bridging the gap

2011-05-17T16:34:00.000-07:00

DEVELOPING KIDS´ PATIENCE

The marshmallow experiment is a famous test of this concept conducted by Walter Mischel at Stanford University and discussed by Daniel Goleman in his popular work. In the 1960s, a group of four-year olds were given a marshmallow and promised another, only if they could wait 20 minutes before eating the first one. Some children could wait and others could not. The researchers then followed the progress of each child into adolescence, and demonstrated that those with the ability to wait were better adjusted and less dependable (determined via surveys of their parents and teachers), and scored an average of 210 points higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

Interactive We did all this ...a blast!

2011-05-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

When you are big

2011-04-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

This is a great video to work with values in class. A very nice song to treat bullying in an amusing way with the little ones. Hope you can use it!

Stop psychiatric labeling of kids

2011-02-28T04:06:00.000-08:00

Really powerful message .... watch and reflect! What are we doing with the new generation of geniuses?

Good wishes

2011-01-26T05:32:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays to all the teachers at heart!!!!

2011-01-05T16:26:00.000-08:00

The creation of the teacher ..for all the teachers at heart!

2010-12-16T06:07:00.000-08:00

THE CREATION OF THE TEACHER

The Good Lord was creating teachers. It was His sixth day of 'overtime' and He knew that this was a tremendous responsibility for teachers would touch the lives of so many impressionable young children. An angel appeared to Him and said, “You are taking a long time to figure this one out."

"Yes," said the Lord,” but have you read the specs on this order?"

TEACHER:

... must stand above all students, yet be on their level

... must be able to do 180 things not connected with the subject being taught

... must run on coffee, coke and leftovers,

... must communicate vital knowledge to all students daily and be right most of the time

... must have more time for others than for herself/himself

must have a smile that can endure through pay cuts, problematic children, and worried parents

... must go on teaching when parents question every move and administration is not supportive

... must have 6 pair of hands

"Six pair of hands, “said the angel, "that's impossible" "Well, “said the Lord, " it is not the hands that are the problem. It is the three pairs of eyes that are presenting the most difficulty!" The angel looked incredulous, “Three pairs of eyes...on a standard model?" The Lord nodded His head, “One pair can see a student for what he is and not what others have labeled him as. Another pair of eyes is in the back of the teacher's head to see what should not be seen, but what must be known. The eyes in the front are only to look at the child as he 'goofs up' in order to reflect, “I understand and I still believe in you", without so much as saying a word to the child." "Lord,” said the angel, “This is a very large project and I think you should work on it tomorrow". "I can't," said the Lord, " for I have come very close to creating something much like myself. I have one that comes to work when she is sick.....teaches a class of children that do not want to learn....has a special place in her heart for children who are not her own.....understands the struggles of those who have difficulty....never takes the students for granted..." The angel looked closely at the model the Lord was creating. "It is too soft-hearted,” said the angel. "Yes," said the Lord, “but also tough, you can not imagine what this teacher can endure or do, if necessary" "Can this teacher think?" asked the angel. "Not only think,” said the Lord, "but reason and compromise." The angel came closer to have a better look at the model and ran his finger over the teacher's cheek. "Well Lord,” said the angel, your job looks fine but there is a leak. I told you were putting too much into this model. You can not imagine the stress that will be placed upon the teacher." The Lord moved in closer and lifted the drop of moisture from the teacher's cheek. It shone and glistened in the light. "It is not a leak," He said, “It is a tear." "A tear? What is that?" asked the angel, “What is a tear for?" The Lord replied with great thought, “It is for the joy and pride of seeing a child accomplish even the smallest task. It is for the loneliness of children who have a hard time to fit in and compassion for the feelings of their parents. It comes from the pain of not being able to reach some children and the disappointment those children feel in themselves. It comes often when a teacher has been with a class for a year and must say good-bye to those students and get ready to welcome a new class." "My, “said the angel, " The tear thing is a great idea...You are a genius!!"

The Lord looked somber, “I didn't put it there."

We are smart.. for all the proud mothers!

2010-12-15T11:09:00.000-08:00

Mothers’ Brains Are Bigger

By LISA BELKIN

Yes, it’s based on a tiny sample — just 19 women, all in their 30s and all college educated. True, it’s a preliminary finding.

But let’s put that aside for the moment and indulge ourselves, shall we?

The study, which appears in this month’s issue of the journal Behavioral Neuroscience finds that women’s brains grow in the months after they give birth, leaving them smarter than they were before.

O.K., O.K., I know. From where you sit, it doesn’t feel that way, what with all the absentmindedness and exhaustion, occasional inept moments, fits of anger or crying jags. But the neuroscientist Pilyoung Kim, of the National Institutes of Health, measured the brains of new mothers and found that those who had “positive” interactions with their infants showed “increased gray matter volume in the midbrain,” the region linked to such skills as judgment, reasoning and emotional processing. It’s the same effect previously seen in postpartum lab animals and is likely an evolutionary response to increased demands on a female to keep offspring alive.

