What's The Point

When thinking about my innovation plan, specifically my "why", its easy to see how the growth mindset will play a role in the success of the plan. One of the main goals of my innovation plan is to allow students to take ownership of their leanring through the use of e-portfolios, this goal can only be accomplished when students are actively engaged in the material they are learning and this engagement can only improve when adopting the growth mindset. As a person and an educator I would say that I generally have a growth mindset when it comes to most things such as, learning how to crochet or sew, but can have a fixed mindset in other things like the way I plan a lesson or learn new materials. I think that this split between the fixed mindset and the growth mindset comes from a lack of confidence in my skills as a leader becasue I am the yougest teacher in my school. When I create and craft new things its easy to be open to challenges and trying again because I dont have to prove myself to anyone as many people do not know how to do these things, but in my career I am consistently trying to prove that I should be there and feel as though I must succeed or everyone will see me as a fake.

Suprisingly, or maybe not at all, the DLL program and the people I have worked with throughout my first two courses have helped me realize that I am not an imposter who needs to prove themselves, but rather a participant and a lifelong leanrer. There are probably many of us who need to learn this lesson in all aspects of our lives, but for me this changed my entire view on what I am doing and why I am doing it. This "why" is the most important in my mind as without it there is no purpose to anything you do. For example, this degree, why am I doing it? Why add the extra stress? Why add the financial burden? The answer to these questions are the same, to better myself in order to better my teaching and in response the lives of my students. Without this purpose or this "why" my innovation and goals would be nothing more than just something to pass the time.