Week 8 Growth Mindset

A very interesting thing occurred in my second week of classes this semester. Two of my psychology classes I am currently in discussed Carol Dweck and her growth mindset approach. After learning some about her in this class during the first week, I was already semi-familiar with her stance and outlook on what a growth mindset was. I was able to use this and combine it with the other information from my two classes to get an even better understanding of myself and growth mindset in general. I think that I have two major faults in this area. First, I am somewhat of a perfectionist and can be mildly OCD. I like for things to go right the first time and when they don't it can really stress me out. I do not think that I am unwilling to learn new things or learn a new way to do something, but I do get very frustrated if that particularly thing does not work out for me. I am also not the best at asking a ton of questions when it comes to classwork. I tend more to stick to what I know and try to figure everything else out around this knowledge. To have more of a growth mindset I know that I should ask more questions when things do not add up and not to simply depend on my previous knowledge.

I think this class can definitely be used to work on these weaknesses. Since writing is not something I feel I am gifted in, it is a great way for me learn from my mistakes. Getting to work on my portfolio helps me to realize that I cannot be a perfectionist and that I am not going to get everything right not he first try. I am also having to read a lot of different types of stories while figuring out how to work canvas and the other sites/technology used so this makes me have to ask questions and expand my knowledge.

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Week 8 Reflections

I cannot believe that this semester is already halfway over. I have really been enjoying this class and I feel like it is such a nice break from some of my other classes because I get to just be myself and read/write what I choose. So far I have really liked the things that I have read/written. There have been a few weeks where I have been super busy and my stories have not been great, but there have also been weeks where I take a lot of time to make sure my stories reflect what I want them to. I have learned that my best writing occurs when I actively think about possible stories as I read the original story. If I think of different ways to change the story or add a character or manipulate the point of view and this helps me understand the story better and also get more creative. If I have a question about a story or my writing I mainly use the internet. If it's about a grammar question I simply google examples and try to match mine to that. If it is more serious and I cannot find the answer, then I will email Laura and she is extremely helpful. I have found from other writers that I want my writing to be more detailed, but not needing a ton of words to do this. I have a bad habit of feeling like I need a ton of descriptions and lots of sentences to explain one thing so I need to get better at using simpler descriptions that can still get the point across. In order to do this I need to pay more attention to the stories I read and see how they use their descriptions.

I have noticed a lot of people have little errors in their writing...misspelled words, grammar mistakes, etc. Some of this is from not rereading and some is just from lack of grammar knowledge. I know I do the same thing, especially if I don't read my story aloud to someone else. If I just read it aloud, I will still miss mistakes; I have to read it to another person in order to catch the bigger mistakes. I think I have been giving good feedback this semester. I try to read very carefully and give them encouraging advice. I think I could be better at giving more negative advice. Sometimes I do not feel like I am qualified to give writing advice since I am not the best writer so I need to get better at this.

Be Creative