Remote Ready Biology Learning Activities

Some people (some students too?) may find this new kind of writing takes a while to get used to. Its worth doing though as a contribution to making of education a shared activity, to which everyone contributes and from which everyone benefits. One learns by doing and from the reactions to what one does of lots of different people, instead of by trying to figure out what the teacher wants and being limited to his/her reaction.

So relax, try it out, and enjoy. Forums like this are one of the ways the internet can help to make a richer, more hands-on, more interactive kind of education.

I taught 8th grade science at Turner Middle School. The students and I tried some activities on brain and behavior. The students enjoyed learning about the brain. I would like to continue building lessons that explore the brain.

I am very interested in this Institute this year. I am going to try and get it less wrong this time. I would like to see what makes us tick and what to do about it. I am especially interested in learning about drugs and the brain--all kinds of drugs(legal and not]. I am interested in mental illness and the brain. As a counselor this will be a help.

I am also interested in learning more about computers. Using this notebook today is a new experience for me. I hope to get more new experiences.

Shellie Herdan

I was trained in the study of 19th c. American literature, but my teaching has gone way beyond that....I'm interested in telling my story/inviting others to tell theirs...in order to learn things about the world that I haven't noticed yet. I'm interested in exploring w/ others ways to set up classrooms so that students want to go exploring, writing stories about what they see and learn, and be willing to revise those stories based on what they learn from others....

'round and round and round about. Getting...somewhere....

I have never parented--until recently. Now, after my first half-century on Earth, my brother and his 5 year old twins are living with me and boy has my learning curve shot sky high. I take back all those things I said to my mother regarding how I thought parenting actually worked. If all goes well I will be retiring from the Philadelphia school system in the next 2-7 years.

I'm interested in speaking with other Special Ed. people about current thoughts and practices as I have been thrown back into the special ed. arena after a long absence.

I teach seven grade at Beeber middle school

Who? My name is Geneva, a.k.a. Miss T., and I am a Secondary Assistant Principal with the School District of Philadelphia, going into my 5th year as such. I am a former {yearly} participant of this institute, as a Special Education Teacher.

Why? I am here, in part, in appreciation of these forums finally being extended to Educators that have progressed beyond the classroom; namely in-house administrators. I am thankful to the Almighty that folk are beginning to realize we need support, academic and intellectually social, to maintain continual learning and understanding.

What? Dealing with a broader range of staff, students, and school community in a more intense manner, on a daily basis, it is essential to further understand the 'brain' reasons of why people behave the way they do.

I became a teacher mostly due to the influences of my previous teachers. I find it a very satisfying way to work with and influence young people.

I would expect to gain an understanding of some of the basic phycological processes of children/people and methods of applying thenm in the classroom and other social settings.

I am Regina Frances Maria Toscani, person, daughter, sister, teacher, student, animal-lover, couch-potato, and many other things. My main role is as a teacher of special needs children at Rush Middle School. I have acted as a teacher in the Phila. School District for the last 16 years.

Why am I here? Well I needed something to do this summer that wouldn't get me into too much trouble. Also I needed my "educational battery" recharged and these "B&B" institutes seem to give me a "jump start" in thinking about my choosen career.

What do I want to learn? Can a teacher indirectly improve the functioning of a student's brain? By this I mean can I help my students to increase their cognitive level by playing music, doing more physical activities, serve healthy foods, etc.? Second, can damange to a person's brain be "undone"?

I question what are the various ways the medical/educational communities can join together to assist and improve developments in the brain/behavoir
areas.

I especially enjoyed writing our bio and then discussing them. It was a good technique having someone interview. I would like to try this with students.

Now about science well jury is still out. I do like the idea of getting children to learn by doing instead of just giving it to them.

Shellie Herdan

PS I am spelling challenged so .....

As for my learning environment, this is the fundamental statement I would offer my students...take your limits off and see how far you really are able to go. Continuing from there we are now ready realize an infinite number of summary observations.

Dickinson's poem in my opinion is her way of describing the higher ability of the human brain. We have unlimited facility to "see" and take in great beauty (sky) which generate emotions- love that is boundless like the sky (you).

The Brain is deeper than the sea -
For - hold them - Blue to Bue -
The one the other will absorb -
As sponges - Buckets - do

Dickinson considers emotion in her first verse and in the second verse she follows the noble calling of humanity to elevate itself through knowledge. She says that man has no constraints on the amount of knowledge that we can "absorb" (sponge) because the brain's intellectual capacity is very deep (than the sea).

The Brain is just the weight of God -
For - Heft them - Pound for Pound -
And they will differ - if they do -
As syllable from Sound -

Dickinson asserts in her last verse that the spiritual center also arises in the brain. She does not simply compare our brain to God, but rather the brain's weight. She is saying that if we have God in the brain then there's nothing to be measured as greater than God.

