Chronically Curious (The Independent Educator)

वहत इफ.. आईटी ह्म्म्म हाउ ? What if we shared ideas worth sharing with each other? What if we recommended more विडोस...

2011-11-22T01:08:00.000-08:00

माय My blog has been taken over by thai or maybe hindi?

What if we shared ideas worth sharing with each other? What if we recommended more videos to each other and colleagues?
Some of the youtube videos I've listened to lately have me thinking about the future.

What is social learning?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIlwGYY0_AA
what gutenberg did for written word, social media did for the spoken word...
fusion-universal for social learning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HYYWK453g0
fusion virtual school in KENYA

attendance ... email to student "you are absent"
i care that you are here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YROSBbQO70E

creating nearly free textbooks
Flat World world class content
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWcH5LDlcSg
While the disruptive power of the Internet promises wider access to knowledge and new legal licensing structures open the door for enhanced sharing, old business models often stand in the way. How have we arrived at the era of the $200 textbook, with stakeholders so enmeshed in the status quo that they don't seem to question it - even though none of them are being particularly well served? And how can new business models bring disruptive innovation to educational publishing, building a sustainable, new, 21st-century publishing model, based on free and open textbooks, in the process? This paper will explore these questions, offering new perspectives on the future of academic publishing.

Jeff Shelstad is co-founder and CEO of Flat World Knowledge, a venture-backed higher education content company offering world-class, free, and openly-licensed college textbooks. Flat World Knowledge has raised over $25 million in private investment capital since February of 2009, setting out to disrupt the $9+ billion textbook market with its innovative business model

====

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu06K71JayE
flatworld knowledge youtube channel

the quote by Dr. Simonson from his 2005 बुक
https://sites.google.com/site/eddsteve2011/quotes-for-instructional-technology

When teachers try to make instruction equal for all students, they will fail. Rather, the teacher should provide a wide
collection of activities that make possible equivalent learning experiences for students using approaches that recognize
fundamental दिफ्फेरेंसस between learners, distant and local. Equivalence is more time-consuming and difficult, but promises to be more effective.

Michael Simonson, Trends and Issues in Distant Education: International Perspectives, page 285

------------

Maria Andersen's youtube posts about "Learn this" individualization of learning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5kAOE3x1aY

Maria Andersen's Free range Learning from TedX
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWdSz2nHQNY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qiNiwUdmb4
general interview with Maria Andersen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQGk-ak1dbQ
levers of change for education

edgeoflearning.com
Lift Institute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9Fj4uspgj
Vision of education where we could go

Molinari's digital divide solution (not one laptop per child, but rather a myriad of computer centers with supportive training)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaxCRnZ_CLg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS2PqTTxFFc
he uses a word... soporific...
the formulation of the problem or question is more important than the solution
7 global skills

Linda Darling-Hammond
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DuW5gGN0_0
Stanford School Design Network

What are scientists? Curious
Cornerstone 2011 - Dr. Autumn Sutherlin - Week 3
From: ACU | Sep 28, 2011 | 97 views
Our world is dominated by fact-based inquiry. At the heart of scientific discovery is the gathering of evidence from experiments; and it is the ability to repeat those experiments with the same results that helps formulate facts, which in turn allows for future experiments to happen. What science offers is an objective view of the world, unclouded by emotion or perspective or interpretation. But what happens when scientists dispute the "facts"? Is there room for interpretation, and if so, does that lead us down a slope of "my point of view" versus "your point of view"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSREHEqBSZc

ACU and mobile learning university in Abilene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=स्श्रा६४१ओक५

ACU and mobile learning university in Abilene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSPA641oc5Q

Announcing a HALL OF FAME for Instructional Technologists

2011-11-07T09:23:00.000-08:00

I'm in a program at Nova Southeastern University and one of our assignments is to identify nomineees for a "hall of fame" of instructional technologists.

<<< Here's my nominee.

You can learn more at

the HALL OF FAME (this is a proposed website... with proposed nominees, with work by my classmates).

sites.google.com/site/itdeHallofFame

A recipe for do-it-yourself learning...

2011-11-07T07:35:00.001-08:00

This week's post is about FREE RANGE LEARNING. A delightful "recipe" for learning in a random, "follow your heart" way is described on Youtube.com.

"outside the mainstream"

DIY learning vs. evil caged learning?

highly structured education that takes place with "somewhat captive" participants

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWdSz2nHQNY

============================

What does it take to become a successful learner...

(summary of her talk):

We need a recipe...

a) information (high quality ingredients)

b) we need a set of directions -- we need to reengage

c) we need to reflect (writing) ... blogging is a form of learning -- when we write about something, we eventually stumble on our words in a previous blog.

d) (space for reflection) white noise helps us reflect... we need space for brain to relax and -- procedure, tell your brain to focus on a problem...

e) spices to make food more enjoyable, so we need spice to learning by engaging in social activities... join the right social network or go to a conference -- standing appointment once a week -- learn a language by talking -- how about twitter in another language?

"when someone tweets about a new game design, i get excited about it and reconnected to my area of interest."

f) Get variety -- humans can provide new resources.

g) cook time: 10,000 hours... structure

h) we need a way to deal with decision fatigue... paralyzed by too many

A guy named Eddinghouse is important...

each reengagement helps you store the info in biological information...

i) Set a learning challenge that is hard to postpone

Set a presentation date... pressure to make sure I learn everything I can about a topic.

To learn Spanish, buy a non-refundable plane ticket to Spain 9 months from now.

What happens during a dissertation?

classes stop, assignments stop, tests stop. It's up to you to write about a topic of your own choosing.

40-70% of Ph.D. don't complete their dissertation within 7 years... (depending on the degree specialization)

good learners, but unable to progress with a free range project.

Have you learned how to learn on your own?

How do you eat an elephant?... one bite at a time.

We need to apply this recipe with students...

For example, a documentary had the following line: The US produces more trash than two Chinas or 15 Indias.

So I did a search and learned that the USA in 2009 produced 230 million tons of trash. Assume 310 million people ... how much trash per person?

In China, how much trash per person?

In India, how much trash per person?

None of these thoughts were explicitly given in the documentary. But we can then go farther... "the U.S. is xx% of the world's population, but the nation produces xxxx% of the world's trash."

It's all part of "learning the global skills" and integrating the subjects to analyze a situation.

Please send comments to VisualandActive@gmail.com

What was Alvin Toffler writing about in Revolutionary Wealth? What is the knowledge Economy? What is the knowable future?

2011-10-29T22:44:00.000-07:00

In the knowledge economy, capitalism's two stalwart pillars, property rights and the assumption of limited supply, are crumbling.

Property will become increasingly less tangible, the Tofflers argue, while free-flowing knowledge, upon which new wealth increasingly will be based, won't ever run out.

And, they suggest, America, like capitalism, may be facing a comedown. Although the authors insist that the U.S. is still the nation best-equipped to lead the science-based wealth revolution, they see it facing a challenge initiated by its own multinationals: a transformed Asia.

The most contemporary and compelling chapters in the book may well be those dealing with China, India and Japan.

Foreign-exchange-rich China is pouring money and talent into the sciences - graduating 465,000 scientists and engineers a year.

An America that allots less than 2% of its gross domestic product to science research is bound to come up short against countries funding more dynamic ambitions. In the future, the Tofflers conclude, Asian powerhouses will have the upper hand.
-- Susan Witty, Barron's review of Alvin Toffler's book Revolutionary Wealth

Read the full review

When I share $100 with you, I have to give you $50. When I share a meal with you, I lose half of the food.
When I share information with you, it's win-win. I don't lose anything when I share what I have.
This is the fundamental point of Toffler's "prosumer" economy.

The Future Happened Yesterday. (service mark by Jack Latona)
We used to think of the future as something that was created five or ten or fifty years from now. The future of living longer meant waiting twenty or thirty years for new developments in cancer prevention and life extension.

New bits of information arrive in such abundance that we can't keep up. We might have some time tomorrow to read about what happened today... -- so (for us) the future happened yesterday.

www.LetterFromMexico.com by Jack Latona

Notes for students who have a substitute teacher

2011-10-29T09:18:00.001-07:00

I'm a substitute teacher and I want to bring in the model of teaching that Dennis Littky advocates.

Here's a draft of the memo that I inten
d to show students (they are ninth graders).

Dear Students

The model for centuries has been "listen to the lecture, take notes, review the notes, prepare for the test."

Some schools want students to take a more active role in the classroom.
Here's what Stanford University offers:

James Zull admits that "sometimes I lapse back to my old style of lecturing and within minutes I see in many students the glassy eyes of the passive learner."

James Zull, (2002) The art of changing the brain: enriching teaching by exploring the biology

=========

Other items to discuss...

Lesson Plan: Biology
Day 1 Weds. Welcome – Thought of the Day - look at the lesson plan…
Explain the rules of conduct to the substitute teacher (let’s see what I don’t know)
Exchange information about “what works in education”

Do any of these methods work?

1. Teacher walks around
2. Teacher presents different bits of information that matter to each student
3. Different lesson plans for each student
4. Drive out fear
5. If there are many ways of learning, why not many ways of showing what we learned? “performances of understanding” can be visual or audio or written
6. Teacher offers extrinsic rewards (outer) and eventually lets the students find the motivation (intrinsic) inside themselves to continue the learning.
7. Teacher avoids lecturing. Classroom is for discussions and for students to explain what they learned the previous day.

Steve McCrea 1958 Princeton University 1978 Nova University 1984-87
Florida Atlantic University 1989-91 US Dept of Energy
Teacher of English to people from other countries 954 646 8246
Editor Electric Car Book Snopes.com steve mccrea GOTS Guide on the side

Goal: How should we use our time? What is your long-term goal? Goal for this week?
What product do you want to create by Friday?
Video poster written paper audio recording webpage blog entry
Content of the product
a) a cool list of reasons why we should study biology
b) a list of cool articles that we want to read over the next year or before we are 20 years old.
------------------------------------------------------
Lesson plan for days 2 and 3 (refer to your individual lesson plan)
Welcome
Thought for the day (presented by one of the students)
work on the content and products
write a summary of what we did
plan the work for the next day
prepare the room for the next class

I decided to stop lecturing several years ago and my students have been active and engaged in class ever since. But once in a while I slip back into that lecturing habit, and the minute I do, my students also slip back into that stupor that made me abandon the practice in the first place. (page 127)

If learning is change in neuronal networks, that change might not depend on instruction (learning can take place with or without instruction)....Rather than directing and instructing learning, we teachers should give the learner incentives and support in using what she already has in her brain. She will learn by selecting the right neuronal networks from among those that already exist. If she begins to fire some new networks, that will come by giving her new experience and showing her new things, not by instruction and explaining.
(page 122)

Zull, James (2002) The fine art of changing the brain: enriching the practice of teaching by exploring the biology of learning. Stylus Publishing (2002)

What would happen if students were able to read parts of the books about teaching methods that teachers studied?

Make a link to TheStudentIsTheClass.com

2011-10-27T04:47:00.000-07:00

I'm in a degree program at Nova Southeastern University and we have an interesting assignment: nominate a pioneer of Educational Technology to the "hall of fame" organized by our department (Instructional Technology and Distance Education, ITDE).

Dr. Abraham Fischler has made contributions in three areas:

Instructional Design

Instructional Technology

Distance Education

His educational philosophy, captured in his trademark signature phrase “Time is a variable,” has driven instructional design innovations. Charter schools use this model in K-12 to personalize and differentiate instruction plans. Dr. Fischler’s testimony in 2009 helped win a chain of charter schools approval to operate in Dade County during a time when there was increasing antipathy toward any program that might take students away from public schools.

His promotion of computer-assisted instruction makes him an advocate of instructional technology. He was president of Nova when the nation’s first online graduate degree for educators was offered in 1982.

The wide variety of choice in Distance Education exists today largely thanks to a legal fight that Nova University (under Dr. Fischler’s leadership) had to wage in the early 1980s.

What is the background of this pioneer?

Dr. Fischler earned his Ed.D. at Columbia University (New York City), taught at Harvard and UC Berkeley and co-wrote an important science education textbook series that did not give answers in the teacher’s edition. Instead of looking at the answers (did the liquid turn red or blue when acid was added?), the teacher had to do the exercise and interpret the results.

He joined Nova University of Advanced Technology in 1966 when the school aimed to become the “MIT of the South.” It was during this time of his career as an administrator that his six principles of guiding a new school emerged. These six key principles stand as check points for any team aiming to start a school today.

Fischler shifted the university’s focus to on an underserved niche – graduate degrees for educators, teachers and principals. Through persistence and by paying effective teachers as adjuncts, Fischler showed that Nova University could afford excellent instructors as needed. Innovative use of technology to meet the needs of the diverse groups of educators internationally led constantly adapting the “classroom.” Nova University became one of the first schools to rent space in hotels to hold classes on weekends, then flying in teachers to cohorts. Later, the school arranged for the professor to transmitting to several cohorts via satellite, with after-class support supplemented with telephone conferencing.

He left the presidency of the university in 1991, got elected to the Broward County School Board for four years and has since then consulted in the reform of K-12 education.

========================================== His blog www.TheStudentIstheClass.com pushes for the use of computers in classrooms to help teachers differentiate instruction and personalize the rate of the delivery of lessons, continuing his tireless work in promoting instructional technology. Unlike the easier track of “building a charter school from scratch,” Fischer’s vision statement, given in the blog’s first entry (29 July 2006), describes a pioneering program that would place a layer of technology over existing schools, leading to transformation of entire school systems (rather than just one school).

1) His phrase “Let’s make time a variable” is a hallmark of his contribution to instructional design.

2) His advocacy of computer-assisted instruction is evidence of his role as a pioneer of instructional technology.

3) The North Carolina lawsuit in 1982 ensured more choice in education to millions of professionals in the field of education (growing to other professions as Nova has expanded). These are three reasons to induct Dr. Abraham S. Fischler into the ITDE Hall of Fame.

Why not also click on the "like" button for the Facebook page for the blog? facebook

=================================

Please also look at the power of adding a link to TheStudentIstheClass.com

2011-07-27T18:40:00.000-07:00

Please click on this link

Learn the ten principles of effective use of media in the classroom (and in online classes).

Key quote: "No slacking -- don't lean on technology and skimp on preparation."

I agree. Have a backup plan, an email link in case the embedded video doesn't work, all the media on a DVD if there's no power in the classroom, on a flash drive (USB flash) to pass around to laptops. Can you give the lesson outside under a tree?

I found Robert MacLachman's youtube channel while completing at course in Nova Southeastern University's Distance Education program. Let's give Robert the exposure he deserves. 32 hits up to 27 July ... Let's get him to 1,000 before his video is one year old.

His channel youtube.com/robertmaclachlan has other videos, some with fewer than 100 hits. Distort the net and join me in "liking" this guy's work.

Michelle Rhee has answers...

2011-07-27T14:37:00.001-07:00

Michelle Rhee sent around this email...

Dear Steve,

We are all impacted by the quality of our nation's schools. Public education has economic, social, and moral implications for our country. That is why this movement is so important, and we are so grateful you're involved. I have been so fortunate to speak with many StudentsFirst members in person. Many of you want to know more about the mission of StudentsFirst, while others have had some really interesting questions about education policy and what reform means for our kids.

