talking to all my students about the importance of having a persistent mindset when facing any event and I will be more consistent in emphasizing it, throughout the year with the praxis. As a reflective process that occurs frequently and throughout life; in a much more advanced digital world where we will face new challenges, criticism, and adversities that we must translate into learning opportunities not only for my students but for myself.

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