posted on August 29, 2013

I am honored to be associated with John Lombardo, and Artworks for Youth as a member of the board. John has spent years developing an exceptional program bringing art classes and art appreciation to members of South Africa’s under-served communities. John connects schools in New York City with his program, and avails students and parents of an inestimable opportunity for personal growth and an awareness of the world in which we live. This program could serve as an inspirational model for school community service projects.

View a You Tube interview with John HERE

posted on July 3, 2013

Journal topics 2 and 3

It is fascinating to see how children convert the written word into a visual representation, and vice versa. It certainly enriches the reading experience to be able to create vivid mental representations of what one is reading. Practicing drawing and reading/writing together could create an awareness of the process of transferring the written word into mental images, enhance descriptive abilities, and support creative and imaginative writing.

Journal topic 2:

Provide a scenic written passage from a well-known author, and ask the children to draw the scene in their writing journals.

Students can journal on the process they undertook to complete this assignment.

Journal topic 3:

Provide a colorful postage stamp to students. Ask them to place it in the center of a facing page, and expand the scene in the stamp with colored pencils. They can then write a story about their creation.

Point out to students that information can to transferred from words to images, and vice versa. Providing a detailed description of your ideas to readers help them make an accurate visual representation in their minds as they read your work. Similarly, reading detailed work helps the readers create captivating visual images.

posted on July 2, 2013

I am starting a series on writing journal topics appropriate for middle school learners.

Writing journal topic 1:

How would your life look if you lived your life exactly one minute ahead of every other human being? If you think you could communicate with other people, how would you accomplish this task?

posted on June 26, 2013

K-12 institutions should see themselves as an integral part of the community they serve. As educators, we are responsible for equipping students for a fast paced, constantly changing environment within which they will have to navigate successfully. We are told that people will lead longer working lives, and possibly have as many as three careers over that period.

Schools who integrated themselves fully into their communities seek to avail themselves of opportunities to expose their students to professionals in a wide spectrum of employment. Since we do not truly know where the passion will come from for any particular individual, exposing children to the thinking and ideas of adults outside the school community can only strengthen the overall educational experience. Ideas for sourcing such interactions could be parents, local businesses, or institutions of higher learning. Students benefit greatly from collaborative experiences with professionals in the community. If, for example, students are preparing an advertising project, requests could be made to local advertising firms to participate in evaluating work from a professional perspective. Community members are often more than happy to contribute to learning in this way.

Mutually beneficial relationships such as community service ideas, involvement in scientific research or other opportunities could quite conceivably grow from this outreach. Operating exclusively in academic isolation limits opportunities for students who would certainly thrive through interactions within a larger sphere of influence.

 

 

 

posted on June 22, 2013

Miquon provides a very interesting way to teach Math. Although it was developed quite some time ago, the way problems are presented is extremely creative, and children respond well to the challenges it poses. The series caters to varying ability levels.

Click HERE to access Amazon

 

posted on May 4, 2013

I am embarking on a study of how humans engage in the process of learning, how they transfer their knowledge, how individuals most effectively receive information for processing, and what hinders and what assists in the attainment of personal potential. In order to do this, I have selected an initial series of books to read in five topic areas: early man, nature and interactions between man and nature, travel and exploration, inventions and technology, and human experience and learning. As I do this, I am working through the ages to see how interactions between cultures further developed our collective knowledge, understanding, and learning. Lastly, I am investigating how inventions and breakthroughs in creativity spur new thinking and paths of exploration in society.

I imagine that in the hypothetical situation of a totally isolated settled society, knowledge must be limited to the accumulated learning and expertise of the group. In this situation, new learning would only come through serendipitous encounters with natural events and surroundings. Early migrating humans following food sources must have had to adapt their skill set to their constantly changing environment. Migrations further afield to totally new climatic regions or food sources also required  adaptation and learning. Later interactions between groups could only have enriched the knowledge base of both interacting cultures.

Interesting questions: How have we transferred learning both through the ages, and between ourselves in a particular time period? Has how we learn changed through the ages to the present, not so much in the medium of its transfer, but in its content and structure?

Casting a wide net, my initial reading list is:

EARLY HUMANS

The Journey of Man by Spencer Wells
People of The Lake by Richard E. Leakey
Before the Dawn by Nicholas Wade

NATURE

Out of Eden by Alan Burdick
Salt by Mark Kurlansky
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
Nature Wars by Mark L. Winston
Animal Architects by James R. Gould and Carol Grant Gould

TRAVEL AND EXPLORATION

1421 by Gavin Menzies
Marco Polo by Laurence Bergreen

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

Creating Innovators by Tony Wagner
The Medieval Machine by Jean Gimpel
The Nature of Technology by W. Brian Arthur
Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson
Simplexity by Jeffrey Kluger
How Invention Begins by John H. Lienhard
Inventing Modern by John H. Lienhard

HUMAN EXPERIENCE AND LEARNING

The Practice of Creativity by George M. Prince
How Children Succeed by Paul Tough
I Am a Pencil by Sam Swope
The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown
Mind In The Making by Ellen Galinsky
How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer
Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales
Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

posted on

My niece, Josian Heyerdahl, says of her grandfather Thor Heyerdahl that he was someone who really believed in his ideas, and did amazing things to follow his dreams. Indeed, what he did would make a wonderful introduction for middle and upper-school students to the STEM/STEAM process.