The Brain is just the weight of God -
For - Heft them - Pound for Pound -
And they will differ - if they do -
As syllable from Sound -

In Emily Dickinson's "The Brain - is wider than the Sky," we are confronted with a Romantic meditation on the nature of reality. We are introduced to three differentiated elements: the 'Brain', the 'Sky' or 'sea', and 'You'. I think that one can safely assume that the 'Sky' and the 'sea' represent nature, the not-me, and that the 'You' represents the individual, the me. It's a rather standard Romantic bifurcation of the world. The intriguing question is what does Dickinson mean by the 'Brain'.

Her concept clearly has religious implications: "The Brain is just the weight of God." It suggests a definition of man that posits the 'Brain' or consciousness as a margin where the 'You'/me and 'Sky' or 'sea'/not-me intersect. It hearkens back to Emerson's Oversoul. It predicates monism, wherein man is just part of the greater whole, but possesses the ability to merge with the universe through the medium of the 'Brain.'

As teachers we must assist student in developing the mind to think, process, and explore. Education must be a colloborative and interactive effort to encourage thinking and application of concepts and ideas to daily practical living. It must stimulate an open mind, receptive to a way of thinking to broaden the student's knowledge base of thinking and retention.

"I think therefiore I am" is a quote that I feel compliments the poem. I am aware of my existance but can not prove yours. I can merely rely on my observations of you and assume that these observations are real (I suggest "Vanilla Sky" with Tom Cruise on this topic). My reality is how internalize my observations and how i define them. My experience in a situatioin that is similar to abother's is based on my constructs and vice versa. For example, a person who is "color blind" may see green as red and red as green. Although the majority of us would see it as we believe to be correctly, this is that individuals "reality" of a color scheme. So for this individual he or she has constructed their own version of reality.

A dream sequence is very similar to this idea of observations and reality. In a dream, most people are unaware tgaht they are dreaming. In a dream, one may realize they have the ability to fly. In the concious world one believes that people can not fly (witghout aid). But in the reality of the dream it is possible due to the observation of that dream.
The Brain is wider than the sky because the brain is able to internalize not only what is in the sky but the sky itself.

Implications-We must be "Broadminded". The more open minded we are to thoughts ideas the "better"- more intelligent we will be. Our minds are like sponges which absorb knowledge.

About education- the culture of education equates book knowledge with intelligence. The more book knowledge the more intelligent- the more intelligent the better the brain- the better the brain the better the person. People who don't fit this pattern often don't suceed in school.

The comparison presented by Dickinson suggested that brain activity and the sky are difficult to be measured by the scientific community during that time period.

These are just some of my thoughts on what I would like to learn in this institute, but I am certainly up for more!

A general issue was do we accept that idea that the brain is an explorer, that our business as educators is to "open minds" (or help keep them open, make them ever more open) and, if we do, what do we do with/about curriculum standards/grades/testing?

A related issue was is the potential of us/our students "limitless"? Or is it instead the case that the potential of individual humans is infinite but limited in various ways? And a second related issue was what do we do if we have a story that seems to work (ignoring a few "outliers") and has for many years ... keep it or try to change it? Why? For ourselves, for our students?

I also want to keep in play the idea of "two minds". That may not seem immediately related to all of the above but I think it is, in important ways.

Anyhow, that's some of what yesterday made me think about, want to think more about. What about you? Jot down a few lines about what yesterday made you think about ... so we can see where everyone is before we get started on new stuff this morning. If you need memory jogging, we talked yesterday about science and what it is, about everything being in the brain, about differences in brains, and about a replacement for the "spaghetti" model of the brain. What did any (or all) of that make you think/wonder?

On diversity: Opposites Attract? Not in Real Life

On reading and the brain: Two Kinds of Brain Problems are Found To Cause Dyslexia

On another "practical" brain/behavior identity issue: Doctor's Toughest Diagnosis: Own Mental Health

Imagine living during the 1850's and thinking about the brain. Emily Dickinson was a remarkable woman not only in terms of her writing but the things that she thought about. The average woman was not into matters of that nature (it wasn't her place.)

Hello, my name is Randal Holly. I am a teacher and the current Science Department Head at Thomas Fitzsimons Twin Academies. It is a middle school in north central Philadelphia that is currently experimenting with single gender based education as a means of educating students. I have been working for the Philadelphia School District for a little more than fourteen years. I have worked at several other schools within our district, but have considered Fitzsimons my home. I have been involved in several past Institute offerings, and always look towards the opportunity to visit Bryn Mawr College during the summer months and dialogue with colleagues wrestling with innovating science education at all levels of learning.

Randal

I began to think about other aspects of the brain and its functions as I was reflecting and discussing some of the theories of Steven Hawking with a friend. The level of thought and the ability that he has to create his own reality is, in my mind, astonishing. In many cases, some of his theories go beyond what we would think of as rational thought. I began to entertain the notion that science does not prove nor disprove anything.

