Today's guest post is by AAE member, Paul Larrea.

Taking assessments is always nerve-racking for every student. Students will sometime experience anxiety, freeze up, cry, or develop a fixed mindset such as “I don’t know” or “I’m going to fail.” As a teacher, it is always hard for me to see kids like this. I wanted to find a way to help my students overcome this and to establish a growth mindset. A solution that I came up with is to create growth mindset signs to hold up when my students are taking an assessment for me. This is very popular with all my students. Every time my students enter the classroom on testing day, they ask me “Are you going to hold up your signs, because they work and help me?”

My growth mindset signs are tools that my students look forward to. When my students take an assessment, I will hold up positive words or phrases such as, “I believe in you! You got this! You are awesome! and, You are smart!”. When struggling with a question or two, my students will look up and see me holding these signs in the air. The feedback I get is a chuckle, a smile, or a thumbs up. Their faces light up and it reduces the stress of test anxiety.

One day after school when I was grading one of my student’s test, the student had left me a note on her test saying “I always look forward to your sign, they bring me a sense of calm and relief.” To be honest, I would have never thought my signs would be such a moving and inspirational experience for my students. They have truly made an impact on my students’ lives. Not only do they increase their self-confidence, they also know that that this teacher cares and believes in them!

Paul Larrea is a middle school teacher at Queen of Angels Regional Catholic School in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. He has received multiple awards for his teaching including 2018 PA CAPE Middle School Teacher of the Year and 2018 Phillies All Star Teacher of the Year.

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