Answer the 3 questions for chapter 1
posted by Barney Slowey at 1:11 PM
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
About Me
- Name: Barney Slowey
- Location: Rice Lake, Wisconsin, United States
I am going into my 44th year in education with 17 years as a high school history teacher, 5 years as a middle school English teacher, and 11 as an administrator. My admistrative jobs included principalships at every level as well as a director of instruction job. Since leaving the system I have devoted my time to work with teachers through graduate classes, insevices, mentoring for two years with teachers in Osceola implementing Brain Based Learning through Multiple Intelligences. This summer I will be co-facilitating a seventh Masters Program with a laptop community in Rice Lake Kimberly and Pulaski.
Previous Posts
- Answer the following questions for all the chapter...
- IntroductionsPleas let us know who you are, where ...
- brain based teaching and learning
3 Comments:
My answers to Barney's three questions are in response to reading Chapter 1 in BEGIN WITH THE BRAIN, but before I post my thoughts I have two questions: (1) my version of this book was published in 1999 -- is there a newer version?; and (2) is the "Barney" mentioned in the book's dedication Barney our teacher?
The Preface: Well, I certainly agree that you catch more flies with sugar than you do with vinegar, and so the author's first suggestion "to smile" holds a lot of sway with me. The trouble is, of course, that we're all human and thus display a wide range of facial emotions, often involuntarily. I also thought that the author hit the nail on the head with her observation that "...attitude must precede brain-compatible curriculum implementation." She mentions teacher attitude, but probably should have included politicians, parents, administrators, and students, too.
Question 1: In the alternative high schools schools which I administered the entire staff made adjustments to traditional school routines as a way of addressing student fear. Students who attended these schools had failed in traditional school environments, and so we knew that if we did things the same way we'd probably get the same results. So, as a way of reducing student fear we made sure that everything we did was supporti
Hi Gary and all...I can't resist commenting on Garys' response to this chapter...several years ago while I was director of instruction at Chetek a colleague and I designed a charter school that looks a lot like what Gary's talking about...we couldn't find any takers because it was too "radical"...however I am now co- facilitating a Masters program that looks very much like our design...you can look at our website to see our "radicalism"...www.airstreamcomm.net/~jcadams...let me know what you think...Thanks Barney
I , like Gary am very concerned about Julie's account of what is happening in her school with the whole testing issue...My daughter in law is an outstanding teacher in an elementary schooland is facing the same dilemma ... things that may help to keep our sanity may be the fact that the research bears out the fact that if we teach through brain compatible methods, kids will do as well if not better on standardized tests...also if your district would go along, Looping might be somehing that would help with the developmental issues ...I personally think multiage classrooms where kids are with teachers a minimum of 3 years or more are the best way of letting kids learn developmentally...my wife is working on ccurriculum with a Montessori school in Eau Claire and all your concerns would go poof if you taught there, Julie!!...Gary...we had a ton of kids that were interested through the whole strata of a school population and even more interesting was the fact that we had interest from so many teachers (from as far away as Mass.)...in one meeting with administrators from a district the Principal said he was against it because we would take away the best kids and teachers...My response was WHY WOULD THEY GO?...my point was made but we couldn't get in despite the fact that we indicated we would take kids from the whole gamut of the population because we wanted to show that this kind of an approach would work with all kids and would put special education out of business...but it was too threatening...so we are implementing it in our Masters Program and we are having a ball...Of course none of the University would allow us to do it so we went to a private school..we are going to start a new program next summer where we take two weeks in the summer to get all the preliminary stuff one needs to know our of the way and then one weekend amonth for the school year where they gather their action research and try new stuff in their classroom...the two weeks the next summer to put it all together and they have to create a demonstration of learning that will inform the profession...not a paper that sits as a doorstop but a web page, DVD, CD, or some other exhibit that they present to others indicating how they have expanded their learning...our entire philosophy is if it doesn't help the student in the desk we don't waste time on it...It is all integrated so we don't have formal classes and its a laptop community so everyone learns technology that they need to enhance their teaching...Wow!!! enough...thanks for the interaction...have fun...Barney
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