Growth Mindset For Catholic Teachers And Why It Matters.

In today’s episode we explore a great insight from Monsignor A.N. Gilbey and also how we can apply the concept of a growth mindset to ourselves as well as to our children. No matter how long we have been teaching there is always more that God has in store for us. Just as the apostles were an unfinished collection of personalities and problems when they first met Jesus, we also, can allow Him to form and shape us along the journey of our vocational life.

Author

Jonathan Doyle is an international speaker, author, businessman and executive coach who has spoken around the world to more than 400,000 people on topics related to personal development, peak performance, leadership, Catholic school evangelisation, relationships and much more.

His recent keynote addresses include the NCEA National Convention in St. Louis Missouri to 10,000 delegates and he is a frequent keynote speaker in the US, Asia and Europe.

He is also the founder of an influential education and media business that delivers training content to hundreds of organisations and thousands of individuals around the world on a weekly basis.

Jonathan holds an undergraduate degree in education from the University of Canberra, a Masters Degree in Leadership and Management from the University of Newcastle and has also undertaken post-graduate study in philosophical anthropology.

He is the author of numerous books on relationships and peak performance and each day shares these same ideas with a large global audience via The Daily Podcast with Jonathan Doyle.

Make sure you grab a copy of my new book Finishing Strong. Just click the book image on the left and it will take you straight there.

Finishing Strong is a loud and clear call for every young person to make the very best of their final years of school. Based on hundreds of seminars around the world to a huge number of students Jonathan Doyle offers powerful, practical advice that can make a major difference.

Each chapter offers inspiring stories, clear principles and actionable steps for identifying and moving forward in study, life, friendships and each key area of life.

Jonathan also includes journal questions and guided reflections at the end of each chapter to maximise learning and ensure the ideas and principles can be made real, personal and achievable.

If you want to help your child or students make the very best of their final years of high school then it;s time to help them finish strong!

TRANSCRIPT

Catholic Daily Nov 16 2020

📍 Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you once again for the Catholic teacher daily podcast. Greetings to you all out there in the great adventure of Catholic education. Hope you’re doing okay. In this topsy turvy academic calendar year, that we’ve all had. There’s been, gosh, I keep saying it, but what a year we’ve had Bush fires accidents.

COVID all sorts of stuff happening. All my American listeners is still working through your election stuff there. What a great season. Of upheaval it is, which is why it’s great that Jesus Christ. Is the same yesterday, today and forever. Isn’t it good to have that kind of base security in reality?

That, uh, you know, the Christian vision of reality should be fundamentally different. To the reality of those who have not experienced the Lordship of Jesus Christ in their lives. I’m a reading at the moment. Oh, intermittently, I should say an extraordinary books called we believe a simple commentary on the catechism of Christian doctrine by Monsignor a N Gilby who passed away.

Many years ago, but this is kind of a treaties on the catechism and it’s really well done. Very simple. But, uh, I’m reading a little bit at the moment about he’s talking about the horizon of history, the horizon of time, cosmic time. And how, you know, there’s these three great events. This is the fall of man. There’s the redemption of man. Of course, there’s the second coming of Christ. There’s a beautiful line. He or he says the whole process.

With our sanctification and salvation. Is something requiring the interplay of two wills. The divine and the human, the interplay of two wills, the divine and the human. I want to riff on that just for a second, because the way that we grow as Catholic teachers, the way that we bring the kingdom of God to life in the hearts of our students,

Is very much what about one, one that Monsignor Gilby is talking about the interplay of two wills. Now we know the will of God for us right here. Very clear in scripture that, uh, that the will of God is that all people would be saved. God wants to be close to us. I did a retreat recently and, uh, it was an online retreat.

There’s this sort of a profound realization that came to me through meditating on the enunciation. Where I suddenly realized that, you know, God went to a lot of trouble, you know? He really broke into human history. And we can easily forget that we can lose sight of the fact that God was coming after us.

That he was coming into the world in Christ. Jesus. So the will of God is our salvation, the will of God for every student in your classroom. Isn’t to go to Harvard. I mean, it could be, but it’s probably statistically not going to be that every student goes to Harvard. You know, it’s, it’s not that every student becomes incredibly wealthy through the career, the will of God for every young person, your classroom first and foremost.

Growth Mindset For Catholic Teachers

 

Is it, they become a disciple of his son and that they get home to heaven. So, how does it happen while as one senior you’ll be says, it’s the interplay of two wills. So God’s will is clear, right? We don’t have to worry too much about what God’s up to in history. He’s about bringing us home. And he’s using you as a Catholic teacher to get his kids home. Do you know that.

Is that you are aware of that. What makes you different to other teachers? What makes you different? To people teaching in government schools who do great work, they are not charged. With the task of getting God’s kids home to heaven. Now that might be amazing Christian teachers working in the public education system who are trying to do that.

But this podcast, particularly in the worker I get to do is to work with Catholic teachers. So remember. What is the purpose of what we’re doing is to get God’s kids home and to get you home. Did the interplay of these two wills. So we know what God’s doing. So, what do we need to do? We need to try and align our will with the will of God.

So often I spent many years sort of paralyzed in a way desperate to know the will of God. I wanted a daily email from God saying, Jonathan, now do this. Now do this. Now do this. And would get very stressed and anxious if I couldn’t exactly figure out what God’s will was. I really did. That was part of my nature. My personality.