Heyerdahl observed strikingly similar ancient art inscriptions in locations separated by oceans, and surmised that ancient peoples in fact used oceans as highways. Thor differed with others in his field who felt that oceans were barriers to human migration. Heyerdahl decided to put his ideas into practice. He studied ancient raft building techniques, and insisted that his Kon-Tiki raft be made the same way. He then put to sea to test his migration theory even though he could not swim!

Whether or not one agrees with his theories, here is a man who can be used as an example to demonstrate to students the STEM/STEAM process of combining these disciplines to try out an experiment or idea. Here is a project utilizing Steam, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics in a wonderfully dramatic fashion.

The recent film Kon-Tiki, distributed this month in the USA by The Weinstein Company, and the best selling book by the same name can form an exciting backdrop or introduction to the concept of STEM/STEAM. This could lead to discussions on the oceans, engineering, rediscovering ancient technical knowledge, and many related topics. Heyerdahl’s subsequent Ra and Tigris vessels and voyages are no less interesting to students.

Thor Heyerdahl HERE

Kon-Tiki film HERE

 

 

posted on

All information which we receive into the brain for processing comes from one of our five senses. Developing an ability to effectively and efficiently apply as many of these senses as possible to a problem or investigation can only assist us in finding solutions to our queries. Many lessons can be developed and taught with this idea in mind.

Learning the process of active listening, for example, as opposed to passive listening or merely hearing, can assist students tremendously as they take in information for processing. Really listening to what is being said, with an active engagement, can facilitate an intake of all the information presented. Here is an example of a lesson promoting active listening in mathematics.

Procedure: Students are given small erasable writing tablets, erasable markers, and board erasers. They are told that this is a listening exercise. Not only is this lesson about listening carefully to the information presented; students also have to separate relevant information from the irrelevant material as well. Lastly, they have to decide how they will record the information as the reader proceeds with the statement and questions.

The teacher states that the problem will be read only once. A clear and precise statement is made as to what type of problem is being address whether it is, for example, time or distance. Students have to decide how they will record the information, look for relevant material, and solve the problem. A word problem is then slowly, carefully and methodically read to the students. At no point is any part of the problem communicated in written form. Students need to listen for relevant information, and undertake to solve the questions posed.

It is fascinating to see how students approach this form of questioning at first. Usually, most students begin by writing down everything the teacher says verbatim. In later exercises, students tend to make a simple diagrammatic chart to solve the problem.

Example:

Teacher states: this is a distance question.

A man decides to take a hike along the Appalachian Trail. This is a three-day adventure. On the first day, he walks 30 miles. The food he consumes that day costs $5.45. On the second day, he makes good progress. He saw two bears, and three Blue Jays. This day, he walks 25 miles. He stepped off the trail to buy water for $2.50. The final leg of his journey took him another 23 miles. He ate three cereal bars costing $3.00 each.

Question:

How many miles did he walk in total on this specific journey?

At this juncture, the teacher might also ask students to write down, on a separate piece of paper, how much he spent in total to see which students were actively listening to the entire story, and who listened only for distance information. The story can then be re-read, and the spending question asked again. Students and teacher can compare notes on the their answers.

The lesson then can be focused on a discussion of active learning, sorting of information for relevancy, and storage of additional information that may later become relevant. Students will also learn how most efficiently to record what they have heard.

Additional, more complicated, problem:

No information is written down by the teacher for the students to see.

Teacher states that this is a distance, time and expenditure question:

Judy was training for a marathon on Sunday. On Wednesday, she started running at 6:00 am. She ran 15 miles, finishing at 8:37 am. The next day, she ran 17 miles, starting at 6:00 am, and ending 2 hours and 47 minutes later. Conveniently, this practice run ended at the convenience store. There, Judy bought two vitamin waters, each costing $2.50, an energy shake costing $3.99, and a bag of potato chips at $2.99.

(1) How many miles did Judy run in all?

(2) In all, how long did it take Judy to run the total distance?

(3) How much did Judy spend at the convenience store?

(4) What day was it when Judy ran 17 miles?

 

 

 

 

 

 

posted on April 2, 2013

Becoming interested in the environment is a crucial aspect of contemporary elementary education. Explore.org provides an extensive resource of photographs, live web-cams, and videos covering many topics. Students can be asked to research a topic, and present their findings to their classmates. This activity provides an engaging way to introduce young learners to environmental issues. The material is constantly updated, so the exercise can be repeated several times a year.

 

Connect to Explore.org  HERE