Teens not too brilliant choices about tanning

Interesting article today from sunny Australia.

It's National Skin Cancer Action Week there, yet teens in Victoria have the highest rate of sunburn. A new survey, commissioned by the Cancer Council shows teens spend almost two hours in the sun during peak UV times.

When we remember that the risk assessment portion of the human brain is still developing up to about age 22 in females and 28 or so for males it's makes a little more sense. Efforts will need to be linked more to social status and less to risk to have an impact with young adults.

Here's the link to the article

Teens stick head in sand over sun risk

by Nick Miller

SIT this one out!-stop doing and start daydreaming

Brain research has shown that there are connection zones within our neo cortex that lie dormant until our brain is at rest. When we are NOT focusing on a specific task, these SIT regions (Stimulus Independent Thought regions) light up with energy and activity as our brains, momentarily unfocused, flit from thought to thought, sampling what our brain has to offer. This seemingly random thought pattern can bring creativity, truly original thought and those epiphanies and ah-hah moments that require connection of thoughts from unrelated parts of our consciousness and life experience.

Remember daydreaming?? Now in my 50’s, I can still vividly remember long summer days spent without TV or IPods and languid after school hours without karate, violin and tutoring sessions. We invented games, created wild stories and imagined how incredible the world of the future would be! Being bored allowed our minds to bring to the surface connections and ideas no one could have taught us.

What is the cost of today’s version of childhood with every moment scheduled to prevent an hour staring at passing clouds or skipping stones across a pond? Constant doing can fill us with experiences that never truly get processed and integrated across the hemispheres of our brains. (Picture busily filling your Bingo card, but never noticing that you have BINGO! ) If our thoughts are constantly shepherded from class to class, from task to task and goal to goal, when do the SIT parts of our brain come out to play? Brains of Tibetan monks, skilled in the conscious emptying of the mind that is meditation, light up like Christmas trees when monitored. No wonder people from all over the world cross continents to learn their insights!

Try this experiment: “SIT this one out” … gift yourself with 20 minutes of unfocused, unstructured relaxation. (If it’s a struggle, it may take several attempts to really set your “doing” habit aside.) Let your SIT regions do what they do best - connect the wonderful thoughts and experiences that make you uniquely you and allow yourself to expand and become what only you are capable of becoming. Bingo!

Strategic Brilliance

Just want to say THANKS to my pancreas!

This summer I experienced two conferences focused on the tidal wave of diabetes and pre-diabetes in this country. What an eye opener.

But, my biggest learning experience was not even on the conference agenda! I roomed with a gloriously free and creative actress who is also a Type I diabetic. Although she has learned to guard her health and glucose level over decades of practice, it was amazing to see how quickly a physical change affected her mental state. In a matter of minutes, she could go from focused and clear minded to confused, wandering and fuzzy headed. An adjustment from her insulin pump or a snack and within minutes she was "back." Wow.

Watching her clarity and focus change in mere moments, dependent on the glucose level in her body drove home to me what a delicate balancing act our bodies carry on every single day. I am fortunate. Although diabetes is rampant in my family, I do not have that challenge in my life. My pancreas seems to be functioning quite well, thank you. I don't have to spend every moment of my day monitoring, measuring and reacting. My body takes care of all that for me.

I have noticed however that my moods swing wildly when I get hungry and how quickly I bounce back when I have eaten something healthy for me. This new awareness has taken me to a new level. When I put off eating breakfast I notice my mind beginning to wander and lose focus. A healthy snack and I'm back on track. When my energy seems to run out through my feet during exercise, I realize that my glucose level is low. Again, a little snack and some water and suddenly the lethargy drops away and my "I'll never make it" turns in to "I can do this!"

It makes me wonder how many times in life I have given up, gotten angry, felt depressed or acted badly because I didn't listen to my amazing body telling me to take care of myself. Awareness is only the first half of making a lifestyle change, the second is using new knowledge to make the change you want.

Another death by adolescence

Three Killed, One in Coma
Charlotte, NC
July 27,2008
©Marcey J. Walsh 2008

Another death by adolescence. In Albemarle, NC, three are teens dead and one in a coma after a late night crash on a local highway. Their car struck a second vehicle in the side at an approximate speed of 85 mph in a 55 mph zone. Four more families grieve, another community pulls together for support and comfort and still no one has an answer for why it happened and how this "accident" could have been prevented.

More than 500 teens have died on the roads of NC over the past three years. As a mother myself, I ached for the parents and family of every one.

As someone who works with thousands of young people every year, I also struggled with my anger. Given what we have learned in the past five years about neurological development of the brain, the question is not if, but rather when and to whom this will happen next. These are intelligent kids, often at the top of their class. They end up in a losing situation because we, as a community didn't tell them what they need to know in a way they can understand and use to protect themselves.

This is tough, people. Since we know why this happened and how to help teens prevent it, can these really be called accidents? Just as someone needs to eventually tell every teen about sex and alcohol and drugs and the gritty reality of what's "out there." Someone needs to tell them about what's "in there."

• · Tell them that, although they are wonderful and brilliant, the risk assessment part of their brain isn't finished yet.

• · Tell them that young people have wonderful ideas, but that, although they look like adults, they have a dangerous decade ahead when they will make life changing decisions before they are "playing with a full deck."

• · Tell them that the truly brilliant among them will, as they grow and become independent; honor the brain they WILL have by tapping into the brains of older mentors before acting.

Telling this new information is important, but we also must model in every classroom, at every dinner table and in every situation one unchanging truth: that survivors look AND listen before leaping. Cars, drugs, smoking, alcohol - they have a lot to decide about and they count on us to give them the information they need.

We have learned so much, it's only fair to tell them. Accidents happen; tragedies don't have to.

Why Teachers are Essential in Todays Economy

I love Google News. I can set it to fill my startup page with articles on topics I’m interested in, like education! Despite cultural differences, articles from all over the world reinforce daily one consistent truth: no matter what continent, no matter what country, education is considered the catalyst for change.

Today, even I was floored! This time, two articles on the same day from opposite sides of the globe highlighted a basic difference in attitude toward effective education. These submissions are of differing scope and purpose of course, so draw your own conclusions, but I was struck speechless (an unheard of event for me!) by the difference in perspective - long term vs short term- reflected in the pieces.

I hear a long term, national commitment with a specific goal proposed in one article and a general “oh no, we’re really in trouble now”” approach in the other. with no As teachers, we see these articles in U.S. headlines every day. We know we have great kids and dedicated teachers and administrators. We need a specific “’sticky” goal to rally and guide us out of the current problem. I long for a “man on the moon by the end of this decade” kind of goal. ) To be “sticky “ a goal has to be easy to visualize and easy to communicate. NCLB just doesn’t do it for me.)

I don’t know about you, but I have chills reading such a firm commitment to long term educational growth from a country we have to compete with in the global market. Teachers, know that what you do is essential! Lots of food for thought.

Not sure how long the links will be useful, but check the articles out.

Low Education Scores Could Slow U.S. Growth

Let Education Be Our Revolution

Orange County Public Schools Rock!

Orange County Public Schools
Orlando, Florida

Marcey just spoke to standing room only crowds in Orlando! Her two sessions on"Moving Kids to Learn" packed the room for programs on math and science applications that "teach with the brain in mind." .

Elementary, middle school and even a few dynamic high school educators stood in the back and sat on the floor to laugh and learn to develop kinesthetic activities that reaches all their types of learners.