Time to Unplug?

There were some very interesting ideas in this article, "What Happens When Mom Unplugs Teens for Six Months?" It is not as if I am going to buy her book, but there is something important contained in this radical Mom's ideas.

I think about what would happen if I unplugged myself and I get a little bit frightened. My second thought is okay, maybe I could do it on like a Tuesday when I wasn't going to be up to a whole lot anyway, you know read a book, go for a walk, cook dinner and conversation, no problem, but certainly never on a Sunday. Are you mad? Sunday is the wired day. I religiously look forward to having a good hour and a half to two hours in the morning to catch up on my RSS aggregator. Then maybe some video games, music while I do housework, podcast or online lecture while I am working in the yard. Some actual time for twitter after the gym. Then in the evening it's time for a blog post and some school work. Hopefully there is time for a movie on netflix or downloaded the latest FXG rip and watch in bed. No way am I unplugging on a Sunday.

Now I take a look back at the list I just put down and think about my jr. high self. Yes, I was listening to my discman and watching a VHS or playing SNES with a friend, but all of that other stuff wasn't around was it?

You know what it doesn't matter. I was wired then, and I am wired now. McLuhan had it right when he described all electrical signals as an extension of our central nervous system, and that is the issue the really popped out of this article for me. It's not the hand-held devices or the internet that is the new generation of disconnect it's the stuff my parents were already immmersed in. The electrically induced artificial reality that we are wholly and completely 100% dependent upon that is the real message. Here is the idea that matters as it is expressed in the article,

Maushart began The Experiment with a drastic measure: She turned off the electricity completely for a few weeks — candles instead of electric lights, no hot showers, food stored in a cooler of ice. When blackout boot camp ended, Maushart hoped the "electricity is awesome!" reaction would soften the kids' transition to life without Google and cell phones.

Maybe the newly and more complexly wired generation can help us all solve the real problem and original disconnect associated with all electricity. Environment, accelerated and accelerating capacity to kill people in modern warfare, increased communication.

It all changed back then, we are just speeding up right now. That idea should unite the generations that think they are divided along technological lines. We were all born into the electric age and we can all help face those problems together.

I would love it if you would comment on any of this.

Open House

Okay I probably shouldn't blog from school, but it is a reflective practice, and why the hell not. Tonight is open house, and I just finished frantically putting up a bulletin board out in the hallway. I have to say I am not much for bulletin boards mostly because I don't have very much physical work of students to show off. Makes me think we should unplug and get down to drawing.


Compare this, yesterday I had a formal evaluation, and I worked my butt off to make sure it went well. Result - I  become a better teacher, I have another fantastic lesson in my arsenal and the extension of that is a better learning environment for the students.

Today I am preparing to sell the school to parents. I see what I am doing right and what I am doing wrong, what is worth showing off and what is fodder as far as student work goes... all of this is a reflective practice on my instruction... I'm becoming a better educator for my work and effort.

The logic that work (any work) equals positive results is almost universally true. For example, I am blogging for a non-existent audience but I am a) reflecting on my teaching and b) becoming a better writer for it.

Steve.

On the Creation of Intelligence

This post is a summary of the article "You can increase your intelligence: 5 ways to maximize your cognitive potential" written by Andrea Kuszewski and published as a guest blog in Scientific American. You can read the full article here.

Can we make this brain grow and become smarter

So let's try to keep this short. Andrea is basically saying that yes you can create intelligence. The statement that really grabbed my attention was around the idea of I.Q. Andrea works or worked with kids with autism/aspergers spectrum disorder. She claimed that through the right kind of techniques she was able to increase one person's I.Q. from 80 to 100. I.Q. was one of those things that I have always been led to believe is static. It doesn't really change to much. The method for increasing intelligence should not come as a surprise to most teachers. 

The author defines intelligence as the cognitive ability. Cognitive ability can be improved is the central claim of this article and this is how: 

1. Seek Novelty
2. Challenge Yourself
3. Think Creatively
4. Do things the hard way
5. Network

To increase intelligence you should, in our case our classes should, do ALL 5 as often as possible.

Seek Novelty

The idea that those who are open to new experiences, new tools for learning, new ways of seeing and interacting with the world are the most intelligent is, I believe, something that can be taught. As soon as a student is able to experience the intrisic reward of learning a new skill or learning a new way of seeing something they are not only becoming more intelligent, but they are also becoming someone that is more OPEN to becoming intelligent. Teach students to embrace and love novelty because, as Andrea writes, "Novel Activity—>triggers dopamine—>creates a higher motivational state—>which fuels engagement and primes neurons—>neurogenesis can take place + increase in synaptic plasticity."

Challenge Yourself

The classroom is not the marketplace and as far as learning and intelligence is concerned, "efficiency is not your friend." Being more efficient at something means that your brain has already learned what it needs to know and has become lazy. This reminds me of the stuff I am reading about weight training and muscle growth. When working out I will have the most gain in strength and growth in muscle when the activity is new and difficult. It is the challenge that leads to the growth for the body and the brain.