And now I feel as I’ve got older and, uh, you know, got some ass. Hopefully some spiritual growth over the years under my belt. God’s will for me is that I get home to heaven and my we’ll just needs to be to cooperate with that. And how do we cooperate with that as Catholic educators, where we pray.

We have the sacraments. We have the rosary, we have just this heart disposition to be disciples of Christ and to have him use us every single day. In the lives of his children and these students that you take such great care off. So. His wheel is clear. I will just needs to be clear. I often share when I do stuff, seminars and keynotes, I talk about, you know, that beautiful line from Saint Augusta and he said, he, who made you without your cooperation will not save you without your cooperation.

Have you noticed that the God doesn’t drag anyone to heaven? He doesn’t force us to do anything. I mean, Uh, you know, I used to explain this to kids when I was teaching. I’d say that you. God took away free. Will. He would have made robots really magnificent robots. Who responded to him in obedience and love.

But the risk that God took a course, and this is the gospel. Righty. The risky took was that we would return that love freely. So friends, this is the interplay of two wheels. You want to be an amazing Catholic teacher. Then don’t worry about what God’s up to so much. Let’s worry about what we’re up to, which is simply trying to align our freedom. Our will, our choices, our prayer, our language, our energy, our efforts.

With the same thing with allowing God to be Lord of our lives and to bring us home. Now. Last thing I wanted to give you something useful. I was looking up some interesting stuff on teacher wellbeing. And there was an interesting stuff. Some stuff I read on, you know, the, the growth mindset. In a growth mindset is something that most of us are familiar with. And of course, we like to teach it to our students, you know, have this thing with my own kids where they say I can’t and I say OSA yet.

Yet, and they go, what are yet. Nigga what he keeps saying yet. And I go because you can’t do this yet. So we’re really good with our own children and our students in talking about. You know, A growth mindset. What about us? And this article, I just read you this tiny bit here. It says adopt a growth mindset and you’re teaching there’s great value in trying new things and accepting mistakes as opportunity to learn.

We could all do with a reminder of the power of yet. It can be helpful to see yourself as a learner, just like your students, and to spend time reflecting on new ideas, considering what you’ve learned and acknowledging areas that you find challenging, how I love, how they say. And to spend time reflecting. Right.

Yes. They’ve obviously been teaching because they know a lot about the amount of free time you have to spend time reflecting, but there is a good point that, huh. Which is, are we being stretched at all? Are we trying some new ideas and new things? I think often for teachers we can get so burned out and just get cynical.

That was my big thing for years in working with staff was to work on the question of cynicism, the fatigue, and the I’ve seen it all before, and this never works. So I want to encourage you today. Be encouraged to try this growth mindset, to try some new things in your teaching to risk it and file it.

If I allowed it, if necessary and tell the truth. I always used to say. To, to kids that say, Hey. I’m trying this, I don’t know if it’s gonna work, but let’s find out what happens. So be honest, if you’re gonna try stuff, be honest with the people you work with and say, let’s try this. Now the last thing I want to say about a growth mindset in our teaching.

Growth Mindset For Catholic Teachers

You think about the disciples, right. I recently watched that amazing new show. The chosen, if you haven’t seen the chosen. It’s on. I don’t think you can get it online as such where you can look up the chosen at a lead you to it, but you, you kind of get it on an iOS device or Android device. Many of you listening will have watched it. It’s just brilliant. It’s an amazing.

Um, new show about the life of Christ and the disciples. But it’s really interesting to notice how, you know, the disciples were just so such a rag tag, bunch of misfits and personalities and idiosyncrasies. And you see the patients and the fun that Jesus has with them. So it’s for me, it’s related to the growth mindset. You know, they became great saints. They became martyrs. They became fearless defenders of Christ, but they didn’t start that way.

So there is an amazing teacher that you are called to become. Now you might be first year teaching. You might be 50th year teaching. But there’s still more, there’s still more that God wants to do with you. There’s still more that he has planned for you. More impact, more influence, more engagement with young people as a Catholic educator.

So. He was patient with the disciples because he saw what they were going to become he’s patient with us because he knows what we’re going to become. So hang in there, be encouraged, try things. Don’t be afraid to fail and know that grace surrounds you. It abounds where sin. Abounds grace abounds all the more. So, uh, we’re on the winning team friends. We’re on a we’re on the team.

Have a heavenly father who is gracious and rich in mercy and is ready to give you everything you need. All right. That’s it. Covered a lot of ground there. Let’s align our will with the will of God. How do we do it through prayer, through sacrament, through the rosary, through crying out to Christ in the real moment to moment situations of your day as a teacher, each conversation, each lesson, each interaction.

Seek the grace of Jesus in the presence of the Holy spirit to guide you. All right. If you’re not getting this every day, please make sure you’ve subscribed. Hit subscribe on this, leave a comment, wherever you’re listening. And of course, everything else is on the website. One Catholic teacher.com. If you’re hearing this and you’re not getting the daily email from me.

I know we’ll email 📍 heavy, but it’s just a, what I send out as a motivational quote. And a link to this daily message. So that’s all it is. So make sure you’re on that. Let’s get it. Go to one Catholic teacher.com. And you will find signup boxes everywhere on the podcast page. Just drop your details in there.

So we can get this to you every day. Uh, please share this with people. And last thing, go to one Catholic teacher.com and go to the resources page and go and take the free trial of going deeper. You’re going to love that program. All right, friends. God bless you. My name’s Jonathan Doyle. This has been the Catholic teacher daily podcast. And i’ll have another message for you tomorrow