Teacher and Student Mindsets

a. Classroom Experiences
One of the positive classroom experiences is how we would have the “word of the week”
at the beginning of every week. Our mathematics teacher in 8 th grade, Mr. Podkrash guided us
into identifying a word of the week that was meaningful to us at the time, write it down at the
center of a page and then write reflective statements from the word. We did this at the beginning
of every week, and this transformed my mindset in a great way. I met Mr. Podkrash at a time
when I was losing track and, my grades were very low. However. His mindset changed mine.
Above the words I chose, the teacher would instruct us to write the condition, preoccupation, and
even circumstance that had prompted me to think about my word of the week. This experience
helped me to connect with my inner self; I stopped viewing myself as incapable. My behavior
changed; I started believing in myself because Mr. Podkrash encouraged us to have positive
mindsets.
One negative classroom experience that I remember vividly was when my Maths teacher
in grade six announced our grades in class. I had the lowest score, and the teacher stated how I
was doomed for failure if I continued on the same path. I felt humiliated, as all my classmates
turned to look at me. I saw myself as a failure. The teacher’s mindset that I was a failure, and
that I was pulling the class mean score down affected me negatively. The whole experience
affected my entire performance in 7 th grade. Things only changed in 8 th grade when I met Mr.
Podkrash.
b. Creating a positive classroom environment

First, I will create a safe and secure learning environment. Sousa & Tomlinson (2011)
state that “The foundation for successful learning and for a safe and secure classroom climate is
the relationship that teachers develop with students.” As such, I will constantly strive to establish
healthy and professional relationships with my students without making statements about them
that will make them feel insecure or humiliated. Specifically, I will handle performance issues in
a nice way, such as by calling students to the office, instead of discussing such issues openly in
class.
Secondly, I will guide students into undertaking tasks that appear hard and scary, but that
will set them up to succeed. “all students want to succeed. The human brain does not deal well
with failure” (Sousa & Tomlinson, 2011). As such, I will work hand in hand with students,
incorporate differentiated instruction, and provide the necessary guidance to ensure that students
achieve success. lastly, I will regularly invite students to adopt a posture of gratitude and
humility in their interactions with one another and their inner self. Sousa & Tomlinson (2011)
state that “attending to the social-emotional needs of students is not a digression that draws time
away from teaching academic subjects but rather is an important part of classroom practice.”
Inappropriate behavior such as put-downs and bullying, creates a negative classroom
experience for students. As such, I will discourage such behavior through instituting discipline.
At the beginning of the term, students will read, discuss, sign, and make a commitment to
observe classroom citizenship behavior included in the mission statements. Also, my classes will
be well planned, engaging and this will ensure that discipline issues will be minimal. Overall, I
will create a safe atmosphere where students will feel secure through deliberately addressing
fears, failure and humiliation. Sousa & Tomlinson (2011) assert that “by sharing their own
experiences of making mistakes, teachers can help lower student’s fear of failure.” I will share

my personal experiences and take students through their own experiences. Since their brains’
frontal lobe is not fully developed, and it is the part that helps one manage and deal with fear and
failure, I will help students by ensuring that I eliminate their likelihood of dampening their
response to fear.

References

Sousa, D. A. & Tomlinson, C. A. (2011). Differentiation and the brain: How neuroscience
supports the learner-friendly classroom. Retrieved from https://www.vitalsource.com/