Think Creatively

Andrea describes this as creative cognition itself. To me that idea means the act of creating an idea. Anytime there is a new thought in the learner they have "created" an idea in their brain, that is learning. Andrea describes what this should look like in a learner, 

It involves recruitment from both halves of your brain, not just the right. Creative cognition involves divergent thinking (a wide range of topics/subjects), making remote associations between ideas, switching back and forth between conventional and unconventional thinking (cognitive flexibility), and generating original, novel ideas that are also appropriate to the activity you are doing. In order to do this well, you need both right and left hemispheres working in conjunction with each other.

How often do we allow students to create their own ideas?

Do Things the Hard Way
Andrea cautions us to not become too dependent on technology that makes our learning and our lives easier. I always knew that the challenge of doing research without a computer was still valuable. Anyone against spell check take note Andrea agrees that it does harm to the brain (I disagree, but that's okay). I do agree that making the learning easier on the student does them a disservice. Think about it, which of our students are provided with the most extra help and shortcuts to learning? Are we taking away their chance to learn and grow by making it easier?

Network
Getting exposed to others and their ideas is key. As much as students generally loathe working with peers that aren't their friends there is some powerful learning that could take place. Most of us know that having another student explain something is often more effective than explaining it again. Students can learn more from other students, it's that simple.

I know most teachers are already doing these five things, good job, but it helps to be reminded why we are doing it this way instead of the direct instruction. Two parting thoughts 1) Nowhere in any of the studies I have read and Andrea has reported on does it say: memorization of facts can increase intelligence. Using memorization for the novelty and challenge of it yes, but as a continual tool no. 2) The teacher standing at the front of the room controlling things, runs counter to most of the findings in this study. Note taking and direct instruction ought to become novelty in all of our classes.

The Bottom Line

Let's get down to why we are all here. In the world of business the bottom line is almost always  profit. How can  we increase sales in order to increase profit? How can we increase customer satisfaction to increase loyalty and increase profit? How can we make that for cheaper and care less for the environment or worker's rights to increase profit.... just kidding capitalism you know we love you.

Getting to Education's Bottom Line

But what about in the world of education? More specifically what about education at a less than rich junior high school on the west end of Edmonton? What is the bottom line here?

Don't worry you don't have to think too much about it because I have the answers for you. We are here to do one thing (and it is not pass the P.A.T. sorry). We are hear to help make the future life of students more positive, fulfilling and successful.The reason we do this is to meet our bottom line - CREATE A BETTER SOCIETY.

Once we acknowledge that the millions of dollars invested in education is to fulfill that singular purpose it helps eliminate all the other bullshit that we think we are doing at school. That is what we are being paid to do, create a better society. Luckily what a better society looks like and how we get there is not exactly decided upon.

Some would say a better society includes a citizenry that is smart enough to fill the jobs, create businesses, and lead the economy. The economists have a good point. If we are not creating a citizenry that is ready to keep our economy moving then we are not creating a better society.

We must Educate for a Practical and Pragmatic Future, It's Part of our Bottom Line.

Others would argue that a better society would include a citizenry of healthy, whole, human beings that are in touch with their academic, athletic, spiritual, emotional and sexual self. These citizens care about their bodies and make smart decisions. They balance work and play, leisure and productivity, fun and games (ha). These people are also right. The number of medicated students coming from self-medicating families all destined to tax the public health care system to death is not conducive to a better society (that sounds meaner than it is supposed to sound. I love the families and the children, but repeating a cycle of destruction is poison to society).

Not sure what they are doing, but they may have learned it in school. 

A third arm of educators, let's call them the activist arm, believes a better society is populated by citizens that are actively involved in their social world. This involvement happens in the political/democratic realm, the community/local environment and also in the global n.g.o.ish sphere. I tend to agree with these people, because seriously, what's the point of all this education nonsense if we are creating a society that cares less about the world, less about one another and is less able to do anything to help their fellow human than the society before them. All the power to this group too.

I really wanted to post a picture of anonymous for this part.

The bottom line on the bottom line is that, we need all of these people and all of these visions of a new society for schools to do their job properly.

I suppose someone could argue that passing standardized tests could help our economy because large post-secondary institutions still use standardized tests to determine who can do what, but please,  is that really what we are doing? Preparing students for a test they may or may not write six years from now? Does that meet our Educational Bottom Line?

Thank you for reading my summary of why we are here. Personally I think screw all of it, let's just teach kids how to be kind to one another, to love themselves and to love learning. Bingo - society just got better.

Jon Stewart on education

Too bad I can't get the embed code, maybe I'll try adding a screen shot with my new awesome screenshot google extension,

Clip One Link on Comedy Central

This is for all of us Canadians that cannot have access to comedy central. The US edblogs are all abuzz over the March 3rd Jon Stewart monologue on the "teachers vs. the Ultra-right wing" scene that is occurring in the U.S.

Here is the Canadian Comedy Network link so that we can enjoy the appropriately timed defence of teachers and their salaries. I think the comments are especially relevant in business friendly Alberta. Don't get me wrong I certainly support the private sector, but there are some things that should be kept public and receive public support.