Category: Critical Thinking

Climate Change and Hurricanes: Teachable Moments Are on Their Way

8/10/2018

Climate change scientists predict in an increase in the strength of seasonal hurricanes.  Right now, Michael is approaching Florida. Here comes a teachable moment. If you're required to "cover" earth science and particularly meteorology, allow me to point you to a resource I know quite well. I wrote it.

It won a STEM award, only in its second year, which is honors the integration of science, technology, engineering and math into a single work. (I've been writing such books for a long time but it's still nice to be noticed.)

Kids are fascinated with hurricanes because of their destructive power. Right now, we have state-of-the-art ability to predict the approximate path of a hurricane within several days of warning. This gives residents, who may be in the hurricane's path, time to board up windows, clear the patios of potentially flying objects, and evacuate if flooding from a storm surge is possible.

We are nowhere close to steering a hurricane harmlessly into the ocean or diminishing its power.
Nevertheless, scientists and engineers have been thinking and imagining how it could be done. What do they need to know?

First, they have to understand the settled science about the the components of hurricanes: namely air, water, and energy. How do these normally benign essentials for life get organized into such a violent storm? Next, they have to understand what hurricanes do for the planet. Yes, they serve an important function, mainly to move the heat from the ocean to the stratosphere. In. A. Hurry. Finally, they must understand the possibilities for weather modification and its potential for unforeseen catastrophe. It's a fascinating subject for students to ponder. It's a problem for which there are currently no right answers.

I think it's good for students to live with questions.

You can find the new paperback here. And if you want to follow Michael's progress and see what else is cooking in the Atlantic, go to the heart of the matter, the National Hurricane Center.

Here are links to Nonfiction Minutes on hurricanes and climate change:
Flying into the Eye of a Storm
Earth's Emergency Heat Valve: The Hurricane
Climate Change: The Facts and the Consequences
Hopping Ahead of Climate Change

An Abusive Relationship

19/7/2018

credit: Michael Vadon/Wikimedia Commons

I don’t write political opinions. I try to stick to subjects on which I’m well informed. I watch news and opinion shows from people who have done their homework. And I live in a political bubble in the Northeast, where I find agreement with my horror at the behavior of the current occupant of the White House from strangers on the line for movie tickets. We all marvel at the blindness of his “base” and the spinelessness of the Republican members of congress. What can I say that will shed some new light on this phenomenon?

As a scientist, I like to simplify a situation. Instead of trying to figure out why Trump’s base is so steadfast and loyal to someone who is clearly mendacious, manipulative and just plain mean, let’s look at the one-on-one relationship between an abusive spouse and his target.

The behavior of the abuser is well documented. Check out the 21 Warning Signs of an Emotionally Abusive Relationship. How many of these behaviors does the president exhibit towards the press, his wives, our allies? What do all the abused have in common so that they enable this behavior to continue?

Abusers and bullies are often quite charming when they want to be. That’s why unsuspecting potential victims fall in love. They are seduced by courtship behavior, which validates them and gives voice to their own frustrations and inadequacies. It makes them feel special. Trump throws them red meat and keeps up the courtship in his campaign-style rallies. This emotional connection stands up to all sorts of transgressions. A dairy farmer in Nevada, who sells milk to a local cheese manufacturer who sells to European clients, sees bankruptcy on the horizon as her buyer’s market is shutting down because of tariffs. The empty promise of a wall goes unfulfilled. Children are torn from their parents. Yet they stick with him. It’s hard to admit that you’ve been blind-sided (gas-lit) by love.

Abusive relationships have a way of wearing down the abused so they can’t or won’t see a way out. As the abuse gets incrementally worse and more obvious day by day, the abused double down on the excuses that keep them in the relationship. I was once in such a relationship. I had been a competent, kind and generous person who was reduced to hand-trembling when putting a plastic liner into a garbage can because my abuser had told me I didn’t know how to do it correctly. That was the point at which I suddenly had a moment of clarity: this situation was ludicrous. I looked at all my accomplishments and thought, “Who cares how I put the liner in a garbage can!” Full stop. I knew I had to get out of my situation and I knew I needed help to do so. Extricating myself to start a new life was the hardest thing I ever did. It was also the making of me.

There are many good people who voted for Trump who don’t see their Fuhrer clearly. He has seduced them into believing that he “alone” can save them and they are blind to the hole he is digging to bury them. The beauty of a democracy is that we the people have our own salvation in hand. It’s called the vote. It’s called civil discourse. It’s called the greater good.

Trump followers ignore their wake-up-America-call at our peril. It can’t come soon enough. But Trump has unlimited inventiveness to show us his hollowness. You can see it in Melania’s eyes. And she’s still there.

Magic in the Classroom: One Teacher's Guide

12/7/2018

Dr. Pamela Davis

Dr. Pam Davis is a friend of mine and a consummate teacher. I asked her if she created magic in the classroom and in her blunt straightforward manner she said, "Not really. I just capture the magic that's there!" So I asked her how that happens and her responses are the basis for this blog.

Is magic in the classroom the norm or not?  "I think magic in the classroom is overlooked and when it's harnessed that's the exception."

How often do you experience magic in your classroom?  "To me teaching and learning are both magical so I experience magic quite often?"