Unfortunately, I can't visit every hometown and sit down with each of you, so the StudentsFirst Team came up with a fun idea called "Ask Michelle."Submit your questions online now and I will respond by video.

http://studentsfirst.org/ask-michelle

America is having a national conversation about education reform. Discussion about how to improve our schools is pervasive -- on the evening news, in the teacher's lounge or during a neighborhood gathering. Sometimes these conversations leave people with more questions than answers.

I will respond to your questions openly and honestly with my perspective as an education reformer, a former teacher, and first and foremost a parent. The issues our country faces are complicated, difficult, and deserve serious answers.

I welcome your questions on anything -- from teacher tenure and teacher evaluations, to "last in, last out" (LIFO) policy and StudentsFirst's Save Great Teachers campaign. The sky's the limit.

Send me your questions using our online form now:

http://studentsfirst.org/ask-michelle

I look forward to hearing from you!

-- Michelle

Michelle Rhee
CEO and Founder
StudentsFirst.org

==========

Here's the question that I posed:

Dennis Littky said the following in an interview on National Public Radio in April 2005: "The commissioner of education (in Rhode Island) Peter McWalter said to me, "I could have closed this school down the first year, but I had the patience to watch and I've never seen people who had the belief in the maturity of the kid" -- so half of our great work is because the [kids] grew up. In most schools, they don't get to [grow up] -- they get stopped before [they can prove themselves]."

In the Littky success story, part of the credit for success goes to Peter McWalters for giving Littky's staff the time to meet goals and to create a school with different procedures.

You can get the full radio interview at npr.org and search "Dennis Littky Small school"

(well, heck, here is a link with transcription. If you want the npr.org link, here it is)

Littky's school is a charter and from what I've seen in Florida, charters are generally inspected by the school district. To pass inspection, many charter schools adopt the same curriculum and general rules and penalties for discipline that traditional schools use. (In Broward County, where I work, this means a 30-page code of behavior that the students have to agree to follow - who reads all that?)...

What do you recommend? Should we teachers and parents go to the legislature and get the charter schools permission to try a different curriculum and discipline structure? Under the current scheme, most charters eventually look a lot like the public schools that the kids couldn't perform well in... so why should we be surprised when many kids fail to get engaged in our charter schools?

Bottom line: would removing school district oversight help charter schools find "a different way" to differentiate lessons and personalize the instruction, allowing more project-based learning?

Move over, PDF.... Interactive CDF is here from Wolfram

2011-07-22T01:20:00.000-07:00

Thanks again to John Vornle for forwarding this article to me...

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/wolfram-launches-new-document-format-meet-cdf/52917

Wolfram on Thursday rolled out its Computable Document Format (CDF), which aims to turn documents into interactive applications.

The goal is to turn “lifeless documents” into ones that bring data to life, show the data behind assumptions and illustrate concepts. Conrad Wolfram, strategic director of Wolfram, said the CDF effort has now reached the point where the company can open it up to developers, publishers and other interested parties.

Wolfram is still working out the business model behind CDF, but publishers have shown “great interest.” For now, CDF is delivered via a free player that can bring infographics, journals and math lessons to life. It’s not a stretch to see how a magazine like Popular Science could publish in the CDF format.

The rub is that Wolfram needs adoption and there’s already a dominant document format in Adobe’s PDF. One big challenge would be figuring out the interplay between CDF and PDF. Would someone want to embed a CDF document into a PDF. Conrad Wolfram said that “the CDF format will be open” with the goal of becoming a public standard.

In a demonstration, Wolfram highlighted a bevy of use cases. Financial documents such as 401K information could highlight the assumptions behind savings models. If global warming papers could have detailed the underlying data in the models perhaps there wouldn’t have been climate gate, noted Wolfram.

For now, Wolfram needs developers on board. CDF has reached the point where a developer with the knowhow to author an XML document can bring publications to life. Indeed, the use cases for CDF revolve around:

Journal articles;
Knowledge apps;
Textbooks;
Infographics;
And presentations and reports.

Take a moment to view these inspiring words and music

2011-07-22T00:27:00.000-07:00

This video is just sweet. it is in the vein of the Grasshopper "Entrepreneur" video and these are delightful for teachers to use in classes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F76jr0tJemE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6MhAwQ64c0

Blue "DO"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKBdJ49veKs

"Agent of Change"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3KXVVpdBuQ

"Inspire"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knnO6IuxbFc

my version... Deming's story

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYzsrcMzTtQ

My video with quotes

For more, go to www.BuildTheFuture.net and see the list on the lower right.

A reminder from Dr. Fischler...

2011-07-21T23:53:00.000-07:00

How do you become a visible change agent in this environment?

If you want to see change in education, you have to do it.

Not through talking about it. You have to do it.

You have to bring a group of people together.

It's going to take years of commitment, argument and debate.

You have to demonstrate that you are producing a product that we need.

-- Dr. Abraham S. Fischler

www.TheStudentIstheClass.com worth a visit...

Get these free books from SCRIBD.com -- easy to download as PDF files

2011-07-21T22:43:00.000-07:00

GuideOnTheSide.com is my website. Please suggest interesting quotations to inspire teachers and students.

FREE BOOKS from ASCD.org

useful! These downloads come from

http://www.scribd.com/doc/44415727/9781416612766 myths about teaching

http://www.scribd.com/doc/36692182/9781416603627 classroom management that works Marzano

http://www.scribd.com/doc/36692180/9781416603535 dynamic schools with coaching

I also invite you to download my scribd.com documents. Here's one of my favorites:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/58676538/Build-the-Future-Net-Presents-a-Guide-to-School-Reform-by-Mario-Llorente-Steve-McCrea-and-others

Suppose a person creates a book with plenty of versions:

a) lots of photos, color for scrolling online or in a PDF

b) lots of photos, grey for black and white printout

c) very few photos, mostly to reduce printing costs, with plenty of references

d) ready to photocopy with large formats for posting around the classroom.

Basically the same material but the formatting is different for the different uses. That's what Lulu.com allows since there is NOT a heavy cost for the first copy of the book. In some print-on-demand books, you get ONE chance to get the format correct, so it is very difficult to innovate as you create. But with Lulu.com, I can create a version that is pocket sized, then another with LARGE format pages ready to be photocopied. Same quotes, different size of type. One content, two or four different formats. Let me know your thoughts. HappyMathTeacher@gmail.com

Would you want to look at a dead cat after you gave a correct answer?

2011-07-21T22:15:00.001-07:00

Thanks to John Vornle for passing this post to me.

To make it easier for readers to look at this article, I've reproduced it here. Please click on the link to take you through to the article (and whatever hits might then be produced). I'm posting the material here in case the link is corrupted. The data in this article is perplexing and I invite you to comment on it.

See also John Vornle's comment at the end.

========

http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2011/07/improving-peoples-memory-by-punishing.html

Comment by Steve:

I have tried to imagine implementing this study's findings in my class. What is the downside of getting a stronger memory? REVULSION. Why would I want to bring negative images of dead animals into my class? Less mature students are surely going to disucss the ugly photos and some might react by running away from the photo. how could that enhance the new connection to

This is a study that I will use cautiously. I prefer to surround my students with positive influences. WE TEND TO MOVE toward the things we think about.

---------------------------

Improving people's memory by punishing their correct answers

A well-established finding in psychology is that successfully retrieving information from memory serves to consolidate the storage of that information. Each time your brain's filing clerk tracks down the right information, the more likely he is to find it another time. Psychologists call this the testing effect - practising retrieval of information is far more effective than simply re-studying that same material.

Can this benefit of testing be enhanced? Yes it can. A new study has provided the first ever demonstration of how to enhance the memory consolidation that occurs after correctly answering a test question. Bridgid Finn and Henry Roediger's important and somewhat surprising new finding is that following a correct answer with an aversive stimulus serves to enhance the consolidation of that memory. It's like punishing the filing clerk after each correct retrieval makes him even more accurate in the future.

Forty undergrads studied multiple lists of ten word-pairs, each featuring a Swahili word and its English translation. After each list of ten, they were tested. Presented with the Swahili, they had to answer with the English. Here's the important bit. If they answered correctly, one of three things happened immediately: a blank screen appeared, a neutral picture appeared (e.g. a fork) or a negative, aversive picture appeared (e.g. a dead cat).

After this pattern of study period and test had been followed for ten lists of ten word-pairs, the participants were then given a jumbo test of all 100 Swahili words. Here's the key result: for those items answered correctly in the earlier mini-tests, it was those that were followed by a nasty picture that were most likely to be accurately recalled in the final jumbo test. Earlier correct answers that had been followed by a neutral pic or blank screen were not so well remembered (and performance was equivalent across the blank/neutral conditions).

"These data are the first to show that arousal following successful retrieval of information enhances later recall of that information," the researchers said.

A follow-up study was similar to the first but this time correct answers in the initial mini-tests were followed by neutral or aversive pictures that appeared two seconds later, as opposed to appearing immediately as they did in the first study. This was to see if there was a narrow window beyond which a negative stimulus wouldn't any longer enhance the consolidating effect of correct retrieval. The results were just the same as for the first study, so even two seconds later, a nasty picture is still able to enhance the memory consolidating effect of a correct retrieval. Future studies are needed to test just how long after a correct retrieval this process is still effective, and to see if positive images exert a similar benefit.

Finally, the researchers looked to see if the presentation of a negative pic has its memory enhancing effect after items are merely re-studied, as opposed to recalled. A similar protocol with Swahili-English word pairs was followed as before, but this time, instead of mini-tests after each set of ten word pairs, the participants were simply given the pairs to study again, with each pair proceeded either by a blank screen, neutral picture or nasty picture. This time, there was no benefit of the negative pics. In fact, there was a trend for pairs to be recalled less often if they'd been followed by a nasty pic in the earlier study phase.

Why should negative images boost the consolidating effects of answering a test item correctly? Finn and Roediger aren't sure but think it has to do with links between the amygdala, which is involved in fear learning, and the hippocampus - a brain area involved in long-term memory storage. This is a rather vague account and doesn't explain why aversive stimuli only enhance memory after correct retrieval, not further study. By way of further context, a 2006 study showed the presentation of aversive images after to-be-learned stimuli was beneficial during the initial study of that material.

Post-script

I couldn't help wondering what Milgram would have made of this study. Recall that participants in his classic obedience research thought they were taking part in an investigation of the effects of punishment on learning. In Milgram's mock set-up, the "learner" was subjected to an electric shock each time they answered incorrectly. Of course, Milgram wasn't really studying memory, but this new article suggests that he could have been onto something. Somewhat paradoxically, though, it seems it's correctly answered items that ought to be followed by an aversive stimulus, not incorrect answers.
_________________________________

Finn, B., and Roediger, H. (2011). Enhancing Retention Through Reconsolidation: Negative Emotional Arousal Following Retrieval Enhances Later Recall. Psychological Science, 22 (6), 781-786 DOI: 10.1177/0956797611407932

This post was written by Christian Jarrett for the BPS Research Digest.

JOHN's COMMENT: .... he retrieved this article using an iPad.

I'm not convinced by the manner in which this apple technology forces me to communicate with others. I can sense how it completely dominates the communication of inexperienced youth. In my opinion, it does not allow for the reflection necessary for a worthwhile communication. In my world, the individuals with whom I work, they don't have time for the luxury of wasting other people's time. It reduces the value of each communication.

How to persist -- what words should be on walls in schools?

2011-07-21T07:47:00.000-07:00

The brain doesn't know the difference between something vividly imagined and the actual experience.

Dr. Joe Pace, The Pacific Institute

(954) 926-5668 drjpace@msn.com

We tend to move toward whatever we think about.

The foundation of all human action is human thought.

We rewire the brain by thinking about something over and over.

We change the wiring by replacing pictures and replaying those new mental images over and over.

Schools should have a cap and gown and a sample diploma in a special room. Every student can imagine putting on the gown and receiving that diploma -- and then a photo is taken. What do I look like in that moment? What do I feel in that moment? What does it feel like to be a graduate? The photo goes home and the student looks at the photo again and again.

You can't direct the wind, but you can adjust the sails.

from a presenation at Summer Conference organized by Nova.edu

Be comfortable with the uncomfortable

2011-07-20T12:04:00.000-07:00

Random Learning
I returned a rental car during lunch on Wednesday during a conference. I rode back with Mr. Hidalgo who was listening to Dennis Prager on the radio and we got to talking.

"I tell my son, 'Be comfortable with the uncomfortable.' When he asks me to buy something for him," Mr. Hidalgo said, "I ask him to negotiate and find out about the warranty. He has to be ready to move forward by himself."

AN INTERESTING INTERNSHIP
"I tell my son to watch Hard Core Pawn. Anyone who watches that TV show for at least ten episodes will become better at business. If a young person could work there for a month, he would be set for life. I don't know why any teenager stands on a corner with a sign, waving it around. What does he learn doing that? It would be better to work in a store like Hard Core Pawn and really learn about how to run a business."

Two of his children are college graduates or in college, one at Columbia, and his third child (age 14) is in ninth grade. "I already took him to visit his brother at Columbia. I want him to think that this is part of his future." That's an engaged parent.

I'm at a conference to learn how to become a better teacher, how to find better learning materials and how to motivate students. I got my best tip from the guy who drives a shuttle bus. Bravo, Mr. Hidalgo.

An open letter about Charter Schools in the USA

2011-07-12T04:19:00.000-07:00

Some people in the United Kingdom are looking closely at charter schools in the USA. I got wind of their interest in importing the charter structure to Britain and I composed the following open letter:

To anyone interested in opening a charter school:

if you go to 1 minute 20 (1:20), you will see the transcription.

The commissioner of education (in Rhode Island) Peter McWalter said to me, "I could have closed this school down the first year, but I had the patience to watch and I've never seen people who had the belief in the maturity of the kid" -- so half of our great work is because the [kids] grew up. In most schools, they don't get to [grow up] -- they get stopped before [they can prove themselves].

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdKw1GOIaGQ

11 July 2011

I have worked at three charter schools (elementary, middle and high schools) and I'm a consultant to a start-up school.

I recommend that you speak with Tom vander Ark edReformer.com
Tom Vander Ark
direct: 206.909.8251
email: tom@VARpartners.net
twitter: @tvanderark

and Dr. Abraham S. Fischler TheStudentIsTheClass.com +1 954 262 5376 fischler@nova.edu

In their blogs they both write about the power of the correct approach in the use of the charter school format.

Too many charter schools simply copy a school structure and teaching methods that "worked" 40 years ago. The charter schools that produce long-lasting results (students who have mastered the seven essential skills that Tony Wagner writes about in the Global Achievement Gap) use relationships and projects in their instruction.

Perhaps the most instructive thirty seconds about "how to create effective charter schools" comes from an interview with Dennis Littky of Providence, Rhode Island. (see the link at the start of this letter)

Note the later part of the interview with Littky:

Critics laughed when they saw we had internships. Then they saw that we had the highest attendance rate in the state. We had the lowest drop-out rate in the state. But they really became believers when they see that every kid got accepted to college. Five years later they're still in college or graduated.

... We keep pushing ahead and trying to show that this is a way to help kids get educated.

We outscored the three largest high schools in mathematics and we don't teach a mathematics course. The kids learn to think like mathematicians, to solve problems and use their minds. The scores are not great, but they are moving up.
Colleges are impressed with how articulate and passionate our kids are.

