This year the Merced Teacher's had the opportunity to hold their professional development day at The Huntington Library. Merced's ongoing educational relationship with The Huntington has been beneficial to students and staff. On this day, teachers engaged in Growth Mindset and Team Building activities. One activity involved keeping a bag of air-filled balloons from hitting the ground (representing when all team members stay positive in the work place, it is easier to keep the moral up). Then a water-filled balloon was added to the bag and the team noticed how much harder it was to keep the bag from hitting the ground (representing negativity in the work place). Another activity challenged the teachers to draw a picture with a partner without any talking. They could not choose a design together, but instead had to build on each other's marker strokes to create a picture as they went along. This called for flexibility and compromise as the pictures may turn into something not originally planned for in the teachers' minds.
