2022-2023 School Story Focus

FOCUS  Welcome to the 2022-2023 school year.  At Maple Lane Elementary, we continue to focus on growth mindset in our students.  More specifically, what do students do when they face adversity and struggle?  We want our students to understand what it means to be resilient and persevere through challenging tasks across the curriculum.

ACTIONS  We are committed to moving forward with our focus and supporting our students to move forward through the following actions:

• Dedicated time in staff meetings to focus on our question, share ideas and resources and talk about next steps.
• Professional learning with a focus on problem solving across the curriculum through an Innovation Grant.
• Explicitly teach and modelling problem solving strategies
• Further develop the tools in our students' tool box so that they have strategies to draw on when working through challenging tasks.
• As a staff, develop a common bank of vocabulary and strategies that can be used with students, so students are hearing the same words and phrases.
• Continue to focus on our abilities and build our self-awareness through goal setting and reflection
• A school story bulletin board that highlights what is happening in the school with our school story and our common language is highlighted
• Collaboration time for teachers to work and plan together.  While collaboration time is happening, Mrs. Schwartz will be working with one class on school story topics and surveys.

EVIDENCE Through our commitment and dedication to growth mindset, problem solving and goal setting, we hope to see:

• Students who are able to name more strategies that they can draw on when faced with a challenging task.
• Students who are able to set tangible personal goals and reflect on how it is going with those goals.
• Students who are able to transfer these strategies to curricular areas such as literacy and numeracy.

2021-2022 School Year

We continue to work with the question about growth mindset and how to foster resiliency in our students.

2021-2022 Our Learning and Actions

• Survey the staff
• Survey the students
• Professional learning time at staff meetings to learn more about resiliency
• Establish common language to use school wide and continue to use our SPARK acronym
• Find ways to make the school story more alive in our school
• Create a school story bulletin board

What is our focus?

Our question is: How can we support our students to develop a growth mindset towards their learning and show resiliency when faced with adversity and struggle.

How did we determine our focus and what did we learn from listening to our students?

2016-2017

From the beginning of the 2016/2017 school year, staff used an inquiry lens when looking at student successes and challenges. Through the school year at staff meetings, ProD, and through spontaneous conversations, staff shared their observations and questions about their students. Staff looked for common themes and questions. From there staff came up with one single topic and, from it, a question. The topic being resiliency in our students and the question, how can we promote the development of a growth mindset in our students. Staff time and time again perceived an increase in the number of students who displayed worry and anxiety when it came to completing schoolwork, taking tests or facing adversity and challenge. The perceived increase in anxiety and worry in students has concerned staff to the point that they wonder how they can help students to become more resilient. How can staff help students to move from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset?

Fixed Mindset - An individual with a fixed mindset believes that they cannot improve or learn a certain quality about themselves. Such areas at school could include an academic area, speaking ability or interpersonal skill. Individuals with a fixed mindset often believe their skill or ability is something they are born with and cannot be nurtured.

Growth Mindset - An individual with a growth mindset believes that, although they may not be able to something yet, over time with practice and experience they can develop a skill or ability. 

Our Learning & Actions for 2020-21

What will we do to enhance our students’ learning?

-Staff will learn what a fixed and growth mindset are, and how to promote and create a growth mindset in Maple Lane students.

-Staff will share with students the definitions and differences of a growth mindset and a fixed mindset.

-Staff will promote a Growth Mindset often in the classroom. They will work terms and definitions into classroom lessons and during individual feedback as often as possible

-Staff will focus on providing targeted constructive feedback on effort rather than ability or outcome.

-Staff will focus on providing Formative Assessment as students are learning, that students can act upon immediately. Staff will help students understand that constructive criticism does not limit them, rather it enables them to act and improve.

What are some specific actions we are considering taking?

-Staff will read Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset, over the summer and in the beginning months of the 2020/2021 school year.

-Books on Growth Mindset and Resiliency will be purchased for the Staff Library, including, Mindsets in the Classroom, A Mindset for Learning, Ready to use Resources for Mindsets in the Classroom, Mathmatical Mindsets.

-Creating a picture book library to promote Growth Mindset

What will we focus on in our professional learning to support our students’ learning?

-Staff commitment to reading Carol Dweck’s book.

-Creation of a Staff Library Collection on Mindset

-Dedicate parts of 3 of our 6 ProD Days in the 2020-2021 school year to focus on learning about a Growth Mindset and how we can promote and teach it to Maple Lane students

-Creation of a Study Group that meets once a month to share books and articles about Growth Mindset