The key word here, though, is “positive.” The brain growth seems to be a self-perpetuating cycle, with mothers learning coping skills with each warm and successful interaction with their newborns. In this way, the research might provide a window onto the mechanics of postpartum depression, because the cycle seems not to “take” as completely in women with postpartum depression. As Craig Kinsley, professor of psychology at the University of Richmond, asks in a commentary to the Kim article: “Is it possible that just as there are edifices that are poorly constructed and crumble at the first challenge by earthquake or hurricane, there may be defectively assembled maternal brains that fail in their task of caring adequately for young?”

But I digress. There will be more research to worry us about the way this process can go wrong.

For today, Mama, just smile quietly to yourself, knowing yours is bigger.

Math groups

2010-08-24T06:01:00.000-07:00

Are you a leopard, a chipmunk or a giraffe?

This is a funny scene of "Desperate Housewives" where you can see how children are divided into groups with animal names according to their performance levels in math. Students are given activities with a different degree of difficulty and they take that in naturally. Apparently noone knows which is the brightest group, but parents crack the code and competition starts.

A great school policy spoiled by adults. Are your children too competitive? What about you?

Nati.....You`ll always be in our hearts!!!!

2010-08-16T11:59:00.001-07:00

And it seems to me you lived your life

Like a candle in the wind

Never fading with the sunset

when the rain set in

And even though we try

The truth brings us to tears

All our words cannot express

The joy you brought us through the years

For all my friends who are mothers too...John Medina´s next book - "Brain rules for baby"

2010-08-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five

Every time I lectured to a group of parents-to-be about baby brain development, I made a mistake.

The parents, I thought, had come for a tasty helping of science about the brain in utero—a little neural crest biology here, a little axonal migration there. But in the Q&A session after each lecture, the questions were always the same. The first, delivered by a very pregnant woman one rainy night in Seattle, was “What can my baby learn while she is still in my womb?” Another woman asked, “What’s going to happen to my marriage after we bring our baby home?” A dad delivered the third question, with some authority: “How do I get my kid into Harvard?” An anxious mom asked the fourth question: “How can I make sure my little girl is going to be happy?” And the fifth belonged to a downright noble grandmother. “How do I make my grandchild good?” she asked. She had taken over parenting responsibilities from a drug-addicted daughter. She did not want the same thing to happen again.

No matter how many times I tried to steer the conversation toward the esoteric world of neural differentiation, parents asked variations on these same five questions—over and over again. Finally, I realized my mistake. I was giving parents Ivory Tower when they needed Ivory Soap. So, this book will not be concerned with the nature of gene regulation in the developing rhombencephalon. Brain Rules for Baby instead will be guided by the practical questions my audiences keep asking. “Brain Rules” are the name I give what we know for sure about how the early-childhood brain works. Each one is quarried from the much larger seams of behavioral psychology, cellular biology, and molecular biology. Each was selected for its ability to assist newly minted moms and dads in the daunting task of caring for a helpless little human.

I certainly understand the need for answers. Having a first child is like swallowing an intoxicating drink made of equal parts joy and terror, chased with a bucketful of transitions nobody ever tells you about. I know firsthand: I have two boys, both of whom came with bewildering questions, behavioral issues, and no instructions.

I soon learned that’s not all they came with. They possessed a gravitational pull that could wrest from me a ferocious love and a tenacious loyalty. They also were magnetic; I could not help staring at their perfect fingernails, clear eyes, dramatic shocks of hair. By the time my second child was born, I understood that it is possible to split up love ad infinitum and not decrease any single portion of it. With parenting, it is truly possible to multiply by dividing. My wife and I still marvel at how different our sons are from us, and yet how similar. Having kids is like mailing yourself a letter from the most delightful, meaningful future you can imagine.

My children also amplified the meaning of my work as a scientist. Watching a baby’s brain develop is like having a front-row seat to the Big Bang. It starts out as a single cell in the womb, quiet as a secret. Within a few weeks, it is pumping out nerve cells at the astonishing rate of 8,000 per second. Within a few months, it is on its way to becoming the world’s finest thinking machine. These mysteries fueled not only wonder and love but, as a rookie parent, I remember, anxiety and questions.

TOO MANY MYTHS

Parents need facts, not just advice, about raising their children. Unfortunately, those facts are difficult to find in the ever-growing mountain of parenting books. And blogs. And message boards, and podcasts, and mother-in-laws, and every relative who’s ever had a child. There’s plenty of information out there. It’s just hard for parents to tell what to believe.

