Casey's Blogs: Indian Epics 4993-995

How to Spark Creativity When You're in a Rut The author suggests that when you are in a mindset of conformity or just "going through the motions," it becomes easy to not be creative. Instead, you should think new, capitalize on obstacles, look for intersections, and share what you know. The thinking new part seems self-evident and is something I already knew. I would like to learn more about looking for intersections because it is something I'm interested in and had no prior knowledge about it. (Creative: Pixabay )

A Growth Mindset Fuels Creativity in Youth The author expands upon Carol Dweck's growth mindset. There are five ways that the growth mindset can be expanded upon in someone who is learning how to be in a growth mindset. This includes seeing connections, being open to new ideas, bowing to your mistakes, embracing diversity, and to live in a human-virtual world. This confirmed my knowledge of being open to new ideas. I would be interested in learning more about living in a human virtual world. I had no previous knowledge about embracing your mistakes and bowing to them.  (Books: Wikipedia )

The Secret to Raising Smart Kids Many people assume that superior intelligence or ability is the key to success. But more than three decades of research shows that an overemphasis on intellect or talent—and the implication that such traits are innate and fixed—leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unmotivated to learn. Teaching people to have a “growth mindset,” which encourages a focus on “process” rather than on intelligence or talent, produces high achievers in school and in life. Parents and teachers can engender a growth mindset in children by praising them for their persistence or strategies (rather than for their intelligence), by telling success stories that emphasize hard work and love of learning, and by teaching them about the brain as a learning machine. (Raising Hands: Scientific American )

Apparently, the secret to thriving is to have a sense of development and that you are working towards something. This seems rather self explanatory, but to some it may not be, especially if you are stuck in a rut and cannot see any optimism. Some important things to have are a sense of spirituality, challenging opportunities, and being socially competent.  \ (We Can Do it: Wikipedia )

An Underappreciated Key to College Success: Sleep I learned that sleep plays an important role in our ability to remember things from that day and the studying that we do that day. I also learned that people who get less sleep are likely to have increased stress and an increased likelihood to drop classes. It confirmed my knowledge that colleges are doing little to counteract this problem or provide information on how to handle this. Something I would like to look into more is how the brains function declines after prolonged time being awake. I'm going to make a more concerted effort to stay on top of my studies and create a regular sleep cycle so that I am getting enough sleep each day. (ZZZ: NY Times) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/13/well/an-underappreciated-key-to-college-success-sleep.html

Learning Process In this post I learned that learning is a cyclic process. It confirmed that feedback is an important part of learning and that you should seek out input from outside sources. Something new I learned it that cues can help us perceive things either in a new way, or it can make us better at recalling certain things. Something I would be more interested in learning about is our deciding process that occurs in the brain. (Learning Process: Growth Mindset )

Carol Dweck's ideas on how we are able to learn and further develop that learning is quite astonishing. I found it interesting when she discussed that kids are constantly looking for praise now and this can even been seen in adults that are in the workforce. But, she makes the point that instead of continually praising them, we need to be more efficient in how we praise them. The evidence that she provides is compelling and convincing to accept her learning style Although it does sound great, the skeptical side of me wonders if this data has been reproducible. If so, it greatly strengthens her claim. I agree with her that the best mindset to be in is a "growth mindset" because we should all be striving to continually grow, even if that means making ourselves vulnerable to failure. Based off her description of the fixed and growth mindsets, I would say that whenever I entered college I was more of a fixed mindset. I'm not for sure what caused me to switch over to being...