On his Facebook page a colleague of ours recently quoted a passage from American journalist Po Bronson’s work, “What Should I Do with My Life?” Bronson states, “I learned that it was in hard times that people usually changed the course of their life; in good items, they frequently only talked about change. Hard times forced them to overcome the doubts that normally gave them pause. It surprised me how often we hold ourselves back until we have no choice.”
Since March 2020, the face of education has changed, forcing a change in us as educators. Globally, teachers had to alter tried and true methods of teaching, become virtual learning “virtuosoes” overnight, and still manage to make a difference in the lives of children. So whether you know it or not, you have probably started your journey toward embracing a growth mindset. If we as educators want to remain current, relatable, and viable in this a- and post-pandemic world in which we find ourselves, embracing a growth mindset in our profession is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity.
Three Mantras Every Teacher Needs on Repeat
Here are three of our favorite one-liners that help us keep growth mindset front and center:
- Good is the enemy of great
- When you know better, you do better
- Never stop learning
Good is the Enemy of Great
One, good is the enemy of great. Several years ago we found ourselves on a committee that was interviewing candidates for elementary positions. We sat through many interviews, but one interview stands out in our memory…and not for a good reason. The administrator leading the interview asked the interviewee this question: “Do you consider yourself to be a good teacher or a great teacher?” The candidate contemplated her answer for a few seconds and then confidently responded, “I think I am a good teacher.” She went on to describe in great detail the qualities that made her “good.” Even though this teacher had a fine personality, a good work ethic, and would have done a satisfactory job, every committee member was adamant in her/her decision to not consider this teacher for the position. Why? Because good is the enemy of great.
If we say we are good and remain blissfully content in our “goodness,” where is the motivation to achieve greatness? Ask yourself, “Am I a good teacher?” If the answer is yes, follow up with this question, “What do I need to do to become a great teacher?” We can all agree that students of 2022 need great teachers more than any students in history ever have. To set ourselves on the path to becoming great teachers, we have to look critically at the things we do in the classroom and why we do them.
When You Know Better, You Do Better
This leads us to our second reminder, when you know better, you do better. We would venture to guess that whatever you are doing in your classroom is not bad for kids, right? Who would purposely set out to utilize “worst teaching practices?” But a teacher with a growth mindset will analyze his/her practices in the classroom and continually reflect on the impact those practices and strategies have on student achievement. Embrace what is working and build on it.
Our first opportunity to practice when you know better, you do better occurred about 10 years ago. Yes, you read that right. For many years we were “good” teachers and were blissfully content in our goodness. However, we had a literacy professor that stepped onto the stage of our lives and challenged our status quo; thereby shaking us to our educational core. In the course of a summer, we radically (and we really mean radically) overhauled our entire approach to literacy in our 4th grade classroom. We will not insult you by telling you that the change was easy and not without its “we are going to chuck it all” moments. It was just plain ‘ole hard. But, we decided to see if we could really make a difference for kids, so we jumped into the deep end of the pool and have been there ever since. Was what we were doing prior to the “dive” wrong? Absolutely not. It was good, so we married it with the new concepts we were presented with and made it great. As instructional coaches, we find we are still living by this statement. The things we did last year that we thought were great, have morphed into bigger and better initiatives because we whole-heartedly embrace our next growth mindset one-liner.
Never Stop Learning
Never stop learning is our third key to unlocking the concept of growth mindset. Remember the professor mentioned in the above section? He had a saying he used when wanting to emphasize a point and make sure we grasped its importance. He would say, “This is tatoo-able material.” For us, never stop learning is just such material.
We have a combined 60+ years experience as classroom teachers, educational consultants, and instructional coaches. But do you know what? We are still learning. There are so many ways to continue learning. One of our favorites is to learn from the teachers we are with everyday. Watching a colleague teach can be inspiring. Planning lessons and units as a collaborative team can offer differing perspectives on strategies and practices thus widening our educational scope. Another way we keep learning is to avail ourselves of any professional development that we can.
Pre-pandemic, we would all load up in school vans and go to workshops or conventions and soak up some amazing PD with our teacher teams. Now, we can still find those opportunities in our own living rooms. Virtual professional development is available in many forms: YouTube videos, The Teaching Channel, Twitter chats, Facebook Live, webinars from our favorite publishers and authors, etc. Find something you want to watch and, as we like to say, “Do some PD in your PJs!”
Finally, we read. A lot. There is no short supply of exceptional professional texts. You may, like us, have “one click buying” on Amazon…that can be dangerous. Or, you may just want to peruse the professional section of your school’s library. Where you get your texts is not the issue, what you do with them is. Read them. Highlight them. Annotate them. Sticky note them (we cannot in all good conscience condone dog-earing!!). And by all means apply what you read in them.
Don’t just be a teacher, be a life-long learner.
A Final Word of Encouragement
At the end of the day, let’s look to the quote at the top of this blog post and give every effort to “overcoming our doubts” and not “hold ourselves back” when we are faced with the myriad of challenges in education today. By having a growth mindset, we can do and be so much more.
We can always learn. We can always do better. And, yes, we can be better than good; we can be great.
