Mindset and Oneself

During this week of class lecture we have begun discussing a mindset type of book that focuses on grown and fixed mindset of people and how they can be changed over more developed over time. In this book, Carol Dweck illustrates the differences between a growth and fixed mindset. She quotes  “In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort.” . In order to tie the book to the class, we looked at strategies used in previous experiences and how they can be incorporated into a new learning challenge. In other terms to put it a fixed mindset person would say "They were just naturally born smart" believing that people's mind is set on only one point of view and wouldn't change. On the other hand, growth mindset is described as "Students understanding that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence. They don't necessarily think everyone's the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it.” The object for this weeks course was to identify how we have have grown over time with having a growth mindset. 

One of my accomplishments was becoming a more outspoken person and becoming comfortable with myself and not afraid to ask questions when I am not understanding a topic. Because my sister and brother had always been quite smart and struggled less in College I felt like I had to live up to that expectation. During my first two years at Phenix College I had pushed myself to be on top of thing and to a point it became extremely stressing and I was not doing well on test and was starting to do bad on test and was not doing well mentally and physically. Coming into Dr. Beth Polidoro's lab I have broader my horizons and have been more open about what I need help on and more explaining on a topic I am not understanding. (Strategy #1). Dr. Polidoro and Cassy have made my internship experience a comfortable place for me to be myself and not be afraid to ask question or concerns. They explain every protocol to me in a specific way and have me explain every step upon starting a new protocol.(Strategy #2). This semester I decided to take an American Indian Seminar class, where there is only 6 students in the (9:30am-12:15pm) class. The majority of the class is part of a Indian Tribe so I am in a way the odd fish out. Most of the class Is a member of an Indian Tribe so when discussions occur I have not be afraid of asking them question about their culture and traditions and they are always polite to correct me in such terms and have been extremely kind to me when I am trying to understand a trial that we are discussing that week. (Strategy #3). I have figured that if I want to continue to education path in environmental I would have to make myself stand out, a but more and because of that I would have to speak up more. 

Some of my personal challenges that I have had for myself are to self- teach myself anatomy in specific the human bones, and to self teach myself Portuguese. How I wish to accomplish this is by buying cheap rental books that I could find at cheap stores. Watch plenty of youtube videos and make it a class of my own. I personally feel like I have developed into a growth mindset because back than I would have never thought of myself as a self-teaching person and would have believed that I could only learn specific subject in class and that I would not teach myself right. But I am willing to go against those odds for this Spring break and continue on Summer.