Brainstorm – Institute for Educational Advancement

What We’re Reading: Summer 2015

��Ƶ Staff — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 01:30:00 +0000

Much like many of the kids we serve, the ��Ƶ staff is a group of voracious readers. We wanted to share what we’re reading now in case you are looking for some good summer reads.

New and Selected Poems, Volume 1 by Mary Oliver

“I give my highest, unqualified recommendation to this collection, whose wisdom continues teaching me what it means to be attentive. Good reading for summer nights.”

– Brianna Safe

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

“Marie Kondo has a writing style that invites you to read slowly and deliberately and enjoy every word.�� She has a relationship to objects that makes them seem to have feelings, which many of us gifties can relate to. (Which is why I can never throw away a pen.)�� And it just feels freeing to try her method.”

– Zadra Rose Ibañez

The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling)

“I couldn’t resist reading another novel by the fabulous J.K. Rowling, and her writing pulled me in immediately, as usual.”

– Jennifer Kennedy

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

“I love this story both for its beauty and for how it teaches me. Throughout the novel, Brontë asks compelling and profound questions about love and the nature of goodness in a person’s life. Jane Eyre is a captivating and challenging read that I always enjoy.”

– Morgan Carrion

Lila by Marilynne Robinson

“It is deeply contemplative, insightful, and introspective. I like how Robinson deals honestly and lovingly with some of the most profound questions regarding religion and faith.”

– Jennifer de la Haye

My Struggle: Book 1 by Karl Ove Knausgaard

“‘I saw life; I thought about death.’ Slowly slogging my way through this six-book autobiographical series, whose literary voice echoes the cinematic eye of fellow Scandinavian Ingmar Bergman. Not for the easy reader or faint of heart.”

– Brianna Safe

The Mysterious Benedict Society, Book 1 by Trenton Lee Stewart

“Such an engaging story about bright young kids. It actually reminds me a lot of A Wrinkle in Time. I will definitely be getting a copy for my nephew!”

– Jennifer Kennedy

Walking Away by Simon Armitage

“It’s British poet and novelist Armitage’s account as a sort of ‘troubadour’, walking the south-western coastline of the UK, and the people he meets who feed him and accommodate him in return for a poetry reading. It’s a testament to the beauty of the British landscape, the therapy found in walking (and being blasted by the elements) and, most reassuringly, the enduring power of poetry. He’s also just been nominated as Oxford’s Professor of Poetry – and !”

– Louise Hindle

Brainstorm by Dr. Daniel J. Siegel

“I love the scientific analysis behind adolescent behavior – this type of understanding is empowering.”

– Jennifer de la Haye

The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks

“This book helped me uncover hidden blocks to reaching for what I wanted and gave me a new perspective for dealing with obstacles in my life.�� I absolutely experienced a paradigm shift in how I relate to what matters to me.”

– Zadra Rose Ibañez

Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult

“Another excellent novel from my favorite author. I get caught up in the language and storytelling ability of Picoult every time. The extended metaphors in this novel relating to wolf behavior and wolf pack dynamics add an interesting dimension as well.”

– Jennifer Kennedy

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

“The book is a fictional account of two sisters struggling to survive the atrocities of World War II in German-occupied France—one a resistance fighter in Paris, the other a mother and teacher in the countryside. I’ve read a lot of material about the horrors of the Holocaust, but never from the perspective of the French people.”

– Bonnie Raskin

Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults

“What’s most exciting about this multi-authored text is the underlying principle that IQ is not an isolated piece of the individual. The work asks two questions: How can this principle help avoid inaccurate diagnoses and the conflation of giftedness and behavioral/emotional/mental disorders?�� And how can we understand the intersection of giftedness and these disorders (dual diagnoses) in a way that preserves the child’s needs first and foremost?”

– Brianna Safe

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What books are you reading this summer? We’d love to know. Please share in the comment section below.

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Getting Unstuck: Creative Ways to Problem-Solve

��Ƶ Staff — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 04:46:42 +0000

By Zadra Rose Ibañez

“A mind too active is no mind at all.” – Theodore Roethke

Sometimes, there’s just too much to think about to see a clear picture of where to go next. Sometimes, too much context or history swims around in your mind, crowding the space for new ideas.

As Albert Einstein said, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”

At times like these, other methods of problem-solving can be useful.

One such method is using a mind map. This technique allows individuals to see relationships between concepts through pictures and diagrams, which are often thought to be more comprehensible than just words (Davies, 2010). The structure of a mind map begins with a topic or image in the center with major associated ideas connected to it, followed by subsequent ideas linked to the major ideas (Buzan & Buzan, 1993).

People have been using diagrams to visually represent thoughts in a map-like format for centuries. The actual term “mind map” was first made popular by pop psychologist Tony Buzan in 1974, with his idea of diagramming key words in a colorful, radiant, tree-like structure. Buzan said that “traditional” outlines force readers to scan left to right and top to bottom, but that readers actually tend to scan the entire page in a non-linear fashion (Buzan & Buzan, 1993).

Another method of “thinking outside the box” is brainstorming, which is when a group of people get together and share as many ideas as possible without prejudice to create a new idea. The information is examined for likely solutions or innovative ideas after the session, but not during, to promote freedom of thought and a safe place for sharing ideas. Advertising executive Alex Osborn is credited with developing this technique as an alternative to the conventional business meeting, as he was frustrated by his employees’ inability to develop creative ideas (Shirey, 2011). However, individuals can employ this tactic of brainstorming as well.

Osborn’s four rules of brainstorming are to:

Focus on quantity
Withhold criticism
Welcome unusual ideas
Combine and improve ideas

Free writing can also be a useful approach to get unstuck mentally. In brainstorming, ideas are listed out; whereas in free writing, you write full sentences and paragraphs. Freewriting entails writing continuously for a set period of time without regard for spelling, grammar or topic (Li, 2007).You don’t edit or censor your writing, you just write. While free writing, if you run out of things to say, you write about that until something else comes to mind. Often, this free-association will help unlock ideas to form new cohesive thoughts.

Proponents of freewriting include Dorothea Brande in her 1934 book Becoming a Writer, Peter Elbow in his 1975 book Writing Without Teachers and Julia Cameron through her book The Artist’s Way, first published in 1992.

So the next time you feel mentally stuck, try one of these methods to help generate new ideas and have fun with it!

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References

Buzan, T., & Buzan, B. (1993). The mind map book. Rajpal & Sons.

Davies, M. (2011). Concept mapping, mind mapping and argument mapping: what are the differences and do they matter?. Higher education, 62(3), 279-301.

Li, L. Y. (2007). Exploring the use of focused freewriting in developing academic writing. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 4(1), 5.

Shirey, M. R. (2011). Brainstorming for Breakthrough Thinking. Journal of Nursing Administration, 41(12), 497-500.

Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Guru_Mindmap.jpg