HI Sobrina,

I've

An educational research project in India showed up some interesting things. When trying to find out which teaching factors made the most difference in educational outcome, it turned out that the only factor they could find with a predictable correlation was not anything technical or material but simply how much the teacher actually wanted to be there at that particular school. More so than even the skill of the teacher! Basically, if you don't want to be there you are probably doing more harm than good via your non-verbal communication.

Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves | Video on TED.com

John, as always you make a good point and I am not sure how to come back to you. My thoughts are that if a teacher openly displayed hostility or showed a lack of interest towards their duties then I could agree that it is a contributing factor. From what I remember of that clip that achievement was the measured factor and not behaviour. If the kids were picking up on subliminal or non-verbal communication that they must be reading the same into all teacher, parents, support and admin workers, neighbours, police, shop workers and the people that drive the busses to get them to school. The unruly nature of the gangs or mobs are not restricted to individual teachers.

I annoy myself when I write with such negativity and there are not too many topics which spark this response in me. The reasons for my frustration is not because of the unruly kids, they essentially are our clients and taking the approach of 'if only they were better our job would be easier' is not one I support. I believe that we should be operating a system where our education centres are appropriatly staffed to cater for our clients needs, all of our clients needs, the more challenging their needs then the more we work to find better answers. By contantly reviewing and reinventing the system can we keep up with our constant changing demands. More money is spent of bricks, concrete and tarmac rather than books, computers and teachers.

Some people do very well out of the education system, building contractors and OFSTED consultants make small fortunes from the tiny pots of money that are allocated to make a difference in our kids classrooms.

I'm not saying that that is all there is to it and that dealing with difficult people isn't of course challenging. Its is definitely not a job that I would relish working in schools with troubled pupils etc. I just found it curious that the things they thought would correlate to achievement didn't actually in practice (such as how much material resources were available or how skillful the teacher). In a way I am saying "I shouldn't be in that position because I don't really want to be". I know a couple of teachers who do really enjoy working with very difficult kids and gets pretty good results, probably by virtue of them being so dedicated and wanting to be there in that situation, rather than having been assigned or allocated to that job by someone else or as a personal stepping stone to somewhere "better".

Today's lesson...no failure, only feedback.

I just finished a lesson with eight-year-olds, which wasn't entirely successful. Things that I will change for the next group:

1) Chunk down, so that students understand and can more easily assemble the components of the activity.

2) More modeling!

3) Better organize group formation so that roles/parameters are more clearly defined.

OK, here I go, in hopes of improving!

Be well, and at peace,

Phil

Hi, everyone!

I'm looking for some advice, and it's going to sound strange, coming from a music teacher...

...how can I help students improve their auditory memory?

I had a class of seven year-olds this morning that acted like a room full of LUMPS! They couldn't seem to remember what we had just done twenty seconds ago!

I talked with them about "turning on their tape recorders" so that they could remember what we had just listened to, or what I had just said, and for some of them, it seemed to help a little, but for others, not--even when we went through the play action of "finding the button, turning it on," etc. to anchor the state, it just didn't seem to do the trick.

Any thoughts?

Phil

Phil

You could try anchoring the tape recorder buttons with chocolate buttons.

Seems to work with most 7 year olds

Cheers

Adam

They couldn't seem to remember what we had just done twenty seconds ago!

What state are they in when they can seem to remember what they had just done twenty seconds ago? What state are you in?

...how can I help students improve their auditory memory?

Hi Phil get a tape recorder- have the kids say two lines- the first line is Hello my name is (NAME)- then the second line just have each of the kids say Hi- then have the kids close there eyes- and play the first run back- then play the second run back and have the kids say who it is- just saying hi- and play lots and lot of scales on a piano- the auditory cortex will assimilate and pick up- just by having stimulus.

J

Adam--great idea, except I'd eat all of the chocolate buttons!
James--how do we label states? What are my choices?
Jay--thank you, practical as ever...this suggestion actually helped me to think of things that I do already with them to improve auditory memory, and perhaps they just need more practice. However, the tape recorder idea is interesting...logistically, I'm not sure how it would work, because I couldn't really scramble the order unless I used different tapes for every child, and that is about 600 students I have...however, this suggestion must be just what I needed, because it is setting my mind in the right direction now...

And what state am I currently in...both Ohio and confusion!

Be well, and at peace,

Phil

Hay Phil

Do you have 600 students all in one class at one time?

J

Hi Phil,

You asked: "how do we label states?"
You previously stated conclusively: "I had a class of seven year-olds this morning that acted like a room full of LUMPS!"

I did not ask: what state are you currently in.

I asked: "What state are they in", and a comparrison, "What state are you in"

You also asked: "What are my choices?"
Here is a suggestion: "ANYTHING ELSE"
At least anything that will elicit anything but 'a room full of Lumps'.

Here's the thought... How can you change your state (as the teacher) so that there eyes sparkle, there tapes record, and they actually enjoy enthusiastically even more of what you are drummingly teaching with a deepening desire to learn...

How would you label that?

James,

Tomorrow's project!!!

Be well, and at peace,

Phil

Be Great!!! and then at peace while always well.

James

I just had the most heart-warming experience with a class of seven year-olds.

We were playing a game to work on auditory acuity, in which the student in the middle hides his/her eyes, and listens to someone in the circle sing back the answer to a question. Then the person in the middle opens his/her eyes, and based on direction and voice, they determine who the person was that sang the answer.

I have taught this game for years and not thought much about the internal processes of the students until now. Today, in the middle of the game, I said to the students, "if when you hear the person's voice, you put a face to it, you will know who it is." After that, the accuracy was 100%!!! Even the students were amazed that everyone was getting it. One sweet girl got the whole class excited and cheering every time someone got it right on the first try, saying, "LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE TRICK!!!"

Now THAT really warmed my heart. And, what is even better, is that they are improving both their auditory and visual memory with this fun game!

Be well, and at peace,

Phil

Ah, Phil, you are a force for good.

A sneaky force for good!

pcadams wrote:

I talked with them about "turning on their tape recorders" so that they could remember what we had just listened to, or what I had just said, and for some of them, it seemed to help a little, but for others, not--even when we went through the play action of "finding the button, turning it on," etc. to anchor the state, it just didn't seem to do the trick.

Hi Phil,

Sounds like a good technique , not sure if you still need feedback for this or not. I know that with my kids, they sometimes do the things I ask very literally, if I leave something out, it will not get done, until I mention the aditional steps associated with the task.

Then I get, "But Daaaad you didn't tell us we needed to do that too"

A great lesson for them in independent thinking, a great lesson for me to calibrate what I say and useful in gauging their development, mine too for that matter .


Perhaps its a bit like what Milton Erickson was explaining (I think in Patterns) when he was discussing adults taking things literally in a deep trance, in that it was similar to children taking things literally.

pcadams wrote:

"turning on their tape recorders" "finding the button, turning it on,"

Maybe they did exactly what you asked them to do. Perhaps it might be as simple as adding "Now push the record button".

Perhaps like Jay suggested use a tape recorder and also allow the kids to get an understanding of the buttons involved on the recorder and how a tape recorder works.

I know that my kids have never seen an audio tape, let alone a tape recorder, its all CD's and DVD's.

Have a great day and I hope this helped, in someway



Frederic

ah, yes, calibrate, calibrate, calibrate...

Thank you Frederic!

Phil

My pleasure, thinking about it was a Ahh Haa moment for me too, so it was a bonus win win. Sometimes the simplest of things are overlooked.

Here I was thinking my kids were just plain absent minded.

Be well while having a great and peaceful day

Frederic

Rock and roll Phil - keep up the good work!

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