Week Four: Growth Mindset, Academic Basics, and Academic Integrity

Introduction

This weeks topic was growth mindset, academic basics, and academic integrity. Due to the hurrication last week we didn't have any class discussions, so on Monday of this week, we used class time to discuss in-class discussions (ironic right?). On Wednesday we spent most of the class discussing growth mindset versus fixed mindset. Growth mindset is when you take something your bad at and instead of just living with it, you push yourself to get better at it. A fixed mindset is just accepting you're bad at something and never trying to go above that expectation. Near the end of class on Wednesday we also talked a little bit about academic integrity and what it means to us as students. I really enjoyed the class this week. I felt as though the discussions flowed really well and it was overall a really fun environment. 

Monday

Upon entering class on Monday we were all given a sheet of paper over in-class discussions. On one side of the paper, we had to describe what we believed made a good discussion and on the other side what made a bad one. Once we finished these papers, we were put into groups of two to discuss what we wrote down. I was paired with Carter and for the most part, we both put down the same things. On the good discussion side, we put things such as open-mindedness, active listeners, and loose structure. Once we had time to discuss with our partners, it was on to a class-wide discussion, which was interesting, to say the least. Emma most definitely led this conversation. She shared a story about her making her classmate literally break out into a sweat. Guess who's gonna try to avoid debating with Emma from now on. It's me, I prefer not to sweat. 

Wednesday

Similarly to Monday, we were given a sheet about growth mindset and fixed mindset on the front and academic integrity on the back. For most of the class, we discussed growth mindset versus fixed mindset. Growth mindset is when someone has a desire to learn, tries to improve, takes criticism as constructive, and embraces challenges. The fixed mindset is when someone believes they can't get better, they give up easily, and avoid challenges. A few of my classmates shared their examples of the different mindsets and then Doctora asked us to write one thing we are bad at on our paper. For me personally, I wrote driving. Then she asked us to think about how or if we've attempted to improve that skill. I have tried to have a growth mindset about it, but 3 totaled cars later I feel like it's safe for everyone that I just stay off the road. 

Near the end of class, we discussed academic integrity. Alicia shared an instance in one of her classes where a student posted the answers to a quiz on the classes GroupMe. Then Doctora shared how cheating and plagiarism feels as a professor. Under the plagiarism side of the sheet, I wrote about a BIG plagiarism scandal that happened at my high school. My freshman year there was a DE class full of all seniors and they were assigned a 4-page paper as a final. All of the students decided it would be a great idea to take the paper from a student who took the class the year before and ALL turn it in. It was a huge ordeal and I'll never forget how this made that professor feel. 

Fun Side Note

Wednesday Will brought wheat thins to class because he started a challenge to see how many wheat thins you can fit in your mouth. The mere presence of the wheat thins caused a class discussion over what is the point in the whole thing. Then he gave Taylor a box and said that she had to try to see how many she could fit, but she refused even though she still took the box of wheat thins (a girl gotta eat). Anyways my boyfriend and I were inspired to try this challenge and our current records are actually the same, 40. My mouth is apparently a lot larger than I anticipated. I can't get the pictures to upload, but if anyone wants to see them hit me up!