My Students as Mathematicians with a Growth Mindset

I have been learning a lot this summer through the conversation of my new teacher friends and the #MTBoS on Twitter.  The Educational Twitter Chats like #EduRead have taught me a lot, which has led to researching new things.  One of the things I have been researching is Growth Mindset.   

Growth Mindset Vs. Fixed Mindset:
A Growth Mindset is the belief that intelligence can be developed through hard work and effort and you focus on improving and learning from mistakes. A Fixed Mindset is the belief that you are born with your potential and you have a learned helplessness.

Here are some really interesting links on Growth Mindset:
A Growth Mindset Livebinder and Mindworks Community

Mindset in My Classroom
It is going to be a lot of work to change the mindset of my students.  They come in with such a fixed mindset, and the belief that they are not good at math.  It breaks my heart when I hear my students say, "But I am dumb teacher".  :o(

Last year I could see the difference in the mindsets of my students when I constantly barraged them with encouragement and motivation. And this year I plan to focus on it even more.  Other than teaching the math concepts, changing their mindset is what I am focusing on the most.

My Growth Mindset Posters
To keep with my theme this year in my classroom of motivating my students to persevere through their STRUGGLE.  I made a set of Growth Mindset Posters. I decided to call it the Mindset of a Mathematician instead of Growth Mindset.

I came across some good ideas while Pinteresting and this is what I created. I wanted this set of posters to be like a collage. I will put them above my Promethean Board at the front of the room, so they can be seen at all times.  I typed the words with different fonts and used scrapbook paper for the background. (They still need to be laminated)

If you would like a copy of the words you can download them here:  My Growth Mindset Posters