Summer Reading Program 2014 - Wrap Up

    

Another amazing summer has ended. Paul really enjoyed creating a show for this summer's Fizz, Boom, Read! science theme. He performed his new Science of Awesome show at close to 100 libraries in 10 states from Connecticut to Louisiana. Using juggling and skill toys, he illustrated scientific principles such as gravity, center of gravity, potential energy, and kinetic energy as he learned to balance, spin, and master new tricks. The show of course had his signature style of improvisational comedy and audience interaction.

Don't just take our word for it, here's what the librarians we worked with are saying:

Science of Awesome - New Show for 2014-15

Flow Circus has added a new school assembly performance to its offerings for the upcoming school year.

Science of Awesome: Performer Paul Miller of Flow Circus tells the story of one fateful summer when he first learns about physics. In this seemingly magical world where things fall, balance, and spin, he defies gravity and discovers new skills. His journey begins with a single question that ultimately gets answered through problem solving and the scientific method.

Book Flow Circus for the day and extend the impact of assemblies with hands-on workshops or author visits. Add a Skoyz Family Night to encourage participation in your PTA events. Most importantly, invite Flow Circus to your school to remind students and families about the importance of cultivating curiosity, building resilience, and having fun together.  A limited number of the following special packages are available:

Summer 2014 Tours Scheduled

Paul can't wait to share the science of juggling and skill toys this summer. His Summer Reading Performance Fall, Balance, and Spin: A Juggler's Tale will connect to the CSLP theme Fizz, Boom, Read! Throughout the show, he will tell a story that encourages families to use the library to answer questions and discover new skills.

The summer calendar is filling up quickly, but we do still have openings left on the following regional tours:

Summer 2014
Week of May 26 - Louisiana
Week of June 2 - Gulf Shores area of Alabama
Week of June 9 - North and South Carolina
Week of June 16 - North Carolina
Week of June 23 & 30 - Northeast Tour (PA, NY, NJ, CT, MA)
Week of July 7 - N/A
Week of July 14 - Virginia
Week of July 21 & 28 - North and South Carolina
Week of August 4 & 11 - Northeast Tour (PA, NY, NJ, CT, MA)

Hands-on tween/teen workshops are also available which will allow participants to experience the science of juggling and skill toys first hand. Visit FlowCircus.com/library to learn more about our programs or check out our Video Gallery to see how Paul has connected to the CSLP theme in past summers.

December Book: The App Generation

 

Last week, we had the opportunity to see a talk by Howard Gardner and Katie Davis about their new book The App Generation: How Today’s Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World. Those of you that work in formal and informal education are probably familiar with Gardner’s earlier research including his Theory of Multiple Intelligences and work with Project Zero (if not, click on the links provided to learn more).

In this current work, Gardner and Davis set out to examine how texting, tweeting, Facebook, and other technology trends have impacted the first generation of digital natives. Through various data driven research methodologies, they have drawn several interesting conclusions.

• Characteristics of the current generation of youth: more risk-averse, have a discomfort with ambiguity, more accepting of a range of identities, hyper-connected with parents. The researchers do acknowledge that these characteristics may have been influenced by variables other than technology use.

November Book/TED talk: Brene Brown & Daring Greatly

This month, we want to share with you the work of Brene Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work who has spent the past decade studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame. Dawn first stumbled upon Brown’s TED talks last year and immediately ordered and read her book Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead (2012). Last month, Dawn also had the opportunity to see Brown speak at the Emerging Women Live Conference in Boulder, Colorado. Brown’s engaging storytelling captivates audiences as she authentically shares her research and her own struggle with vulnerability. If you watch the TED videos, be ready to laugh, but at the same time be ready to get hit in the gut as she holds up a mirror to aspects of ourselves we normally try to shield.

Flow Circus Skill Toy Museum: 19th Century Diabolo

 

 

 

 

 

 

The latest featured item from the Flow Circus Skill Toy Museum* is a 19th Century diabolo. Many of you have played with a yo-yo. Now imagine a bigger yo-yo that can actually come off the string. Players move two hand sticks connected by a string in order to get the toy to spin. Once spinning, it can fly off the string, jump over body parts, and do other tricks. Some players even juggle two or three on one string.

October Book of the Month: Growth Mindset

We've been busy doing research in areas of positive psychology, motivation, and other related fields to better explain the outcomes of our tween/teen and adult programs. We realized that the books we have been reading and TED talks we have been watching might also be beneficial to those of you that are educators, parents, program evaluators, and grant writers. So we are kicking off a regular feature on our blog - a featured book or TED talk.

The first in our series is Growth Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck (2006), a researcher in the fields of personality, social and developmental psychology at Stanford University.