Many political problems nowadays are confusing, and I think that sometimes the press adds to the confusion instead of helping us make our mind. For instance, they would invite an economist linked to the Republicans and one linked to the Democrats (that is objective, right?). One will say we got to let the banks close and the businesses get ruined, because the less the government does, the better for the economy; the other one will say we got to get out of the hole and only the government can do that. There is no common ground: who are you going to believe? I do not think it is good journalism, it gives me a headache, and this kind of journalistic attitude is true about politics but also a ton of other subjects.
A good resource in cases like this, for adults as well as for kids is FindingDulcinea: they dig lots of problems for you, look at the history and make the issues much more clear without deciding what you should think: you can do that yourself.
It is not about "politics": it is mainly about democracy, daily problems, birthdays, writers, basketball... and gangs, and music: a wonderful resource for teachers, parents and kids.
It will give you the rarest thing in this time of "news everywhere all the time": real information.
Thanks for a good honest site!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Brain and food
I dislike the expression "You are what you eat": I hope we are a little more than that. But there is no doubt that you feed your brain when you feed your body, and if you eat poorly, you are going to perform poorly. There is a reason why athletes have a special diet. Think about it: don't you think that it is reasonable to watch what children eat every day? You already know that they do not perform very well if they do not have any breakfast.
They do not want to eat breakfast? Maybe they get up late and have little time left: do they get enough sleep? Maybe breakfast should be prepared the preceeding night. Maybe it should just be eaten on the way to school. But breakfast is the most important meal to get, schoolwise. Check that your children eat before school; very often it is a matter on having a better management.
Sweden recently had a large study on the importance of eating fish. Look it up on this site: eurekalert.org/
There is something to be said for omega-3 compounds, I guess. Do you remember all that bad press that transfat had? One of the main reasons is that the brain is fond of it (and who wants to have transfat in the brain?).
In summary LET YOUR KIDS EAT MORE FISH.
Recipes for brain fitness can also be found here on the positscience.com site.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Memory tips (13): the egg timer tip
Many teachers involved with students who suffer from attention deficit use this tip: the make the students study in small increments of five or ten minutes, then suggest five minutes physical activity, then start again.
It is a useful tip for anybody: first it prevents blockage (you know, when you sit in front of a page and your mind goes blank for the duration?). Then it gives the brain some oxygen: even a short exercise like raising your arms over your head several times for thirty seconds will help.
Try ten minutes, for yourself or the children, and see if the egg timer helps.
The fact is that the brain likes to learn in increments and loves to learn by repeating the information.
You might enjoy reading this page, entitled "We are programmed to be interrupted." It describes a book by Maggie Jackson with the nice title "Distracted". I m not sure the theory of the author is a good one, but the page will make you think.
It is a useful tip for anybody: first it prevents blockage (you know, when you sit in front of a page and your mind goes blank for the duration?). Then it gives the brain some oxygen: even a short exercise like raising your arms over your head several times for thirty seconds will help.
Try ten minutes, for yourself or the children, and see if the egg timer helps.
The fact is that the brain likes to learn in increments and loves to learn by repeating the information.
You might enjoy reading this page, entitled "We are programmed to be interrupted." It describes a book by Maggie Jackson with the nice title "Distracted". I m not sure the theory of the author is a good one, but the page will make you think.
Memory tips (12): repeat immediately
There was in France a pastor that everybody appreciated, and most of the time, people who talked about him would say: "I had not seen him in five years and he remembered the names of my kids". He remembered people and people felt appreciated. I once heard the dancer Gene Kelly say the same thing about Fred Astaire. When he was a young unknown dancer, Fred Astaire had remembered his name and it had boosted his morale.
If you are not like that, here is a tip: repeat immediately the name aloud while looking at the person: "Mrs Williams, happy to meet you". It will help associating the face and the name, at least a little bit.
It does not always work: my father, who could quote hundreds of poems by heart had such a hard time with names that he always transported lists of names with him on small cards. More than once, I observed my own name on his memory cards!
If you are not like that, here is a tip: repeat immediately the name aloud while looking at the person: "Mrs Williams, happy to meet you". It will help associating the face and the name, at least a little bit.
