DYS Homeroom

I love helping people appreciate different kinds of minds (neurodiversity) and appreciate the different ways of thinking that exist in the world. This week, students started with a visual-spatial identifier questionnaire (see below). We discussed how people who think predominantly in words have a lot to learn from people who think in pictures and vice-versa. In fact, some great creative partnerships in history are argued to have consisted of people who were dialed in at very different ends of this spectrum (from words to pictures). We used quotes from the book “Visual Thinking" by Temple Grandin to explore this topic further. What is visual-spatial thinking? “Visual thinking, also called visual or spatial learning or picture thinking, is the phenomenon of thinking through visual processing. Visual thinking has been described as seeing words as a series of pictures. It is common in approximately 60–65% of the general population. "Real picture thinkers", those who use vis...

  Opening Quote: “We are shaping the world faster than we can change ourselves and we are applying to the present the habits of the past.” - Winston Churchill What are "kind" versus "wicked" learning environments? A learning environment is “kind” if a learner improves simply by engaging in the activity and trying to do better. Chess and golf are examples. Getting straight “A’s” by following directions is another example. Students can improve substantially simply through repetition. In “wicked” learning environments, however, the rules of the game are often unclear or incomplete. There may or may not be repetitive patterns and the patterns may not be obvious. The feedback given can be delayed, inaccurate, or both. Many team sports and professional careers resemble this kind of environment. How can a learner master skills that prepare them for the ambiguous working conditions of the future? “Interleaving” is proven to help students master skills better, even if...

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain Current students in the world will likely have several different careers.This won’t be true for everyone, of course, but no matter what career (or careers!) you have, there are a couple of habits you can start forming now that won’t let you down. Integrating these habits and routines into your schedule will likely land you in an interesting place in the future.  Become Culturally Aware. Companies around the globe work with people from around the globe. Cultural awareness and cultural sensitivity will increase your people skills. Explore (literally if you can) through travel. If you don’t travel much, you can still explore at home reading worldly literature, watching foreign films, attending local festivals, investigating new foods and music, and ...

Guiding Quotes: “You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” - Bruce Lee “Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.” - Bruce Lee Opening Questions: -Using what you’ve learned so far this year about individuals who are gifted, do you think they are more flexible or less flexible in their thinking than the typical population? -What does flexibility have to do with being like water (Bruce Lee quotes)? -What does flexibility have to do with mental health? Why do creative activities help with flexible thinking? -Do people become more or less flexible in their thinking as they age? -When does being opinionated become arrogance?  -How do you think brain chemicals influence flexible thinking (serotonin, dopami...