I also began to think about people we term as psychic. One in particular that I always found facinating was the "sleeping psychic" Casey. I began to wonder if there are other aspects of the brain that allow a different model for thinking and summarizing observations. If so, what are the differences and how would it be possible to explore those differences.

When I was a kid I thought that when I grew up I would know everything; now I am glad there is so much left for me to behold because I intend to live for a long time and it could get pretty boring were there nothing left to experience anew.

When I was a kid I thought that when I grew up I would know everything; now I am glad there is so much left for me to behold because I intend to live for a long time and it could get pretty boring were there nothing left to experience anew.

It is funny--I feel excited about these questions. I guess that is are hope--to excite our students with questions and the need to find answers. Is this a possibility.

I wonder what Paul has up his sleeve today!

I prefer positing that the potential of individual humans is infinite but limited in various ways? This also relates to the unreal expectations that have been foisted upon curriculums from outside the schools, for instance, assuming that everyone should have rigorous algebra, but not allowing any leeway for students. With your second related issue of what do we do if we have a story that seems to work (ignoring a few "outliers") and has for many years ... keep it or try to change it, I don't believe that a conservative approach is necessarily wrong. After thirty five years of constant curricular change for what seems to be the sake of change, initiated by some new educational perspective, I've become wary of educational revolutions frequently engendered from the university level or in response to political agendas.

The notion of "two minds" that emerged in Dickinson's poem was interesting. One was clearly the individual, the other participated in what may be designated as the "All". It's a nice Romantic conceit that's not too unlike Jung's "collective unconscious." It seems somewhat of a religious leap of faith to therefore assume man's perfectibliity. it's rather a naive flaunting of determinism.

I think the aspect of the session based on the several models of the brain provide a basic comprehensive comparison of organism formations. The models demonstrated that despite several unrelated biological characteristics featured by organisms, the basic building blocks are the same. However, the size of the region locations were different.

The Christopher Reeves observations we talked about yesterday suggest that the nervous system is organized so that one can sense inputs and generate outputs without being "aware" of either. What do you think of this "summary/story"? Are there other situations where this occurs (without major damage to the nervous system like a broken neck)? Is it relevant for thinking about education/classrooms?

I find this facinating yet I am quite unsure as to how this understanding can be applied to the classroom.

Now getting to Chris, I am thinking of other activities that we are not aware of. Here are some--sleep walking, dreaming, and more.

What does this have to do with education --well, [getting this less wrong] children may be able to learn without conscious participation. I'm not sure how this plays out. I guess I should make it a question.

? What state is the patient in--during a coma? Many patients can remember situations when they were comatose. Is the brain activity dormant or regenerating? Or a miracle?
P.S. In the N-E-W-s. . . .
A man has come-out of a coma after 19 years.

Sometimes students perform functions in the classroom as if they are on "automatic", such as writing worksheets or taking notes from the board. Students are not mentally engaged in this type of activity. Actually students LIKE this type of activity because they can remain brain-dead and it's EASIER for them than thinking. When I require them to be in groups and to question, explore, discuss and write an explanation; the students initially complain "What do you want us to say?" "Are we getting a grade for this?" You never said what we're supposed to write!"

By the middle of the year my students are comfortable with the process. They have stopped copying from each other because the "originator" knows that s/he will receive a zero with the rest of the copies. The students also know that they will get points for writing what they THINK, especially if it is backed up with the evidence from their explorations. I don't grade for spelling or style. As a final result, I am able to get an excellent sense my students depth of understaning from their logs.

Absolutely! It seems that every day school imputs information to kids. Do we get corresponding output? I think not! Sometimes "stuff goes in but doesn't come out". Likewise, kids' responses to stimuli sometimes far outweighs the stimuli- one kid nudges another accidentally -of course- and the other kid decks him/her.

However, I can think of situations when completing a task felt robotic without any intellectual stimuli.

Re implications in educational settings--I often see students do things that appear not to have originated from their upper brain. Actually I don't see the independent actions of the lower body/spinal cord as being a second mind. Rather I see the upper brain as the seat of our multiple minds. I observe students doing and saying things that show forethought and insight and then I see them do something that seems like the mental equivalent of a knee jerk reaction.

Sometimems as people present thier points of view from the scientific perspective, they treat people who beileve in GOD as if the witches in Salem, MA, back in the 1600's.

If it is better teaching practices that we want, why not accept that could be some things for which we may never be able to fully understand?
And others still that we may only have a limited understanding of...or the stories we currently tell.

That said, let's agree that what HAS been does not forever HAVE to be. Serendip has a section for people who feel they have been discouraged from telling stories that include concepts like God, so their stories can be clearly heard by others (Science and Spirit). And I personally am more than willing to agree that "there are some things we have only a limited understanding of" (indeed, I'm SURE of it; its fundamental to the "getting it less" wrong principle). And I'm also more than willing to believe I can learn from other people's stories, whether they include the word God or not (cf. How to Get Through the Veil).

