Professional Development or Cupid (aka, Jack Parke)?

Dear Nicole (Parke),

I know you couldn't be with us today, but I just wanted to let you know that the Reading Specialists here in Springfield thought today was almost as good as this darling picture of your new son Jack.
Here were the "Plus" remarks:

• We loved the all-in-one-day approach with time to debrief and reflect deeply at the end of the day.
• We liked the smaller groups - we felt more comfortable .
• There was more time to problem solve around difficult students and teaching approaches
• We were reminded that we are not alone. We share common problems and can share ideas with our colleagues.
• This was a great use of human resources and didn't cost lots of money for travel and other expenses. We utilized and shared our expertise within our department!
• It was inspiring! I have ideas that I can use tomorrow!

Our "Deltas" were constructive:

• Don't pick a week with only 4 days - we do need to be with our students!
• Scheduling was tricky, but most of us were able to work it out.
• Give us more room to write the great things we are observing in each lesson!
• We would love to see other models used in our district: Kindergarten Interventions, more Guided Reading Plus and Comprehension Focus Groups - especially the writing component in the last two.
• We need updating of our Small Literacy Group training - at the beginning of the school year so that we can apply the new learning immediately!

I have to brag on our teachers...they are so smart and full of great, positive thoughts! So...since we weren't able to kiss those sweet chubby cheeks of Jack's today, I guess we did have a great day anyway. As one teacher put it, "I really enjoyed the cluster visits. It was really nice to spend the day learning with new friends. I felt like it was an informal way to learn with little stress (the best way to learn) and great information! I learned a lot!"

For more information on Springfield's version of "Cluster Visits," contact Sherre Marek at smarek@spsmail.org . For a chance to kiss Jack's chubby cheeks, contact nparke@spsmail.org - good luck!

Does Our Brain Have a Switch that Makes Everyone an Einstein?

I subscribe to a free newsletter from the Dana Foundation (http://www.dana.org/). It's called Brain in the News. There's a great variety of interesting articles on current brain research each month - like It's Never Too Late to Grow Your Brain, The Sounds of Shapes Allows Blind People to 'See' Again - you get the idea. The articles are based on scientific research reports and represent a compilation of published research from well-known sources.

The essence of the Title article is questioning whether keeping our minds active can increase problem solving skills.

As teachers and administrators in public schools, we are all looking for the quick fix, silver bullet, stun gun approach to leaving no child left behind. I was particularly drawn to the idea that "challenging your brain can have positive effects." "Brain plasticity" is a big topic among computer software companies (like FastForword - http://www.scilearn.com/) which claim to "strengthen brain processing efficiency for learning and reading success." (Be sure to read carefully through their list of references.)

However, the truth according to other researchers (Cohen, Andreasen, Beeman) is that "extravagant claims about ways of improving your brain on the basis of evidence from MRI machines are likely to be snake oil." So, to those of you thinking we can just press the Easy Button, sorry...it still takes good teaching and good teachers.

The article continues to discuss What Makes Genius? I love the idea that we can all have those moments of inspriation or insight - but "we don't really know what we are seeing when we watch the brain work (on the MRI)...It may be 300 years before we can do things like enhance our creativity...some say in 20 years we can make you smarter, but I'm a pessimist." And I could be dead by then!

The article ends with "There's going to be a lot of snake oil on the market in the decades, if not centuries, before we can come up with any more solid prescriptions to save our highest creative selves from brain rot." So in the meantime...let's work on our teaching skills and help the children that are struggling to read.

Postscript: test your brain out at http://www.brainmetrix.com/ or go to http://www.sharpbrains.com/ to get "high-quality, research based information and guidance to navigate the brain-training and cognitive-fitness market." Or, better still, read a good book!

Flexibility = Knowing Something Well

I like to cook - from scratch, trying new recipes for just about every category of food. I cook a lot. We almost always eat at home where I use fresh ingredients to make scrumptious meals for family and friends. I feel very confident in the kitchen because I enjoy food and its preparation as much as I enjoy eating it.

The other day, I was making "Loaded Oatmeal Cookies" and at the point of stirring in the oatmeal with the chocolate chips, craisins, and nuts...I realized I didn't have enough oatmeal. I didn't have time to run to the store. I searched the cabinets and found some packets of instant oatmenl - dumped in about 3 packets to make up the missing oatmeal, and...problem solved! I was very proud of my ingenuity. The cookies were delicious after all.

When you know something well, you can use your knowledge in flexible and fluent ways. This doesn't happen overnight. It happens by having many experiences with something.

Dislexia

When daughter Susan was in middle school, she had identical twin friends named "Jenny" and "Michelle." I had the hardest time telling them apart for quite a long time. After spending lots of time with "Jenny," who was probably the one closer to Susan, I began to notice slight differences in the twins' personalities, facial expressions, tone of voice, preferences in fashion, etc. After being around Jenny so much, it was easy to tell Jenny from Michelle. There was no mistaking one for the other once I knew one of them well.

Now the girls are grown and I still have no trouble deciding who is who. I know each of them, wherever and whenever I see them. So it is with children and those letters that they confuse: b/d/p/q, for instance.

Very, very few children truly are dislexic. Most children just need to be taught to notice the salient features. Watching for children's confusions and teaching them to look at the features that make up a particular letter can help solidify that knowledge. Then, the others letters no longer get confused with the one that is well known.

I have worked with hundreds of children who have common confusions like the b/d/p/q or w/m or f/t - in my 14 years of experience in teaching struggling readers, I have never seen a true dislexic child. I guess there really is something called "dislexia," but I've never known a child who could not be taught directionality of letters and words.

Experience Compliments Learning

Have you ever been somewhere new and found it's hard to soak in everything around you? I remember looking for a house when we were moving to Springfield. I didn't know the area that well; and if you know me, you know that I am easily disoriented.

We spent 3 busy days driving through different parts of Springfield, trying to find the house that would fit our needs. I was totally confused. Once we moved and I became familiar with the area, I was trying to remember and asking my husband, "Is that the street with the ugly Spanish house?" or "That looks like a house we saw..." Most of the time, I was way off - a clear sign of my confused state when all was unfamiliar to me.

It's like that for any learner. With very little experience, many children of low economic status seem to be in a fog, lost, easily confused, or mistaken for "slow learners" in the world of school.

Experience, or lack of it, can affect how we appear to the world. We can look like idiots when in another country or culture as we grapple for the right words or try to find our way around.

I have watched with awe when traveling in New York City with my daughters. They have no trouble navigating the subways. Me - I'm so scared and disoriented that I become like a little lost puppy tagging behind. My daughters seem to feel at ease and are able to lead the way. They have traveled the world so they should be more at ease.

Reminds me of watching them play "Mario" when they were young. Goodness, they knew all the little tricks and turns. But I'm more confident than they are when it comes to something I've done a lot: sewing.

When you're observing children or anyone, don't be so quick to think they are "slow." It's probably inexperience.

"What if we viewed being smart as a goal that students can work toward rather than as something they either are or are not?" - Ron Ritchhart

Lesson Number 1

Not every lesson gets a number. But Lesson Number 1 is for the Observer:

Always Be Tentative.

The Observer can never really know what the Learner is Thinking. Thinking and Learning go hand-in-hand.

When I'm observing a person that I'm teaching, I have some tentative thoughts about whether something I've taught or modeled or suggested is shifting the learner's thinking. But I can't know for sure what's happening in that person's brain. I can only theorize from the behaviors I observe. Being tentative allows me to develop my "theories" and adjust my teaching accordingly.

When communicating with someone, especially when teaching someone, always remain tentative.