Upper School Retreat ‘09 Faculty Letter
August 1, 2009
Greetings Colleagues,
I am writing to update you on retreat planning and to ask for some help. As you know, the executive function capacities of our students arose as an academic concern in our 9th grade study skills discussions and as an emotional concern in our Upper School advisor meetings. We asked if that capacity is under assault from the emerging technologies, what emotional and academic cost is being paid by our students if it is, and what we can do to strengthen that important capacity and to counteract forces that tend to undermine it. The retreat, informed by the summer reading and by our experiences, is a chance for us to better understand executive function, what strengthens and diminishes it, and what we can do to enhance it. The potential positive and negative impacts of emerging technologies are of special interest to our consideration.
The retreat will take place in the arts center on Tuesday, September 1, which is the second day of meetings. It will begin with a light breakfast from 7:30 to 8:00 followed by an ice-breaking activity. We will then have two sessions focused on the book, Brain Rules, before yielding the floor to Chris Kaufman, the lead psychologist for the Portland Public School System and a specialist on executive function. After participating in the earlier sessions, he will focus his session on executive function in light of our summer reading and the kinds of comments you have made throughout the morning. After that session, we will break for lunch.
In addition to some time for digital and live sharing, the afternoon will feature a debate between two giants in our field, Emily Graham and Phuc Tran. While they are now working on the specific focus and format of their discourse, the statement they are debating is as follows: Given the digitally saturated lives of young people today, schools would serve them best by becoming digital free zones of learning, working explicitly to counterbalance the effects of such an upbringing. I leave you to speculate on who is taking which position.
Here is where I am asking for your help. The first session in the morning after the ice breaker will consist of faculty led small group discussions of different chapters. If you found a chapter particularly compelling and would be willing and interested to facilitate a discussion on it, please email me back before August 17th. Let me know what chapter you are interested in and what your proposed discussion topic might be.
We will use the Good Teaching Blog during and after the retreat. I have attached a copy of this letter as a post. You might want to remind yourself how to access the blog before the retreat. You can find The Good Teaching Blog at http://goodteaching.wordpress.com/.
I am enjoying my summer but also look forward to rejoining my colleagues in the excellent work we do together. I hope you feel the same.
Take care,
Lowell
21 comments so far
Leave a reply
Last week, the PBS program Nova (Science Now) aired a ten minute segment on how memory works that showcased the patient H.M. Here is the link to Nova’s Science Now site and the video clip and supporting articles on memory. (Please know that the very beginning of the video isn’t recommended for people who may be a bit squeamish where slicing into human brains is concerned.)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0407/02.html
Some thoughts about the morning discussions:
1. An excellent discussion that reminded me of how often we sometimes shift to the either/or framework – either this kind of teaching is best or that kind of teaching is best – when what we really to do is think both/and – i.e. we need to incorporate both this kind of teaching and that kind of teaching.
2. I very much appreciated Chris saying, more than once, it depends on what your goal is. What is appropriate for one goal (e.g. having students learn some facts) may well not be appropriate for another goal (e.g. having students learn what to do when they do not know a particular fact).
3. It was very interesting to learn that Chris K. wasn’t aware of any science to support the claim that kids’ brains have changed significantly – and it was interesting to hear David’s point that, be that as it may, how kids are using their brains (accessing more and more technological devices) might well be impacting those brains’ developments.
4. It was very interesting to hear again how important it is for us as teachers to be explicit about what we want to do in the classroom, and to be careful about what background knowledge we might be assuming, erroneously, that our students have.
All in all a very interesting morning.
