Igniting Curiosity: How Skateboarding Sparks Learning

All this skateboarding got me to thinking about how children learn.  Increasingly, learning seems to have become more and more passive.  Teachers and technology dole out information and kids are expected to take the information and hold on to it, but I’m not sure the kids understand the importance of the information and how to take it farther.  And there is so much information, it’s hard to determine what to hold on to, what is true, and what is not important.  I’m wondering in my work with children this year, how I can spark that skatepark enthusiasm.

Finding Her Voice: Building a Tiny House

As a learning support specialist, I appreciate the time and effort it takes to grow.  There is definitely something to Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000 hours rule,” which states that it takes approximately 10, 000 hours to achieve mastery in a particular activity.  I have watched Coco put intense focus and energy into making small objects: tiny coconut people, small animal habitats, or tiny food replicas.  It seems that there were no plans.  Her objects would just appear, but as I watched her, I realized that she were very significant organizational processes going on silently in her imagination.