But I Smile Anyway…

Just this week, I had a most interesting staff meeting.

Staff meeting… Interesting… not necessarily two things that are often in the same sentence!

But seriously, this week we had a twilight training session (meaning we were there for three hours) all about Mindset & Motivation, and Evidence-Based Teaching.

It was fascinating!

Led by Robin Launder, an ex-prison officer turned teacher, I spent an insightful three hours extending my knowledge about mindset.

Prison officer… teacher… the similarities are vast if you think logically.

• You are both responsible for vast amounts of other people.
• You have to deal with behaviour issues.
• You both need to set limits and boundaries with regards to behaviour.
• You can find your work/life balance heavily teetering on the work side.

Who knew? I am basically a Prison Officer but for smaller inmates!

No, that is taking things a little far… My little darlings are far from the outlaws who are incarcerated in Her Majesty’s ‘Hotels’!

But it is definitely correct to compare the behaviour aspect of our jobs! We do need to instil boundaries in our classrooms. We need to keep our children happy and focused. And most importantly, we

And most importantly, we need to give our pupils space and opportunity to grow.

How guilty are we, in life, not just school, of labelling people?

“Oh, you’re such a clever boy!”
“You’re the best !”
“You’re so good “

It isn’t wrong to praise anyone, but sometimes, especially in this day and age, I fear we use far too much of this praise for a good bit of work or job, rather than praise for effort.

In this way, we as parents and teachers can enforce a fixed mindset. A child who has been praised to the hilt for previous efforts is less likely to take risks in new learning, for fear of failure. They can do this but they can’t do that, so they don’t try it = Fixed Mindset.

Whereas those who have pootled along, getting things wrong, as well as right, are more likely to take the next step, the next risk, with the chance of success equal to failure = Growth Mindset.

Because FAIL is not a bad thing!

F – First
A – Attempt
I – In
L – Learning

This was something that Launder mentioned, and I liked this, because we already have a poster up of this acronym in our school, growth mindset is firmly in all our minds!

And just an addition here, we went to another Mindset training and these came up as an addition to FAIL!

SAIL – You’re getting there, you can do it!

S – Second
A – Attempt
I – In
L – Learning

And

NAIL – See, practice made it perfect! On to the next challenge!!

N – Next
A- Attempt
I- In
L – Learning

Now, I could go into depth about all the wonderful things Launder mentioned, but I would be here for ages! Instead, I will mention one thing he asked us to all think about.

“Think about something that you really never thought you would be able to do. Something that you can do now, but at the time, you felt was impossible.”

There are so many obvious things, like ride a bike, learn to drive, learn to swim… but when is Ritu ever that obvious!?

We were asked to volunteer our ‘thing’ and I was happy to comply.

“To make perfectly round chappatis!”

Seriously.

It was a big thing for me!

My mum never expected me to cook regularly. Of course, I helped out but I wasn’t like some girls I knew, who were in the kitchen from a young age, perfecting the art of making Masala Chai, and Saag, Pakoras and Sabzi, in preparation for the inevitable marriage, and pleasing of in-laws!

But, when I got married, I was thrust into a family where it was normal to have curry and chapattis (roti) every day. There was only so long that I could sit back and be the ‘new bride’. Even though my mother in law is wonderful, she wasn’t going to cook for me forever!

So, the practice began. At first, my mind was pretty fixed. I was never going to be able to do this. Maps of every continent on this planet would appear before me as I rolled the dough out, but none looked like the Earth itself! I was almost resigned to the fact that I would never be able to do it.

Nevertheless, I carried on. No one commented on my strange shaped chapattis. They may have looked odd, but they still tasted ok. And day after day, week after week, I would make the chapattis at dinner time.

It wasn’t until one weekend when my own parents were over, that I realised that I was actually a fully fledged “Chapatti Queen”, as Robin Launder christened me! Mum stood in the kitchen, talking to me, and unbeknownst to me, was watching me roll my magic out. After I had rolled out around ten chapattis, she said to me in wonder, “Ritu, your rotis are actually round, all of them, and you aren’t even concentrating!”

When I looked down at the one I was rolling out and the pile of cooked flatbreads, I realised that I really had learned how to make round chapattis! I mean, as I rolled they even went around, by themselves, aiding in the creating of a perfect circular shape!

And not only that, I was also an expert at using different doughs, filled and spiced, and even able to rescue dough that was a couple of days old and that had become a little watery, to still make round chapattis!

Well, Launder was actually quite surprised when I had said my little sentence.

“You won’t believe this,” he said, “you aren’t the first, but the second person to have ever said that to me in all this time I have been running these sessions! Usually it’s the old ‘ride a bike’ thing!”

And during the course of the course, my art of making circular chapattis was referred to several times! My colleagues laughed, and said that they need to see me make these infamous round rotis too!

So, me being me, tried to film myself. I know I am a teacher, very resourceful and all that, but even I couldn’t magic a third arm out of nowhere, and I didn’t want to ask a family member to film me, so I improvised with a saucepan handle, and got this video… It’s not great, but you can see the chapatti moving around, of its own accord!

Apologies for the not clear filming, but hey, I hope you get the gist!

And here is the chapatti fluffing up when being cooked, another achievement!

And you know what, I don’t get them right every time. But I always have a jolly good go! You may get Africa, or Russia even, once in a while, but they are pretty darn good, no matter what! And hey, practice makes perfect!

See, GROWTH MINDSET!!!!!

If you are interested in reading more about Robin Launder, and his teachings, please visit his website, Behaviour Buddy, by clicking here.