The goals we agreed upon in our class are great! There are many dementions we can explore with learning styles, economic diversity, and diversity in culture. One thing I carried away from Friday's class is the phrase, Attitude Reflects Leadership.
According to Davis Sousa in his book How the Brain Learns (p.22), There are about 100 billion neutrons in the adult human brain-about 16 times as many neutrons as people on this planet and about the number of stars in the Milky Way. Each neutron can have up to 10 thousand dendrite branches. This means it is possible to have up to one quadrillon (that is one followed by 15 zeros) synapic connections in one brain. This inconceivably large number allows the brain to process the data coming continuously from the senses; to store decades of memories, faces, and places; to learn languages; and to combine information in a way that no other ndividual on this planet has ever thought of before.
I direct this point directly back to attitude and leadership. ALL of our expereinces come crashing back when we make decisions. Is it possible for us to remain nuetral and unbiased? Do we always consider culture and diversity when we make our decisions? Just something to think about.
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I don't know if it's possible to be totally neutral and unbiased. Maybe the better approach is to be fully aware of our biases and consciously adjust for them.
ReplyDeleteThought provoking post, Sharon. I agree with Wes. We won't eliminate our biases. After all, we are only human. Instead we must be aware of our biases. Perhaps this is why Pink includes empathy as one of the six competencies.
ReplyDeleteRight Brain/ Left Brain Quiz
ReplyDeleteRight Brain/ Left Brain Quiz. Directions: Take this test by selecting the answer which best describes you at this present time. ...
www.intelliscript.net
While reading an article regarding the Rainbow Project, the alternative SAT created by Yale Professor Robert Sternberg that Pink mentions in his book, I came across this. I hope you enjoy it.It is a nice break from the research we have been doing and a reminder of why we are here.
ReplyDeleteMaking a Difference
"Dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life.
One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education.
He argued this way. "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher? You know, it's true what they say about teachers:
‘Those who can do, do, and those who can't do, teach.' To corroborate his statement he said to another guest, ‘Hay, Susan, you're a teacher. Be honest, what do you make?' Susan, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness, replied, ‘You want to know what I make? I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could and I can make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall in absolute silence. I can make a C-plus feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor and an A feel like a slap in the face if the student didn't do his or her very best!' Susan continued, ‘I can make parents tremble when I call home or feel almost like they won the lottery when I tell them how well their child is progressing,' Gaining speed, she went on: ‘You want to know what I make! I make kids wonder; I make them question; I make them criticize; I make them apologize and mean it; I make them write; and I make them read, read, read. I make them show all their work in math and hide it all on their final drafts in English.' And Susan then stopped and cleared her
throat. ‘I make them understand that if you have the brains, then follow your heart. And if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make in money, you pay them no attention.'
Susan then paused. ‘You want to know what I make? She said, ‘I make a difference. What about that?'"
Reprinted from the New Hampshire Association of School Principals’
newsletter with credit to Dick Thomas, executive director
of the School Administrators Association of New York
No right brain left behind: Must kids prep for 'risk-taking'?
ReplyDeleteUpdated 7/13/2009 10:07 PM | Comments 47 | Recommend 5 E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints & Permissions |
Enlarge By Truth Leem, USA TODAY
Patrick Bassett, left, chats with Andrew Odenyo during the Episcopal High School Leadership Institute, a five-day program in Alexandria, Va. Bassett says schools need to teach kids how to be creative, risk-taking and entrepreneurial.
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By Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — On a recent foggy night, the newest wave in educational thinking crashed into this city's oldest high school.
And its waters weren't warm.
"It worries me that we're not thinking big enough, that we're not preparing our kids for a world that will be terribly different from the one we grew up in," says Patrick Bassett, scanning the rapt faces of a few dozen parents in the auditorium of 103-year-old Mission High School, whose alums include poet Maya Angelou and rocker Carlos Santana.