Worth a Re-listen...

I have a select few books on my IPod which I ‘re-listen’ to over and over and over and over and...

For a book to be 'ear-worthy', the topic is not really the litmus test. I crave the books which reveal something new to me each and every time I re-listen.

Deep Survival - Who Lives, Who Dies and Why. by Laurence Gonzales
To understand how to survive everyday, check out the mental processes of those who survived while those around them perished. I can't overstate the life lessons learned and the brain function explained by this book.

How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age  , a modern revision of Dale Carnegie's life changing book updated to take advantage of modern technology









My current favorite: Linchpin by Seth Godin.
 If you want to do work that matters, and have a career that you love, it is a must read (listen) and re-read.
Not too many things that I try to foist on my grown children, but this book is one of them.
Perhaps in their next decade...

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

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.