Adventures in Learning

Children Movies

Since I am a lover of media of all kinds, and also spend a lot of time
with children, I have made it a point to look with a critical eye and
a open ears. I have my favorites and there are many that make me sad.
I love movies, books, and music that respect children and adults both.
I love media that understands that life is complex, dirty, scary and
fun. Roald Dahl’s books meet this criteria, and inspire me. Yesterday,
I got the chance to see Wes Anderson’s adaptation of  Dahl’s
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”.  This beautifully crafted tale of a family of
foxes coming to terms with being wild animals and their place in the
world, made me smile. I would highly recommend it. I was happy to read
Roger Ebert’s Review of the film,
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091124/REVIEWS/911249995.

Read this selection from his review…. and than think back over the
books and movies that fit this criteria…. and tell me why.

Roger Ebert in his review for “Fantastic Mr. Fox” -

Like the hero of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” also based
on one of his books, the creatures of Dahl’s valley seem to know more
than they’re letting on; perhaps even secrets we don’t much want to
know. Children, especially, will find things they don’t understand,
and things that scare them. Excellent. A good story for children
should suggest a hidden dimension, and that dimension of course is the
lifetime still ahead of them. Six is a little early for a movie to
suggest to kids that the case is closed. Oh, what if the kids start
crying about words they don’t know? — Mommy, Mommy! What’s creme
brulee?” Show them, for goodness sake. They’ll thank you for it. Take
my word on this.

How Arts Training Improves Attention and Cognition

roomthily:

If there were a surefire way to improve your brain, would you try it? Judging by the abundance of products, programs and pills that claim to offer “cognitive enhancement,” many people are lining up for just such quick brain fixes. Recent research offers a possibility with much better, science-based support: that focused training in any of the arts—such as music, dance or theater—strengthens the brain’s attention system, which in turn can improve cognition more generally. Furthermore, this strengthening likely helps explain the effects of arts training on the brain and cognitive performance that have been reported in several scientific studies, such as those presented in May 2009 at a neuroeducation summit at Johns Hopkins University (co-sponsored by the Dana Foundation).

We know that the brain has a system of neural pathways dedicated to attention. We know that training these attention networks improves general measures of intelligence. And we can be fairly sure that focusing our attention on learning and performing an art—if we practice frequently and are truly engaged—activates these same attention networks. We therefore would expect focused training in the arts to improve cognition generally.

[…]

It seems unlikely that training in the arts will always improve general cognition, however, since so many factors are at play. No single art form is interesting to all people, and some people may never warm up to any type of art. Individual differences in relevant brain networks, which are probably genetically influenced to some degree, help explain this variability in both appreciation of and ability to create art. For example, one person may have an auditory system that easily discriminates between tones and a motor system optimized for fine finger control, which may predispose her to playing a musical instrument. Someone with agility, coordination and a good ability to imitate motions of others, on the other hand, might naturally gravitate toward dance or sports. These differences may also help explain why people are passionate about one type of art but not others.

via The Dana Foundation

except drama - “The IQ scores of children taking drama lessons did not increase, but these children did improve more than the other groups on ratings of selected social skills.”

RIP Theodore R. Sizer, Great education reformer

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/22/AR2009102204839.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Can I get a Masters in Life...

I become more and more amazed that some programs are able to cover all the material in just one year of study. To me education is life and I believe the study of education broadens for me every page I read. The different areas of philosophy, the ideas on learning, the social and spiritual aspects of learning, the practical applications of teaching, the internal reflection needed, the need for social justice, the interpersonal wisdom needed to dance with other teachers and administrations parents, and conditions. I have a bookcase full of books, and I feel like I just started. We often say we are life long learners… I would say to be a good teacher you need more then just a degree, you need to fully embrace the ideas of being a life long learner and understand that means when we talk about studying education, we really should say we are studying life and what it means to be alive. So I would ask can I get a masters in life or would it be a doctorate….and if so, can I defer my loans until I master it….