South Tama schools Superintendent Jared Smith checks work of teachers Heather Darett, Lon Wilkerson and Anna McBride during a “Growth Mindset” session at the Meskwaki Convention Center on Monday afternoon, Aug. 20. The program is geared to “all students can be successful regardless of background and educational history.” News-Herald/Allison Graham

South Tama County staff members spent their first official day back to school at the Meskwaki Convention Center learning new skills some didn’t know they had.

The STC Staff participated in an afternoon activity with the help of Kim Blakesley, who owns Cedar Valley Art and Wine. Each staff member received their own canvas and paint and under the guidance of Blakesley they created a piece of art.

The purpose of the activity is for the staff to learn about Growth Mindset which is the idea that all students can be successful regardless of background and educational history. The idea was born from new STC Superintendent Jared Smith. It’s an activity that he himself felt he couldn’t do when he participated with his then fiance (now wife). Smith had also brought this activity with his former high school staff at Muscatine. It’s an activity he felt strongly about bringing to South Tama.

According to Smith, South Tama County is home to one of the most diverse student populations in the state. “We are hoping that this activity will show our staff, many of whom “assume” they will struggle with the painting, that anything is possible if the learning conditions are right,” said Smith.

Out of the roughly 200 staff members present for the activity, 65 percent ranged from either not having created a piece of art for some time or felt that they were the worst artists in the world. After an hour of guided painting each staff member had a piece of art work that was similar yet different to their co-workers.

STC Elementary staff Anita Townsley, Marilyn Rippy and Heather Garrett work on their paintings during a professional development day on Monday, August 20 at the Meskwaki Convention Center.

For one STC High School staff member, Michelle Bradley, it was an activity completely out of her comfort zone.

“I surprised myself,” said Bradley, “I always try and pride myself by using both sides of my brain and I think I used a little bit more of the right side of my brain today. I loved the scaffolding of it. She (Blakesley) did a wonderful job scaffolding this out for me because if you would have just gave me this picture and said go for it I would have had no idea so definitely a learning experience of how important scaffolding is in your lesson planning.”

Saffolding is a term frequently used in education in which teachers build upon their lesson plans.

For one of South Tama’s longest serving staff members it was an activity she had never done in her 40 years of teaching. Anita Townsley, elementary counselor, has been teaching and counseling at South Tama for 37 years.

“This was fun,” said Townsley, “it really brought it back home to how kids might perceive things when we are teaching. It was a good experience going out of our comfort zones. I haven’t done an activity like this ever on an inservice day.”

STC High School staff Michelle Bradley and Dan Cass work on their paintings during a professional development day on Monday, August 20 at the Meskwaki Convention Center. News-Herald photos/Allison Graham

Townsley plans to take her painting home and put it on her refrigerator.

STC 7th grade social studies teacher Derek Dixon also enjoyed the activity. “It was really fun. I am not an artistic person by any means so it was just cool that everyone was at the same starting point. Everyone was at the same canvas but because of our differences, in a positive way we all created something that was similar but not exactly the same just like the kids in school they are similar bur there are also a lot of differences and uniqueness about them as well.”