It was a very useful morning. Medina’s “Brain Rules” was a helpful springboard; I had mixed feelings about it, but it was certainly beneficial and opened up a lot of important questions. Chris K. was terrific. He struck just the right balance of expertise and humility. His sense of humor was also a bonus. His point that we need to promote active, “deconstructed” learning for our students while also being careful to provide them with clear instruction and reinforcement (through repetition) made a strong impression on me. His argument that students need to learn how to become excellent readers of text, even if it does not come easily to them, and to create their own pictures also made a lot of sense to me. Television is much less engaging than reading, right? It’s the same principle, I think–fostering students’ imaginations and intellects in such a way that they can form images from words and create pictures for themselves, at least some of the time. I was delighted to hear Chris make the case that brains are wired no differently than they used to be, at least on a macro level, while at the same time I understand the point David V. made about how our students’ brains have learned to make all kinds of neural connections that I, for one, definitely don’t have. Anyway, I thought it was a productive morning all around, with Chris as the highlight, and I appreciate the work that went into making this happen. I hope that we will be able to continue our connection with Chris in the future.
Thank you to Breda for leading an interesting discussion this morning about long term memory. I was pleased to hear a shared concern about the value of homework and the questions about what constitutes important homework? What does it teach? reinforce?What resides with me about this dialogue and Chris’ presentation was my continued interest in the substantial ways these ideas can help my teaching. How can clarity of expectations, skills, repetition, review, clarity of lessons be implemented in my classroom? The discussion about the “changing brain” is important in terms of the societal pressures on kids: family, college, friends…how do these pressures effect learning?
The continued attention for me on hands on, supplemental, inter-discipline seems to support my need to do more with this in my classes. Thanks for the motivation.
Both the book itself and the discussions from the morning have me thinking about how best handle all of the different “brains” in my room. The book provided the science to back up what seems obvious that our students learn differently, and that a key ingredient to good teaching is to be able to recognize, react, and adjust to the various types of learners so that each may maximize their classroom experience.
On the subject of executive function and technology, I also find myself in the camp that feels that students are changing, and maybe that technology has something to do with it. However, I find it interesting that excluding daily newspapers, printed material continues to be dominate the way we receive information, entertainment, cultural enrichment, etc. For example, book sales for the most part continue to rise (even for young readers), and magazine sales are at an all time high. So, maybe like Mina said, these changes come and go, and we need to roll with them.
I thought Mary and Chris were very interesting, and both gave me a lot to think about as far as executive function and teaching go. I also found our small group discussion on stress and sleep very thought-provoking, and I am motivated to incorporate some new ideas into my classes and advising. It would be great to have Chris back so that he could expand on what he shared with us in the final 90 seconds of his presentation! Nice job to everyone who planned and executed the day!
After only two days at Waynflete I know that I have come to the right place to teach. The first days of faculty based activities have been inspiring, thought provoking and very exciting. Today we discussed “Brain Rules”, a book by John Medina. Many good questions were raised, followed by even more thoughtful responses. Everyone was able to reflect on their own teaching styles and how they relate to the work presented in “Brain Rules”. I am thrilled to be a part of this community.
I thought it was an interesting morning. I found the group discussions to be interesting and relevant, and the speakers were quite good too. I wonder if the author of Brain Rules, Medina, might sometimes overstate his point for dramatic effect. It would be hard to judge this, though, since his book doesn’t include references for the research he relies upon. While I appreciate much of what he has to say, I am uncomfortable relying upon this book as an authoritative source: it lacks references and seems geared as a populist rather than a specialist work.
# What is the point of homework – it seems to vary so much among practicioners, and Medina wishes it away? Is it a tool to develop independent learning, to review/reinforce, to expand, to synthesize?
# To what extent are our students “Getting The “A” versus Learning material. Is their end goal so distinct from ours that they are going through the strategic motions, and that begins to explain lack of recall and transferability of knowledge and skills?
# Let’s not get too worked up – take away from this discussion strategies to continue to meet kids where they are while also matching up our personalities, interests, strengths as teachers.
So this morning, and really this whole summer since I started reading the “Brain Rules” book, has left me feeling both hopeful and discouraged. Hopeful because I am just amazed at how much we now know about how the brain works and the implications this has on learning. Hopeful because it now appears that I have a chance to learn how to throw a baseball and catch a football before my sons can make fun of me. Hopeful because there are so many ways I can make changes to to my classroom practices that will, if research is correct, benefit my students’ learning.
