For me, this week started in a very particular and exciting way. After the hard work of the Innovation Academy students, and the thrilling iWeek we all got to experience, each group got to present and 9 judges got to decide who the winner group was. My dad was one of the judges. It was weird but pleasing at the same time to be in the same classroom as my dad, observe him perceive what all of us had been doing for the past week with such interest, watch him listen carefully, participate, judge and appreciate, and contemplate how he gave feedback to my classmates. It was amazing. It was an unforgettable experience to see my dad so engaged and interested not only in my activity and learning, but in every IA student.
After the iWeek presentations and judging, my dad also got the chance to speak to my grade level about marketing. In only 30-minutes, he had the task to introduce us to marketing and advertisement and discuss with us possibilities to work on for a project. I believe that in the brief time we had, he was able to give us a lot of information and make it clear to all of us.
I was delighted with the comments of my classmates. "How great your dad...", "Your dad was amazing...", "Before I had no idea what marketing was, your dad made it clear in 30 minutes...", "I was completely decided about studying cooking, but your dad has made me doubt between cooking and marketing...", "He was able to tell us a lot in 30-minutes.... it is something that sometimes teachers can't even do", etc.
Besides this special experience, I got the chance to test my mindset and realize how it is already developing into a growth-mindset. After such a tough and time-requiring competition, it would be obvious for someone who is fixed-minded to only want to win, to see winning as the most important thing of the competition, and believe that the opposite is failure, and that it will mark them for life. I believe that before reading mindset, I would have been very focused on winning the competition, and being very dissapointed if we didn't win after so much effort and time put into our project. Probably, I would have even believed that my team was not capable and I would have felt envy for the winning team.
THANKFULLY, none of these happened after being defeated by the third team. I was not sorry for not winning at any moment, I never felt like my team had failed, I never felt envy for the third team ; on the contrary, I admired the third team. I believed that their presentation and their video were VERY cool, and I was excited for them and looking forward to work with them in other projects and learn the skills they had elaborated in this project. I did not feel dissapointed at all and never believed that my team was a failure, I was very proud of our final project and I believe we acheived amazing things together; winning is not all there is.
I am glad that I was able to identify this change in my mindset and I am confident that is not the first that I will recognize in the next days/weeks/months/years.
After the iWeek presentations and judging, my dad also got the chance to speak to my grade level about marketing. In only 30-minutes, he had the task to introduce us to marketing and advertisement and discuss with us possibilities to work on for a project. I believe that in the brief time we had, he was able to give us a lot of information and make it clear to all of us.
I was delighted with the comments of my classmates. "How great your dad...", "Your dad was amazing...", "Before I had no idea what marketing was, your dad made it clear in 30 minutes...", "I was completely decided about studying cooking, but your dad has made me doubt between cooking and marketing...", "He was able to tell us a lot in 30-minutes.... it is something that sometimes teachers can't even do", etc.
Besides this special experience, I got the chance to test my mindset and realize how it is already developing into a growth-mindset. After such a tough and time-requiring competition, it would be obvious for someone who is fixed-minded to only want to win, to see winning as the most important thing of the competition, and believe that the opposite is failure, and that it will mark them for life. I believe that before reading mindset, I would have been very focused on winning the competition, and being very dissapointed if we didn't win after so much effort and time put into our project. Probably, I would have even believed that my team was not capable and I would have felt envy for the winning team.
THANKFULLY, none of these happened after being defeated by the third team. I was not sorry for not winning at any moment, I never felt like my team had failed, I never felt envy for the third team ; on the contrary, I admired the third team. I believed that their presentation and their video were VERY cool, and I was excited for them and looking forward to work with them in other projects and learn the skills they had elaborated in this project. I did not feel dissapointed at all and never believed that my team was a failure, I was very proud of our final project and I believe we acheived amazing things together; winning is not all there is.
I am glad that I was able to identify this change in my mindset and I am confident that is not the first that I will recognize in the next days/weeks/months/years.