Search-Institute.org is a great site for ideas on working with kids. In their latest article they mentioned what they call HOT and COLD thinking.
They call thinking ‘hot’ when it is energized and enthusiastic. ‘Cold’ thinking includes reflective notions such as analyzing and integrating ideas.
As teachers, assistants and parents, we can help students develop their skills in both systems. Here are their last five suggestions:
5. Allow natural consequences. We need to experience the negative (within safe boundaries) as well as positive situations to understand outcomes.
6. Encourage viewing situations from different angles. (How else might we become sensitive to opposing opinions and open to different points-of-view?)
7. Focus on one task as a time. For kids, down time and transitions are needed between tasks to keep them from being overloaded and overwhelmed which mght lead to shutting down altogether.
8. Ask questions. Allow time for discussion, brainstorming and listening before decisions are made.
9. Build confidence in their intuition. It builds their value system, encourages them to “make educated guesses”, and leads them to accept that ‘wrong’ is an acceptable outcome that often leads to a stronger ‘right’ answer.