Growth Mindset

(Math counters or "Manipulative" used for teaching simple math problems, found on Wikipedia)

I remember it like it was yesterday.  I was 6 years old, sitting in Ms. K's class reading "Frog and Toad Together" when all of a sudden, I watched the boy I chased around the playground at recess go to Ms. K's special table.  I was a very curious 6 year old girl, and I had a major crush on this little boy, so I decided to put my book down and casually walk by Ms. K's table to see what they were doing. 

On the table were our math counters, 10 or so little colored cubes we used to do math problems with, like 5+7 or 10-1.  This seemed normal but then I noticed a little shape that was different.  It was one horizontal line with a dot above and a dot below.  I stopped and stood behind Ms. K, facing the boy.  It was common knowledge that this boy was the smartest in the class.  He always read at circle and he was always the first one to finish his addition problems, so I knew whatever that symbol was, it meant it was hard.

I looked down at the table.  There was a pile of 10 cubes.  Ms. K looked at the boy and said, "Okay Cody, what is 10 divided by 2?"  He looked blank faced back at Ms. K.  She separated the pile into two smaller piles and said, "Okay how many counters are in each circle if we divide this pile of 10 into 2 piles?"

I chirped up, "5!"

Cody looked over at me surprised and Ms. K turned to me and patted me on the back, "good job McKenzie, you're right!" she said.  Then she turned back to Cody and set up a new problem.  Again, I blurted the answer out before Cody could open his mouth.  Finally, by the third problem, Ms. K turned to me and whispered, "McKenzie, I am working with Cody right now, let's let him try to answer the questions first."  So for the next 10 minutes, I whispered all the answers into Ms. K's ear while Cody tried to figure out the answers himself. 

I will always remember that day because it was the day I proved to my teacher that I was ready for more difficult work and ready to be challenged.  After that day, she started taking both me and Cody to her table to work on division and multiplication problems.  I didn't get the answers right every time but I was so proud to be sitting at Ms. K's table and being one of the only students learning how to divide 10 by 2.  

Watching Carol Dwek's videos instantly took me back to this memory, especially when she said "Make challenge the new comfort zone".  I thrived in kindergarten with those challenges.  Even today I take more difficult classes to challenge me.  I feel that I learn more when I am in a class that may be more difficult than my current level of study.  The process of challenge is where I do best and learn most.