Lecture #2

"Adolescent Brain & Alcohol: A Costly Mix!" was presented by Karen Williams on Monday, April 27th at the Decorah Middle School.  Ms. Williams was very energetic with her presentation but I feel like she would be best suited for a Middle School audience.  A lot of her jokes were childish, and although I can laugh at pretty much anything I feel like they did not go over too well with my college peers.

I learned a lot from the lecture.  Ms. Williams provided us with a handout of all the major points so we could remember them later.  I greatly appreciated this, but I did also take great notes.  She started out by explaining the brain itself.  For the first twenty-five years or so the brain is a sponge that sucks up everything.  The brain is developing during that time. Actually, different parts of the brain develop at different times.  There are three critical opportunities for brain development: (1) in the womb, (2) from birth to six years of age, and (3) from twelve to eighteen years of age.  Obviously the brain is developing 

like crazy in the womb. The second two stages of brain development are to learn the basics.  A child learns how to walk and talk.  From ages seven to eleven they are just perfecting the basics that they learned.  Around twelve there is a "reset" button.  Before twelve parents are usually in control and making decisions for their children.  At twelve the child starts to try and make the right decisions for themselves.  They start learning qualities that make them who they are.  They are no longer children, but not yet an adult so they need to learn how to become one.  Just like in the second developmental stage, there is a lot of trial and error.  After eighteen, the child perfects the new things they learned. Around the mid twenties the brain is fully developed.

What I learned that blew my mind was most people's view of hormones.  Most people think of teenagers acting out or being moody because of hormones.  However, what does a toddler behave like at times?  Moody, selfish, and unwilling to cooperate.  Isn't that what most teenagers are like?  It is because they are in the middle of high brain development.  There brain is the reason for their little outbursts of insensitivity towards others, not hormones.

Something else I learned was "the busier the brain the higher the risk".  During periods of high development the brain is working really hard.  So if the brain was interrupted in some way, it would be worse than if it were to be interrupted during times when development isn't as high.  When a baby is in the womb, neurons are connecting with one another 250,000 to 1,000,000 times a minute.  What would happen if that baby's mother were to drink alcohol during that time?  Alcohol slows down the brain's functioning causing those neurons to slow down.  If they are not working at the speed they  need to then the baby's brain could possibly not be fully developed by the time they are born.  This results in Fatal Alcohol Syndrome.  The leading known cause of 1/3 of mentally handicapped people is the use of alcohol during pregnancy.

Not only alcohol can hurt your brain but dehydration, a bad nutrition, lack of sleep, or an injury could as well.  When Ms. Williams read this list from her powerpoint she said something like "What happens if one of your student doesn't get enough to eat at home?" and "What if that student doesn't get enough sleep either because their parents are fighting?".  This caused me to tear up, but I don't think that was what she was trying to do.  She was trying to show that these things could be occurring simultaneously. 

A concussion to the brain is not a good thing.  An impact to one area can effect the entire brain.  If there was a Richter scale proportional for the brain a sneeze would be a 2.  Getting hit in a football game would be from 60 to 100. Second Impact Syndrome kills about 60 child athletes a year because once their immediate symptoms of a concussion or done their coach puts them right back in to play.  The brain needs time to heal itself.

"What do concussions and getting drunk have in common?"  It takes fifteen times longer for a teenage brain to heal than an adult brain.  An adult can recover in about thirty-two hours but it takes a teenager four days!  The immediate symptoms of a neural injury due to drunkenness or other drugs is: dizziness, silliness, confusion, stumbling, loss of short-term memory, and blackout.  Sound a little similar to the signs of a concussion?  The major damage from an neural injury due to drunkenness is also the exact same as a neural injury due to a concussion.  These are: shorter concentration span, forgetfulness, problems learning new information, less emotional control, and confused when fatigued or stressed. These all affect future learning.

Luckily, the brain can heal itself.  It takes time though.  First the hippocampus needs to recover. Once it is healthy again it will build new neurons to replace the ones that were damaged.  Not only is the hippocampus in charge of development, but it also helps make sure you remember and recover.  And memory is one of the most important things in development and learning.  Getting drunk on every weekend can shrink the hippocampus by ten percent.