The point is that the test scores were not the result that Littky looked for ... it was what happened to the students.

1) the highest attendance rate in the state.
2) the lowest drop-out rate in the state.
3) every kid got accepted to college.
4) we don't teach a mathematics course.
5) colleges are impressed with how articulate and passionate our kids are.

Peter McWalter's remark is key: The project-based, student-centered charter school with a focus on relationships needs time and delivers results in ways that a standardized test does not reveal.

I hope this information assists you in identifying the positive aspects of charter schools in the USA. There is much that discourages me in the charter school movement in the USA, but there is good work happening at hightechhigh.org and at Littky's BigPicture.org schools.

Sincerely,

Steve McCrea
VisualandActive.com
GuideOnTheSide.com
Curriculum consultant
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
+1 954 646 8246
VisualAndActive@gmail.com

An Excellent Example: Authentic reading exercise (and "The Teacher as Struggling Adult Learner")

2011-07-12T04:05:00.000-07:00

Dr. Alison Gopnik's article in the New York Times in January 2004 asked us to think about the "teacher as a coach." A baseball coach doesn't lecture; the coach shows a skill, then watches the students imitate the skill.

She also pointed out that most adults present a finished essay (to show students how to write) without showing the false starts and the throwaways.

So, why not go through the surprise that you first experienced when you first got one of these email messages asking for verification or confirmation? This is an example of "authentic reading" that comes from real life. Jeff Hutt returned from a conference once with a passionate phrase: "We need to give our students authentic reading material -- not textbooks, but newspapers, brochures and advertisements."

Here's a start:

Kindly understand that we need your Email details below for confirmation on the new web mail data system. This is based on the Google End User License Agreement (EULA) that was accepted during the initial registration. Your Account will be permanently removed and shut down if not verified on time.

User Email Address:

Your Password:

Confirm Password:

First and Last Name:

Present State/Country:

Again we apologize for any inconveniences. If you would like to continue using Google services, please click on the reply button and email us the aforementioned details immediately for confirmation and validation.

Thanks for Using our Service.

Here's the sender:

From: Google_email/info/detail/fvf-0157e193

Subject: Email Account Verification

Date: July 12, 2011 4:07:48 AM EDT

To: datainfo22@gmail.com

Here's a link for Alison Gopnik: gopnik at berkeley dot edu

Why not send a fan letter?

We've known for a long time that human children are the best learning machines in the universe. But it has always been like the mystery of the humming birds. We know that they fly, but we don't know how they can possibly do it. We could say that babies learn, but we didn't know how. -- A. Gopnik

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/gopnik09/gopnik09_index.html

What clues in the email message above did you use to figure out what department of Google had sent it?

FWD:Essential books for the library in the classroom

2011-07-10T14:38:00.001-07:00

THE TEACHER OF THE FUTURE will have at least three copies of these books in the classroom, ready to share with colleagues, students, parents, visitors. What authors and titles are on your list? Pink, Littky, Friedman, Gladwell, Gardner, Postman, Glasser...who else?

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.

Tips about Where and What with Projects in schools

2011-07-10T02:08:00.000-07:00

Tips and examples of projects

Before we look at specific projects, let's describe two parts of projects: Where and What.

Where can we see the project?

What is in the project?

WHERE

The teacher has power to decide where the students' projects will go:

Posters on a wall

notice board (bulletin board)

in a box

on a CD or DVD

on a door

above the urinals

next to the toilet roll

near the water fountain

wherever people stand in line

in a discussion

on a shelf

on the whiteboard

on a TV screen

on a computer monitor

in a binder

in a Facebook group

on a blog

on a website

on Youtube

the “I want to remember this” (IWTRT) journal, diary or log

the “This is important” issues book

WHAT

The content is important, too. What will appear in the spaces (the “Where”)? The teacher transforms the classroom into a newspaper office. Students are the reporters and editors, finding words, videos and photos and cutting them, piecing them together in new ways.

The teacher can encourage students to post many types of content:

stories

interviews

essays

drawings

quotations

videos

songs

poems

lyrics

job assignments in the class?

The students can learn to edit videos, create websites, YouTube channels, Facebook groups and page, and blogs, and gain new skills while using projects to explore the curriculum.

Special note about the “I want to remember this” (IWTRT) journal and the “This is important” issues book: Perhaps they are the same binder. When the teacher/facilitator finds an article that is important to her, she puts it in the binder marked “IWTRT” – the “Tunafish are overfished” articles are in my IWTRT binder. Why not encourage students to find issues that matter to them and THEN build the curriculum (math, science, literature, writing, languages, history) around those issues?

Note: To keep the interest of the students, quotations and other posted materials can be moved around the room once a week (or placed in storage for two weeks and then returned to be displayed in another location). The teacher can assign or request students to do the moving of the materials – and this task of moving turns into a learning moments, since the students can look at each item and decide, “Marsha's poster would look good over there – most people couldn't see it when it was on the back of the door.”

The purpose of this book now becomes clear: Most teachers focus on WHAT happens in the classroom (the content of the class). This book (especially the quotes, the excerpts from Neil Postman's book and the quotes from Littky) asks you to focus on procedures and theWHERE of the class. Where can students perform their understanding? Where can they express themselves? What locations will you release to the control of students? Please: let students take over walls, websites and more.

Draft chapter about Projects in GUIDE ON THE SIDE

To send comments and suggestions, write to VisualandActive@gmail.com or call +1 954 646 8246or SKYPE SteveEnglishTeacher.

A potential project for students: The SKYPE (Phone) Booth

2011-07-10T01:29:00.000-07:00

What if every school could be connected to a Skype booth "out there" (perhaps in a local museum)? What if outsiders could call into your school and look through the Skype connection to what's happening in the classroom?

In a school with LOTS of computers

Technology in the school: HIGH

The focus could be to create procedures where students assume the role of "ambassador to the world" for their classroom. Each student who wants to participate would have a start and end time during the day when calls to the assigned Skype account would be answered.

The focus is more on PROCEDURE than technology. The school's rules should include procedures to allow students to be listed as "school ambassador" and to give students permission to answer when someone from the outside rings in. It might be that there are several "school ambassador accounts," so that at least one of the accounts is active and open, ready for outsiders to call in. With every student's laptop or internet device "ON" for Skype, then each student can bring in a partner for a class discussion. UNCERTAIN: What impact would ten Skype calls have on a school's internet system?

A second project might be called "SET UP A SKYPE BOOTH IN A MUSUM." The students could approach a local museum and find out what equipment or expertise is needed to connect the museum to Skype booths in other museums or to connect local schools to the lobby of the museum.

Schools that have a lot of technology could look for a neighboring school that lacks technology. The High Tech school could offer to procure, install and train the low-tech school's students to maintain a Skype Booth -- and then students in both schools could call in and participate in class discussions.

In a school with FEW computers:

Technology in the school: LOW

The project could be to request or set up a Skype station IN the school. A location could be selected to make it easy for students to interact with the machine between classes or the booth could be mobile and placed in different classrooms to allow outsiders to participate in class discussions.

The focus is on both PROCEDURE and TECHNOLOGY. The school's rules should include procedures to allow the Skype booth to be answered when someone from the outside rings in, for the Skype booth to be "on" at set times (ready for a call) and for who takes care of the equipment. Part of the project will be finding the equipment to set up the Skype booth.

Skype Phone Booth

Excerpts from the announcement:

Instead of phone booths, will we see Skype booths all over public areas like airports and hospitals? Well, we are not quite there yet, but the Estonian Tallinn Airport just placed a futuristic-looking Skype station in their building.

This Skype station has a 22-inch touchscreen and a headset and you have to log in with your Skype account to use it. If you have Skype credits, you can use them, if you don’t Skype-to-Skype usage is still free. What if you forget to log out when you are done? That shouldn’t be a problem, since the Skype booth will automatically log you out as soon as you step away from it.

Let's listen to some inspiring words recommended by students

2010-10-10T22:41:00.000-07:00

I'm spending time at a "second chance" high school, where stduents can quickly earn credits and graduate. Lectures in schools can tend to bore people. Why not let them read the information and show what they have learned?

A new student looked borted wth his reading assignment and I asked, "Have you ever met an author?" I wanted to discuss "author's purpose" and get him to see that there are reasons why there are marks and symbols on the page. "Yes, I have. His name is Vic Woods and he's a motivational speaker."

That got me thinking about a quote by Dennis Littky. Education is less about what we teachers think shold be going into students. Education (e = "out," ducare = "to lead") is more about finding out what is inside the student and helping it to come out. The student told me about Vic Woods and his book... you can learn someting by watching these videos from Youtube.com

-------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-ofMNIhwWg

part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGS8DR4l4ps

part 2 The power in Barack is in you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zs5cwxE-4U

Female Prison

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVOVP7fwM5o

Wes Hall

Wes Hall excerpts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUMSrt2m3cg

Les Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXS4tWHtItY

Tom Wood and Les Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwSMAd039rk

If you find a link that inspires you, send it to me VisualAndActive@gmail.com

How Does Adrenaline Help Learning? The Importance of Colors and Snakes in the Classroom

2010-09-08T01:56:00.000-07:00

A Visual and Active Method of Teaching

Steve McCrea

Recommended: a visual approach to pronunciation PronunciationPatterns.com

Hello. I'm a teacher of English as a second language. I also teach teenagers how to improve their score on the SAT, a college entrance exam. I think about "How do we make math and vocabulary come alive for these students?" As teachers, we need to make this stuff more appealing to more students because we need more engineers and consumers who understand basic physical and chemical laws.

Perhaps you have heard about these topics:

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (sometimes the first impression is right and our intellectual analysis overwhelms the intuition, leading us to negative situations)

A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink and Free Agent Nation. The ideas are that we need more "right-brain" thinking (which looks at the whole situation) and less focus on efficiency (to the exclusion of beautify). Since more people will be working for themselves, free agents need training on how to come together to work on projects (in the Hollywood movie making process). Projects will take place, not jobs. People will deliver services and then leave. Are we preparing our students for the uncertain, fastchanging workplace that demands more than a solid resume and good academic scores? Are we instilling the discipline of self-teaching (most people will have to train for at least five different careers) and flexible networking skills?

We know that there are many ways of learning Howard Gardner and Multiple Intelligences

Perhaps you have heard that it is a good idea to learn in a small school (see Dennis Littky's book The Big Picture: Education is Everybody's Business and the initiative by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to subdivide large schools, FindASmallschool.com) The issues are about where students learn, how they learn and what they should be learning. Who should teach them? Dennis Littky says, "Mentors."

The BreakthroughCollaborative.org recommends slightly older peers. Now let's put more information on top of this long list of recommendations: According to recent studies, we need to bring more color, action and positive stress into the classroom. Did you hear about the adrenaline experiment? What role does excitement play in helping us remember new information?

=============

Here's a quote from a 60 Minutes report

Adrenaline makes memories. How can we use this information?

The story begins with some surprising discoveries about memory. It turns out our memories are sort of like Jello ‚Äì they take time to solidify in our brains. And while they're setting, it's possible to make them stronger or weaker. It all depends on the stress hormone adrenaline. The man who discovered this is James McGaugh, a professor of neurobiology at the University of California, Irvine. McGaugh studies memory in rats, and he invited Stahl to watch the making of a rat memory -- in this case, how a rat who's never been in this tank of water before learns how to find a clear plastic platform just below the surface. "He'll swim around randomly," McGaugh explains. The rat cannot see the platform, since his eyes are on the top of his head. The rat will swim around the edge for a long time, until eventually he ventures out and by chance bumps into the platform. The next day, he'll find the platform a little bit faster.

But another rat, who had learned where the platform was the day prior, and then received a shot of adrenaline immediately afterwards, today swam instantly to the platform. Adrenaline actually made this rat's brain remember better, and McGaugh believes the same thing happens in people. "Suppose I said to you, 'You know, I've watched your programs a lot over the years, and although it pains me to have to tell you this, I think you're one of worst people I've ever seen on ‚Ä¶ now don't take it, don't take it personally,'" McGaugh says.

"So, my stress system would go into overdrive, no question," Stahl says. "Even with my telling you that it's not true, there's nothing to keep you from blushing, from feeling warm all over," McGaugh points out. "That's the adrenaline. And I dare say that you're gonna remember my having said that long after you've forgotten the other details of our discussion here. I guarantee it."

McGaugh says that's why we remember important and emotional events in our lives more than regular day-to-day experiences.

========================

AH! Now I know how to get someone to REALLY learn grammar! We need snakes, vampires and ghosts in the classroom.

Suggested Materials

I have collected these procedures because I am sometimes asked to teach in a new school as a substitute. The director of studies is often surprised at the amount of stuff that I bring into a classroom. Here is a typical list:

Stuffed animals

Large picture books (dogs, places to visit, food, profiles of countries, atlas, different types of atlases),

comic books,

DVDs and CDs showing students expressing a variety of opinions

Pronunciation CDs

Video camera,

tripod

Small rewards (bouncing balls sold ten for $2, pens with web site addresses, particular snopes.com and number2.com)

Colored papers,

colored pens,

post-it notes,

rulers (yard stick)

scissors,

newspapers,

glue and tape to put papers on the walls,

wide-tipped markers.

Phew. And then the director of studies wonders why I request a closet or corner to leave this stuff so that I don't have to carry it back to my car at the end of the day.

This pamphlet is a draft,, a work in progress, but it is urgently needed as a manifesto for parents and students who have learning differences. If your kid needs more stimulation in class, here's one way to build support for the idea that schools need a variety of ways of teaching and some of those methods of teaching require more space for storing materials that can be useful.

A more radical notion is "If a teacher does not employ things to help the visual learner and the student who needs higher stimulation, should that teacher go through training?" What is the point of going to workshops about multiple ways of learning if the teacher does not change the method of delivery? If a teacher refuses to bring a video camera into the classroom, is it possible to allow students to make videotapes of segments of class? What are the rights of students who have an ability for learning through later listening?

I am not an attorney, so I will leave these matters to better-informed analysts. As a teacher in the front line, where I deliver lessons to students, I have observed that the focus is often on "Did the teacher present the information clearly?" (show me your lesson plan) when in reality, the focus should be on the student. Did the teacher give each student an opportunity to express or perform his understanding of the material? The teacher can lecture beautifully and even pass out a DVD to every student, but the visual and active method requires the teacher to listen to each student perform their understanding of the process. This is why at least every 9 weeks in the Met Center, an innovative school in Providence, Rhode Island, every student gives a formal presentation that is video recorded. The student can analyze the performance, the teacher can see what has been omitted and the administrator can evaluate both student and teacher. Stand up presentations are used so that students who dislike writing can use a larger vocabulary.

I tested this. I asked several boys to write a page about their recent vacation. Most didn't cover half a page. But when I asked them to tell me about their vacation, I had a hard time stopping them. The presentations were sequential and well-organized while many of the written presentations jumped from topic to topic without smooth transitions. If you teach young boys, consider introducing video testing as an alternative or supplement to the typical written essay.

PRINCIPLES

I will conclude this presentation with a list of principles that I‚Äôve compiled to attempt to inform a (choose one) flustered, annoyed, perplexed director of studies: "Why is this room so messy? Why do you need this stuff in here? Why can't you teach without all these things?" In short, I could read the question in his eyes, "Why can't you be like the other teachers?" (Yes, there are usually complaints from some students who claim that the materials make the classroom look like a children's play room.)