It does not always work: my father, who could quote hundreds of poems by heart had such a hard time with names that he always transported lists of names with him on small cards. More than once, I observed my own name on his memory cards!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Memory tips (11): understanding
It is easier to remember:
1) what you understand
2) what you experimented with
3) what you discovered and formulated yourself
Everybody knows that. Why we apply it so seldom in the classroom is a mystery to me. Here are three examples.
Example 1
Method 1. Suppose you are teaching how to use a shovel in the garden. You can show a diagram to your students explaining that the shovel should enter the soil at a 45 degrees angle. Another diagram will show that when they place their foot on the shovel's head, it should be close to the handle. You ask your students to copy your drawings and memorize what you said and ask them to repeat that one week later.
Method 2. Let the students experiment in the yard and reach conclusions themselves. They might not only learn that the foot should be placed close to the center of the shovel's head (therefore close to the handle), but also that it is useful to have sturdy shoes. One week later, they are more likely to write a whole essay about their experience than to forget how to dig.
Example 2
A number of years ago, I got confused while teaching French grammar: I could not find a grammar that explained a specific point in a way that I could understand (then how could I teach it?) In despair, I decided to explain my dilemma to the students. I brought ten different French grammars at school and asked them to discuss in several groups what they thought what the best rule definition. After a few minutes, my students were in revolt: all these grammars were contradicting each other, some were plain wrong, the examples were not clarifying the subject. They all complained: my students had never considered before that there maybe such a thing as a bad grammar. But after half an hour, I did not have students, I had little grammarians very ardent at defending their point of view. Checking what the grammars said became a game that they played, and of course, they all became pretty good.
Example 3
There are a very small number of equations and rules in mathematics that students have to know by heart. But they got to know them. Why is that? First because time is short during a test, but mainly because recognizing the rule usually gives you a tip on how to solve the problem. All carpenters know that they can verify the square they are building by measuring the two diagonals: if the diagonals are equal, then they got a square. The method is much easier than to verify each angle: students who build a box or delineate an area in the yard do not forget that tip. It makes it easy later one to remember interesting rules about triangles.
Students come to the teacher with varied levels of knowledge. One school in New York experimented with teaching chess to kids, and their professor discovered that they did not know what a corner is. Corner, he said, if for them the grocery at the corner of the street, but they did not understand what is the corner on a chess game. It comes then as no surprise that kids learning chess were better at math!
1) what you understand
2) what you experimented with
3) what you discovered and formulated yourself
Everybody knows that. Why we apply it so seldom in the classroom is a mystery to me. Here are three examples.
Example 1
Method 1. Suppose you are teaching how to use a shovel in the garden. You can show a diagram to your students explaining that the shovel should enter the soil at a 45 degrees angle. Another diagram will show that when they place their foot on the shovel's head, it should be close to the handle. You ask your students to copy your drawings and memorize what you said and ask them to repeat that one week later.
Method 2. Let the students experiment in the yard and reach conclusions themselves. They might not only learn that the foot should be placed close to the center of the shovel's head (therefore close to the handle), but also that it is useful to have sturdy shoes. One week later, they are more likely to write a whole essay about their experience than to forget how to dig.
Example 2
A number of years ago, I got confused while teaching French grammar: I could not find a grammar that explained a specific point in a way that I could understand (then how could I teach it?) In despair, I decided to explain my dilemma to the students. I brought ten different French grammars at school and asked them to discuss in several groups what they thought what the best rule definition. After a few minutes, my students were in revolt: all these grammars were contradicting each other, some were plain wrong, the examples were not clarifying the subject. They all complained: my students had never considered before that there maybe such a thing as a bad grammar. But after half an hour, I did not have students, I had little grammarians very ardent at defending their point of view. Checking what the grammars said became a game that they played, and of course, they all became pretty good.
Example 3
There are a very small number of equations and rules in mathematics that students have to know by heart. But they got to know them. Why is that? First because time is short during a test, but mainly because recognizing the rule usually gives you a tip on how to solve the problem. All carpenters know that they can verify the square they are building by measuring the two diagonals: if the diagonals are equal, then they got a square. The method is much easier than to verify each angle: students who build a box or delineate an area in the yard do not forget that tip. It makes it easy later one to remember interesting rules about triangles.
Students come to the teacher with varied levels of knowledge. One school in New York experimented with teaching chess to kids, and their professor discovered that they did not know what a corner is. Corner, he said, if for them the grocery at the corner of the street, but they did not understand what is the corner on a chess game. It comes then as no surprise that kids learning chess were better at math!
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