Neuroscience in Education: Week 1 - Introduction and Brain Basics

Joining the network, connecting with classmates: The first tasks.

This is my second online class, the first being the one which initiated this journey. It started with a phone conversation inviting me to join a group exploring Internet tools for EFL with Ana Maria Menezes. I had been interested in that class since I first heard about it so since there is no time like the present, I jumped in with both feet. That work quickly became my new passion. 

If you are like me, you have learned the importance of being passionately interested in things. Creating the connections, be it a new group of students which needs to be organized or growing my own PLN (I had to look that one up a few days ago), is my new passion as well as being essential to online learning. At 51 years old and looking toward the future, I believe that this will be the path through to the end of my career and beyond. The world has changed (no big surprise I suppose) and the comfort of the chair from which I do my work is perhaps as important as the actual location where I sit perched above my keyboard. 

So, hello to you all from spot here in our 5th floor apartment in Goiania, Brazil. May your chairs support you well and be lined with plush comfort for the days of study ahead. I look forward to getting to know you.

Sharing my story and creating a "safe" space to take "risks".    The next tasks.

I have met some wonderful storytellers but I'm not much of one myself. I used to rush to sit next to my 1st grade teacher during reading circle. I don't remember any of the stories but I do remember Mrs Warner gently scratching my back and shoulders as I sat beside her. It was heaven. This is the memory which came to mind as I thought about safe space. This blog doesn't yet feel like a safe place for me to tell a bit of my story but I would like to try. I wish Mrs. Warner were here sitting beside me.

Pleasant Hill, Ohio: Newton Local School (1966-1979) - 56 children in my class from Kindergarten all the way to 12th Grade in the same three-story building. It seemed like a tragedy when Debbie Baker moved away in Fourth Grade...growing up working on the dairy farm just outside of town, riding the school bus every day with my little brothers and big sister, Sunday School and worship at the Church of the Brethren where we sang wonderful hymns in that old red-brick building with the stairs going down to the church basement which my grandmother had trouble with and and then later in the modern new beige-brick building at the edge of town, Summer Book Club at the Oakes-Beitman Memorial Library, piano lessons, singing in the church choir, playing the trombone in the band and singing in the school choirs...all are part of a list from my younger days. But the real story doesn't have hyperlinks to connect to and I have no idea what ever happened to Debbie. What's more, there is no way to connect to my brother's tragic car accident and death through a hyperlink either. The most significant parts of my story don't have hyperlinks.

Church camp, where I learned to believe first in my community and then myself, carried me through all of those years and on to study at the university (music education) and my first profession (grade school music teacher). Through all of this, music and singing continued to be a significant part of my story.  My church camp community was the bridge for me to my time at Bethany Theological Seminary - they were the ones who encouraged me on to Chicago, where Bethany still was at that time. What I learned about community at church camp and later at Chicago Community Mennonite Church has found an essential place in my teaching and learning.  

I love to travel. It started with family summer trips to The Smokies where my parents honeymooned back before the Interstate Highway System was built. It took them two full days to cover the same distance we regularly traveled in 8-10 hours. We heard that story so many times as we sat in the backseat on I-75 between the farm and the campground on Balsam Mountain. I grew to love travel and details about highways eventually became important to me. I have been many places up to now. It was a study trip from Bethany which brought me to Brazil for the first time. Which brings me to one of my favorite stories...and I'll end here, I promise.

You never know how what you say or do will affect those you are connected to. This important life lesson applies to us as teachers especially.  Choose your words and actions carefully because they re powerful. It is like that first day back on campus at Bethany. I was feeling more than a little bit lost. It was the beginning of my third year and I had just returned from an amazing experience volunteering at an AIDS Hospice in Austin, Texas. 

I was torn about coming back to Chicago because I deeply loved being with my friends in that amazing city. Little did I know that my home church, the Pleasant Hill Church of the Brethren has long made it a practice of saving back $100 a month for members of the congregation who participate in BVS. So, that day as I peered into my mailbox, I was surprised to find an envelope with a check for $1,200 in it. I had no plans for the money. Be careful what you ask for. I wandered into the office where my friend Zandra was working to tell her about my new fortune. I casually asked her what she would do with the money if it were hers and without hesitation she said, "I'd go to Brazil." Of course she had no idea how powerful her words would be.

So, here I am, in Goiania with my husband, Zemir (we met 15 years ago today), and our hopefully soon to be officially adopted son Aparecido. Helping my students make great and meaningful learning connections is quite important to me but even more, I hope they can have an experience learning together as a community. I'll try to be careful with my words as I believe we all ought to be. And may we always have someone to gently scratch our backs.

I'm beginning to see an odd similarity between hyperlinks and neurons.  Final tasks for this week.

I was reading a recent post from Carla Arena and I had difficulty getting my head around the term MOOC. This was helpful for me and maybe it will be for you too.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW3gMGqcZQc

After all of the reading about neuromyths (especially the learning styles myth) I'm feeling somewhat disoriented. I know I'll catch myself thinking of my students based on those ideas for I have heard and read them many times. Those neural pathways will need to be re-directed. At this point, I plan to share this information with my colleagues and monitor closely my own language regarding learning styles. At the same time I'm heartened to see that basic teaching principles such as PPP (repetition is important), creative lesson planning which uses a variety of media and activity types (maintains attention) and an ongoing effort to create an atmosphere in the classroom which attempts to lower the type of stress which can cause students to shut down are brain-based. I'm especially encouraged by the affirmation that developing connections and working together respectfully (relationships) are an important part of "common sense" approaches which also appear to be based on how the brain functions. 

A new idea that I want to nurture more is related to the online learning experience. There is much to think about here. The desire to connect with others and the now virtually 24/7 opportunities via online platforms is an extremely exciting opportunity for me as a teacher and learner. However, I am keenly aware that this is my interest and participating in this learning experience with hundreds of others who share this excitement, is not my real world classroom. I know that my usual "Chris has a new toy" energy will not necessarily help create a work environment where everyone is ready to jump on board. I need to think about how to introduce these ideas into my current work situation. 

One thought that keeps coming to my mind is the idea that our new classroom environment is not entirely different from the old brick and mortar one. We as teachers and learners still must introduce ourselves and get to know each other. We still need to pay attention, listen to and respond to each other's ideas. We still need to present new material well and creatively (so many toys, so little time). We need to find ways to help ourselves and our students take responsibility for our own learning (no excuses about access anymore). And when we are at our best, we will continue collaborating intensely toward the end of consolidating what we learn and incorporating it into our ever growing knowledge base.

Bring on week 2!