I am discouraged, though, because while I can feel so much hope as an individual, I can’t see society changing with all this new information. Our current system of schooling, as a general statement, is based on very antiquated ideas – day length, seasonal responsibilities, historical events. To create change on a system level utilizing and capitalizing on our new knowledge of the brain just seems like a herculean task that I am not sure society is willing to tackle.
Systematic change begins with an individual, and I will be surprised if we don’t see and talk about significant attempts at real positive change in our community. I just hope that our system of education will take similar risks, so that all students can have the benefit of this new and vastly important information.
“Brain Rules” was an interesting read and this has been a very interesting morning. Thanks to all those who prepared so thoughtfully and completely. Chris K. was both interesting and knowledgeable. It was very interesting to hear him say that he knows of no research indicating that the brain is wired differently at the macro level than it has been (of course we have a short history of knowing how brains are wired, so that would be hard to judge!) I would like to know more about the studies that Mark mentioned at Stanford that are looking at the reduced capacity for delayed gratification that might well describe a way that technology is negatively impacting our students and their capacity to learn. We have so much to room for growth in our understanding of technology and learning, a bowl we can not fill, and then we have to figure out how to use our knew understanding to strengthen the experience of every student in our classrooms. Great to talk about it!
I had typed 3 paragraphs of scintillating insight about this morning’s presentations, and it’s all disappeared into the aether. From this I derive two things: 1) I am a natural Luddite, and 2) I need Emily Graham to be my BFF (See, I know the jargon, I just can’t make it work!)
Enjoyed the morning. As usual the conversation in our small group was thoughtful and engaging. It is a great honor to be associated with such smart and dedicated individuals. I was quite taken by the notion that our students need to learn patience rather than looking at cognitive weaknesses and technology. I am concerned about our students’ abilities to sustain focus and gain important insight from the written word.
I would like to add my thanks to Breda for leading the long term memory session. I enjoyed the discussion, both in the small and large groups. What stands out in my mind, among many things regarding Medina’s work, is that the answer to many questions quite often is “we don’t know”.
It was interesting to read the section regarding sleep and stress, especially the part about how much activity happens while you sleep. I have often experienced having trouble learning a new task (such as playing the piano), practicing late at night, often not mastering the skill, but upon waking the skills were “right there”, and I had a much easier time with it. Anybody else have similar experiences?
I’m looking forward to the great debate.
I found this morning’s conversations to be very fascinating. Our small group discussion on attention was very interesting, and brought to light many of the struggles our students face in the classroom every day. I would like that particular conversation to extend into a discussion on how we can employ different classroom strategies to hold our students’ attention. It would be interesting to hear what has and has not worked in different disciplines and at different ages here at Waynflete. It seems we could learn a lot from each other, and about what we already do.
Chris K. is an engaging speaker. He mixes humor and obvious passion and depth of knowledge together into a very easy presentation style. Our conversation with him seemed as if it could have continued for another few hours without a shortage of topics to discuss, and I hope we have the opportunity to bring him back for follow up dialogue.
This has been a good professional re-awakening for me after the summer. It reminds me how much information is out there, all these many things that I do not know and ultimately cannot know all of. I have so much to show my children, my wards, the end goal is for them all to be awesome. I think there are so many different ways for me to do this that I feel paralyzed by them at times and make the best decisions I can with the limited information that I have actually internalized. I know that I want to incorporate more movement into the classroom. I am thinking about creating some arbitrary desk formations and student arrangements in addition to those that I find important for logistical reasons simply to have use as a procedure, a routine that the students will become familiar with… something that they can expect. In the middle of class I will say “Formation “G”… ASSEMBLE” and my students will have to move to new locations and potentially move desks to do so. I know that my students will think that some of the things I make them do are “lame,” I intend to notify them from the outset that I am awesome and that I don’t need their opinion to know this… and that it is my goal that they all be awesome too, while they may believe some of the things I am asking them to do are “lame” they are in fact “rad” in the ’80’s sense of the word and that I expect them to participate enthusiastically. Because I am cool and I believe that these tasks are cool, so to will the students. I want to make them dance in class also. I want them to listen to music. These are things that the retreat has got me thinking about.
kindest ~y
What a great start to the school year!
