Teaching 7th graders is a treat. Really. (Stop laughing, it’s true.)

They are bright eyed and bushy tailed creatures open to new ideas. It’s

the “Gee wiz, Mrs. Brownstone, that’s cool.” state they are in that

makes them such a joy. How is it then, that when they get down into the academic work, there are some among that

group who are at risk of failing? I’ve become interested in a psychology professor Carol Dweck. (I’ve ordered her book on Amazon–Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.) In a recent article about her work Marina Krakovsky wrote:

Students for whom performance is paramount want to look smart even if it means not learning a thing in the process. For them, each task is a challenge to their self-image, and each setback becomes a personal threat. So they pursue only activities at which they’re sure to shine—and avoid the sorts of experiences necessary to grow and flourish in any endeavor. Students with learning goals, on the other hand, take necessary risks and don’t worry about failure because each mistake becomes a chance to learn. Dweck’s insight launched a new field of educational psychology—achievement goal theory. STANFORD Magazine: March/April 2007 > Features > Mind-set Research

What does it take to change their mindset to be goal oriented? And to be able to try to reach that goal? I have been having a frustrating time with one of my 7th grade classes. It seems that there are around half who are able to engage in inquiry learning and sustain their interest in learning when they leave the classroom and work unassisted at home. The other half are not working well in the classroom in small groups and rarely do much quality work at home. Friday I asked the students if they thought that there were some students in the school who were just plain “smart” that they were born with a gift and everything comes easy to them. Many hands went up.

Dweck explains. People with performance goals, she reasoned, think

intelligence is fixed from birth. People with learning goals have a

growth mind-set about intelligence, believing it can be developed.

(Among themselves, psychologists call the growth mind-set an

“incremental theory,” and use the term “entity

theory” for the fixed mind-set.) STANFORD Magazine: March/April 2007 > Features > Mind-set Research

It’s their mind-set that I must change. I must teach them to think differently about their And here I thought I was teaching design technology.

Culture can play a large role in shaping our beliefs, Dweck says. A

college physics teacher recently wrote to Dweck that in India, where

she was educated, there was no notion that you had to be a genius or

even particularly smart to learn physics. “The assumption was

that everyone could do it, and, for the most part, they did.” But

what if you’re raised with a fixed mind-set about

physics—or foreign languages or music? Not to worry: Dweck has

shown that you can change the mind-set itself. STANFORD Magazine: March/April 2007 > Features > Mind-set Research

I have begun giving cues that are about putting in more effort, and trying harder. It sounds so strange to say that because I have unlearned that lingo. In my school (BSGE) we try to make our comments to the students grounded in the specifics of their work. We make a positive statement about what is working, what is going well, with reference to something specific they did. Then, we make one statement that starts something like this: “To reach a higher level of achievement you need to do X.” “X” is never “try harder”; it is always a very specific action they need to take on their next project.

The most dramatic proof comes from a recent study by Dweck and Lisa

Sorich Blackwell of low-achieving seventh graders. All students

participated in sessions on study skills, the brain and the like; in

addition, one group attended a neutral session on memory while the

other learned that intelligence, like a muscle, grows stronger through

exercise. Training students to adopt a growth mind-set about

intelligence had a catalytic effect on motivation and math grades;

students in the control group showed no improvement despite all the

other interventions.

“Study skills and

learning skills are inert until they’re powered by an active

ingredient,” Dweck explains. Students may know how to study, but

won’t want to if they believe their efforts are futile. “If

you target that belief, you can see more benefit than you have any

reason to hope for.” STANFORD Magazine: March/April 2007 > Features > Mind-set Research

Looking forward to reading Dweck’s book. I want to help these children. I’m growing weary from my futile efforts thus far.

technorati tags:education, k12, failure, goals, culture, learning, Dweck, psychology, effort, teched, IB, MYP, BSGE

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A celebration of his life. Max Matt, born December 25th 1910–died March 23, 2007

Max touched many lives in his long journey from the Ukraine to Romania to Montreal to Conneticut. Family and friends are urged to leave comments, memories, and stories in the comment section below.

In this podcast Max talks to the piano player about his army days at Camp Sheldon, Mississippi in February 1941 and his favorite tune, “Blue Moon”. After a brief cut of the tune, Max continues to talk about learning Yiddish at ninety-six and muses about answering an ad in the Yiddish Forward for a mohel in Uganda. This was record at a family gathering for Eli Debs’ 70th birthday in 2006.

