Tuesday, I introduced you to the first five of Louis Cozolino’s “Nine Things Educators Need to Know About the Brain.” An article excerpted from Cozolino’s book, The Social Neuroscience of Education: Optimizing Attachment and Learning in the Classroom, appeared at the Greater Good blog. Here, then, are the remaining four insights from Cozolino: 6. The…
Continuing Education
This Is Your Brain on Awesome, Part 1
A few weeks back, the folks at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good blog published an article entitled “Nine Things Educators Need to Know About the Brain.” The article is excerpted from Louis Cozolino’s new book, The Social Neuroscience of Education: Optimizing Attachment and Learning in the Classroom. Cozolino, a professor of psychology at Pepperdine University, wants…
You Picked a Great job
Congratulations, teachers. You made a good decision (as if I had to tell you that). Because you chose to be teachers, you chose the good life. Seriously. Let me repeat that for those of you at the back who might not have heard me. Choosing to be a teacher means you chose the good life,…
Why Not Talk About Homework?
The debate that never ends: homework. How much is too much? Is it even necessary? Is it effective? Does it cause you too much grief? Have you ever unintentionally used it as a punishment? Does your school or district have a policy that requires you to assign homework? Of course, there are those teachers who…
Initial Thoughts on the Nearly Perfect Teacher
What traits must a teacher have? I asked and you delivered. Love to learn. As Darlene Taig and several others said, teachers must have “curiosity about the world.” And I couldn’t agree more. A teacher should be a lifelong learner. “You must love to learn,” said Cheryl Best. “Learn every day something new or relearn…
Curing the Winter Blues
I’m not ready to throw in the towel on my previous post, What Traits Must a Teacher Have? If you haven’t left a comment with your ideas, please click on the link and leave your input. In a few more days, I’m going to round up everyone’s ideas and report on what we’ve got. Meanwhile,…
What Traits Must a Teacher Have?
Without a doubt, the place where I failed most spectacularly as a teacher was at the corner of Organization Street and Process Avenue. I’m sure there were days when my students didn’t know what to expect from me; however, the work we did was consistent and the way in which we approached it rarely veered…
Have You Read the Latest?
I may be the last education blogger to write about the 2012 MetLife Survey of the American Teacher. But perhaps you haven’t read the latest results from MetLife’s yearly survey. You may be glad you haven’t. The survey results aren’t exactly a fountain of fabulous news. Here are a few tasty tidbits: Just 39% of…
Reason to Be a Green Teacher: #12,624
That magical thing lurking around the corner, big and green and wet with rain? That’s spring. Yes, spring is just ahead, just around the bend. So now’s the time to plan your class garden. Wait. What? What class garden? The one you’re going to plant this year. The one that is going to make your…
On the Future of Educational Video Games
Okay. I’ll admit it. There have been a handful of occasions in the last four years or so when I have had the luxury of time to play video games. Maybe two handfuls. And I needed plenty of time because I have a steep learning curve with such games as Call of Duty and Halo:…