Where there may be an interesting difference in our stories (perhaps useful to both of us to see in getting it less wrong?) is the idea that there may be some things "which we may never be able to fully understand". I'm fully prepared to admit that as a "possibility" but very much disinclined to accept it as a starting point ... and even more disinclined to have people specify for others (or themselves) particular things that should not even be examined to see if they can be "understood". Is that a meaningful difference between us, one that would incline us to make different choices in education (or in life)? If so, we have some more things to talk about. If not, we're pretty much in the same place, the words we use notwithstanding.

Now to the article--The session this afternoon brought some thoughts and ideas about the article together for me. I see how in our culture we classify people as disabled who do not meet the "requirements", the "standards(artificial at that)", the mold of our culture. We need to treat each person as an individual. We need to look at a person's strenghts and go from there. We all have disabilities and these are on a continuum--our students disabilities are on a continuum also. Why do we have to classify them and make them feel inferior. We need to be able to get help for all students and not classify them. This sometimes creates a self filfulling prophesy.

The World of the Blind was interesting. The blind were not able to accept a sighted person because he was different--we are not able to accept a LD person. This story showed me how ridiculous our values are.

While alternative programs must be created,the challenge will be to avoid tracking poor and minority students(once again)into the trades.This practice was prevelant in the period from approximately 1930-1960.

Usually I respond to the forum by writing 3 paragraphs: introduction, explanation and conclusion but Paul never reads my second paragraph, so I'll just jump to the last.

Living in another culture was enlightening, enriching and liberating. Learning how to behave in order to be successful in another culture illuminated the artificial and meaningful boundaries of my own Americanism. I could look down at the ground when a Filipino male spoke to me and in the same minute stand as a PROUD equal with a PCV male.
Culture is like a wheeled baby chair. It keeps you on both feet and gives you a soft place to lean on. It allows you to look up, down and spin around. It can keep you immobile or send you flying. Culture as ability or disability is up to you and your choices.

Nunez missed the greatest experience of his life.

Good rich discussion of "two minds" yesterday morning, with I thought a pretty good consensus that understanding the conscious/unconscious thing IS important in education (as well as in neurobiology). Along those lines, does one learn unconsciously? How does that relate to wanting our students to "think"? Can on lie unconsciously? How can one tell if someone is doing that or consciously lying?

And some bonuses in the morning discussion. Noticing that it is for some reason harder to write in forum than to just talk ... maybe because one's conscious, with an editor built into it, gets in the way? Maybe that's why students ... ? Was struck also by the playing with "I think, therefore I am". Maybe it should actually be "I am, and find I have the capacity to think, which I can use to change who I am" ... and explore?

Also in the morning was the idea that the nervous system is just neurons, pretty much the same not only morphologically but also functionally ... the same signals, and the proof that indeed those signals could start in the box rather than result from experiences (in some cases EVER, because of the genome). There's certainly more to think/talk about there.

And then there was everyone tells me was a rich session with Kim in the afternoon. I saved the blackboard as a photo and will post it. And then there's the Culture As Disability article.

So, how about writing TWO entries in the forum this morning? One, if you haven't already done it, about the Culture As Disability article. The other about whatever part of yesterday you thought particularly interesting, have reactions/thoughts about. Yeah, please write TWO entries instead of one about both things. Then I can archive them under separate topics. And remember, don't "think" WHILE you're writing. Just write.

Unconscious learning precedes conscious learning! The implications for education are enormous. Students should first engage in things unconsciously, busy work in a comfort zone, prior to conscious processing.

Descartes may be wrong, a cultural elitist, in positing that "I think, therefore I am." But, you also can't posit "I am, therefore I think." This is particularly relevant with regard to organisms who demonstrate activity, but have never had sensory or motor neural imput. It suggests to me that this activity may be unconscious, but the reflective activity that characterizes conscious I-function doesn't occur, therefore there might not be any "soul." Acquinas might posit some "vegatative" state.
Is refection what really distinguishes what is "human"? Do different organisms exhibit more or less reflection? The revelation and tracking of Action Potential as an indicator of the difference that humans exhibit between conscious and unconscious activity seems to me very relevant.

2/ Culture as disability is reflective to me of the history of my teaching. I have, more often than not, taught students whose subculture in these United States differs from my own. Bit by bit I have become aware of my preconceptions that do not match with theirs. I can only guess as to how much I still don't know. I have students with many talents that do not include reading, writing and ciphering so they are not seen as sucessful in school yet have rich full lives in which they show varied competencies . On the other hand, if I were in a culture that measured success by how fast one can run, I would be among the disabled/limited because I do not have many fast twitch muscle cells (my physical therapist clued me in on that factoid).