Ms. Williams then went on to talk about alcohol, drug use, and becoming addicted to drugs and/ or alcohol.  One thing she said that stuck with me was that she reminded me that there are parents out there that throw parties for their children because they would rather want their children getting drunk in a safe environment rather than being somewhere and having to drive.  She said something like "they were more concerned about getting scratches on their children's outside from a car crash" instead of injury to their brain and development.  I graduated with people who's parents did this for them.  I just think that it wouldn't happen if parents knew what alcohol actually did to the brain.  Obviously parents know that alcohol is bad, but if they knew why I don't think they would be as eager to be the "cool parent".  I think my parents are pretty cool for being prudes.  I have to apologize because I brought this up in class just to say that it was something that really struck me and that I remembered from Ms. William's presentation but it started a huge debate which I did not mean to happen.

I learned a lot from Ms. Williams and I thought the subject was really interesting.  I told everyone about it.  I told my boyfriend, his room mate, my room mate and my mom.  My boyfriend's room mate even showed me an article his mom sent him called "Alcohol and the Adolescent Brain" which was written by Susan F. Tapert, Lisa Caldwell, and Christina Burke.  At the time I was still interested so I read the article.  After reading it sadly I lost interest.  It is just not the same if I don't have an older southern women telling me the information in a high-pitched voice.  I found that the article contradicted itself a lot of the time and the research that the writers did didn't really help their case.  One fact that I appreciate them stating though that Ms. Williams didn't mention was that "not all young people who drink heavily or become alcohol dependent will experience the same level of impairment, and some may show no damage at all."  There are many different factors like genetic influences, gender, age, use of other drugs, and co-occurrence of other psychiatric disorders.  Another thing that is important to point out is that the amount of alcohol that is consumed is not the main thing to be focused on but the pattern of consumption.  Drinking one alcoholic beverage every day does not have the same effect as having seven drinks in an hour. 

The website that was on the handout Ms. Williams provided for us can be seen here.

Alcohol and the Adolescent Brain written by Taper, Caldwell, and Burke can be seen here.

Motivation

For me, motivation is a very deep concept.  When asked when was the last time I felt really motivated I couldn't think of anything.  I do things because that is just what I do.  I do my homework because that is what I need to do at school.  I go to work because I need an income in order to go to school.  My life is pretty easy going.  I am pretty easy going.  I never really think about things too much.

In soccer this past season, my coach would try to get us fired up or motivate us and ask "Why do you play soccer?" or "What motivates you?".  I didn't really know the answers to those questions either.  I love the sport.  I love competition.  I enjoy the group of girls that I get to spend my time with, they have become a family to me.  But is that what motivates me to go to practice every day?  Is that what motivates me to give all I've got and leave everything on the feild?  

Motivation is too huge of a concept for me to grasp.  I'm not a very deep thinker.  I sometimes feel unintelligent around my peers who have so many smart and deep ideas about so many topics I barely even think about.  I'm fine kickin' the ball around and singing whatever song is in my head or telling a really corny joke.

The only time I guess I really feel motivated is when I am doing something related to sports.  I can feel so motivated I cry.  Why do I play soccer?  I don't know the exact reason but I know that I do.  I bleed blue.  I have so much Norse Pride and so much love for the game I don't know how I can't.  (Which as I take this next season off, I am watching to see if I don't die of a broken heart by not playing.)  My heart is in it.

I can be motivated by things not related to soccer.  Anybody see "The Express"  when it came out in the fall?  I took my dad.  He likes football, but he likes movies more than he likes football.  He's a baseball/hockey man but that is besides the point.  Now I can't say that I will ever be a 6 foot 2 inch tall, 212 pound football player that will beat tons of records and overcome the obstacles of my race and become the first black man to win the Heisman Trophy.  But boy was that movie and his story motivational.  There are a million football movies I could describe that are motivational.  What about hockey.... remember the movie "Miracle"?  It is one of my favorites.  Now that is a pretty motivational movie.

I don't really remember where I was going with this blog.  However, here are a few motivational videos.  The first is a clip from Any Given Sunday (a football movie).  I actually haven't seen this movie but it is a clip that has been used to motivate the soccer team last year.  Please, excuse the profanity.  The second is one that was shown to our Educational Psychology class about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Any Given Sunday

Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things

(I'm also currently in the course Coaching of Soccer and I have learned/already knew that as a coach you need to motivate your athletes- just as a teacher needs to motivate their students.  Maybe I was thinking of the wrong class when writing this blog?  Who knows... maybe it can motivate me to blog about the brain lecture we went to!)