The great thing about science is that it takes no sides—and no prisoners. Once you know which research to trust, the big picture emerges and myths fade away. To gain my trust, research must pass my “grumpfactor.” To make it into this book, studies must first have been published in the refereed literature and then successfully replicated. Some have been confirmed dozens of times. Where I make an exception for cutting-edge research, reliable but not yet fully vetted by the passage of time, I will note it.

To me, parenting is about brain development. That’s not surprising, given what I do for a living. I am a developmental molecular biologist, with strong interests in the genetics of psychiatric disorders. My research life has been spent mostly as a private consultant, a for-hire troubleshooter, to industries and public research institutions in need of a geneticist with mental-health expertise. I also founded the Talaris Institute, located in Seattle next to the University of Washington, whose original mission involved studying how infants process information at the molecular, cellular, and behavioral levels. That is how I came to talk to groups of parents from time to time, like on that rainy Seattle night.

Scientists certainly don’t know everything about the brain. But what we do know gives us our best chance at raising smart, happy children. And it is relevant whether you just discovered you are pregnant, already have a toddler, or find yourself needing to raise grandchildren. So it will be my pleasure in this book to answer the big questions parents have asked me—and debunk their big myths, too. Here are some of my favorites:

Myth: Playing Mozart to your womb will improve your baby’s future math scores.

Truth: Your baby will simply remember Mozart after birth—along with many other thingsshe hears, smells, and tastes in the womb. If you want her to do well in mathin her later years, the greatest thing you can do is to teach her impulse control in her early years.

Myth: Exposing your infant or toddler to language DVDs will boost his vocabulary.

Truth: Some DVDs can actually reduce a toddler’s vocabulary. It is true that thenumber and variety of words you use when talking to your baby boost both his vocabulary and his IQ. But the words have to come from you—a real, live human being.

Myth: To boost their brain power, children need French lessons by age 3 and a room piledwith “brain-friendly” toys and a library of educational DVDs.

Truth: The greatest pediatric brain-boosting technology in the world is probably a plain cardboard box, a fresh box of crayons, and two hours. The worst is probably your new flat-screen TV.

Myth: Telling your children they are smart will boost their confidence.

Truth: They’ll become less willing to work on challenging problems. If you want to get your baby into Harvard, praise her effort instead.

Myth: Children somehow find their own happiness.

Truth: The greatest predictor of happiness is having friends. How do you make and keep friends? By being good at deciphering nonverbal communication. Learning a musical instrument boosts this ability by 50 percent. Text messaging may destroy it.

Research like this is continually published in respected scientific journals. But unless you have a subscription to the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, this rich procession of findings may pass you by. This book is meant to let you know what scientists know—without having a Ph.D. to understand it.

One of lucre´s presentations... very interesting material to share with everybody!