The afternoon's discussion was interesting , particuliarly because it demonstrated how an activity could be used to engage individual thinking and awareness, promote group ideas, as well as illustrate the points for the learner to focus on - What is a diability? and who decidesthat? For what Purpose? Many of the points in our discussion were revealed or parralled in the article"Culture as a disability".

Lots more reflection of the "two minds discussion" in my head, to mull over.

After reading parts of the article (I admit I did not get to read it all), I was reminded of a college professor I had who work with people who had "disabilities." He shared with us his experience when he went to a school for deaf children during the early stages of his carreer. He discussed with us his expectations and his preconcieved notions of what a school for the deaf would be. He pictured a quiet and "peacful" environment. He thought that he would be overwhelmed with the silence. He thought that this would be a relaxing environment to do his work. His experience was the contrary. He found that the students were playing their music so loud that he could hear it hundreds of yards before reaching the campus. He also found that this did not change throughout the day. It became distracting and difficult to work at times under those circumstances. He said that at first he could not understand this. Why did people who could not hear need to have music so loud? Then one of his collegues told him it was because they could feel the music.

He also stated that he knew traditional sign language. He noticed that the students were using signs when communicating that to him, seemed to be nonsense. As he spent more time, he realized that even sign language had dialects. The students had created their own slang and signs (like the codes our students write thier love letters in) to keep the teachers from understanding them.

Much like "THe Country of the Blind" his "ability" became his "disability." ONe other interesting aspect of this was that he found ways to adapt to the culture (as he put it). He began to use ear plugs while working and he also developed and internalized the sign language that they were using over time.

If this can occur with her,what then must be the situation with many students who are unable to process information in an ordered fashion because signals are reversing.I have doubts as to what methods can be employed to "retrain"their message centers.

The article, like the discussion yesterday afternoon brings to mind that our culturre/expectations play a large role in hoe we ppercccieve and react to things. In the early 70's if a child was doing flips over a swing and fell and hurt themself...they would go home and get a bandage put on a cut or scrape and that would be all. If a child did the same thing now, they would go home, call the plastic surgeon, and their lawyer, and try to get a mega law suit from the owner of the swing set, the swing set manufacturer, the shoe manufacturer and so on.

Our culture has set up some standards that "define" minimal achievemnt standards, are those who do not meet them "dis-abled" or "differently -abled?"

When we ask our elem. students to "read, read quietly, and study" Could it very well be that they have a different mental script of what each of these words mean, and a different script of how to demonstrate that they are doing what we ask?

The seminar yesterday with Kim was very enlightening. We do we get part 2?
Abilities v. Disabilities!

Interesting idea--so much of what the nervous system does has nothing to do with anything that happens to it--it just does. And nothing to do withanything that ever happened to it--is this a little about psychosis. What is that anyway?

Afternoon with Kim was great. REally enjoyed hearing her own stories. Really brought culture into the realm of our problems.

Oh well Paul wants us to stop.

"Maternalization of education" as the message of Culture of Disability. Encouraging concepts/nurturing over critical/demanding, less attention to struggle/war/competition? Avoiding "hurt feelings by demonstrating that someone else has a different point of view? All necessarily goes together this way? A good thing or a bad thing or ... ?

Re "special ed". Why classify/analyze instead of just fixing? Could we create a less disabling culture by allowing people to develop their own goals instead of insisting they have to be achieving by a common standard? But need to be careful not to return to a time of prejudging potential based on wealth, skin color, etc. Would help if we could encourage kids to become more self-reflective from earlier ages?

Re Keith's story: VERY important that one can be (be helped to be) aware of BOTH one's strengths and one's weaknesses, without demeaning the latter characteristics in others (can be comfortable about oneself without disabling others). Is this something that can be taught early?

Would be easier for kids to work on sorting themselves out if connections among different subjects/skills in the curriculum were made more apparent. This would help one make personal choices, encourage recognition of worth of things one doesn't onself choose.

How we doing? Do you think differently than you did on Monday about science? about brains? about education? In what ways, and where should we go next?

I am starting to feel a bit more comfortable learning about the science of the brain. I am looking forward to more discussion of the culture article, since it was so rich with controversial ideas. Also, What's next in the workings of the neurons. Can't wait to hear about depression too.

In addition, although I resisted using the cumbersome HTML language for my website, I am changing my mind and thinking that this is a GOOD skill to develop.

Often we present things as if it is the only possible way of presenting that info. How often have elem. teachers told students that there is nothing to the left of zero on the number line, only for those same students to learn about negative numbers later in middle school. When we teach "This is an 'A'", we by default teach that this is the only way to make one.....

How many other times have we as teachers done this to our students?

As they say that you learn something new each day. Knowing that we have more than five senses makes sense when knowing what a Propieceptor is and all that it is capable of doing.

I can't believe how exciting it is to learn someting new. Yesterday I learned how to do someting on the computer with the help of Nia. If only we could capture this with the children that we teach.