The following principles are presented in an effort to build an army of colleagues. I want to be part of the majority who use visual and active techniques. I want to hand out a brochure to parents that persuades and wins over new supporters of this method. If you have additional points or suggestions on how I can reformat this presentation, let me know.

What would Cary say?

A workshop for Experienced ESOL Teachers

When I first taught English for speakers of other languages, I believed that the purpose of my presence in the classroom was to speak a lot (slowly) so that students would catch on to what I was saying and build vocabulary the way a two-year-old picks up words by watching dad clean the house. Oops. After watching Cary Elcome and after taking the RSA CELTA course, I learned what we all know -- the language learning takes place inside the student, not in the classroom. Here are some tips that I think Cary would tell you if he were here and if he weren't modest.

1. Share your techniques. Cary was generous to me and often asked if I'd like to sit in and participate in a private lesson or in an afternoon class so I could pick up tips from him and he could watch me and pick up tips.

2. Video record your lessons at least twice a year and analyze your method. Cary used to record the audio of his lessons and hand out the cassette to students who wanted a dictation. 3. Call them anything except students. Participants, learners and colleagues were his favorite terms. "A student is so clearly beneath a teacher that some students never get over the humiliation."

4. Give them errors. Let the learners find the solution. Cary loves gapfills (fill in the blank) and he often l__ves o__t v_wels when he wr_tes w_rds on the wh__teb___rd (leaves out vowels when he writes on the whiteboard).

5. Develop incurable chronic laryngitis. TTT. I can't be said enough. Keep Teacher Talking Time to the minimum.

6. Put a bunch of materials together. Cary gives away scads of photocopies. I think he knocked down two entire forests in Washington State to supply his materials to his learners. And these are HIS materials, all created using big and small fonts.

7. Go visual. Cary LOVES visual techniques. He puts a photo on every worksheet. He brings in photos from his latest travel and asks students to write questions to go with each photo.

8. Bring the NY Times into the classroom. Even with beginners. He believes that students who are advanced have less opportunity to learn than beginners and so all students should be exposed to real English found in newspapers, free (New Times and City Link) as well as the major papers on the Internet.

9. Stay current with the learners. Find out about their music. Use their lyrics in the classroom.

10. Cross-pollinate. When possible, send a student from your class into Cary's class. That student will be peppered with questions by the class. Then Cary will send a student from his class and they will pepper another student. Or take half or your class and send them to Cary and he'll send half of his class and send them to you. "It's great, he says, "That's facilitating!" He believes in monitoring by walking around with pen and paper and requiring pairs to make a written record of some of the topics that they discussed.

11. Make use of the people in the room. Of course ask learners to read the instructions in the book or to begin the day with "What's the news in your country?" Cary looks up articles so that the busy learner (who hasn't had time to find a juicy piece of news) can say something interesting, perhaps about the growing and persistent market for manatee meat in Venezuela.

12. Make use of the people in the school. He annoys administrative staff by asking students to go out and get a stapler (even though he has a stapler in the room).

13. Use the people in the community. Cary used to develop relationships and ask students, "What's the name of the doorman?" or receptionist or the bus driver.

14. Give away materials. Did we mention this? Do it again. "We have no idea how much our teaching is done outside the classroom. If we can write something about ourselves, maybe an autobiography of two pages, the students who want to can read it and come back with questions. If you went Venice, talk about it. The Italians will have something to talk with you about during the break time."

15. Break time is learning time. Cary arrived early, stayed late, ate meals with students, and met them at least once a week for an evening of talk on Las Olas Blvd, and never spent break time in the teacher's room. He was always interacting with students. "When they are OUTSIDE the class, that's when the real mistakes emerge," he believes.

16. Keep in touch. Cary was an early adopter of email but he was slow to take on the role of technology guru. He had a laptop but didn't know how to make web sites or make a network. He used it to write lessons on his computer and he was an avid explorer of the Internet.

He wasn't afraid to ask for directions. Unlike a typical guy, he would start by saying he knew very little about something and send a lot of emails to get information. In other words, he is the perfect mentor for people who are afraid of some aspect of technology. He still gets frustrated with the lack of communication between printer and CPU and he was my role model for bringing technology into the classroom. He might not understand every aspect of it, but he just knew that someone in the room or in the school would help figure out how to use the darn thing.

I write some of this section in the past tense because Cary is "no longer with us." He's in Asia. Sometimes he feels "gone" and when asked to give training to other teachers, I just think, "What would Cary say?" and he's alive for me again. We're having a hard time meshing our lives over Skype because he's out the door at 8 a.m. (7 p.m. the previous day for me) and when he is ready to talk at 5 p.m., it's 4 a.m. for me! I've learned about right/left, male/female brain tendencies and the role of adrenaline in the formation of memories -- all since I met Cary. However, his basic training help me to daily deal with challenging situations -- not the new bells, whistles, laptops and CDs. It's still nuts and bolts, in this ESOL industry, and it's still people to people. Cary is a good mentor and hi advice is timeless. The point of this presentation is to encourage you to find your Cary or to contact him yourself. Set up an email pen pal (email pal?) exchange of correspondence. Ask your students to write to his students. He's currently in Japan: bradstow2@yahoo.co.uk

Composed by Steve McCrea, Eternally grateful acolyte of the School of Elcome. FreeEnglishLessons.com VisualandActive.com TeachersToTeachers.com

=================

If I am pressed to state the visual and active method in a paragraph, I say the following:

I have learned my method from my students. I do not hold important degrees, like university professors. I am sure that when I give my presentations, people with master's degrees in ESOL will recognize the methods and they will be able to explain why the method works. I can not explain much about the theory behind the method, but I respond to my students' needs.

1. For pronunciation, my students don't want to learn a special alphabet (IPA), so let's teach "It Sounds Like." PronunciationPatterns.com is an organized method to use the phonic method by graphing the sound. It is "visual listening."

2. For tests, many students prefer to make a video. "I don't like to write" or "I can't spell very well" -- so make an audio recording using a digital camera. The camera does not need to point at the student.

3. Students learn most quickly when they are laughing and when they are surprised. (See the October 31, 2004 article about novelty).

4. Students learn the things that they want to learn. If they are interested...they will remember more. So why not let students choose their subjects?

5. Let's create projects and homework that are REAL, not just paperwork. Let's make websites and blogs and write emails -- let's build bridges. Let's make videos and send the news to other people. (Source: Dennis Littky)

6. We know that some people learn by listening to audio recordings and others learn by watching videos, so the teacher should have support from administration to provide CDs and videos to students. (But if there is no support, the teacher can recommend videos on the internet!)

That is the central message. I offer a workshop because most teachers don't believe these 6 points or they don't believe that they have the power in themselves to use this system. Thank you for listening.

Novelty:

In a column called Science Watch (Sun Sentinel Oct 31, 2004), Sandra Blackeslee (NY Times syndicate) reported that "anything that is novel grabs the brain's attention system by tapping directly into reward pathways in the brain." Marketing organizations are interested in this technology.

"Being able to see how the brain responds to novelty and makes decisions is potentially a huge step forward for marketers," according to Tim McParlin, who works for Lieberman Research Worldwide in Los Angeles (quoted in the article).

---------------------------------------------

===========

See also the SCRIBD.com document (where I pulled this blog entry)

Article on Scribd.com about Colors and Snakes

============

The photos that appear in the original document (see Scribd.com) come from Suzy Lima's class in Curitiba, Brazil. She was looking for a way to make her ESOL class more vibrant, and I suggested an activity that I use (based on the insights presented by Dennis Littky in The Big Picture) make it personal. Ask the students to perform their understanding. I'm a lazy author (I have difficulty matching captions to photos), so I asked that the photos include the caption, which is why the students are holding pieces of paper. Some captions are in Portuguese to give the reader a translation of the English and practice in another language. Go ahead, learn something new and keep the brain active and young. Many thanks to the students of Suzy Lima. I encourage you, dear reader, to send an email message to suzylimab@hotmail.com and ask your students to send letters to Suzy so she can find one of her 789 students to create penpal correspondence.

This is a flat world, as Thomas Friedman says, and we need to have more than scholastic success to prepare for competing in a global economy. See Dan Pink's arguments about design. In other words, there are five doors for success (LASSIE): Languages, Academics, Social Skills, Inherited opportunities and Experience. We teachers can't change what our students inherit and we know that achievement in school is not the only door for success in many students' lives (Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and other entrepreneurs dropped out of school to put their ideas to work). Let's encourage our students (and model the behavior, too) for learning more languages, finding new experiences, and developing social skills. Students who have limited inherited opportunities or who do poorly at traditional schools are possibly the salvation of our economy with their divergent thinking and creative out-of-the-box approaches to problems. Using a Visual and Active method of teaching with narratives for grading and testing by exhibition (following the model of the Met Center in Providence, Rhode Island) we can make our schools into places of exploration.

SUMMARY

In case you skipped the article and you are reading the end of the article, here is the main issue: What do these two news stories bring to the ESOL industry (and teachers in general)? We can force the brain awake more often with bright colors and change of pace (have you stood on the furniture lately?) and then you can scare the student to help them remember the moment -- we hope that the student remembers the grammar or vocabulary and not the fact that you introduced lifelike spiders into the classroom.

List of Web Sites

FreeEnglishLessons.com

PronunciationPatterns.com (graphs that show the stressed syllables)

Breakthrough Collaborative.org

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Gatesfoundation.org

MetCenter.org Littky's school

BigPicture.org Littky's organization and consulting firm

VisualandActive.com

TeachersToTeachers.com

Supergrammar.com

BuildingInternationalBridges.org

FindaSmallSchool.com

DanPink.com

Snopes.com

Number2.com

If you have other suggestions about how to use stuffed animals (novelty) and snakes (an adrenaline rush), please send them to me at freeenglishlessons@gmail.com or SteveEnglishTeacher@hotmail.com I'm on MSN and Skype SteveEnglishTeacher and I welcome your contact, questions and suggestions.

In Appreciation: To the teachers and administrators who have asked, "Why do you need all of these things? This classroom looks cluttered and disorganized" -- thank you. Your questions and comments have spurred me to jot down these thoughts.

The Visual and Active Method (any comments?)

2010-09-08T01:37:00.000-07:00

Features of the Visual and Active
Portfolio Method – Steve McCrea

VisualAndActive.com

I came to know that “there is another way” after trying to teach 6 classes of 20 kids, 45 minutes per class. The focus was on presenting the material efficiently and effectively. The Madeleine Hunter method of teaching is the standard of “good teaching.”

The research by Howard Gardner makes it clear that the Hunter method is effective in ensuring that more than one teaching method is used and more than one learning style is given a chance to “latch onto” the material.

However, most people who study Gardner have not gone one step farther. They didn’t read pages 161 and following about how to evaluate the learning.

Even we who have taking the RSA course for CELTA (teaching English to Adults) have a false sense of knowing what to do next after presenting the material of the day. We know we have to check understanding and then move on to connect the material to real examples in English for practice. The effort is designed to ensure that materials are presented to a variety of learning styles.

However, let’s take a moment to breathe and reflect on the purpose of the language school (and on any class): it is not to present an effective curriculum. The purpose of a school is to meet the needs of each individual student. The idea expressed by Gardner and put into action by Dennis Littky is to ensure that teaching changes to meet the needs of the individual student. The steps include:

Adding an element of relationship.
(mobile phone and email contacts, invitations to lunch or snacks outside the classroom)

Building the curriculum from relevance . (What does the student want to know or learn?)

Creating opportunities to learn through action, through performances of understanding and mentoring.

Evaluation is not through written tests but through recorded exhibition so that the student has to feel and see the gaps and know where the next step is. Through feedback from the teacher and (if the student isn’t shy) from the audience (and self evaluation after looking at the video), the student then knows the next layer of learning that needs to take place.

Independent Work Time takes up a larger part of the class schedule. Building a portfolio is more important than running through a check list of grammar and vocabulary (listen, speak, write, read). The expectations of the students are changed, because most people who go to Littky’s school have to be persuaded to see that studying only what you want to study will lead to a rigorous result.

How can effective teaching and “Teaching for Understanding” (the code phrase developed by Lois Hetland, Ed.D, a disciple of Howard Gardner) be accepted by students who have come to expect “traditional classrooms”?

Samples of a portfolio created by other students and standard “packages” showing what students have produced is a good example. Performances of Understanding can be produced at lower levels of proficiency, but this method is more obvious at advanced intermediate.

EVERY PART OF THE CLASS CAN BE VIDEOTAPED for later review (since some students find it difficult to take notes and pay attention). The videos can be converted to a video on CD at a rate of about 2 hours per 700 megabytes.

The key is found by making a parallel set of key standards. The Met Center, Littky’s group, does not teach Math, History, Science and English – they ask students to develop their own goals for qualitative and quantitative reasoning, empirical reasoning and communication. These areas can be supplemented with ESOL or EFL structure and the EFL teacher can restate what needs to be sought by the students. In the Visual and Active Method, the students learn skill areas or interest areas, not artificial "chapters" related to grammar and vocabulary.

(Some students will not accept this functional description of a language class, and they will need to pursue the making of a portfolio based on the structure of the textbook.)

We can see some similarities – and therefore the materials developed by Littky have some relevance to all methods of teaching. The Madeleine Hunter model remains in place (to support students who want structure) and the classes have a textbook and class time (as they do in the Littky school). The key focus is on asking the student to seek outside learning opportunities that are connected to their aspirations. An executive at a power plant in Japan should spend time touring a plant… but do more. He should sit and shadow the mentor. The chapter on Mentoring in Littky’s book shows that there is not always a burden of mentoring… there is a feeling of adding a dimension to the mentor’s job. “I get paid to show another person why I love my work.”

PORTFOLIO
The focus for teachers could be on pushing and guiding students to develop a portfolio to show that students have demonstrated or performed understanding by making presentations. The exit portfolio can be a CD with performances on video showing basic skills of pronunciation and grammar (with students teaching units to the camera). The teacher can then ask students to go out to the “real world” to video themselves in situations with shopkeepers and volunteer situations.

BAD EXAMPLE of mentoring
I was studying Spanish in a small program in Chalchihuites, Mexico near Zacatecas and the program offered an “experience in real Mexico” working side by side Mexican employees. I filed cards for 3 hours in the city hall (no interaction with the staff). After the initial hand signals I didn’t have to talk or listen for the next three hours, yet I was “immersed” in the culture of the work place.

GOOD EXAMPLE of mentoring
One of my students, Johana, said that she loves being corrected by young kids. “They tell you exactly the truth.” The EFL teacher (Mr. Mac) got her the volunteer sheet for Virginia Shuman Young Magnet school and she plans to volunteer two hours next week in a school. That’s using English in a real sense. A photo of that opportunity or a video camera on Johana can be part of her portfolio.

CLASSROOM NEEDS
Small cameras if the student doesn’t have a digital camera.
Burning software on a laptop in the school. It's best that the computer is NOT connected to the network.
Portfolio system (clear plastic sleeves with three punched holes for storage in a three ring binder) needs to be set up to engage the students.
List of potential mentoring and volunteering locations in the area of the school.