What do you do to make this magic happen? "First, I prepare by deciding how to share myself through the material. For example, I have a natural sense of humor and I love to read and listen to music. If I can find a way to share any of my passions with my students through the mandated content, that's the first step in inviting them into a safe learning space. So when I teach social studies to 6th grade, the kids need to learn about the term, the "golden age." I introduce them to Jill Scott who wrote a song called "Living Life Like It's Golden," which I believe represents a golden age in popular music. Then I invite them to debate the properties of a golden age in history by comparing my generation's music to theirs. This leads to discussions all kinds of golden ages and gives the students ownership of the term."

What do you look for in the material you use to connect to your students?  "I have to look for outside material to supplement the mediocre required texts, which gives kids facts but doesn't inspire interest. I can say honestly, that in order to connect to my students and have them connect to each other and eventually connect to the material, I have to be some kind of voice--an author's voice, a musician's voice, an artist's voice that transcends diversities and keys into common humanity."

How have you used the Nonfiction Minute? "When we were learning about the Medieval Period in history, I used the Nonfiction Minute called "Gong Farmers." I then posted the link on my class page with the warning, "Read at your own risk. This is disgusting. I don't want to talk about it."Of course, most of them read it but then I had them lead a small group discussion about some of the pros and cons of the feudal system from the peasants' perspective. And several children brought up the idea of a gong-farmer and explicitly explained what the job entailed while I barely contained my composure."

Pam, you are an exemplar of what I call the "artist teacher." How do you get away with it? "I get criticized by administrators and sometimes other teachers. But parents and students give me consistently high ratings, so I persevere. I get some encouragement from my work outside the classroom. I teach teachers. I evaluate content and even provide really fun robotics to kids facing family trauma. I've never seen teaching as anything but an opportunity to share magic.”

If you are a teacher who has never experienced magic in the classroom, you must first know yourself and be fully and confidently self-expressed. Next you must be constantly on the lookout for excellent content material created by others who are also fully and confidently secure in their form of self-expression. Shared humanity is at the heart of it all.

The Joy of Learning and “Education”

28/6/2018

In 2010, I saw an amazing film called “Babies,” which documented the first year of life of four infants born in Mongolia, Namibia, San Francisco and Tokyo. The transformation from tiny, dependent newborns to little persons is extraordinary in two ways. First, the pattern of development for each baby is predictable and universal; they are each doing the same thing at about the same time. And second, the cultural differences seem to have little influence on this development. What we are watching is learning that comes from total immersion in the environment created by place, parents, and siblings. This movie is an exemplar of what behaviorists call “contingency-shaped” learning. Humans are born to learn. It is an emotional, engaging process with both triumph and tragedy, albeit on a very small scale.

Let’s say that one of these babies (me) became a teenager and wanted to learn how to speak another language. I started to learn French my freshman year of high school. I was given a book that started with simple sentences and rules of syntax and grammar. As the course progressed the sentences became more challenging; we learned about tenses, and questions, and other complexities of language. Behaviorists call this “rule-shaped” learning. The purpose of rule-shaped learning is to fast-forward the student to a point where contingencies can take over. I studied French for six years and had to pass an exit exam in my college which demonstrated that I could read and write French. When I went to France, and started to speak it, others assumed I was fluent from my few initial words which evoked a conversational barrage that was incomprehensible to me. Sadly, I was never immersed in a French-speaking place long enough to become fluent. Fluency means that all the rules fade away and language is a skill to express oneself. Rules are training wheels for beginning learners but hamper practice after a certain level of achievement has been reached.

Education today is flooded with rules, called standards, and assessments, which proclaim to measure how well students are learning the rules. Teaching is complex professional behavior, comparable to lawyering and doctoring. Becoming a teacher takes training, evaluation, constant learning, and experience. Teachers can live with standards but need the autonomy reach their own successful differentiated methods and styles. Constant measurement and assessment distorts their ability to teach effectively. Teachers learn from the total immersion of themselves in their jobs. They learn from administrators who are experienced in what makes an effective classroom. They learn from their colleagues. Training rules are not laws; useful if they help and discarded if they impede.

Today’s teachers have their wings clipped by rules. Some are so indoctrinated that they fear to stray from the rules and trust their own judgement and ingenuity. They are losing their freedom as our schools become more autocratic, mirroring what is happening to our country. It feels safer to “go by the book.”

Critical thinking, buzz-words for education, means to reexamine what is before us and make new kinds of decisions. We need to reevaluate some of the rules that are imprisoning us, especially since today’s education has been mandated to produce students with high-level skills, creativity and ingenuity. When you look at the engagement of babies in their first year of life, the joy of learning is palpable. How much engagement visible in today’s K-12 classrooms?

Artists, entrepreneurs, high achievers in every field know how to think “outside the box,” a value esteemed by the marketplace, where rules don’t apply. These folks are in total immersion with some aspect of our world. Yet we have drained our schools of the joy of learning that is our birthright.

Climate Change and Hurricanes: Teachable Moments Are on Their Way

An Abusive Relationship

Magic in the Classroom: One Teacher's Guide

The Joy of Learning and “Education”

Vicki Cobb

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Climate Change and Hurricanes: Teachable Moments Are on Their Way

An Abusive Relationship

Magic in the Classroom: One Teacher's Guide

The Joy of Learning and “Education”

Vicki Cobb

​Archives

Categories

Links

Company

Contact

Archives