Will continue this thought later

Sorry to miss the morning disccussion, I am looking forward to reading about it on the forum.

Where we ended friday was with the idea that there's lots of inhibition in the nervous system. Does that make you think differently about behavior, yours and other people's? About the classroom?

2. Will we be doing anything that uses a construct to delineate ways in which people inherently use their brains differently?

• My six year old displays similar behavior as middle school students in terms of impulse control, attention span, moodiness, etc.

• I'd like to see us explore brain and behavior development in the elementary and middle school students.

Over the weekend I was thinking about O.C.D. (being that I know several people diagnosed with the "disorder" as well as the notion that maybe we are all a little compulsive about something). I find it curious that a person with the disorder can verbalize that they know something is not dirty or contaminated, but internally they cannot dissmiss the idea that it is. I find it to be very interesting because I cannot rationalize their line of thinking on the matter.

Freud viewed the individual inexorably governed by a struggle with the reality principle. In his tripartitite model of the mind, primitive uninhibited impulses of the id were constrained within the ego by the culturally determined strictures of the superego. Inhibition seems to be a basic underlying principle that contributes to the manifold cultures that man establishes. I suspect that there's a necessity implicit in the operation of inhibition that allows the formation of the ego and what we term consciousness. Without it, there would be madness. The struggle is all, and we, both individually and collectively, resist the impositions of the reality principle. There would seem to be a continuum here, whereby differnet cultures may be viewed by the amount of accommodation with which they encourage resistance. Our culture is particularly open, and I sometimes wonder if it wasn't historically engrained through our rebellion against England.

Throughout the weekend I watched people around me and tried to decipher what "mind" controlled their actions. Watching what someone does first in response to something. Sometimes people say that they didn't mean to do something but they do it anyway. I observed a group of children at a birthday party this weekend. Quite interesting!

Contributory or Noncontributory Actions - Inhibitive Ability = Behavior

I define contributory or noncontributory actions as anything an organism does that either improves or hinders its environmental position. These actions can be observable or not by other organisms.

As far as depression, it seems like an inevitable part of human experience. For as long as time, and written experience (poetry) there is evidence of melancholy". And we can see man's efforts to overcome it through drugs.

As far as depression, it seems like an inevitable part of human experience. For as long as time, and written experience (poetry) there is evidence of melancholy". And we can see man's efforts to overcome it through drugs.

We are leaving them at a grave disadvantage for a successful professional/vocational life. I have no problem with allowing for brain storming and creation. However, those assignments/projects must be correct in final draft form and prior to grading, as grading is to be comprehensive...as it should be.

As professionals, Educators no less, we have the responsibillity{!} of ensuring that our students are receiving a wholistic learning experience, inclusive of exploration, spelling, computation, creating,etc. There is a fundamental credibility to the importance of Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic.

Furthermore, the irony here is that we have no societal grounds to complain about school systems graduating students from high school with a diploma, who cannot read; get a decent job; aspire to higher learning; refrain from a life less acceptable to 'our standards', namely a life of selling drugs, or worse...themselves; stealing; alcohol; alternative lifestyles; and the list continues...when we have not formally equipped them with tools for success. Now we are faced with the challenge of the mixed signals, which manifest themselves in a variety of ways. For example, remedial classes in college/training, which is money spent needlessly, instead of being spent for credit courses leading to a degree/certificate.

Literacy programs are predecated on our iliterate high school graduates/drop~outs. Billions of dollars are being spent to give essentially young adults the same education they should have gotten during the formative years...for free. Thus, more students than we realize are being thrust into the realm of debt, putting them at a further disadvantage. Often this cycle is due to fault, solely not their own.

If being held to task was one of several entities that enabled us to be professionals, therefore positive contributors to society, then why are we settling for less of our generational offspring? It is apparent to me that with the wealth of technology avaliable today more opportunity for success must be more, not less, prevelant. This includes, but is not limited to spell check {no offensive to anyone, as I realize the concerns are valid. However, {in my opinion} this is not, and cannot be, an excuse. Rather, we need to create an on~going means of enabling ourselves, our students, and anyone else we interact with to be wholistically successful.

The Universe is not pleased with our personal and professional complacency. Thus, many problems of today {both generational and new} continue to manifest in ways that are, and have yet to be, identified. Until we realize that life is a cycle of three strongholds, in priority, of Church, Home, and School...we will remain at a wholistic disadvantage as a global society.

Consider this...intellectual genocide.

I like a lot the ideas that we came up with yesterday morning: that the forums are a new kind of writing/conversation space, somewhere between talking and formal writing, more like sharing thoughts in progress. And that one should NOT be "editing onself" in writing in them, since that demonstrably gets in the way of sharing one's thoughts (as it does for students). And that they should be labelled "spelling-free, punctuation-free, grammar-free, structure-free".

But what about the issues raised in Geneva's email above? How do we deal with those?