SUMMARY
Most students learn another language better in a classroom that is visual and active.
Students can be pushed to create portfolios to show their understanding. (See Gardner, Littky and Hedland)
Students can be pushed to find relationships outside the classroom to pursue interests and build their vocabulary through use in mentorships and volunteering positions.
Video equipment will allow students to bring back information that they want to practice.
Video equipment in their home allow them to practice pronunciation and listening on computers (see the series of CDs that I distribute to my students).

For more information, write to VisualAndActive@gmail.com

VisualAndActive.com

==========

Adding an element of relationship.
(mobile phone and email contacts, invitations to lunch or snacks outside the classroom)

Building the curriculum from relevance. (What does the student want to know or learn?)

Creating opportunities to learn through action, through performances of understanding and mentoring.

Evaluation is through recorded exhibition so that the student has to feel and see the gaps and know where the next step is.

Independent Work Time takes up a larger part of the class schedule. Building a portfolio is more important than running through a check list of grammar and vocabulary (listen, speak, write, read).

Short Quotes to Drive School Reform

2010-09-08T01:15:00.000-07:00

What short quotes could help teachers focus on what they can do in their classrooms -- today -- to move along school reform?

The teacher of today is the GUIDE on the SIDE, not the sage on the stage.

- aphorism passed on by senior teachers

Education is NOT the filling of a pail, but rather the LIGHTING of a FIRE. -- W. B. Yeats

Most students might forget what you taught them, but they will always remember how you treated them. -- aphorism passed on by senior teachers

A big obstacle to bringing Computer Assisted instruction into the classroom is the teacher, because teachers love to perform. -- Dr. Abraham Fischler

Jack is a boy from Brooklyn who dropped out of school to avoid terminal boredom.

-- biography of an entrepreneur

I never let school get in the way of my education. -- Mark Twain

Drive out fear. -- W. Edwards Deming

Never do for a child what a child can do for himself. -- Maria Montessori

There are 2 billion children in the developing world. Instead of asking their teachers to "reinvent the wheel" every day, why not share lesson plans that work with those 59 million teachers? -- Gordon Dryden (Get his 1999 book as a digital book -- free -- thelearningweb.net)

Keep Teacher Talking Time to a minimum. -- CELTA training

The purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. -- Dan Pink, Free Agent Nation

What other "pithy" and focused items can you quote? What short thoughts can transform a classroom? Send your suggestions to TheEbookman@gmail.com

Recommended perusing:

Danpink.com
Will Sutherland's Qualified ByExperience.com

Thomas Friedman's columns

WhatDoYaKnow.com by Dennis Yuzenas

ascd.org articles

EdReformer.com by Tom vander Ark

TheStudentisTheClass.com by Abraham S. Fischler

TheLearningWeb.net by Gordon Dryden and J. Vos

Someone to hunt down for a cup of coffee: ribbonfarms blog by vgururao@gmail.com

Or call me at +1 954 646 8246 and dictate your favorites. I'm ready.

EDD 9200 Comments about Trends CANTON (1)

2010-09-07T15:40:00.000-07:00

Notes for discussions...

On the phone, several of us agreed that Canton likes to drop names....

... and he has decided that the future is about America. His link between "America" and "democracy" leads us to believe that no other country can protect individual freedoms or democratic political structures. His past as a consultant to companies (which he takes pleasure in listing) makes the book read like a list of powerpoint slides: here are the problems, here are possible futures, this is how we get to the future where we can shout "USA! Number one!"

Because Canton focuses so much on the USA, several of us have asked, "What is he missing?"

James Canton's book "The Extreme Future" mentions the following points

p. 104

The US will benefit from being an advocate of globalization but must continue to support innovation, global democracy and free trade.

(hmmm...Canton doesn't take time to describe the benefits ... or to describe the losses that hundreds of smaller U.S. cities have endured.

p. 345

America's top future challenges

Learn to collaborate more deeply with nations that hold different values

(Europe? Turkey? Brazil? Pakistan? China? Canton does not make it clear which countries' values differ from the US)

Recognize that globalization shapes global peace and prosperity.

(Globalizing forces have alienated some communities, in USA and in other countries. Could we state that globalization has distorted global peace?)

Canton reveals his bias: On page 346 the secition begins "Many Possible Futures for America" -- if he were serious about collaboration, if he were sincere about understanding other cultures, if he truly worried about the impact of globalization on other countries, his book would have had more chapters about other countries... and the last chapter would have included a discussion of "many possible futures for Europe / Middle East / Africa / Asia / Latin America."

Canton's book focuses largely on these topics

Future of China 31 pages

India 10 pages

Security lessons from South America (8 pages)

p. 325 "The central question of the future for the secuirty and stability of the planet is the extent to which America and CHina will cooperate." Is there literally nothing that Europe, Russia, Brazil and India can do if the US and China conflict?

The index reveals the lack of interest by Canton in exploring other futures

Canada: 3 references

Pakistan: nuclear crisis (is there nothing else to talk about besides nuclear issues?)

Saudi Arabia, 3 references

Singapore, 3 references

Europe 5 pages

Developing nations 5 pages

the following countries and organizations appear once in the index

Afghanistan

Denmark

Iceland

Tamil Tigers

World Bank

WHO

WTO

The United Nations (with two references) appears as a separate entry in the index from

UN (one reference)

Canton's focus on innovations (p. 83) shows the strength of the book (and he leaves to the reader to sort out how these innovations will percolate through various cultures and national economies).

SUMMARY

In short, Canton's attempt to describe extreme futures is like describing the Milky Way from the vantage point of the Earth: it's a band of stars that surrounds us. Only by mentally taking the camera view millions of light years away from Earth do we see the shape of the Milky Way: a spiral galaxy. In the same way, when we want to see extreme futures for the USA, we need to see extreme futures of many other organizations and countries. Only then can we truly think about "many possible futures for America."

Thomas Friedman in an editorial column in the NYTimes 6 September 2010 wrote the following remarks: We have enjoyed a century in which we could have, in foreign policy terms, both what is vital and what is desirable.

=====

His point about "what is vital and what is desirable" is well-made. James Canton's approach appears to be "here's what we need to do to maintain our position of superpower." Canton does not distinguish between needs and wants ... Canton does not acknowledge the possibility that looking at extreme futures of Pakistan, Turkey, European Union, Mexico, Canada, Brazil and Korea could help us see better the extreme future of the USA. His focus on India and China leave out large segments of the planet's economic actors.

Submit more comments and I'll add them as a separate post

... or post a thread below...

Write to EDDSteve@gmail.com

======

For your reading convenience, the entire column appears below:

September 4, 2010

Superbroke, Superfrugal, Superpower?

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

In recent years, I have often said to European friends: So, you didn’t like a world of too much American power? See how you like a world of too little American power — because it is coming to a geopolitical theater near you. Yes, America has gone from being the supreme victor of World War II, with guns and butter for all, to one of two superpowers during the cold war, to the indispensable nation after winning the cold war, to “The Frugal Superpower” of today. Get used to it. That’s our new nickname. American pacifists need not worry any more about “wars of choice.” We’re not doing that again. We can’t afford to invade Grenada today.

Ever since the onset of the Great Recession of 2008, it has been clear that the nature of being a leader — political or corporate — was changing in America. During most of the post-World War II era, being a leader meant, on balance, giving things away to people. Today, and for the next decade at least, being a leader in America will mean, on balance, taking things away from people.

And there is simply no way that America’s leaders, as they have to take more things away from their own voters, are not going to look to save money on foreign policy and foreign wars. Foreign and defense policy is a lagging indicator. A lot of other things get cut first. But the cuts are coming — you can already hear the warnings from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. And a frugal American superpower is sure to have ripple effects around the globe.

“The Frugal Superpower: America’s Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era” is actually the title of a very timely new book by my tutor and friend Michael Mandelbaum, the Johns Hopkins University foreign policy expert. “In 2008,” Mandelbaum notes, “all forms of government-supplied pensions and health care (including Medicaid) constituted about 4 percent of total American output.” At present rates, and with the baby boomers soon starting to draw on Social Security and Medicare, by 2050 “they will account for a full 18 percent of everything the United States produces.”

This — on top of all the costs of bailing ourselves out of this recession — “will fundamentally transform the public life of the United States and therefore the country’s foreign policy.” For the past seven decades, in both foreign affairs and domestic policy, our defining watchword was “more,” argues Mandelbaum. “The defining fact of foreign policy in the second decade of the 21st century and beyond will be ‘less.’ ”

When the world’s only superpower gets weighed down with this much debt — to itself and other nations — everyone will feel it. How? Hard to predict. But all I know is that the most unique and important feature of U.S. foreign policy over the last century has been the degree to which America’s diplomats and naval, air and ground forces provided global public goods — from open seas to open trade and from containment to counterterrorism — that benefited many others besides us. U.S. power has been the key force maintaining global stability, and providing global governance, for the last 70 years. That role will not disappear, but it will almost certainly shrink.

Great powers have retrenched before: Britain for instance. But, as Mandelbaum notes, “When Britain could no longer provide global governance, the United States stepped in to replace it. No country now stands ready to replace the United States, so the loss to international peace and prosperity has the potential to be greater as America pulls back than when Britain did.”

After all, Europe is rich but wimpy. China is rich nationally but still dirt poor on a per capita basis and, therefore, will be compelled to remain focused inwardly and regionally. Russia, drunk on oil, can cause trouble but not project power. “Therefore, the world will be a more disorderly and dangerous place,” Mandelbaum predicts.

How to mitigate this trend? Mandelbaum argues for three things: First, we need to get ourselves back on a sustainable path to economic growth and reindustrialization, with whatever sacrifices, hard work and political consensus that requires. Second, we need to set priorities. We have enjoyed a century in which we could have, in foreign policy terms, both what is vital and what is desirable. For instance, I presume that with infinite men and money we can succeed in Afghanistan. But is it vital? I am sure it is desirable, but vital? Finally, we need to shore up our balance sheet and weaken that of our enemies, and the best way to do that in one move is with a much higher gasoline tax.

America is about to learn a very hard lesson: You can borrow your way to prosperity over the short run but not to geopolitical power over the long run. That requires a real and growing economic engine. And, for us, the short run is now over. There was a time when thinking seriously about American foreign policy did not require thinking seriously about economic policy. That time is also over.

An America in hock will have no hawks — or at least none that anyone will take seriously.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/opinion/05friedman.html?_r=1&ref=thomaslfriedman&pagewanted=print

Submit more comments and I'll add them as a separate post

... or post a thread below...

Write to EDDSteve@gmail.com

Advice from New Zealand (Edu-tainment entrepreneur Gordon Dryden)

2010-09-02T04:05:00.001-07:00

Don’t have such a network, Steve.

Our original book, The Learning Revolution, sold 10.2 million copies there. But all sold by bookshops and at seminars by independent educational software companies.

So we don’t have a permanent record of their names and addresses (and, at the time rthe sales were made) no one ordered online and provides email and other physical addresses.

We have not launched “UNLIMITED: the new learning revolution and the seven keys to unlock it” we have decided to switch all our international editions and future ones to become digital, online touch-screen editions. We are working through that right now. Among other things, we will be launching a global competition to get the brightest students in the world to reinvent education. This will be launched through facebook (and its 500 million members) andf YouTube before the end of this year.

You’ve asked my opinion of your videos, and, from the tone of your email, I think you’re asking for genuine honest appraisal. And, to do that, I can only quote from my own experiences from both making presentations, running workshops and seminars around the world: and seeing some of the world’s best nvolvers in action at educational/learning conferences.

So my first genuine impression, of each of the first two videos: I found the opening of both so boring I couldn’t really go on:-)

So first I had better summarize my own strong beliefs (and my experience from many years as a national TV presenter):

Particularly with video or other online material: you have to start with a big “Wow!” Think of what I describe as the new 80-20 rule: Students today spend 80% of their waking hours in a year outside the school classroom (only 20% in it). For 80% of their time they are 21st-century citizens: using 21st-century instant-action digital tools .

I’ll demonstrate some ways I use or have seen used to actually involve entire audiences in immediately learning-the-message by acting it — and then I will leave you to draw your own conclusions . . .

2. You really have to (actively involve people from the first impact), and even before that. For example, as teachers or other seminar attendees are moving into a room or conference, I will always have some involving video/ music/montage etc on to set the entire theme. And then (if the theme is to convince teachers or students that the students – or teacher conference participants – should be in charge then put them in charge:

This is how we opened a one-day think tank of New Zealand entrepreneurs last year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6MhAwQ64c0

That BEFORE anyone had spoken:-) (You’ll find thousands of similar great “ice breakers” on YouTube. In fact you will find dozens of adaptations of that one presentation. They set the scene for the entire proceedings. By the way, four of us came up with tht same idea, off the ingernet, well before the conference started.)

And immediately the conference chair, on his feet, immediately said: “Today we’ve got 580 of New Zealand’s most innovative entrepreneurs in this convention center. During the rest of this day we’re gong to come up with art least 580 incredible ideas to reinvent New Zealand. And together we’re going to boil those ideas into 20 great ones by the mid-morning break. Then we’re going to drilll them down into the 10 best ones by lunch. Then, by the mid-afternoon break, the Deputy Prime Minister of New Zeland will be here, and we’re going to present to him the one incredible idea that will make the difference. Entrepreneurs can change the world. Let’s start.”

Or look how, this year, during a five-day New Zealand sporting-tourism congress for 100 Australians, I had to run a two-hour interactive session on both New Zealand history and sporting history (bearing in mind that there is a three-hour, across-the-ocean flight to get from Sydney to Auckland). And then, by the end of the day together

The interactive multimedia session was announced with this title: “What every smart Australian should know about New Zealand since we drifted apart 65 million years ago”. Then: “Welcome to the Youngest Country on Earth” — with this video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0YakVC8klI&feature=channel

Now Australia and New Zealand are great sporting rivals, especially in rugby union and rugby league football. Traditionally New Zealanders international sporting teams do a Maori (native Polynesian) war-dance challenge at the start of international sporting games [later, check YouTube + New Zealand rugby haka), in Maori, but Australians never know what the words mean: so, right after the video, we had all the Australian guests stand up and perform the welcoming-challenging haka in Maori and in English. Until 240 years ago, the Polynesians had no written language: they passed on their heritage by song and dance — so our Australian guests actually learned that by doing it

So that is the next point: a good involving opening (and throughout a seminar) to demonstrate (in all different learning styles) etc) the theme-of-the-day in action.

So let’s get back to your message: to prove that students themselves (or an audience of teachers) should really (and immediately) act out that theme, to prove it: with actions, movements, songs, dancing, fun, humor, involvement.

So over straight into that. My co-author, Dr Jeannette Vos, is fantastic with music and dance. So she often starts one of her seminars by getting everyone up, immediately to a vigorous dance to music to get through that you can only learn well if your brain is fully activated and oxygenated.

And then she say something like: “What an incredible volume of talent and brainpower exists in this room today. Imagine if we combined it all — right now. So let’s do that.” In front of each participant (or at the top of individual folders) has a US letter sheet of paper with a grid of 12 squares, four across and three down. And (depending on the seminar topic) you’ve have had typed along the bottom of each square such “experiences” as:

Plays a musical instrument
Speaks a foreign language
Loves public speaking
A great cook
Good photographer
Can do computer animations
Can edit video

Then (as you start playing the music theme “Getting to Know You . . . Getting to know all about you” you ask each person to find 12 different people who can perform one of those great achievements, each person has to find 12 people to match the squares: introduce each other and write down the person’s name to march each specialty. First to get a full set of 12 yells out “Bingo” (a game we play in the British commonwealth) and wins a prize.”

