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Jimmy Thompson, the quiet student in the front row, is smoothing his hair back nervously with his left hand. His right hand is tapping his pencil, eraser-side down, on the desk rhythmically...His fidgeting is causing other students’ attention waning from the test, and instead being focused on him. Hoping to help ease his frustration, you walk to his desk, bend down slightly, and whisper: “Are you ok? Do you need help with anything?” He looks up at you, defeated, and says the words no teacher wants to hear: “I’m just too dumb for this.” (quoted from source)
How many times has a student in your classroom said something like Jimmy in the description above? What did you do to help him/her understand that each of us have different strengths and weaknesses? Were able to say words that would motivate him/her?
This post explores these questions and much more. The sections include:
* What do you do?
* So What Do You Say?
* What Do You Know?
* Intelligence is Unofficially Measured in Different Ways
* It is all Relative!
* But What is Intelligence?
* The Bell Curve
* Inherited Smarts
* Disparity of IQ
* On Being Smart vs Intelligent
* So, Back to Jimmy
This post may provide opportunities for you to reflect on how you might change or shift ways you deal with some students. You may also be interested in searching this Scoop.it for information on fixed mindset and growth mindset, concepts explored by Carol Dweck.