Clara's Blog

The first quote I found on Padlet was a quote about managing stress. I really enjoyed this quote because I constantly battle with stress. This quote puts the idea of stress in perspective for me, and reminds that I'm in control about handling my stress. I think I could apply this quote to my everyday life with school and work, instead of being so overwhelmed by the stress it causes, I'm going to change how I react to and handle the stress from everything. Stress quote ( Padlet ) The second quote I found was a quote was a motto about rain. I really liked this because I have always been a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Even though I may not see the positive side yet, a tough time or "rain" will lead me to better opportunities. I will keep this quote in mind in my daily to help me remain optimistic when life gets tough. Rain quote ( Padlet )

For this week's Growth Mindset challenge I decided to teach my boyfriend about the growth mindset. I've been wanting to bring it up to him recently because I think the concept of a growth mindset is interesting. He had heard about the growth mindset before, but wasn't very family with the ideas or concept. To me, one of the key ideas is being proud of the effort and the journey instead of the result. If the results aren't where you wanted them to be, then you weren't ready "yet", but will be with continued persistence. He doesn't think he has been applying a growth mindset at school and is planning on learning more about it in the future. I also think I want to share the growth mindset with my brother, so he can teach it my niece and nephew. Growth Mindset ( Flickr )

For my week 5 Growth Mindset, I read the article " "25 Simple Ways to Develop a Growth Mindset"  by Saga Briggs. This article confirmed the negative consequences of having a fixed mindset and the impact it can have on all aspects of your life. Despite knowing the negative impacts of a fixed mindset, I didn't it could lead to dishonesty. The article mentions a study done where kids were asked to right a letter to their peers about their IQ scores and found that about 40% lied about their score. There were many useful ways to develop a growth  mindset and couple of them stood out that I want to incorporate into my life. A lot of the tips acknowledged the speed it takes to learn, so I'm going to start allowing myself more time to learn material so I'm learning well instead of learning fast. Also, i want to increase my determination, since the article suggests that students with more grit are more likely to seek approval from themselves instead of others. Gro...

For this week's Growth Mindset, I read the article  "6 Bad Mental Habits that Sabotage Your Success" by Amy Morin. This article confirmed how powerful the mind is. If we think positively about ourselves, we perform better, while negative thoughts can lead to poor performance. This article taught me that negative thoughts can effect everyone, even aspiring Olympic athletes will work with sport psychologists to improve their mental strength. The article gives tips to avoid the 6 unhealthy habits that harm mental strength. I think I'm most interested in the habit about negative predictions turning into self-fulfilling prophecies. To prevent myself from catastrophizing my future I'm going to quit dwelling on the worst case "what if" scenarios. Growth Mindset (Source:  Flickr )

For this week’s Growth Mindset I read the article “Why Understanding These Four Types of Mistakes Can Help Us Learn” by MindShift. This article confirmed that mistakes can be positive and are essential for us to learn and improve ourselves. I had never thought about the different types of mistakes. The four different types of mistakes the article mentions are stretch mistakes, aha-moment mistakes, sloppy mistakes, and high-stakes mistakes. After reading this article, I want to be more aware of the types of mistakes I’m making and reflect on them so I can prevent the same mistake in the future. Making mistakes ( Flickr )

For this week, I read the Growth Mindset article "The Emotional Weight of Being Graded, for Better or Worse" by Linda Flanagan. This article confirmed that it isn't uncommon to lose interest in a subject when the main focus is grades. I always felt like subjects became less interesting when my only goal was to get an A in the class instead of genuinely learning the subject. Before reading the article, I didn't know that many teachers were moving towards replacing grading and testing with other types of assessments. Since this is the first self-graded class I've taken, I'm curious to see how my own interest in this course will change throughout the semester compared to my interests in other courses. Already, the coursework for this class has become more enjoyable than my other classes because I don't feel as stressed for assignments. I'm also wondering if this grading system was applied to every course, if the students would continue to learn or if the...

Growth vs. Fixed Mindset (Flickr) Before this assignment I had never heard of Carol Dweck or a growth mindset. I like to think I'm someone who enjoys taking on challenges, but it can be easy to become overwhelmed by them. The second video, "Make Challenge the New Comfort Zone" reminded me of something a previous cheer coach used to tell us. He told us that our routine should never become easier because we should always be pushing ourselves harder. He would also focus more on the effort put into the performance than the outcome of the performance. I've tried to carry that mindset into college, but it can be difficult. Whenever I perform poorly on an exam, it's easy to complain the material was too difficult or that I'm not capable of being successful in the class. I have to remind myself that some subjects might require more effort from me than it does from my peers to be successful. My biggest challenge since being at OU is time management and I'm int...