Lots of other interesting issues came up yesterday ... motor symphonies, organization without a conductor, the role of the genome, corollary discharge and its effects on perception, corollary discharge as a mechanism for generation of expectation, mismatches between expectation and input as a source of pain/discomfort ... and all this without the I-function.

Feel free to write about the writing/enabling/disabling issues and/or about anything else yesterday made you think about. If you want to write about both, how about doing two postings? That will make it easier for me to collect all our thoughts about enabling/disenabling in one place in the archive.

Early Voices: The Leap to Language

Teaching Computers to Work in Unison

If I want to use my Serendip web page for my students, then some of the more computer savvy ones might pop into the Forum and read my comments, some of which use sarcasm related to their foibles. If Antoinette, or anyone else, wanted to use it in a professional presentation, then my comments directed to a particular audience become grist for someone's unintended mill.

Our bodies were created to work in sync (perfect harmony) with each other in order to establish patterns of coordination. That is wonderful and amazing! As they say that "God Don't Make No Junk."

If in fact we suffer from ,as Antoinette suggests ,a spelling deficiency,some "check" system must then be created within the classroom to guard against continuous errors during instuctional periods.We are,after all placed in positions for the children to emulate.

Our students will not "rise" if we do not create a "standard" of expectations!

My internal clock is set for Kenya and Italy, whhile visiting these places, I did not need an alarm clock, I just got up att 5:45 each morning. At home to get up at that time, I would need to be cattle- prodded out of bed.

HELP!

The ideas presented yesterday are a strain for me to understand, but I think Paul is doing a good job at slowly building at least a superficial understanding of this input/output model of neurons. I still waiting how this impacts what we as educators should do or think differently.

I do agree with Keith that the interconnectivity of the nervous system is fascinating especially in its complexity. The more you find out about the biology, the more there is to know and understand. We think that researchers should be able to "fix" mental illness in the same way we are able to develop treatment for physical problems. Now I understand a little more how taking a pill and supplying just one chemical is not enough. Although it may kickstart some neurons to begin to communicate, its difficult to know what "concert" will be produced in the end.

So I will read over the forum today, look at the content notes and work on my web site. I this way my electronic presence will be with you.

Compare to Asian or European cultures that put education first, they have made the choice and will sacrifice everything (at the basic family level) to be sure that the children receive the best education possible. This is not the norm for America. On the other hand, the essence of America is dynamic. Foreign engineers, doctors, and other professionals flood into our country daily. We need them. Philadelphia brought in 250 Indians to teach our children science. Perhaps in time their(and other immigrants) impact on their new country will change our focus.

Here are the questions for tomorrow's forum, in case you want to get a head start on it.

What experiences with college/university/graduate educators were most valuable to you as a teacher? Think both about experiences you had as a student and experiences (like outreach programs) since you became a professional teacher.

What would you like college/university/graduate educators to be doing that would improve education for all students? to help you with your own teaching?

Teacher collaboration with professors, experts and other professionals can provide some or all that a teacher seeks to perform with verve. I am renewed by attaining a deeper understanding of science content and as a consequence am better able to lead my students to their own constructed understanding via detailed questioning. Dr. Zbig Dziembowski at Temple University has been a valued influence on my science understanding and delivery. In addition, we have collaborated on grants that give funds, reinforcement, materials and endorsement to my job. Best of all I enjoy our zesty and at times conflicting arguments about pedagogy. Zbig definitely keeps me on my toes by often offering a European assessment of the American educational system. I value this "out of the box" thinking and respect his opinions.

Within a school or a district teachers must look for guidance and support as well. These are people who can sometimes support through insulation. They give you a life preserver and brace you through the storms or cheer you on in the good times. The science supervisor in my district has been an admired and significant mentor for me. Dr. Conn has allowed me to vent unedited complaints and stood by me during unfair confrontations. She considers her fleet of science teachers as a wealth of knowledge that must be protected in order to clear the way to teaching with excellence. She is our advocate and in so doing gives students the best opportunity for success.

I don't think that it's necessary to have only one to one collaborations to advance teacher support. Professors or Professional Developers that are conducting classes can facilitate collaboration among the teachers themselves to foster reflective practice. The Serendip Institute and associated forum has served this purpose well. Additionally, Paul Grobstein et al has provided space for teachers to create their own web site and given them the tools to continue to improve or modify it. I applaud their scheme to cultivate future teacher collaboration through technology and I am appreciative of the skills that they furnished.

I would like college educators to see us more than an institution in which to place student teachers. I would like to see true collaboration between students- undergraduate/graduate to K-12 kids. Help us to prepare them for college life or the working world if they so choose.

Many of the concepts that are taught are well meaning and do have some fundamental aspects that are applicable. But in fact many of them do not take into consideration many of the classroom management issues (especially in inner-city schools).

