At Athlos Academy of Utah, teachers strive to find ways to use instructional strategies that promote curiosity, collaboration, a culture of positivity, and a growth mindset.
Exploring growth mindset together.
Isaac Ramos, a fourth-grade teacher at Athlos Academy of Utah, has recently taken an alternative approach to teaching his students by incorporating a growth mindset into the classroom.
Ramos invites students’ parents to attend his book club where they have been discussing “Mindset” by Carol Dweck, a book that discusses the importance of helping the reader develop a growth mindset in a variety of areas in life.
“This is a book club for parents who want to instill growth mindset into their children,” he said. “We bring back what we’ve learned and how we’ve been able to apply it to our children and to ourselves.”
Why discuss growth mindset?
The book was recommended to him by a friend and he was impressed by how it discussed the importance of language and personal thought when discussing growth, and how it can be applied to students, parents, professionals, etc.
“I really wanted to use these teachings with my students so I can give them tools to develop in the growth mindset rather than being stuck in a fixed mindset,” Ramos said. “I wanted to help them move from [fixed mindset] thinking to ‘if I work hard, I can improve.’”
“It’s not about making the students become perfect or professionals, it’s about improving through effort and perseverance.” – Isaac Ramos
“One of my favorite parts is hearing how parents have seen changes in their students’ attitude toward things that take effort at home,” Ramos said. “There have been parents who told me that their children are not going to learn if they don’t give them responsibility, so instead they have become more comfortable with imperfection so [the student] can learn.”
Interested in learning more?
Ramos started this book club with his own students’ parents last September, but the book club is open to all parents who wish to participate.
The book “Mindset” is available here.
These book club meetings are held every Tuesday throughout the rest of the school year.
You can contact Isaac for questions at iramos@athlosutah.org