833 Young Scholars

Welcome, Parents to this edition of the 833 Young Scholars Newsletter. It's hard to believe that summer vacation has already come and gone, and students are back in the classroom. I hope you all had a wonderful summer with time to relax with family and friends. As we begin another school year, 833 Young Scholars' mission of nurturing potential and sustaining support will continue to build and grow in new and exciting ways. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with your Young Scholar and am looking forward to the adventure of a brand new year!

Encouraging divergent thinking through brainstorming is one of the best, and most fun, ways to grow your Young Scholars' creative side and stretch their brain. Often, when we hear the word brainstorming, we think of lots of wild and crazy ideas coming fast and furious. While this can definitely be true, it is only part of the picture.

When we use brainstorming in Young Scholars, we are working to build students' thinking in four main areas: Fluency, Flexibility, Originality, and Elaboration.

Fluency has to do with the number of responses to a prompt. The more the better! Flexibility is all about responses seen from a variety of perspectives.

Originality comes from those unexpected responses that make you say, "Hey, I never thought of that!"

Elaboration involves adding detail and expanding on ideas often in unique and off-beat ways.

A sample brainstorming session may go something like this:

Topic: FISH

Ideas:

fish stick

fishing rod

fly fishing

fish and chips

fishing lure

fish tale

fish hook

fish fry

fish scale

Go Fish

sounds fishy to me

fishing for a compliment

selfish

As you can see, there are quite a lot of ideas (fluency) in several different categories such as food, fishing equipment, parts of fish (flexibility), and the last four ideas are certainly unique (originality)!

Having a family brainstorming session is a great way to pass the time in the car, at the dinner table, or really any time at all! Try seeing how many different ideas your Young Scholar can come up with on a given topic while getting ready for bed or leaving for school in the morning. Get ready to laugh, be impressed, and maybe do a few double-takes, at what your Young Scholar comes up with! And, remember, along the way your Young Scholar is learning to share ideas, build creativity and confidence, and explore the divergent side of thinking!

See below for a list of fun brainstorming topics along with our Young Scholars "guide post" for divergent thinking.

• A nice article from Scholastic Books' Parent Magazine full of ideas and links to encourage many different types of creativity.

• Does your Young Scholar love to tell or write stories? Storybird is a way to create beautiful books to share online and in print.

• If your child finds their creativity sparked by computers, code.org is the go-to place for kids to start and build coding skills.

• PBSParents has activities, crafts, games and much more to get those Young Scholar creative juices flowing!

Hi All!

My name is Colleen Redmond, and I am thrilled to work as the 833 Young Scholars advocate and lead teacher.

I'm a mom of two teenagers, a wife, small business owner, avid biker (the pedal kind), book enthusiast, and beekeeper. Plus, on top of all of that, I have the happy job of implementing and growing the Young Scholars program here in 833!

I've been lucky enough to teach in South Washington County Schools for the past twenty-five years and have had the incredible opportunity to be a part of the lives of students and families in my classroom.

Now, as we launch Young Scholars, my path in education is taking on a whole new and wonderful life. I am so very excited to work with and support you and your Young Scholar. I can't wait to see where the journey takes us!

Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions, thoughts, or needs!

Colleen Redmond

651-425-6212

credmond@sowashco.org