IMOVIE FINISHED!

Our iMovie is finished!  View it here!

Our iMovie is a news broadcast from "LCED220".  It is in response to the movie Last Child In the Woods written by Richard Louv.  In the book, Louv discusses his research of how children today don't have relationships with the environment as they did twenty, even ten years ago.  He interviews different people, some parents, and they all recollect memories from their childhood of playing in a field or building a treehouse.  Something that Louv introduced in his book that I thought was most shocking was that even when kids are in the car they don't look out the window at the scenery and environment.  Motor vehicles today have built in TVs and DVD players.  Not to mention almost every kid throws out their handheld video game for the latest and greatest one every time a new model comes out.  

In the iMovie we try to introduce the idea that children's relationships with the environment are struggling.  The weather section shows what might happen if we continue to ignore how we effect the environment.  The sports section shows how focused children are on video games rather than actual outdoor-fun.  The on-site report showed how we expect so much from our students.

Blog About Blogging

As this experience with blogging is winding down, I have to say that I will probably not continue blogging.  At this point in my life, as long as something is not required by a class or a job I don't think I will do it.  I'm a busy college student. 

However, I do think blogging is a good and easy way of getting information out to people.  I had a teacher in high school who posted assignments, and other things on a blog.  Although I wish he would just give us this information in class, it was a good resource for if I lost my notes or was not able to write everything down.

What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?

Today in class we read an article entitled "What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?".  We discussed this article in class but something that caught my attention in the article that was not related to the topic we discussed was a small quote that I think had a huge impact. 

"In most countries, education feels like a car factory.  In Finland, the teachers are the entrepreneurs." 

The first sentence of the quote is shocking but so true.  I have never though of it before but I think it makes a good analogy.  In the US for sure it seams that teachers are "teaching to the test".  They are just teaching what students need to know to pass national standard tests and they continue this way each new year with all new kids... like a factory.  

Strengths and Weaknesses In Content Areas of Teaching

Santrock discusses the different Content Areas of Teaching in Chapter 11.  The content area I plan on teaching is Mathematics.  I plan on teaching math at the middle school or high school age.  At this age I need to make sure that my teaching is effective enough that my students actually understand what I am teaching, and not just memorizing it for assessment.

I know a lot about math and how to prove a lot of the concepts.  However, I might have a weakness in motivating my students to love math like I do and understand it like I do.  I don't know why I like math so much or why it has been so easy for me.  I need to find the reason behind this so I can use it to motivate my students.

Chalk and Wire

I am glad that we have Chalk and Wire here at Luther.  It definitely makes putting together a portfolio easier.  And from conversations that I have had with different people who have gone through the ed department and those who work there, it seams that the person who is handing out the teaching jobs appreciate the online resource as well.  It saves paper being online and shows our technological skills in todays world that is technology is strongly emphasized in.

Doan Van Dieu

Doan Van Dieu visited us from the Ho Chi Minh University of Pedagogy.  I must admit that it was hard to pay attention to his presentation.  However some of the things he discussed were a little interesting.

He introduced the topic of parents' roles in their children's marriage.  This is not a theme that is emphasized much today as it has in the past.  I would strongly disagree if my parents were to introduce me to a stranger and then tell me that I would be marrying that person, but their opinion of the person I decide to spend the rest of my life with is important to me.  

My mother is a teacher and education is important to her.  Her and my father both agree that education is an important aspect of my life.  If not, I doubt they would be helping me attend Luther College.  From a very young age I knew the standards of my parents and what they would have liked me to achieve, and that is what I did.  I worked hard to earn good grades in school and was involved in many different activities.  For me, it was not an option to not do well.

Sadly, for some parents today education is not important.  There are parents out there who don't care if their children pass their classes or even show up to school!  I think that we could learn a lot from other cultures.  I think it would be amazing to teach in a country that students attend school because they want to learn.  As I am on my journey of becoming a teacher I have my questions and concerns.  I'd much rather be in a classroom where students are attentive instead of one where students are distracted and don't really care at all about what I am trying to teach them.