I love getting some professional development that directly applies to teaching. It is so sad that educators and scientists don’t get together and share bodies of knowledge. I truly appreciate this opportunity to wed science to good teaching practice.
In our small group this morning we had some wonderful discussion (if I can remember it….) about short term memory and practical applications to classrooms. I truly enjoy when I have an opportunity to sit with my colleagues and discuss educational theory.
Chris Kaufman was wonderful! Knowledgeable, articulate, humble…..he gave us concrete answers and I loved it.
Oops! First part of my blog disappeared somehow! Re do…
I really appreciated the clarity and humour that both Medina and Chris shared in their presentations. Lots of great food for thought here.
Our small group discussion was really valuable; it is always so helpful to hear what peers in the same educational environment are thinking and doing. Several points from that discussion were salient for me.
We shared our expriences both as teachers and as learners; several in the group found, for example, that PowerPoint type presentations are NOT helpful – visual overrides aural, and actually diminishes attention and focus.
This misconception that using loads of technology = multi-sensory input.
# What is the point of homework – it seems to vary so much among practicioners, and Medina wishes it away? Is it a tool to develop independent learning, to review/reinforce, to expand, to synthesize?
# To what extent are our students “Getting The “A” versus Learning material. Is their end goal so distinct from ours that they are going through the strategic motions, and that begins to explain lack of recall and transferability of knowledge and skills?
# Let’s not get too worked up – take away from this discussion strategies to continue to meet kids where they are while also matching up our personalities, interests, strengths as teachers.
specifics:
Having read this book in sequence with Outliers, I found both enhanced. In Outliers there’s scientific evidence of changes in the brains of birds and humans in response to activities. It makes sense, then, that all of our brains are constantly changing, depending on what we are doing. Therefore, technology – even typing itself – will affect our brains. The questions for us as teachers, then, may be how to encourage brain growth to best serve our goals and the goals of our students.
general:
Thank you. This was a great morning; for me, the best retreat in my decade at Waynflete. The book was informative, readable, funny (accessible), relevant. That provided not only a strong platform, but also inspiration and incentive to learn more. Mary was clear and her talk and chosen video clips were well suited to our segue back into the teaching year and, specifically, to this day. Small group discussion (on long-term memory, led by Breda) was well run, focused, informative. Kaufman presentation/discussion was excellent – I found him authoritative and confident enough to be humble and thoroughly present to our questions.
I am struck by the dichotomy between the data on experiential learning.. (very positive outcomes in terms of skill and content retention) and the test based endeavors that seem to be favored by national and state authorities. From this morning, I was taken by the data on how plastic our brains actually are. I loved the beginning of the conversation about how important it is to identify the essential core ideas for that class and how repetition can lead to mastery. The debate begins… so more later. Overall, a fascinating conversation and much food for cognitive engagement!
I liked Kaufmann’s humble, authentic tone. I will continue to ponder the connection between emotionally heightened states and long-term learning. What made learning so potent and immediate in the field at Outward Bound was that it almost always included emotionally heightened experiences. In fact, as educators, it was our job to try and push people to the edge of their emotional “comfort” zone without dipping into the “Danger Zone” of emotional shut down. We called it “dunking” and “drying”, believing that a student needed to return to a “safe” emotional place in order to process and internalize what they learned from their experience of being pushed to their edge. I think this relates to the classroom in terms of how we engage students emotionally with our “content.” Our own passion for the material is certainly relevant in this context. If the content doesn’t engage us, it is less likely to grab our students. As Phuc pointed out in the debate, developing resiliency, whether it is working through a physical or mental challenge, is a critical goal in teaching. In order to build resiliency, the task at hand must be challenging, for this is what prompts the spirited emotional experience and ensures some learning.