DYS Homeroom

This week we tackled the topic of handling unpleasant feelings in a beneficial manner (versus being a volcano that explodes out the side). We discussed why it is wise to acknowledge frustration and anxiety are normal feelings sending us signals. Such feelings can be present even while pursuing something we love. When challenging feelings send us “made up stories,” we have to learn how to talk back to them and let them out in a way that doesn't hurt ourselves or others. Using activities 13 and 14 in the Gifted Kids Workbook , we analyzed the complex nature of frustration. Guiding quotes: "What makes it frustrating is what makes it valuable." “You don’t have to believe everything you think.”  “I feel, then I think, therefore I am.”  Optional journal/discussion prompts to go along with this week’s mini lesson: 1. What frustrates you the most right now and what stories come with it? If you had to give your “frustration story” a title, what would it be? (The “I’m not as good a...

Concerning the daily mini-lesson, this week we focused on the chapter “Learning vs. Knowing” from The Gifted Kids Workbook. We discussed how learning and knowing are not the same thing. True learning is designed to be hard regardless of high ability.  The activities from this week's lesson are meant to help students internalize how it is ok (and even encouraged!) that they experience challenges and frustration on a frequent basis. Guiding Quotes: "Mere exposure and deep understanding are two different things." - Cal Newport "Beware of unearned wisdom." - Carl Young Optional journal/discussion questions for the week: 1. What is one of your more difficult subjects or classes? If you don’t have any currently, can you think of some from the past? If you can’t think of an academic area, what about a sport, cooking, art, or riding a bike? 2. What emotions do you have as you imagine working on this activity (from question 1)? What does your mind tell you about yoursel...

This week students discussed the acting brain and the thinking brain through the lens of a story where a young girl uses her “acting brain” (aka “lizard brain) to get out of the way of a car, but then has trouble switching back to the “thinking brain” while interacting with her dad. In addition, we discussed how stress, hunger, fatigue, fight or flight, stage fright, etc. can place us more in our “acting brain.”  Then we looked for strategies to hit a reset button within ourselves. We browsed some mindfulness activities (my personal favorite being the “5-4-3-2-1” strategy of pausing to notice the environment using the five senses - five things you can see, four things you can hear, three things you can feel, etc.). Another useful idea is HALT - Am I hungry, angry, lonely, or tired? Here is a Ted Talk by Amy Cuddy about changing your body language to change your mind. We also started a lively discussion about the Zones of Regulation in order to balance the acting and the thinking b...

A lot of students who are gifted like to tackle the meaning of life for themselves by answering or pondering questions such as: What is time? Is Schrödinger’s cat cat alive or dead? What is real? How do I know? How does that adult supposedly know? What is truth? What is beauty?  What really matters in the end? How do I “do life” right? Is there a way to live that could be better than other ways? What is the purpose of life on the planet? Is there a purpose? Is true altruism possible? Is there another me (or millions of me’s) in a multiverse somewhere? If infinity is real and the universe is infinite, does that mean everything could happen is happening? Insert any other questions you can think of! A lot of this questioning starts long before any “Introduction to Philosophy” class. Philosophizing is for everyone, no matter how young. With this style of questioning, there are no “right answers” either (and this can be hard to realize in discussions with peers). This style of reasoning...

This week for the mini-lesson, students touched on a few key theories important to gifted education (Bloom's Taxonomy and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs). We did this to help them understand and gain insight into their unique capabilities and unique challenges.  Bloom's Taxonomy: -Six levels of cognitive learning (in the revised version of Bloom's Taxonomy) -Each level increases in complexity of thinking -Remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating -The original version in 1956 said “evaluation” was the highest level -Then, a sixth level was added (judgment was replaced by creativity/synthesis) Here’s a summary of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (another pyramid with creative living at the top): 1st level: Physiological needs 2nd: Safety Needs 3rd: Social Needs (aka love and belonging needs) 4th: Esteem Needs 5th: Self-actualization Needs        - Self-aware        - Driven by personal grow...

  You can’t study the creative process very long without hearing about divergent thinking. What does it mean as a psychology term, and what does it mean for students who are gifted? How can we apply this knowledge to our projects? That's what we explored in this lesson.   Convergent and Divergent Thinking Defined:  - Convergent thinking is systematic and represents thinking in a straight line towards the "best" solution. When you are asked to fill in a blank on a test (or reduce something to a simple and obvious answer), you are using convergent thinking. - Divergent thinking, on the other hand, is open-ended, web-like, and thrives on making flexible connections. Both thinking styles are needed while creating, but it’s great to know which one you prefer along with the strengths and limitations of each. -It's also fun to look at and discuss the notebooks of prolific thinkers such as Thomas Edison and Leonardo DaVinci to get a sense of divergent thinking: https://www.op...

Thank you for a lovely class this week! We tackled a couple of psychology/history facts related to the creative process. Students seemed to enjoy this content quite a bit. They offered a lot of connections and came with many stories to share. The creative process has been around for as long as humans have. But it's only been observed scientifically for 100 years! "The Art of Thought" by Graham Wallas got it all started in 1926 when he formulated one of the first cohesive models of the creative process. Wallas noted a four-stage process, but a fifth stage (implementation) has been added.  We went over the definition of each of the following five stages with examples from our own lives and from history: 1. Preparation  -Sources of inspiration -Researching the problem -Prepping information and materials -Gathering resources 2. Incubation -Take your mind off the problem (do something else) -The unconscious mind wanders (Einstein called it “combinatory play”) -Marinating -Coul...