Professional Development: Affiliate Federation Day

As part of the Affiliate Federation Day (sponsored by OECTA) I had the privilege of attending the 'ICanyet Student Driven Student Portfolios' workshop. The idea behind the workshop was to learn about the power of having a growth mindset in all subject areas and creating a student portfolio in order to monitor progress.

The workshop was packed full of information and resources from Dan Montanaro (@mrm1mr), so I've selected my top 3 take-aways to share here.


Student Driven Portfolios in Student-Led Conferences

I've heard about student-led conferences before, but only briefly and not in great detail. The idea is that students take ownership of their work and behaviours in order to share with their parents in place of traditional parent-teacher interviews. Dan's method was having students save all of their work through the term in a portfolio and then curate the key pieces they think shows their growth as a student to share in a presentation to their parents. 

Personally, I think this is a wonderful idea since it allows students the opportunity to truly take ownership of their work. They can highlight their achievements to their parents while at the same time reflecting personally on their growth. Since students will have more insight on their strengths and areas of need they will be better equipped to continue to improve. 


Types of Mistakes

This was one of the most insightful pieces of information I took from this presentation. Carol Dweck is a professor at Stanford University who developed the idea of 'not yet' thinking. This is a version of a growth mindset where you believe you just can't do it yet (whatever it is). Her TED Talk is embedded below.


However, she warns that making mistakes isn't always a step towards improvement and suggests classifying mistakes as so:
This graphic (originally created by Mindset Works but discussed in detail on MindShift) discourages students from making sloppy mistakes (like not reading a question entirely or skipping a simple step) that do not encourage their brain to grow. Instead, the types of mistakes that Dweck talks about are ones where you took a risk with a problem or explored a new strategy - a stretch mistake. If these don't work it's not for lack of effort like with a sloppy mistake. 


#ICANyet

ICANyet is a movement that Dan has started at his school in the TCDSB. It's the simple idea that students will be able to achieve anything they set their mind to - they can yet. The idea that with hard work and perseverance (also known as grit) students can accomplish anything, including non-academic goals. It's a simple, constant reminder to students to approach problems with a growth mindset. 

I highly suggest searching the hashtag on twitter for an inspiring look at what a student with a growth mindset can achieve. 

To conclude, I'll leave you again with my favourite quote: 
"Whether you think you can, or think you can't -- you're right." - Henry Ford

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