And then the seminar presenter may say something like: “I am reasonably good as three of those talents. But look how the big majority of you are much brighter, much more talented in your own way.” And that applies to every group, every class, every school, every company.”

Everyone has a talent to be highly competent art something. Combine your talent, your passion and your dream and you can become truly great. Then keep adding on skills (often by working with other people who are talented in different ways) you become multi-skilled. (we’ve got hundreds of examples of those in the photos and paragraph I our book). Use the photos to illustrate your slides.

(I happen to be designing a multimedia game on that subject at the moment: I have attached a pdf of the slides, but stress that the original Apple Keynote slides are very interactive. I have also attached the seminar board game I designed to teach British high school teachers how to teach “business innovation”- at ten one-day seminars around their country: on how to turn their talent into a great business plan.

Now I do this professionally for a living (I am NOT school teacher): teach creative business management – but using the same “involve them” principles that are the core of good teaching – and especially if teaching by videotape.

“If you want to learn it, do it.” . . . Don’t just talk about it. Get ‘em involved in different ways to embed the message naturally, in their own learning style or stmyles.

All I can say, mate: compare some of those “involvement methods” to starting with two lifeless fingers on a video, over the top of a one-color one dimensional long sentence . .. and then a closely-typed list of questions (with hand-writing under them) - thst telegraph a message of another boring lecture: “This is what I am going to tell you” . . Rather then involving them in “doing it – and thus learning it.”

Maybe you don’t fell like cribbing great live demos from the Internet (Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital team which won five Academy awards in a night for the digital effects they made for the movie Avatar, also made that “youngest country on earth” video. Steal only the best!)

So why not start off by asking (directly) for a show of hands from your participating audience:

“Let’s start today with a simple show of hands:

“How many of you first learned to talk in a school classroom?

“How many of you first learned to walk – in a school classroom?

“How many of you learned to ride a bike by first reading a textbook on riding a bike?”

“How many of you learned to speak by reading a book on speaking?”What none?

“So how many of you learned to talk by talking, and chuckling with your mum or dad? Wow, all of you.

“How many of you learned to walk by walking, by first creeping then crawling, then tottering up, holding a chair; then finally wwalking?” Great.

“And how many first learned to ride a bike by sitting on a tricycle? Etc.”

(Now, using a slide of our first graphic photo on page 1 of “Unlimited”: the plugged-in world.

“Now let’s take some of the things you do every day, in this age of the internet and the world is the touch of keyboard away: how many of you learned keyboard skills by first reading a book right through? None! How many of you learned to type by actually typing.”

So what is the main lesson we learn from this? Get some quick responses.

360 years ago (photo from our book), Comenius invented the so-called modern classroom: with backboard, chalk, slate, and children sitting in rows listening to a teacher talk, with chalk, 95% of the time.

“Now one of the finest research universities, in America, Carnegie-Mellon, has spent a fortune getting rid of boring lectures . “

Etc.

“Today we don’t just read about science, we actually become computer scientists - by making computers.”

Dinner time here. I feel a good wine coming on.

Hope that helps

END OF letter by Gordon Dryden

Let's talk about the points made by Dryden. This guy should be cloned. +1 954 646 8246

VisualandActive@gmail.com

Invitation to teachers -- do you want to be in a documentary?

2010-09-02T03:58:00.000-07:00

This blog aims to attract teachers, students, principals, parents and taxpayers to pay attention to the research of educational pioneers. PsychologyToday.com has many articles on ways that people learn ... often better than through the lecture-and-take-notes (it might be on the final exam) method of transmission of information.

One of my students, Claudia Gonzalez, claudiagonzalez19@gmail.com (find her on Facebook), aims to capture some of these innovative/ignored teaching methods with a documentary about teachers who use these methods.

If you are an innovative teacher, remember that you are not alone and there are dozens of us who want to see what you're doing. Contact me at VisualandActive@gmail.com +1 954 646 8246. Let's do workshops for each other in each other's schools (so that our principals can see that it's not just you who uses these "off the wall / crazy / disorganized" techniques.

This is an invitation to connect with each other. Call. Please.

The Independent Educator's Creed

2010-06-06T20:44:00.001-07:00

I believe in following the student. I believe in listening, not lecturing. If you pull 100 teachers, principals and union representatives into a room, no more than ten will want to stand with me. I believe that my ultimate boss is the parent, the person who can remove a student from my school, and the taxpayer (not the principal, not the school board); I believe my responsibility is less to do with the contents of a textbook and more to do with what's in the student's heart; I believe that there is great value in social media (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Orkut) and the use of email in teaching randomly. Electronic books are generally more flexible than textbooks -- and the money saved by using materials in the public domain can be shifted to other learning opportunities.

The topic today is the responsible use of online communities like Facebook. I have accounts on hyves.net, orkut, cyworld.com, sonico, tuenti, LinkedIn, Xing and others, but the richest way to interact is inside Facebook. I spend time in this community because research shows that students listen more closely to peers and near-peers than to adults. Since I'm over 50 and I have information that I'd like to convey in an edu-taining way, I find students who are in their 20s to help me share information with my teen-aged students in the US.

Let me give you an example of how I "troll" for interesting mentors in other countries (by using Facebook) for my U.S. high school students:

===================

hi from steve in florida. I teach math to teenagers and I hope that I can introduce them to you. Your comment about a math problem made me think, "That is clever fellow." I hope that many US people can reduce their worries by learning from people in other countries. Can my students send questions to you? my email address is freeenglishlessons@gmail.com what is your email address?

===================

What have I done with this message? I signal to the recipient that (1) I am not the stereotypical U.S. xenophobe, (2) I am a teacher who believes he can learn from others, (3) I am hip, because I use lowercase for much of the message, (4) I am ready to communicate efficiently (by providing my email address instead of waiting for a reply through Facebook) and (5) I value the opinions of people on Facebook.

How do I check the "goodness" of the person on the social media? If I found the person on a chatroom or interest group, I look at the person's comments to others. Does the person treat others in a respectful way? I visit the person's profile to see if the person receives thoughtful messages from other people (this feature is available in orkut, since you can view messages that others have posted).

In short, I put the target (a potential mentor) through a number of tests before I introduce him to my students. If my students are below the age of 18, I filter the first communications through my email account, checking that the students send appropriate questions and that the online mentor responds politely and appropriately.

For educators who are fixed on the idea of teaching through a curriculum and a textbook, you might find it helpful to read an article about "concrete/abstract, random/sequential" (use those search terms at floatingneutrinos.com). The learning styles described by Dr. Gregorc helped me see that learning takes place on social media sites and that I can surprise students by making course material more "relevant" when it is filtered through Facebook.

For more ideas about how to use the Internet in an edu-taining way, go to FreeEnglishLessons.com and scroll down to "Articles to Improve Our Teaching." I become a better teacher by listening to parents and students, so send me your comments.

================

BIO at the bottom of the article

The Independent Educator is a teacher at a language school in Fort Lauderdale, FL. He tutors online (Skype: SteveEnglishTeacher) and gives seminars to teenagers about how to build a digital portfolio to get accepted into a great university. SteveMcCrea.com is his portal to his blogs about education and other websites. You can reach him at VisualAndActive@gmail.com (954-646-8246).

Steve McCrea Online SAT Tutor $20/hr

201 ebooks on one CD (free), I evaluate home

schools, VisualAndActive.com

Skype: SteveEnglishTeacher +1 954.646.8246

---------------------------

The Independent Educator's Creed

I believe in following the student. I believe in listening, not lecturing. I believe that my ultimate boss is the parent (the person who can remove a student from my school) and the taxpayer (not the principal, not the school board). I believe my responsibility is less to do with the contents of a textbook and more to do with what's in the student's heart. I believe that there is great value in social media (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Orkut) and the use of email in teaching randomly.

I believe that spelling tests celebrate a skill that can be found in spellcheckers, and we should give more time and accolades to students who create something new or who memorize facts and connections related to geography, geology and the sciences, especially if they connect and document their studies to their passions. We should focus on projects, not the contents of textbooks. Passing a written test does not always demonstrate mastery; failing a written test does not always indicate a lack of mastery.

I believe in narratives, portfolios and alternative forms of assessment (exhibitions and stand-ups). I believe that schools should have walls of quotations to fill blank walls and many of those quotes could come from the Pink Team: Hetland, Postman, Steiner, Montessori, Dan Pink (danpink.com), Thomas Friedman, John Corlette (JohnCorlette.com), Dennis Littky (BigPicture.org), Dennis Yuzenas (WhatDoYaKnow.com), Gardner, Thomas Hoerr (newcityschool.org) and others found on VisualAndActive.com.

I believe that Rocks for Jocks, Physics for Poets and Literature for Rocket Scientists are courses that will be more valuable to most students because these courses are integrated and show connections that many students find fascinating. James Burke, the presenter and creator of the TV show Connections, ought to be my advisor in charge of curricula. A copy of Littky's book could be on the doorstep of every parent of a tweenager, with extracts fed to Twitter or Facebook walls from the time the parent has a two-year-old.

I believe more voters and politicians should read Abe Fischler's blog, The Student is the Class; more people would enjoy history if they started with Dennis Yuzenas' site (WhatDoYaKnow.com) and listened to the lectures of Timothy C. F. Stunt. More students will learn from youtube.com/freeenglishlessons and MentorsOnVideo.org than from lectures and textbooks.

I recruit mentors as teachers and I arrange Learning Through Internships. I don't want to be a lecturer or teacher, but rather an advisor and facilitator. I seek opportunities to "transfer responsibility for learning to our students gradually" (Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey).

I recommend this article:

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/nov08/vol66/num03/Releasing_Responsibility.aspx

Releasing Responsibility

by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

"We must transfer responsibility for learning to our students gradually—and offer support at every step."

=================================

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXJG4vvoPwk In case you want to see a video on Youtube about alternatives to gasoline...

================

I invite you to visit IndependentEducator.com and to find venues for these observations. Yes, you, the reader, know some magazine or newsletter where this column could appear once a month. Become an agent of change and send a short message: (1+ 954) 646.8246 or VisualAndActive@gmail.com

Steve McCrea SteveMcCrea.com

Let's look at the Independent Educator TheIndependentEducator.blogspot.com

How to use SKYPE in the Classroom

2010-05-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

By Steve McCrea Skype: SteveEnglishTeacher

Knowing how to use Skype is a skill that will grow in importance. This list of tips will help teachers use the program skillfully in the classroom.

1. Learn to use Skype by using it. Yes, you can take tutorials. Yes, you can get an account name and let your students do the talking to other students. But the way that opened the magic of “skype in the classroom” to me was using it regularly.

2. Leave the Skype bar “Available.” Who knows who will contact us when we leave the account “available for contact”?

3. I set my Skype account to “open” (not private) so that anyone who has a Skype account can find me.

4. Turn the volume UP. I've missed dozens of opportunities to connect with students and teachers because I forgot to turn up the volume. (One of the annoying parts of using Zamzar.com is the audio ads that come with a message that “your file is ready for downloading.” I usually want the computer to be quiet, so I turn down the volume when I use zamzar.com... but then I forget to turn it up again when I'm in the classroom.)

5. Allow Skype users to email your mobile phone with a short reminder: “Hey, are you there? We had an appointment for a skype talk at 9:30 am your time – Jair.” I don't know why I forget to turn up the volume. Jair in Florianopolis went through a a lot of effort to obtain permission to move his class into a classroom with a projection screen and intenret access – and then I forgot to bring my compuer to class. Another time I forgot to turn up the volume, so I didn't hear the “ping” reminder that tells the skype user that someone is trying to connect.

6. I include my email address in the “greeting” that appears on the message. This encourages people who can't reach me by Skype to ask their questions by email.

7. Sometimes it's better to make a call WITHOUT the video on. Leave the video OFF for better sound quality (at least it appears to be better quality when the video is off). In May 2008 the number of skype users at 10 am New york Time was about 54 million. In May 2009 the number of skype users was about 8 million, and a year later, the number was closer to 22 million.

8. Expect some connections to be broken or interrupted or lower quality.

9. Do you have a backup plan? Some people use Instant Messenger with Yahoo or Microsoft (MSN). It helps if you have a variety of ways to connect.

10. Learn how to send a file over Skype. Some countries don't have easy access to youtube videos. Skype users can send video files and help other students see educational parts of youtube.

11. Encourage your students who use SKYPE to type while they talk. It is a way of clarifying pronunciation and ensuring that information is clearly transferred. I was able to monitor a conversation by walking between pairs of students doing independent work in the classroom – and the pair that was on a skype call with my student Gongfu in China had the following interaction:

Example: The call started around 10 am in Florida, twelve hours behind Gongfu in Shandong province. Teachers can read the notes that I've added in italics. Students can learn how to make their communications clearer by typing key words or sentences. When talking to people who live in countries where it is difficult to use Facebook or Youtube, ask if it is okay to send a video over skype.

9:57:55 AM

gongfu: hi .are you there? are you in your class?

Steve: hi we are ready to talk

gongfu: okay

Steve: can i send you a file?

gongfu: ok

Steve posted file SANY0021.MP4 to members of this chat

I introduced Gongfu to my students Rashad and Andreas. They talked a bit and then started to type some of the words.

What time is it? (asked Andreas)

gongfu: 22.05PM

Steve: It is 10 a.m. here

What is your name?

gongfu: QIJIANLI

gongfu: Qi Jian li

gongfu: ch

Steve: How old are you?

Steve: Have you been to Paris before?

The student over in Florida wrote this sentence (which the teacher can follow up with a grammar review)

Steve: I was graduate in 2009

Andreas described himself as a construction worker and Gongfu had a problem with spelling “Builder”

gongfu: marking plan

gongfu: beuther?

Steve: builder

Steve: a man who makes buildings

Rashad asked, “What time is it?”

gongfu: 22.17pm

Then there was a discussion of songs

gongfu: apple

Steve: an apple

gongfu: big apple

gongfu: new york?

gongfu: song

gongfu: rock

gongfu: rock music

gongfu: hip pop?

gongfu: nirvana

gongfu: do you like his songs?

Steve: ac dc

Steve: yes i do

What is your skype address?

Steve: rashood919

The students started talking about pronunciation

gongfu: a e i o u long and short

gongfu: short oo long oo

gongfu: SHORT OO

gongfu: SHORT OO SOUND

gongfu: [SHORT OO]

gongfu: I find the sound short oo sound is qutie similar with the schwa sound

The teacher dropped in to add the following words that have the [oo] sound

Steve: foot book good about a in about

We wanted to continue the connection because the large video file was still being transferred (100 kb per minute, 64 MB, so it took 50 minutes)

gongfu: leave the window open

Steve: i will leave the window open

gongfu: thanks

gongfu: i enjoy your video very much.so nice. steve,i will go to bed.tomorrow i will write to you . and can you tell me your free time.

The skype call took about 40 minutes, plus the extra time to complete the transfer of the video. The students (Andreas and Rashad) spent this time creating questions for the student in China.