I think it would be benifitial to young teachers to be able to observe and experience these settings (granted they are available) as much as possible. I am not sure there is an answer in terms of preparing begining teachers for such an experience. But I do feel that many of the obsticles of an inner-citty classroom still exist in all classrooms, just not at the same scale.

Can you tell me what are some of the problems that arise when in-coming freshmen arrive for class? What can we help them with in order to make things run a little better for them? Having a liason/link with college students can help serve as a mentor. For career days, more professors should be given the opportunity to share with high school students as to what will transpire.

It helps knowing that there are caring professors out there to guide or help you whenever a concern arises. Just having someone to talk to and seeing that they were committed to what they were doing helped me.

Institutes of higher learning need to change their idea of what higher learning is when it comes to preparing candidates who will have our children's minds in their hands and whose own well being and confidence/competence is at stake. We need longer periods of classroom training; ideally student teachers could spend a paid residency of at least 1 year benefitting themselves and the schools more than current systems allow. Today's status quo does not provide any of its constituents with what they deserve or need.

This year I had a college student working with me. She was doing a 6 week internship. This was a beneficial experience for both of us. It was wonderful to see her relate to the children--she was a lot closer to their ages and this was helpful.

My wish list: more interns--college students interested in exploring careers in schools; college students interested in working with students and their science projects--that's big in my school; students to work as tutors; college prof giving staff development--that's you ,Paul--what we get is not the best.

The best professional development that I experienced involved Professor Woobie from Millersville who taught a group of Philadelphia teachers Latin so that they could enhance vocabulary acquisition in their classrooms. We met centrally, and he taught it like a college course. He clearly had something to impart. That's why it worked. Too often "professional" development deteriorates into a gripe session where there's simply a forum for venting.

I would like to see local universities engage in outreach where they provide further instruction in subject areas. This could be done by means of conferences or sponsoring classes. Naturally, I'm highly appreciative of our Summer Brain Institute.

Second, during the last fourteen years, I have been seriously engaged in Service Learning. I am a fervent believer in its efficay both for those who volunteer and for those that they serve. Specifically, I have been involved with having high school students volunteer in elementary classrooms supporting literacy. It's my strong belief that school districts could benefit not only from this kind of mentoring in literacy, but also in mathematics, and science. I would strongly encourage universities to engage in this praxis.

One experience immediately comes to mind. I was enrolled in a writing course at a community college in 1984. The section of the course was added so as to reduce the number of students who were overloading another section offered at the same time. As a result, this section consisted of only eight students. The instructor who arranged for this section addition was the English department head. Having an exemplary teacher and such a small class size allowed for greater attention to be given to those who were having difficulties organizing their thoughts when writing. Reflecting upon this convinces me that I probably would not have had as much success in my other coursework had it not been for this early experience.

What would you like college/university/graduate educators to be doing that would improve education for all students? to help you with your own teaching?

I always felt that at the college/university/graduate level, instructors are greatly concerned with the acquisition of knowledge in a particular subject area. Obviously, this is a mandate. However, only minimal pressure exists that requires one to make improvements as an educator.

In light of this, I have noticed that a great many instuctors tend to exhibit a single-mindedness with respects to how best one can impart this knowledge to others. I believe both teaching assistants and professors would benefit immensely from the exposure gained in teaching methodology courses.

However, I think most teachers today do not have enough time processing their experience in a non judgemental atmosphere. I think the coaching model used in some teacher retention programs is the way to go. The coaching process develops collegiality, self reflection, and curiosity. Adult learners need to be engaged in learning by finding their own areas of interest and development. Too much of the time is spent pouring information into their heads, instead of teaching adults how to be better observers of their behavior, and the behavior of others. There is much more to say on this topic.

As a special ed teacher, I have been allowed more latitude than many other regular ed elem. teachers......

Essentially these early characteristics have continued through my professional endeavors. I am hard but fair, and yes my students and I have fun. As a public school administrator I support the current agenda of our district. As an adjunct professor I pray the benefits of my 15 years of experience as an Educator lend support and insight to the aspiring administrators and graduate students I interact with.

For the School District of Philadelphia I pray our system will recognize the importance of each grade and level utilizing the same texts, workbooks, and manipulatives; on the same paceing schedule system wide {not to be confused with our former pacing practice}. We have excessive movement of students throughout the school year, and they are at a disadvantage when they transfer into the same grade, at another school, doing something completely different. Teachers would also have the advantage since they would be in a better position to accept a student at an 'on task' point, rather than having to bring them up to par. Budget wise, we would save major funds which could be put to better use in classrooms via increased teacher hiring or increased teacher allotment {$50 simply is not enough, nor is it competitive}.

Colleges need to realize that today's students are diverse learners, and therefore colleges must be able to accomodate their learning styles without sacrificing the importance of completing their assignments correctly. We must create overcoming graduates that are positive contributors to society, as oppossed to frustrated dropouts that are likely to be social systems dependents.