"Chalk"- Part II

I must admit I was a little disappointed with the second part of "Chalk". It was not as funny as the first part. And the ending left me wanting more. Did the history teacher renew his contract? Did the AP quit being an AP? Who was that other guy who ate lunch with them all the time and fell flying a kite?

Austin, MN

Since the topic of SPAM was brought up today in class I thought I would educate everyone on a little SPAM knowledge I've picked up over the years.  My hometown (Austin, MN) has a second name... and that name my friends is SPAM TOWN USA!!!!!  Good old George C. Hormel lived in Austin and created SPAM there and now it is home to the SPAM Museum!

"Great" Educational Websites

edutopia

ed.gov

education.com

Barack Obama's View on Education

quotes on education

(will help motivate teachers and remind them why they teach)

"Chalk" Part I

I absolutely loved "Chalk".  It is probably my new favorite movie.  I love The Office and to have a teacher version that was almost as equally awkward and hilarious made my day.

One thing I learned from "Chalk" was that you need to have good classroom management.  If you don't have control over the classroom, the kids aren't going to be learning anything because they won't let you teach them.  They will be too busy running around the room, getting into fights, or talking on their cell phones.

The worse thing I saw in the film was the teacher who only cared about winning Teacher of the Year.  He actually told his students to not outshine him in front of the class, because he doesn't know that much about history.  I think that teachers should probably know a little about what they are talking about, and at least know more than the students do!  When he spoke with the woman who won the year before she said "the focus needs to be on the students, and not on the prize".  I think that is good advice for all teachers.  And really, isn't the prize to teaching the plain and simple fact that students are learning?

I really enjoyed the gym teacher.  She seamed like the best teacher to me.  I would have loved to have her a gym teacher.  I really enjoyed it when she was trying to explain that you need to believe in the children.  I think she said something along the lines of "the students are what they think you think they are", it is less confusing to just say "if you believe in the students, the students will believe in themselves".  The students do better and think that they can do better if someone else believes in them.  It relates to that wonderful little boy speaking to that group of teachers.

And lastly, again I hear it that teaching will exhaust you and you won't have time for a personal life.  Can't wait for that!

3/2/09

"Dalton Sherman Speaks" was so amazing.  This young boy walks out to the stage at what I assume is a teacher convention and speaks to them about believing.  Believing in the students, their coworkers, and themselves.  I hate to admit it but I honestly started crying because it was just so awesome.  When he said "You better not give up on us.  No, you better not.  Because I do know in some cases, you are all we've got.  You're the ones who feed us, who wipe our tears, who hold our hands, or hug us when we need it.  You're the ones who love us when sometimes it feels like no one else does; and when we need it the most."  That statement is sad, but like he said, in some cases, it is true.  He is one extraordinary young boy, and whoever helped him prepare for that speech did a good job!

I think if we trusted each and every student, school atmospheres would be a lot different.  I think the students would be more willing to learn and be well-behaved.  Sadly, this doesn't happen.  Students have reputations of bad behavior so at times teacher can automatically judge that and that is unfair.  A lot of students are struggling with believing in themselves and finding out who they are and what they are good at.  They need someone to believe in them.

Response to Mr. Chambliss:

I appreciate that Mr. Chambliss came to talk to us.  I feel like I did take some things from his talk.  First of all, the past 40 years of his career I thought were very impressive.  I thought it was interesting that he started out as an elementary school teacher and became a superintendent.  I especially thought it was interesting that he got his masters only after teaching for one year.  I greatly appreciate his advice on getting a masters degree and to not do the same thing for 41 years.  I know I will definitely take that to heart when I am a teacher.

Another major thing that I took from his talk was that things are pretty crazy in the world we live in now.  As teachers, we need to help bring better adults into the 21 century.  We need to prepare students to know how to problem solve and do critical thinking.  We need a new model for teaching and our generation is the one that has to come up with it.  Which kind of scares me but at the same time I want to do my part.  I know that part of teaching is not just teaching a certain subject but also teaching the students how to be good citizens of the society around them.

I enjoyed his last words/advice for us.  He said "a life of service provides you lots of rewards".  Being a teacher will drain me at times, and I can't save everybody, but it is a rewarding career.  And that is something I am excited about, because I have already experienced a small part of the reward of teaching during my Ed 185 course.

Are One-to-One Laptop Programs Worth the Investment?

