Will you see problems pushing against the door jams on your first day back to school? Or do you see possibilities written across backdrop screens of every learner’s mind?
You’d have to have the brain of a coconut husk to run from or deliberately block life-changing wonders in your day, in spite of challenges we all face. Yet how many of us make proactive choices as a way to look beyond nagging problems? Students thrive when we help them spot and unleash possibility life-savers on a difficult day. How so?
I start by pulling personal possibilities from the awesome potential every learner brings to class daily. Teens and pre-teens leap to the question, HOW ARE YOU SMART? Notice I did not ask, How smart are you? They differ, in that my question unleashes amazing strengths all teens bring to learning. It lights a pathway beyond niggling problems such as poverty that can tank learning – to offer possibilities showcased below.
If you’ve wondered what possibility thinkers do differently, then you’ll identify with the following 10 prospects that change ordinary days into extraordinary opportunities. That leapfrog over problems such as poverty to engage all learners in POSSIBILITIES that awaken parts of their brain never before used to accomplish possibilities never before accomplished!
Turns out our brains stockpile mega-pharmaceutical supports – that flood our day with serotonin to support possibilities or cortisol to fixate us on problems!
You guessed it – your daily choices fling open delightful or dangerous floodgates. Serotonin cascades into wonder – while cortisol imprisons us in its woeful traps!
Each of these 10 mentoring steps -depends on the awesome equipment kids’ brains possess to tackle problems with possibilities. In spite of challenges they face beyond your class or mine, awaken possibilities and brains reshape. Yes, literally! They begin to step into new trajectories forward!
Over forty years in a field that’s been more than good to me, I’ve discovered it takes brain based mentoring to cultivate possibility thinkers! That’s why I’m excited my mind-guiding approach to mentor is coming out internationally soon with Wiley Press! It works and teens love it! And let’s face it. Who doesn’t find new mental mojo in a room filled with possibility thinkers in mutual mentoring roles. Teachers and teens who pull together to solve stubborn problems with cool possibilities they both contribute!
Mentoring that Bridges Gaps and Values Differences
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Created by Ellen Weber, Brain Based Tasks for Growth Mindset