Weekly newsletter of Dr. Jamie Alarcon - Issue #2
Hi all! Hope you enjoy some of these readings and reasonings.
My time in alternative education has taught me that creativity is one of those essentials in learning. 21st Century skills include 6 C's Character, Citizenship, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Creativity. But so often Time, Money, and Support are lacking in education. How can this be ok? This is where community partners really come in as a support. Bringing in arts education as enrichment is a good place to start, for some it might be focusing in on PBL, and for others it can be incorporated as part of the schools culture. Whatever it is, it is so needed.
Books I am reading and loving
I am reading Decoding Boys by Cara Natterson, M.D. It is a great read, but not in one sitting. It speaks to much of the concern over boys in middle grades. I also see this as the point in a boy's educational life where they determine if they are academic or not. There is a lot to be said about this. This is a very biological look at boys and what is going on. In the book, she described the show "Big Mouth" which I watched because she said how spot on it was. Wow, it is good. I am not ready to have my 12 year old watch it, but it does bring up different things that I talk to about her that I forgot to talk about. My new goal is to create comic books that go through brain science and puberty to have a place to speak to different aged kids about what the heck is going on in their body.
Another fantastic book I am reading is Limitless Mind by Jo Boaler.
Buy Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead, and Live Without Barriers: Read Kindle Store Reviews - Amazon.com
I knew that this was the book I have been looking for to really pull my research on alted together. Dr. Boaler describes her close collaboration with Dr. Dweck and her theory on mindset. Some key takeaways (this was a read in one day book) were 1. I think we would get along because we both have had conversations with our child's teachers about homework in a productive way that described neuroscience and the limited benefits of tons of homework. 2. We CAN learn anything. It speaks to student shutdowns, of as she describes it as "the pit" when we learn a challenging task and it seems like we will never figure it out. She goes on to say that learning comes from digging out of the pit. I am overgeneralizing...it is so good. 3. She describes Dweck's evolution of her theory of everyone has a fixed and growth mindset on different things. It just makes sense, it speaks to neuroscience and this research is needed in all schools, but especially alted schools as soon as possible. Seriously, this book is life changing.
It gets better. She has a free class for 21st century learning that goes over these elements. I have started it and love it! Here is a link to the class (paid version is for university credits).