The article "Are One-to-One Laptop Programs Worth the Investment?" did not persuade my opinion on third graders having personal laptops.  I personally believe that it is unnecessary to have one-to-one computers in the classroom.  I understand that it may be helpful for a more hands-on approach to learning, but I also believe that it causes more harm then good. 

Technology is rapidly growing and I understand that today's children will be living in a highly technological world (even more so than we are living in right now), but I don't think schools need to teach them how to use a computer.  My first computer class was in the 6th grade, and I knew how to use a computer better than my parents even before I took the class!  Kids today know how to use technology, I have no idea how, but they do.  I don't think their parents need to buy them a laptop to take to school, unless they are going to college.

Schools don't need to spend money on buying laptops when that money could be better spent on other things.  Art and music classes are not being provided in some areas because of financial reasons.  Do we want our children to know how to blog or play a game on the internet?  Or do we want them to appreciate a painting, or struggle through music theory?  We should want our children to be well-rounded.  As a younger student I loved music and art class.  I would probably love goofing around on computers during class too.  It is easy to say "No playing games on the computer during class."  However, that rule can not be enforced every single second of the class period.  How would the teacher even know?

Lastly, who is going to trust a third grader with a laptop? Those things are expensive!  My hard drive just crashed and I did not enjoy spending the money to buy a new one and have someone replace it.  If each child had their own personal laptop, I can just imagine how many "accidental" things could happen to it.  The students can understand that a laptop is expensive and they should be careful.  But accidents do happen.  A lot.  Especially with the younger ages.

Reflection on the New Teacher Panel

The new teacher panel, for me, was not very helpful.  I appreciate that they took their time to talk to us, but a lot of what was discussed I had already heard (my mom is a teacher) or could assume for myself from the things I have learned in classes.  I did think their view on teaching in a small school was interesting because that might be something I am interested in doing.

I did think it was kind of sad that students these days are not healthy and have low self-esteem.  Things are way different than when I was in elementary, middle, or even high school.  It is so sad that all kids know how to do is use the computer or play a video game.  I was outside getting dirty and getting bruises when I was in elementary school, not going on the internet on my personal laptop.

Paper Clips

I thought the movie "Paper Clips" was very touching and emotional. However, not until the last five or ten minutes did I find out that students actually learned something from the project.

It was nice to see the journey that the students and teachers went through. It certainly was exciting. I think it would be pretty neat to get a letter from the dad in Happy Days. I am definitely jealous of their experience with the Holocaust survivors. I think that that was one of the most emotional parts of the film, when it showed the survivors telling their personal stories.

As far as relating the film to educational psychology...
I do not think that the teachers were very knowledgeable in the subject prior to the start of the project. I do, however, think that they did a good job of motivating and working effectively with the students. I think that the teachers took a constructivist approach in their teaching because the students did a lot of research on their own. I also think that of all the ecucational philosophers, Dewey would do a project like this. I also think that when the teachers started this project they didn't really know where it was going to go. I don't think there was any long-term planning, or any short-term planning. I think there was really really short-term planning.

I think, though, that it was a good thing what these students and teachers did. They started out trying to learn about diversity, and the learned that plus much more. They touched the lives of many people. That was not the aim of the project once it started, but that is what happened.
I like that their memorial is used for other schools to come and have the students teach them about what they learned.

Teaching Abroad Speaker 2/3/09

Teaching abroad is something I am a little interested in so I went to the speaker on 2/3/09.
Something he said caught my attention right away: "Overseas education is one of the best kept secrets in the world".

We watched a video on the Singapore American School. Since I am interested in teaching middle school I thought it was pretty crazy that just their middle school has over 900 students. The video approached the transition from America to teaching abroad at the Singapore American school by saying that you would be treated like royalty your first month. Meaning, people will help you set up your bank account, show you around, discuss the benefits, basicly help you out in the new setting away from home. The housing in Singapore is very modern and is equally as nice as living in the United States.

I was surprised at the perks of teaching abroad:
-it is easy to travel
-competative salaries
-at some schools there is an allowance for housing as well as an anual amount of home leave!
-things are different in other countries: the kids go to school because they actually want to learn!

The things that are not so great about teaching abroad:
-no job security (no union)

Something that I thought was very interesting was that our speaker told us that of his time spent abroad and in the United States, one person was expelled in 15 years while he was abroad but he could see 19 students expelled in one year here in the US.