Tonight I was reading "In Search of Memory" by my favorite neural scientist Eric Kandel. In this book Kandel talks about "the mystery of learning and memory in biological terms," and highlights memories ingrained "into the molecular and cellular fabric of [his] brain with such permanence that [he] can relive the experience[s] in vivid and emotional detail more than a half century later?" I want to be hard hitting like that in the memory of my students as a teacher. We have mainly pitfalls, ruts and obstacles to avoid in order not to have our lessons swept away in the eroding flood waters of time. Where do we find high ground in the mind and memory of our students to build castles and create intellects worthy of ivory towers?
There are many techniques I use. I remember most of the things that I and other teachers studied in our Master's program at a public university in New Jersey. I also remember most of the things I studied before in biology and Neural Science as an undergraduate. About 10 years after finishing all of my biology classes at NYU, I took an exam for a high school biology teacher's license without studying at all and passed it the first time. This is not because I'm just smart. I am skilled a using human memory the way it is designed.
The core of what I do is to fuse a solid understanding of Neural Science (especially the way different regions in the brain operate), the creativity and unity at the core of the Waldorf method, and the differentiated instruction, object orientation and freedom at the core of the Montessori method into a new action ready, on the spot, instant lesson readiness for students that keeps them moving forward as fast as possible and remembering as much as possible. I could list dozens, maybe hundreds of individual techniques and researched best practices that I use in class, but who is ever going to remember all of these things individually to actually use them with students? The only reason that I use them effectively and remember when and how to use them at the exact right times is because I have a core central organizing paradigm within my mind that holds it all together. And this paradigm is a holistic sense of what it means to be human embracing our biology through neural science, our creativity and mythological history through 100 years of proven Waldorf successes, and some of the individual freedom and loose boundaries within which students have also been able to thrive brilliantly for over a century. I sing with the students about being human, "if your a human being we're in business." A sense of what this means is the core organizing principle of all that I do.
That said, there are 2 other basic systems that I use that I cannot do without.
Character education and the virtues project is totally indispensable. The number one concern that I have always heard from teachers is behavior management. Most teachers cannot lead large classes of students, and some can't even lead small groups. Successful teachers all develop their own tools of influence with students, but with the virtues project behavior management has never been easier. It helps students to quickly get a clear sense of what their purpose is in life, and then they are ready to work. I described some of this in much greater detail in my "Meaning of Life" easy.
Finally, we cannot ignore the explosion of resources on the internet and how that is radically changing all of our lives. The internet along makes the traditional Waldorf and Montessori programs completely obsolete even while the core of those systems remain totally relevant. It makes no sense to teach with the strict limitations of the traditional Waldorf system keeping all students at the same slow and unified pace any more, and it makes no sense to continue imitating Dr. Montessori's use of concrete and physical materials to create student learning resources when such a vaster field of free resources is not available to everyone in the virtual world. The best, and largest, and most prestigious of these resources can now be adopted immediately all over the English and Spanish speaking worlds online which very little teacher time investment or concern over the relevance and clear expectations of student work. Leading the learning revolution online, there are now two clear institutions right at the forefront. Nothing compares to www.khanacademy.org and EdX.org. Khan Academy is sponsored by one of the largest philanthropic educational funds in the world, it has tens of millions of students in the system, and it covers virtually every academic topic from 1st grade through basic college courses. It is the equivalent of the first encyclopedia in the renaissance, and it is only a mater of time before most of the schools in the world that have internet access will be using this system. Within 5 years, I expect khanacademy.org will have a billion or more users. And after one masters all of that material, life long world class free university education awaits us on EdX.org. What more do we really need? Not much I say - at least not for starters.
Let's keep in simple fellow reformers. Virtually everyone working in education in the Western Hemisphere at least has heard or is hearing about "Neural Science, Waldorf, Montessori, Character Education, and Khan Academy." Take all of these movements, fields and name brands together, fuse them it one unified whole like 5 fingers on one hand, and nothing can stop us from launching all of our students into the stratosphere of their highest potentials. I have a new spin on the kiss principle. Keep it simple schools! We can do more with less. We can make this easier, more fun, and more effective.
Today I taught my students to read their first sentence in English. I used phonetic sequencing and sight work instruction plans from Lindmood-Bell and Tony Buzan style categorical organization for ease of memory retention to produce this lesson, and I am happy to say all of my students experienced success with this lesson. I feel confident that they will all be reading in English fairly fluently by the end of the year even though only one of my students can speak in English right now. We shall see! Here are some picture from the lesson. Our sentence of the day was:
"A BEE + A JAY SAY BYE BYE TO A DOE + GO 2 A BAY FOR A DAY."
I especially love that this student colored the words in our rainbow sequence order with her crayons.
Now some people may be shocked that I used text-message like numbers for words, but there are definitely many methods to my madness! First of all, I was only teaching long vowel sounds in open syllables (syllables that end in vowels). Using the words "to" and "four" would have pushed the students too hard on the difficulties of English spelling and they already knew their numbers in English. Secondly, English is evolving and these are now mainstream sort-hand notations for these words that students are likely to see every day in text messages with their parents or with friends online. Thirdly, I want students to get a sense that all is fair in using phonetic creativity when trying to read or write words in the future that they are unfamiliar with. In second language teaching methodology, we encourage students to invent their way around communication obstacles EVEN IF that means they have to make errors in violation of convention that are nevertheless intelligible. The point is to communication first, and then to follow rules second. Rules where created to make communication easier; communication was not created to fulfill rule sets. So, my students will be allowed to use numbers for the words for (4), to (2) and before (b4). And they will also learn the proper conventions later.
Now, in this next picture, I show how we built up to this sense of pride and success in reading our first sentence in English. Tony Buzan mind maps stress how important webs of categorical thinking can be. I essentially created such a web off of the alphabet song that the students already know. Here it is. I think the practice we performed will be rather self explanatory in the picture. (Because one student already seemed to know the word "do" I had to explain the difference between "do" and "doe.")
So in summary, what I did was no big deal. I presented basic information in clear (brain friendly) categories. I used coloring a picture at the end (infusing art into each lesson a little Waldorf like) to help reinforce both comprehension and memory. It worked, they got it, and they liked it. What more do I want. Well I want iPads for all my students and wifi of course, but that will have to come a little later! Ha!
Cheers to all you!
Sky
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