Techer Education Competency

Competency 2: Growth Mindset

I first learned about the growth mindset in high school. I had a calculus teacher that taught me how to accept and learn from my mistakes. She also taught me how to work through challenging concepts and how to keep practicing skills until I succeeded. Since then I have continued to develop my growth mindset in university doing my whole first year online and now in second year working through more intensive courses. I would say my academic growth mindset is well developed, but I never thought about how my professional growth mindset would develop until I walked into my link2practice classroom. Our classroom has three students with both diagnosed and undiagnosed learning needs. While they all need full time support, only one student meets the requirements of a full time EA. My first few Wednesdays in the classroom were difficult. I was hit and screamed at. One student bolted from the classroom many times throughout the day sending everyone into panic mode. I came home feeling deflated and overwhelmed every single Wednesday. At one point I was not sure if I was going to be able to continue in the classroom because I felt like I was in over my head. I had no training in special education and none of my courses were preparing me for this reality.

Because there was not enough support in the classroom, I became “fill-in” support on Wednesdays. Sometimes I was responsible for teaching the class while the classroom teacher spent one on one time with her special needs students. Other times I was responsible for working with one of our special needs students, a girl with Autism. I had very little experience working with a student with Autism. It was challenging to work with her because she does not communicate very well and often wants to go off and play with toys or do her own thing. She often will not sit with the rest of the class to do an activity, and if she is asked to do something she does not want to do she will scream or hit or both. At the same time I watched her do little things that showed me she knew exactly what was going on and she knew how to participate or what to do on a worksheet. For example, during calendar time she often wants to do the special helpers jobs and be up at the front because she knows what needs to happen. Also, if you watch her when we sing our daily songs, she knows the actions and words. It was amazing to watch her because in a moment you could be frustrated because she wasn’t listening and distracting the class, but in the next moment you could see things click for her and she would go along with whatever was happening. I realized that in her own way, she was exhibiting a growth mindset and in order to support her I needed to have the same mindset along with patience.

There have been many times in our classroom that I have been ready to give up because it is exhausting trying to keep all of the students together, while making sure everyone gets what they need to have a successful day. I have had to exercise my growth mindset everyday in our classroom. There were times that I did not do the right thing working with the girl. Other times when I should’ve approached the situation differently when a student acted out. However, I haven’t let those moments hold me back. I stayed in the classroom and used each experience as a learning opportunity. I was able to see every students succeed in small ways everyday. And as I reflect on it now, my perseverance and development of my growth mindset, was the same thing that I was trying to encourage and teach to the students every time I worked with them. 

There is still a lot I need to learn about working with students with different designations and needs. However, I am thankful for my time in the classroom because I am starting that journey early and developing my growth mindset along the way.