Max, we’ll miss you.

technorati tags:Matt, montreal, Camp Sheldon, Yiddish, circumcision, mohel, Jewish, Yiddish Forward, Mississippi

The project’s aim is to connect three secondary schools in the US and three secondary schools [in ]The Netherlands. The participating schools have a mixed and multi cultural school population. During the two-year project students and teachers will work and learn together in Twin-projects, as well as in collaborative setting in Learning Circles. The aim is to become aware of the richness within multi cultural (school) communities. The themes of the Learning Circles will be set by the participating schools within the domain of ‘a multicultural society’, identifying and building respect for differences and similarities. All learning activities are connected to the formal learning in schools and informal learning outside schools. To create ownership of learning the details within the framework of the project will be set in close collaboration with the participating schools, teachers and students. –twin schools | 2006-2007 | LC The richness within

My, how time flies! This project is upon us. Front and center. It seems like only yesterday that we met at the NYC iEARN offices to plan our Learning Circle, The Richness Within. Bob Hoffman from iEARN Netherlands presented Wendy Nelson Kauffman, Bridgette Francis and I with an opportunity to plan a two-year collaboration with schools in The Netherlands. I was to follow up with a multimedia introduction of myself. Must say, I have not done that, and the time is upon me. I will do that first thing, early this week. I’ll take this time tonight to blog about the project to get me focused.

The topic of the exchange is multiculturalism. There are three multicultural schools in the U.S. and three in the Netherlands that will participate:

• Baccalaureate School for Global Education


• College of Staten Island High School for International Studies


• Metropolitan Learning Center


• Het College Vos


• Oostvaarders College


• Libanon Lyceum

What does it mean for each school to claim to be multicultural? At the Baccalaureate School for Global Education (BSGE) it would be odd to “not” be multicultural because we are in Queens, NY, likely one of the most polyglot areas in the U.S.A. I have been teaching in NYC schools for 11 years and never have I seen such cultural diversity before teaching at BSGE. Here, multiculturalism is taken for granted. When I met Wendy Nelson Kauffman from Metropolitan Learning Center in Bloomfield, CT, I learned that her school was designed to be a magnet school in order to provide an opportunity for a multicultural educational experience in an area where neighborhood schools reflect the racial make-up of those areas and tend to me mono-cultural. According to Bridgette, a teacher from College of Staten Island High School for International Studies, her school was created to break the stereotypical view that Staten Island is “white”. What does this all mean? Each school is multicultural–one is reflective of the community, one buses students in, and another designed to focus on the diversity of the area.

Well, the situations in the Netherlands’ schools will most likely present three more variations on the theme. According to Bob Hoffman, of iEARN Nederland there are “white” schools and “black” schools. Multicultural schools are a recent phenomenon. So goes the idea of the “liberal Dutch”. What does multicultural look like in the Netherlands? How does it compare to our U.S. schools? I predict that we will find as many differences among our U.S. schools, as we may in the Netherlands schools.

One of the ideas in our school’s mission statement says:

Our goal is to foster a spirit of imaginative, independent thinking

as we deepen our consciousness of global citizenship and respect

for other cultures. We believe that our school community,

through our thoughts and actions, can make the world a better

place. –Mission Statement

What will this exchange reveal about us? To what extent are we meeting the above stated goal? I wonder. What I hope to learn through this exchange is how students at our various schools understand the value of a multicultural experience. How much of their own personal identity is tied to a race, culture, religion, national origin?

I was born in the U.S.A. in New Jersey. Both sets of grandparents were immigrants. I was fortunate that they lived within a mile of my home and I got to know them all. I felt a closer kinship to my mother’s parents who were from the Netherlands and spoke “Dutch” around the house, especially when they were trying to be private. I knew my Dutch relatives. They would visit us, and in 1963 my mother took me to Holland. It was different on my father’s side. My father’s mother was from Slovakia and his father from Croatia. They were fluent in many European languages, and yet spoke none around the house. They didn’t display any pride in their heritage and there was a lot of anger about the communist take-over. When I asked my grandfather what nationality he was, he always answered: “It depends. After which war?” My grandmother was appalled when I wanted to visit her birthplace in 1972 and meet her sister and brother. She said: “Why do you want to go there? It’s all communist. They are peasants.” I went anyway, and in the end she was pleased to hear of my adventure. How does my family heritage shape me culturally? If I were a student in my school what would I say I was? When I am asked to think outside of “American” I simply think of my self as white European. So general. What does that say? I think it says a lot about the presumed “dominant culture” that I was born into. But what does that say about my identity?

technorati tags:multicultural, Netherlands, Holland, Dutch, iEARN, learningcircle, race, heritate

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