building habits of learning/identify as learners
Our program is designed to give students a unique educational experience while offering a model of what learning looks like that may not resemble what they’ve experienced in school.
Practices for Supporting Positive Identities as Learners:
- Leveraging Student Expertise to Build Motivation. By acknowledging their expertise as app users, students have a head-start on learning other technological trades such as game design, coding, and more.
- Expanding Perceived Identity. Youth are encouraged to think about identities that may exist concurrently (e.g., skateboarder, artist, coder, hacker, etc.) and how their existing identities might be seen by outsiders (i.e., skaters are productive, creative citizens and city dwellers, not hoodlums or delinquents.)
- Connecting Interests to Skills. Projects are designed to relate to aspects of youth culture that students already participate in (such as skateboarding and video games) to other art forms. This motivates them to master material that may have once seemed foreign and challenging.
- Developing a Growth Mindset. Messages that promote a growth mind-set are integrated into all aspects of the curriculum and communicated throughout.