Middle School

The middle grades are an exciting time for your child’s growing mind. As they become more mature and independent in life, they begin to have more options at school.

Electives, athletics, and clubs are a few things they may be getting involved with during the day that will help build their social-emotional skills. In academics, students have to successfully complete certain courses for promotion to high school. How a student completes a course and is promoted is determined by local school districts. Of course, there are opportunities for your middle-schooler to earn high school credit that you may want to explore together. We hope you find the resources on this site that will help you help your child make the most out of their middle school adventure.

Growth Mindset

Have you heard about a movement called the Growth Mindset? Research completed by Dr. Carol Dweck states that the way our students think impacts their attitude toward learning and how they perform in our classrooms. As parents, you can help your child develop a Growth Mindset, in which they believe they can improve their knowledge and skills.

One of the key concepts of the growth mindset research is that children should be praised for effort instead of ability. The research shows that these students:

• ask for new challenging tasks and persevere in solving them.

• view challenges as a way of learning, and embrace them.

A great introduction to the growth mindset vs. fixed mindset is the Youtube video “The Power of Belief – Mindset and Success” by Eduardo Brinceno.