CHALK TALK what every parent should know before your child turns 18 (pt 1)

Two years ago, Fairmont began hosting "Chalk Talks"--a bi-annual series of workshops and lectures open to Fairmont families and the community. We wanted to bring in great speakers on topics that parents care about (education, health & wellness, online safety, etc) and extend the Fairmont learning environment to parents and grown-ups, because we believe you should never stop learning. We've had some awesome events with speakers like Chef Tanya of Native Foods, Derek Sabori of Volcom, and Jack Lindquist of Disneyland. To share these speakers' knowledge with a broader audience, we've decided to start re-capping our Chalk Talks on our blog in this new "Chalk Talk" category. 

We kicked off our spring 2012 Chalk Talk series in early January with Becoming Bilingual at our Anaheim Hills campus and then heard from our Director of Education, Sandy Cosgrove about Fairmont's 2011 Academic Outcomes at our inaugural Fairmont Expo. At our third Chalk Talk last week, a panel of college admissions and child development experts shared "What Every Parent Should Know Before Your Child Turns 18." There was so much great content, we've decided to share it in a series of three posts over the next couple weeks. To start, here's an intro to our panelists and an overview of the modes of learning.

Re-Cap: What Every Child Should Know Before Your Child Turns 18

Panelists: 

-Rajeshri Gandhi, Educational Consultant
-Denise Hunter, Admissions Counslor, West Coast University
-Dipa Gandhi, ABC School District
-Erik Gutierrez, College Counselor, Whitney High School

Introduction to Topic: Students must undergo long-term preparation for long-term success and that requires a strategic focus by parents. Thoughtful academic choices, coupled with awareness of risk taking and understanding that today's students are complex, global, digital natives, are the keys to success.

Modes of Learning: While 60% of the population is now believed to be multi-modal, it’s important for students to understand what their top mode(s) of learning are and how to capitalize on them.

• Visual Learners – take notes on unlined paper where space is unrestricted by lines/graphs and blank space is conducive to little drawings and pictures.
• Auditory Learners – make songs to help memorize facts or use mnemonics like ROYGBIV. Listen to music while studying to get relaxed (music without lyrics at 60 beats per minute—like classical music from the Baroque period).
• Kinesthetic Learners – LOCI method to associate locations with certain topics.  Take a walk around the neighborhood with your stack of flash cards. Memorize a fact while standing in front of a certain tree or mailbox, etc so that you recall the fact when you think of the location.
• Read/Write Learners – Re-read text or re-write notes repetitively to memorize facts.

Next Wednesday, look for our second post on this topic, written by one of the event speakers, Rajeshri Ghandi, on the topic of self-efficacy. 

Contributed by Alyssa, Fairmont Private Schools