If you have suggestions and recommendations, please contact Steve at SteveEnglishTeacher on Skype or at FreeEnglishLessons@gmail.com.

A view of "what's needed in schools" in the UK (and around the world)

2010-05-18T18:37:00.001-07:00

My partner Will Sutherland (www.QualifiedByExperience.com) heads a sailing school in England that is really a character training site (for teachers as well as students).

Here are some of his comments about school reform in England....

============

We all agree that every child is different and their needs are different, so why do we think they are all going to fit into the same educational box?

I see a very big need for children to be taught the basics (a general Liberal Arts) and then taught how to learn and what to learn.

They need to understand there is no such thing as a free lunch. They also need to understand they have to be of use to society in order to fit into society, and to earn a living.

They can do anything they want to do provided it is going to lead to an income stream for themselves and their families.

They need mentoring from someone who cares about them and who can help them deal with family or their personal environment problems.

Talk to today’s students and they will tell you they do not understand the logic of their education or where they are going, but they know what interests them.

======================

My ongoing research into the effects of Aiglon college (and the philosophies of Kurt Hahn and John Corlette www.JohnCorlette.com) on the lives of the Alumni is revealing the basic student needs and ways of meeting them.

======================

In summary the reformers cannot get out of their minds the traditional image the word “School” conjures up every time they use it or hear it.

What the 21^st Century students need is a new concept education media centre: A resource for the whole community and everyone in it.

Within this there needs to be a core framework which provides a balance between academic learning and life skills, discipline, appreciation, respect and tolerance for others, sports and physical exercise etc.

We only know and are influenced by what we know. Therefore the programme should encourage enquiring minds, to develop innovation and experimentation.

Expeditions and cultural excursions have become extinct due to health and safety restraints. This problem needs to be overcome in one measure or another.

Above all, a path for future development, a light at the end of the tunnel, has to be presented to students and parents which satisfies their needs and aspirations.

A lot of what Tony Blair say is not actually happening in the UK and he introduced the most teacher-controlling regulations -- he has knocked the stuffing out of our good teachers and the new system leaves them totally disenfranchised. Central control and bureaucracy takes up more than half a teacher's working time and preparation hours have increased beyond any sensible measure. The results are lower standards and a weaker society.

Will Sutherland

Director

Learn more by going to www.QualifiedbyExperience.com

ws@QBEglobal.net

It's CONforming, not REforming schools. When will we truly change in a positive direction?

2010-05-18T18:29:00.000-07:00

When we hear about school reform, we hear about these elements.

a) Standardized tests

b) Standards that all schools should meet

c) Standard curriculums for all students

d) Every student needs four years of math

e) Every 8th grader needs to be exposed to algebra in 8th grade, starting at age 13.

f) Send everyone to university.

g) Every teacher should have an advanced degree.

It doesn’t sound like REFORM, it sounds like “CON”form.

===========================

Instead, we need to look at TRUE reshaping and retooling and reformatting our schools.

For example

a) Time is a variable. We don’t have to group kids by age. We don’t have to require students to advance at a set time together to the next level of the curriculum.

b) Let’s us computers to allow independent rates of learning. See Dr. Fischler’s TheStudentIsTheClass.com blog.

c) Arne Duncan calls for expanded schooling to support the community, 12 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week, 12 months a year: 12/7/12.

d) Relationships: Dennis Littky’s “three Rs” says Rigor, Relevance and Relationships. We need teachers who visit each kid's home,..."Teachers who know the kids, look out for them and push them to succeed" (from a speech by Bill Gates).

e) Relevance: Why does every child need to study biology? Robert Reich has a cogent observation about the

f) Move away from Compulsory Failure: very few of us are renaissance people – we can’t master every subject, so there will be some subjects that are difficult for us and not relevant to our lives. Why do we impose failure on children? Reform means “making school relevant to the child, fit the curriculum to the child, not the child to the curriculum.”

g) Teachers teach all subjects: Why does a teacher need to have an advanced degree in mathematics in order to teach math? Some of the best teachers are those who struggle with a subject. “I hated math when I was your age. Let’s work together to get through this…”

Those are elements of true reform.

=====================

Dennis Yuzenas (www.WhatDoYaKnow.com) and I (VisualandActive.com) are talking about making a presentation about “It’s not school Reform, it’s school CONform.”

Tony Blair spoke in the right direction…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL-Vi3d9IPw&feature=related

Long speech but worth a listen.
Notes from Blair’s speech.
What works in a reformed school?

1. Independence -- Schools need to be independent, free to innovate and find the strategy that works for their community.

2. Community learning -- teaching adults, too. -- Continued adult learning is important becuas children who have parents with low levels of education tend to not go very far .

3. Community service: Our schools need to be more than academics and more than just for the child.

Breakfast clubs (to fill empty stomachs)

Afterschool clubs

Homework clubs

Let’s make education about the whole person and the whole community.

4. We need to remove bad teachers.

5. We need to think differently. We know what to do, we need to implement. It’s not hard to think up things to do differently – it’s difficult to IMPLEMENT. We need to focus on community interest, not about VESTED interests.

We know what works.

Well, that's what Blair said. Let's get to work. Contact me with your comments (954) 646 8246 or write to visualandactive@gmail.com

Let's mix International Students with U.S. teenagers

2010-04-30T04:43:00.000-07:00

YOUTUBE Link youtube.com/tlasteve

This is a video that should expand the discussion about "what opportunities can we teachers bring to students?"

I am a teacher of International students (adults) who want to learn the U.S. accent. We sit in a classroom from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

I am also a teacher for SAT math and verbal test preparation... we sit in a classroom once a week from 6 to 9 p.m.

Can they learn from each other? See my discussion at www.SATVideos.com

ABSOLUTELY (is the answer).

Materials
Write to me if you have questions about the procedure. When U.S. teenagers meet international students who are 20-39 years old, what happens?
Where are you from? (atlas)
What is your Facebook account name? (computer link)
Can you show me some photos on your Facebook account?
Where do you live? Where are you staying while you are in Fort Lauderdale? (area map)
Can you write that word on paper? (blank paper and pens)
For low-level students: a list of questions on a sheet

There's the lesson plan.

Order books online and books will be donated to schools in other countries

2010-02-12T01:23:00.000-08:00

THIS IS SO FUNNY. My doctor friend Kurt Wagner introduced me to this company for buying used books. WOW. so funny they also donate part of their profits by sending books to libraries and schools in other countries... isn’t that nice?

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Better World Books"
Date: February 11, 2010 9:21:28 PM EST
To: tlasteve@gmail.com
Subject: Your order has been shipped!

Hello Steve,

(Your book(s) asked to write you a personal note - it seemed unusual, but who are we to say no?)

Holy canasta! It's me... it's me! I can't believe it is actually me! You could have picked any of over 2 million books but you picked me! I've got to get packed! How is the weather where you live? Will I need a dust jacket? I can't believe I'm leaving Mishawaka, Indiana already - the friendly people, the Hummer plant, the Linebacker Lounge - so many memories. I don't have much time to say goodbye to everyone, but it's time to see the world!

I can't wait to meet you! You sound like such a well read person. Although, I have to say, it sure has taken you a while! I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but how would you like to spend five months sandwiched between Jane Eyre (drama queen) and Fundamentals of Thermodynamics (pyromaniac)? At least Jane was an upgrade from that stupid book on brewing beer. How many times did the ol' brewmaster have one too many and topple off our shelf at 2am?

I know the trip to meet you will be long and fraught with peril, but after the close calls I've had, I'm ready for anything (besides, some of my best friends are suspense novels). Just five months ago, I thought I was a goner. My owner was moving and couldn't take me with her. I was sure I was landfill bait until I ended up in a Better World Books book drive bin. Thanks to your socially conscious book shopping, I've found a new home. Even better, your book buying dollars are helping kids read from Brazil to Botswana.

But hey, enough about me, I've been asked to brief you on a few things:

We provide quick shipping service to all our customers. You chose UPS shipping, your book should arrive within 2 - 6 business days. The Postal Service may occasionally take slightly longer to deliver your book.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email my friends in Customer Care at help@betterworldbooks.com.

Eagerly awaiting our meeting,

Global Warming: The Greenpeace Report

Isn't that a great service? And such a funny attitude... Please support Better World Books. Do a google search... http://www.betterworldbooks.com/

2010-02-11T01:08:00.000-08:00

Tom Vander Ark's blog at Edreformer.com is busy ... Look at the following extracts:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-vander-ark/edu-entrepreneurs-are-lea_b_401966.html

With little or no bank credit and less venture investment, entrepreneurs have been hanging on for dear life. With no help from the feds, it's small business growth that will be largely responsible for lifting us out of the recession.

I get a steady stream of hate mail, the 'greedy bastard' file, for promoting education entrepreneurship. It's a different bargain than working for a school district and for some educators it's a good choice.

If you don't know about vander Ark, it's worth learning more:

Tom Vander Ark is a partner in Vander Ark/Ratcliff, an education public affairs firm, and a partner in a private equity fund focused on innovative learning tools and formats. He was the first business executive to serve as a public school superintendent and was the first Executive Director for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. See his daily blog at www.EdReformer.com. Contact him at Tom@VARpartners.net.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-vander-ark/#blogger_bio

======================

His term: Edu-entrepreneurs...

Another fledgling edu-entrepreneur is getting started in England: www.QualifiedbyExperience.com run by Will Sutherland is looking at a bold program to bring school reform to the UK.

I'm looking forward to seeing how vander Ark and Sutherland move ahead.

Saturday Morning... Time to be a tutor

2010-01-17T07:44:00.000-08:00

From 8 am to noon, Sunland Park Elementary has "tutoring" -- and we need high school graduates to show up here. In fact, anyone who survived 8th grade and who can read a newspaper is needed. Call +1 954 646 8246 and arrange for a free "TUTORING KIT" -- and ask me how much fun I have... VisualAndActive@gmail.com

2010-01-12T21:00:00.000-08:00

I am a taxpayer who was turned into a mentor after hearing about Bill Gates' speech to Governors Feb 2005, then after hearing the guy who inspired part of Gates' speech: Dennis Littky. Someday statues will be erected to honor Littky. Find out more by going to npr.org and search "Littky school" and see what comes up. interview in April 2005 . I visited his school in Providence and I made a documentary. I am very inspired by Littky's work and I hope someone in this audience will persuade a school board in hire Littky to redo their district. Please contact me if you want to become a member of the Breakfast Club With Mentors. Everyone can be a mentor. You can find some videos that I posted at http://www.Youtube.com/breakfastclubmentors

January 5 The first day

2010-01-08T01:06:00.000-08:00

Capital: Lima

Spanish word: Buenos dias Good morning (good day)

A student named J. showed me his poster about Joey a football player for the Steelers. He talked about the poster and we made a photo. I promised him a CD with the photo on the CD. It was fun. .. oh, I have to get approval to give a CD to a child. So my next work is going to be collecting ebooks that I can include on the CD.

I arrived at 7:20 a.m.

I like being a mentor. Kids liked looking at the atlas that I brought. I think it is best to sit with two or three kids and talk for 20-30 minutes than to walk around a lot. This first day I set an example by picking up trash, using the unused napkins to clean up spills and demonstrate by modeling that an adult male cleans up. So maybe it will be cool to wipe the crumbs from the table into the tray and keep the trash from falling on the floor.

January 6 and 7 The Breakfast Club at Sunland Elementary

2010-01-08T00:51:00.000-08:00

January 6: the capital of the day was "Ottawa." The kids who went to north had a lot of fun finding this city.

Spanish word: Hasta la vista. Until the seeing (the next time I see you).

I brought in a book showing photos from space. The Earth looks interesting from up there. We looked at photos of Florida and we found Lake Okeechobee. We also used napkins to clean up messes on the table. It was fun to leave the table looking as good as we found it.

I arrived at 7:20 am

January 7: The capital: Nassau

Spanish: Libro. Tengo dos libros. I have two books.

I brought two letters that I needed to compile. I showed the kids how I work and create a presentation. It was a good idea because a lot of kids don't see adults working in a home office. It is useful, as Dr. Alison Gopnik (UC Berkeley) points out, for youngsters to watch adults make mistakes, confront obstacles and move ahead.

I also promised a student named J. that I would bring a photo (that I took on Tuesday 5 Jan.) and I hope he liked the photo. He said that he has a place in his house for keeping important things. I was later than usual, I arrived at 7:28 am.

I talked to kids about the SHUTTLE LAUNCH that will happen on 7 February. That's a Sunday and they can see the link to the shuttle at www.nasa.gov.

Date: Feb. 7 + Sunday
Launch Time: 4:39 a.m. EST

Date: March 18 + Thursday

Launch Time: 4 p.m. EDT

Date: May 14 +
Launch Time: 2:28 p.m. EDT

(I wonder what the "+" sign means...)

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/highlights/schedule.html

I also recommended the Film Festival -- FREE FILMS -- at Cinema Paradiso at www.FLIFF.com. I hope the slips of paper that I gave four kids will get home.

The Breakfast Club for Mentors in Fort Lauderdale

2010-01-08T00:47:00.000-08:00

The Breakfast Club: An Invitation to Adults from a Teacher

On my way to work, I drive to an elementary school, arriving at about 7:15 am. I pick up a book of photos or I bring along a few sheets of paper and a pen. I sign in, walk to the dining hall, and wave to Mr. Mobley, the security guard. Two teachers are "on duty" and sometimes I see parents in the room, watching the kids who arrive early for free breakfast. I leave at 8 a.m. and go to work.

"What do you talk about with the children?" is the first question that most adults ask me. I've found that brining a book along is an icebreaker. Most kids are curious and one way to feed that curiosity is to open a book to an interesting page with a photo. That's what I talk about: something that interests the kid.

"Why are you doing that? You don't have kids" or "Your child isn't at that school." Well, I'm a taxpayer and I want to see my education dollars go farther. There's a connection between boredom and failing in the classroom. If a kid has something to look forward to everyday, then there's just another reason to get to school on time "to see what Mr. Mac is doing this morning."

INVITATION: I invite you to arrange your schedule to include an hour devloted to our school system. Yes, I've had to sacrifice by going to bed an hour earlier. It takes me 12 minutes to get to the school and then 8 minutes to get to work, a total of 15 minutes in addition to the usual 5 minutes that it takes me to commute. I stay there 45 minutes so it's about five hours a week devoted to asking kids, "Have you seen the Earth from space?" (when I bring a photo book to the hall) or "Can you find Florida on this map?" when I bring an atlas. I miss seeing The Daily Show with Jon Stewart at 11 pm, but it's worth it to get up at 6:30 a.m. ready to make neurons spark in young brains.

I tell myself that I'm meeting with future clients. They are the taxpayers of tomorrow (and they pay sales taxes today). I'm interested in building an army of smart, motivated kids who know that there are adults who want them to succeed.

If you live near I-95 and Sunrise Blvd., please join me at Sunland Elementary. You can ask for the volunteer form by internet through Karen.Procelli@browardschools.com or you can call the volunteer office at (754) 322-8567. You, too, can be the change that we want to see in the world.

Steve McCrea is an SAT tutor and a teacher trainer. He offers a CD with 201 electronic books on it: write to him at visualandactive@gmail.com. His weekly seminar about marketing tips on the internet take place at 1350 East Sunrise Blvd. (Artserve) -- bring a blank CD and exchange it for the 201 ebooks CD. For more information 954 646 8246.

