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Growing Scholars aims to improve a child's potential for success at school and home by teaching essential skills that promote the development of a positive attitude, healthy habits, and independent routines. 

 

Essential skills include:

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•  Purpose in life - Students understand that their goal is to be the best version of themself. Therefore, we celebrate each child's uniqueness and recognize their beautiful brilliance while emphasizing that they learn to give their best effort throughout life's activities. During sessions, students learn and apply The Cycle of GrowthTM to improve their behaviors, habits, and routines.

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• Habit Awareness and Improvement - At Growing Scholars, we believe that life today is the sum of our habits. Therefore, a child's success or failure in school is directly related to their habits. According to James Clear, author of Atomic Habits (2018), "habits are the small decisions and actions you make each day. Your habits ultimately form the person you are, the things you believe, and the personality that you portray." We believe you grow as a person and scholar when you improve your habits. When you learn to change your habits, you can transform your life. We teach students to be aware of their habits and change those creating obstacles to becoming the best version of themselves. When they do this, they improve their success at school and home. 

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• Social and Emotional Awareness - Students are taught to successfully manage social or emotional situations that they may find troublesome or difficult using the Triangle of TriumphTM. In an emotionally challenging moment, they learn to 1) hit pause and take three deep breaths, during which time they, 2) feel and identify their emotions, and 3) consider their options and select a positive plan of action to manage the situation. For example, suppose a child is feeling confused in the classroom. In this case, they learn to pause and identify what they are feeling, perhaps uncertainty about an assignment or a teacher's directives, and think about how to resolve their feelings by considering and choosing a positive remedy learned during sessions in Growing Scholars, in this example, raising their hand to ask the teacher questions for better understanding. We also focus on the following topics to improve a child's social and emotional awareness and acuity, including how to effectively communicate with adults, friendships and positive peer pressure, all behaviors attract attention, gratitude, empathy, and life balance. 

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• Developing a Growth Mindset - At Growing Scholars, we embrace the research by American Psychologist Carol Dweck, author of Mindset, The New Psychology of Success (2006), on the critical nature of mindset and the importance of developing a growth mindset. According to Dweck, how a child views themself profoundly affects how they live. Therefore, through conversation and practice, students learn to embrace a growth mindset - acknowledging that growth occurs through successes and failures. Both are necessary parts of learning; however, they teach us differently. For example, we use powerful positive phrases like "I'm working at it" instead of "I'm horrible at this" or "I'll figure this out" instead of "I can't do this."  "Do I have to" is replaced with "I get to" and "I'm   not smart enough" with "This will take some time?."

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• Goal Setting - We teach students the why and how to set goals using the SMART goal strategy by asking, is the goal specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely? Students are taught to write down their goals and action plan to achieve them. Research shows that three percent of the population set goals, and only about one percent write them down.  The findings of a study by psychologist Gail Matthews (2015)  demonstrate that writing down goals attributed to the success of 33 percent of the participants. Therefore, students learn to formulate a plan for their goal/s and write them down. This practice is designed to increase the student's likelihood of success with their goal/s and establish successful habits. For example, if a student sets a big goal to get on the Honor Roll for the grading period, they are taught to set small goals that will lead to routines and habits that support them in achieving success. Small plans may be written as checklists or schedules created by the student to help them focus and stay on track. 

 

•  Reflection - Heavy emphasis is placed on the skill of thinking. Students learn to pause and evaluate their actions and learning by reflecting on what is working for them and contributing to their success and what is not. We encourage students to reflect often. Reflection comes from writing in their journal and conversing about their experience. This is often the most common time for students to have "aha" moments. When they reflect on their choices and make connections with the outcomes, learning takes place. 

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•  Revision - After students understand the powerful skill of reflection, they are taught to revise: zero in on what is not working for them and change their goal strategy before implementing the new plan.  

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At Growing Scholars, we aim to motivate all students, including high-achieving and gifted students, to go beyond what they thought possible by engaging them in opportunities to think deeply, create, and problem-solve.