By the way, go to http://www.fliff.com and see the latest in the series of free movies available in 2010 in Fort Lauderdale.

We are the change we want to see in our schools

2010-01-04T12:24:00.000-08:00

In 2004, I was a middle school teacher at a charter school. A family therapist, Pat Harris, come to volunteer in the school. I heard her 20 minute talk with my class and I was amazed. The rowdy group turned into a motivated bunch of kids ... all because of what Pat had said and asked. "Does your anger manage you or do you manage your anger?"

At that moment, I realized that I as a teacher had a lot to gain from teaming up with the guidance department and volunteers who deal with family matters, such as marriage and family counselors.

SO, fast forward 4 years... Between 2004 and 2009, I visited more than two dozen schools including www.newcityschool.org, www.metcenter.org, www.bigpicture.org,

Daniel Webster Middle School in LA, Frida Kahlo High School in LA, High Tech High in San Diego, San Diego Met, CHAD in Philadelphia, Bok Middle School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, Fla., ....
Schools in Florida: Hallandale Adult Community Center, Fort Laud High, Stranahan High, Arthur Ashe Middle, Seminole Middle,
...

I came away from these visits clear in the idea that the principles described by Dennis Littky can be used in virtually any location and the academics will improve. See www.visualandactive.com ... click on "readings"

A quote from Gandhi: We are the change that we want to see in the world.

Well.... it's up to us. Education is everybody's business (as Littky points out...)

So, I'm going to visit for the first time...4 Jan. Karen P. at Sunland has invited me to drop in and we'll discover what I can help do... I hope to start volunteering Tuesday morning... 5 Jan.

New York's "School of One" gets mentioned in Time Magazine

2009-12-18T21:51:00.000-08:00

This is fascinating.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1934027_1934003_1933977,00.html

This past summer, in a sixth-grade math class, New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein piloted a small program in which individualized, technology-based learning takes the place of the old "let's all proceed together" approach. Each day, students in the School of One are given a unique lesson plan — a "daily playlist" — tailored to their learning style and rate of progress that includes a mix of virtual tutoring, in-class instruction and educational video games. It's learning for the Xbox generation.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1934027_1934003_1933977,00.html#ixzz0a6wJZ6QE

This reminds us of Dr. Abraham Fischler's proposals in TheStudentIstheClass.com

The Next Step in School Reform: Sharing the information

2009-11-24T01:15:00.000-08:00

Here is a new approach (for people interested in school reform) == let's go "on the road" with our message.

Blogging and talking on youtube is one way to reach out into the marketplace of public opinion... another way is to go to churches and other religious organizations...

Here are two brochures and a cover letter that I'm sending out... let's go around Parent Teacher Organizations and get to parents through other organizations...

==========================

I’m a taxpayer and I want to see better results from our schools. The central force behind school reform and improvement is PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT. When parents push for improvements, then real reform takes place. When parents get the information that they need and learn about the key features to ask for in an “improved school,” then the improvements take place.

I’ve visited nearly a dozen “Big Picture Schools,” where improvements have been made. I would welcome an opportunity to share what I learned in my travels.

Here are two possible approaches (some paragraphs for an announcement in your newsletter?). I’m happy to present the information at no charge to parents.

Steve McCrea
Founder, VisualandActive.com
Teacher trainer and advocate for school reform.
954 646 8246

Enclosed are a CD and two DVDs that describe the innovations that I witnessed.

23 November 2009

One of the people in your congregation suggested that I contact you. Please let me know when and where I might present this valuable information.

I’m not selling anything. I’m an advocate for school reform. I’ve seen remarkable schools inspired by Dennis Littky and funded in part by Bill Gates == and our community can benefit from hearing about these innovations in education.

======== Brochure #1 ___________

Offer: 201 books on one CD.
The miracle of the Internet can deliver 201 books to your family… and all you need to do to get this free CD is come to a meeting and learn about:

à How to get FREE lessons on the Internet to prepare for the PSAT and SAT tests

à How to get FREE lessons on the Internet to learn other languages

à How to meet interesting people from other countries (and earn COMMUNITY SERVICE HOURS) (which are required to graduate from high school).

Are you interested? Come to the meeting at :
WHERE:
DATE: TIME:
If you can’t make the meeting, you can still get the free ebooks by contacting Steve McCrea, the presenter at 954 646 8246 or by sending an email to VisualAndActive@gmail.com

Thank you for your attention.
Steve McCrea, ESOL teacher visualandactive@gmail.com TeachersToTeachers.com and the English Visitors Network 954.646.9246

======== Brochure #2 ___________

Dear Parent
You might not have heard of some interesting discoveries about the brain and how these discoveries can make learning easier for your children.

You might not have heard of free web sites that can prepare your children for the SAT or PSAT tests. Perhaps you have heard about the efforts to improve schools (by Bill Gates and others), but you don’t know much about these initiatives.

I’m happy to share what I’ve learned from visiting three schools in Los Angeles, two schools in Rhode Island, New Jersey and Massachusetts, and a multiple intelligences school in St. Louis. Come to an interesting 30-minute presentation, with time for your questions. Learn about narratives, exhibitions and the importance of Individual Learning Plans. If you can’t make the meeting, visit VisualAndActive.com and learn about a fun way for your children to complete their “Community Service Requirement” while meeting some interesting people from other countries.

DATE: TIME:
WHERE:

Steve McCrea, ESOL teacher visualandactive@gmail.com TeachersToTeachers.com and the English Visitors Network 954.646.9246

---------------

Let me know if you know of a better way to get the word out... What is the next step in school reform?

Did you hear about the teacher who teaches history BACKWARDS?

2009-11-18T18:14:00.000-08:00

The following was spotted on an Internet search on "Backward History"

----------
It's a great idea.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_05/011294.php

Michael Baker teaches at University of Nebraska

Baker sounds dejected. “I really enjoyed engaging high school students in critical dialogue,” he says. “I found that very satisfying. A lot of kids are in classrooms where they are lectured to. I’d much rather engage in critical thought and problem-solving, and I’ve always had classrooms where we show respect for each other.”

He expects to continue teaching at Southeast Community College and at the University of Nebraska, where he gives a course on the history of American public education.

May 12, 2007
By: Kevin Drum

SDRAWKCAB YROTSIH GNIHCAET....Via MoJoBlog, The Progressive has a story this week about Michael Baker, a high school teacher in Lincoln, Nebraska, who was let go after showing the HBO documentary "Baghdad ER" to his geography class. Stupid. But that's not what caught my eye. Extremely longtime readers may recall that I once suggested that history could be made more interesting to high school students if it were taught backwards (see here), and it turns out Baker was doing exactly that. His school district didn't think much of that experiment either:

Baker has clashed with administrators before. In 2005, they objected to his innovative approach to teaching history, which was to start at the present and work backwards, an approach he'd been using for four years.

But then, the school district forbade him from teaching that way any longer. The school's consultant said it was "not logical, does not contribute to effective teaching or monitoring of progress, and puts students at a disadvantage" with newly instituted statewide tests, according to a paper on the subject by Professor Nancy Patterson of Bowling Green. Baker appealed but lost, and was eventually "prohibited from teaching U.S. history," Patterson writes.

Hmmph. It still seems like a decent idea to me, though: current events are intrinsically interesting, and learning about them make you genuinely curious about why the world ended up the way it did. If the lessons are structured with curiosity about causes in mind, this will make you interested in the Cold War, which in turn makes you interested in World War II, which in turn makes you interested in the Great Depression, etc. It's a solution to the most obvious problem of teaching history: without any context, why should a 16-year-old care about dusty topics like the Missouri Compromise or the rise of the labor movement?

Oh well. I suppose the amazing thing is that they let him teach this way for four years before they shut him down. He was probably a communist, after all.

—Kevin Drum

Bravo, Kevin Drum and Bravo to the Progressive and Wshington Monthly for covering Mr. Baker's saga.

I agree with K. Drum. The students are lucky that the district took so long to "drum out" this fine teacher.

Michael Baker should be nominated for a "Giraffe" award -- for sticking his neck out.

A movie for educators? "We are the people we've been waiting for"

2009-11-13T18:52:00.000-08:00

A teacher's blog () mentioned the following youtube video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRi8_fXz1D8 (which had the following note):

Trailer for Lord Puttnam's new film about education. Originally uploaded for a blog post at jamescross.org.uk, please note that I'm in no way connected with the film - all I've done is cut it out of a YouTube video that already existed for a blog post.

We Are The People We've Been Waiting For is a full-length feature film on education which was inspired and guided by Oscar-winning producer Lord Puttnam. The film is supported by various sponsors including independent education foundation, Edge. The film follows the experiences of five Swindon-based teenagers. What unfolds during the course of the film is a very inconvenient truth about education. It concludes that, while there are signs of spring, a transformation of the education system is vital if the UK is to continue to compete effectively in an era of globalization the world has changed enormously but our education system has not kept pace. We need to recognise that there are many paths to success for young people and provide the right support and opportunities for them to develop their individual talents.

The key: the title of the youtube video: "We are the people that we've been waiting for."

About small schools and computer-assisted instruction

2009-10-04T02:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a question to ask politicians: The work of many school reformers points to the need for smaller schools, but effectively run schools. Is your guest aware of the growing influence of schools that focus on computer-assisted instruction? This idea is that computers will frees the teacher to spend more time as a motivator and mentor to students, since the principal activity of "delivery of information" is handled by the computer. Blogs like www.edreformer.com and www.TheStudentistheclass.com advocate more investment in computers and training for teachers to move into this important new role. What is the administration's position on using more computers in classrooms? my phone number is 954 646 8246 and I hope the guest will pass on these educational blogs to the attention of other politicians. Also www.chadphila.org, www.hightechhigh.org, www.newcityschool.org, and www.bigpicture.org, www.metcenter.org -- these websites ought to get more attention if decisionmakers want to implement computers as true aids to learning. The relevant people include Dennis Littky, Dennis Yuzenas (www.Whatdoyaknow.com), Thomas Hoerr, Tom vander Ark, Lois Hetland, and Howard Gardner. Thank you

Article about Dennis Yuzenas in Sun-Sentinel

2009-10-02T20:21:00.000-07:00

2 October 2009
The Sun-Sentinel included a reference today to Dennis Yuzenas, mentor and master teacher in Bak Middle School of the Arts in West Palm Beach:

Search for a video called "Dennis Yuzenas" on Youtube.com

Or click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnR_nCakIKk

Contact Dennis at yuzenasdennis@bellsouth.net

He's edu-taining.

EducationSector.org is worth a click

2009-09-29T19:58:00.000-07:00

Do a search on Tom Toch and you'll learn about Education Sector www.Educationsector.org

Look at this online discussion planned for soon...

Online Discussion: School Choice a la Carte

October 7, 2009 - October 8, 2009

Featured Presenters:: Erin Dillon; Bill Tucker

Currently, choice in education is generally limited to choosing aschool: Public or private school? Charter or neighborhood school? If grocery stores offered the same limited choices, shoppers would have to choose, for instance, among Whole Foods, Safeway, or Wal-Mart. But in reality, shoppers can (and do) patronize all three, making their decision based on their specific needs and the store's particular strengths. This way, shoppers are much more likely to get exactly what they need.

Learning is obviously much more complex than grocery shopping, but what if choices in education could be extended in a similar way?

Clayton Christensen's book Disrupting Class has gained much attention for its prediction that disruptive innovation will revolutionize how we educate students, much in the way iTunes has changed the music industry with its more customer-focused approach to delivery.

But while virtual education is likely to become a large part of the future of school choice, increased customization in education doesn't have to happen only online. There are endless possibilities to reorganize the delivery of education and to offer both students and teachers more choice and customization within the public schools.

Education Sector is pleased to host an online discussion October 7-8, 2009, to explore how new technologies and opportunities for learning are changing the context of education and to analyze whether educational choice can evolve beyond the current school-centered vision to offer greater customization for all students within a public system.

This discussion will feature: Education Sector's Erin Dillon andBill Tucker; Courtney Bell of Educational Testing Services;Julie Evans of Project Tomorrow; Curt Johnson of Education/Evolving and co-author of Disrupting Class; Brian Dixon, teacher and director of High Tech High's Flex program; and Tom Vander Ark of Vander Ark/Ratcliff Partners and former executive director of education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Learn more:

http://www.educationsector.org/events/events_show.htm?doc_id=1030563

Get some facts at Edreform.com

2009-09-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

Look at these facts published on www.EdReform.com

http://www.edreform.com/Fast_Facts/K12_Facts/

SCHOOLS:

TOTAL NUMBER OF PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS: 13,862
(Digest of Education Statistics 2008, Chapter 2, Table 87)

TOTAL NUMBER OF K-12 SCHOOLS: 106,746

Elementary: 72,659
Secondary: 24,856
Combined: 5,202
Other: 4,209
(Digest 2008, Chapter 1, Table 5)

TOTAL NUMBER OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS: 98,793

Elementary: 68,990
Secondary: 23,436
Combined: 5,984
Other: 383
(Digest 2008, Chapter 2, Table 94)

TOTAL NUMBER OF CHARTER SCHOOLS: 4,578
(The Center for Education Reform, February 2009)

TOTAL NUMBER OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS: 35,060

Elementary: 22,870
Secondary: 2,930
Combined: 9,260
(Digest 2008, Chapter 2, Table 58)

TOTAL NUMBER OF CATHOLIC SCHOOLS: 7,740

Elementary: 6,360
Secondary: 1,080
Combined: 300
(Digest 2008, Chapter 2, Table 58)

ENROLLMENT:

TOTAL K-12 ENROLLMENT: 55,394,000

Elementary: 38,932,000
Secondary: 16,462,000
(Digest 2008, Chapter 1, Table 2)

TOTAL PUBLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 49,299,000

Elementary: 34,221,000
Secondary: 15,078,000
(Digest 2008, Chapter 1, Table 2)

TOTAL CHARTER SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 1,407,421
(The Center for Education Reform, February 2009)

TOTAL PRIVATE SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 6,073,240

Elementary: 3,447,230
Secondary: 859,800
Combined: 1,766,220
(Digest 2008, Chapter 2, Table 58)

TOTAL HOME SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 1.5 million (estimate) or 2.9% (estimate) of America's school population
(1.5 Million Homeschooled Students in the United States in 2007, NCES, December 2008)

TOTAL CATHOLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 2,402,800

Elementary: 1,701,000
Secondary: 597,680
Combined: 104,120
(Digest 2008, Chapter 2, Table 58)

TEACHERS:

TOTAL PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS: 3,180,396

Elementary: 1,673,234
Secondary: 1,250,771
Unclassified: 256,391
(Digest 2008, Chapter 2, Table 65)

TOTAL CHARTER SCHOOL TEACHERS: 42,100
(Schools and Staffing Survey, 2003-04, NCES)

TOTAL PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS: 449,810

Elementary: 209,510
Secondary: 70,680
Combined: 169,630
(Digest 2008, Chapter 2, Table 58)

TOTAL CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS: 149,760

Elementary: 97,410
Secondary: 42,680
Combined: 9,860
(Digest 2008, Chapter 2, Table 58)

Now we can ALL be more specific and accurate in our use of statistics...