2010-07-21T10:09:00.000-07:00

THE BIOLOGY OF LEARNING: a scalpel free tour of your amazing brain.
by Nse. Lucrecia Prat Gay
Lucrecia Prat Gay at Instituto Albert Einstein: “Heads have Hearts Too”. November, 2009.
*“The greatest unexplored territory in the world is the space between our ears.”* BILL O´BRIEN They say crisis also means opportunity. Well then there was a positive outcome to World War II after all: the pain and tragedy of head injuries catapulted brain research into the foreground of scientific investigation. This explosion of research gave birth to a new field of knowledge: cognitive science or brain science. In 1990 the final years of the 20th century were proclaimed as the DECADE OF THE BRAIN. More has been learnt about the brain in the last ten years than in all previous scientific history. As teachers, Heads or Coordinators, we can no longer ignore the stunning contributions of neurosciences to the field of education. Powerful concepts and discoveries including the role of emotions, gender differences and environments must force us to stop and redesign our conventional educational models. As Head of Rio de la Plata School, I have been putting into practice this “brain friendly revolution” for twelve years now and the results are astonishing: discipline problems, absentee rates and staff exodus dramatically drop in the light of this new approach. There is a need to change paradigms: from psychology to biology. Digging into the biology of learning we will be able to teach effectively, with the brain in mind. Understanding HOW we learn will ensure everyone will learn. By getting more of the brain involved, learners will understand the subject better, be intrinsically motivated, enjoy the process and remember it longer. Other than teaching the way we learnt we should design our educational systems around this solid theory. This is not another trendy approach, this is neuroscience: tested and classroom proven. Dr.Robin Fogarty claims “Brain science is about how we learn, pedagogy is about how we teach”! MEET YOUR MAGIC BRAIN 1. The brain is like a sieve: in the early stages of processing, it drops data it doesn´t need or think it will use. 2. It grows dendrites and makes connections by stimulation of a rich environment. 3. Several billion bites of information pass through each and every second of your life. 4. The brain uses 20% of the energy in your body and generates enough energy to illuminate a lightbulb (when the person is awake!). 5. It is best at learning what it needs to SURVIVE (academic success is somewhere about 53 on its list!). 6. There can be a spread in differences between 2 to 3 years in completely normal developing brains. 7. Brain plasticity continues as one ages. 8. It learns from chaos and seeks order and patterns. 9. It has 100 billion active neurons,(same amount of stars in the Milky Way!) that can grow up to 20.000 connections or branches on each nerve cell. 10. It has three distinct brains, two sides that work in harmony, at least eight different intelligence centers and… …IT HOLDS THE KEY TO YOUR OWN PERSONAL LEARNING!
Lucrecia Prat Gay (center) with J. Williams (left) and A.L. Regueira ((right) Heads of English Department, IAE, Primary School.
SOME RECENT DISCOVERIES NEUROGENESIS Dr.Gage in Salk Institute, California, is undergoing studies on the birth of new neurons: neurogenesis. It has been discovered that new brain cells can be generated in hippocampus as we age. This new cells become functional, improve memory and learning. SOCIAL-ENVIRONMENTAL NEUROSCIENCE Physical environment influences learning. The old paradigm stated that genes ran our lives, now we know that our mass brain plasticity is susceptible to social factors. (Kandel 1998, Nobel Prize) ALLOSTASIS The old paradigm believed in homeostasis, back to normal state. Scientists as Dr.David Diamond now confirm that our body and mind pay a biological prize for distress. SLEEP Without adequate sleep, decision-making is impaired and new learning is practically absent. Sleep gives your brain time to do some “housekeeping” and rearrange circuits, process emotional events and clean out mental debris. It eliminates unnecessary pathways and clears the way for new learning. Storage of information occurs during sleep. The brain is the site of language acquisition, thus a better understanding of brain structures and functions will “Let us bridge the gap between what we teach and they remember” (Dr.Spencer Kagan) The brain revolution is here to stay! Make sure you aren´t left behind! *LUCRECIA PRAT GAY* has been teaching for 28 years. She holds a Self-Esteem Practioner Degree and has finished her studies in Neurosicoeducation. Lucrecia also studied Brain Based Learning overseas, and has been successfully putting the model into practice for the last ten years. She is now an International Teacher Trainer for Oxford University Press.
Top

How much we depend on others......

2010-07-16T06:12:00.000-07:00

Success

Success depends on the support of other people. The only hurdle between you and what you want to be is the support of others.

Look at it this way: an executive depends on people to carry out his instructions. If they don’t, the company will fire the executive, not the employees. Likewise a politician depends on voters to elect him.

There were times in history when a person could gain a position of authority through force and hold it with force or threats. In those days a man either cooperated with the leader or risked loosing his head. But today a person either supports you willingly or doesn’t support you at all.

But how can you get people’s willingness to support you? The answer wrapped up in one phrase is “ THINK RIGHT TOWARD PEOPLE”.

When a group of people has to consider names for a new post or a promotion, in 9 cases out of 10 the “LIKEABILITY” factor is given far more weight than the technical factor. “ I know he has a good academic and technical background, I don’t question his competence, but I am concerned about the acceptance he would receive" .

The above holds true even in selecting scholars for university professorships. Unfair? Unacademic? No. If the fellow isn’t likeable he can’t be expected to get through to his students with maximum effectiveness.

President Lyndon Johnson even developed a personal plan for thinking right toward people:

1- Learn to remember names.

2- Be a comfortable person so there is no strain in being with you.

BE AN OLD-SHOE kind of individual.

3- Guard against the impression that you KNOW-IT-ALL.

4- Cultivate the quality of being interesting.

5- Sincerely attempt to heal every misunderstanding that you have had.

6- Try to get the “SCRATCHY” elements out of your personality.

7- Never miss out on an opportunity to say a word of sincere congratulations upon anyone’s achievement, or express sympathy in sorrow or disappointment.

Super simple songs

2010-07-12T14:44:00.000-07:00

This is a beautiful song to teach the numbers in kindergraten!!! My niece´s favourite one. Speacially for Luna!! She is only two and she can sing it through and through!!!

Children see children do -

2010-06-30T17:08:00.001-07:00

For parents and teachers

This video shows how we can be the wrong example to our children by simply being ourselves! The serious task of being the role model.

Too real to be funny?

2010-04-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

Are we heading to this? Is the whole school system in the students or even worse in their parents´hands? Give it a thought!

Benjamin Button - What if ...?

2010-04-15T06:23:00.000-07:00

This movie, apart from being one of my favourites, has great instances to teach different things. For those who have advanced levels this video about the accident is fantastic to teach 3rd type conditional in a fun, meaningful and comprenhensive way!!
Hope you can use it!

Motherhood

2010-04-15T05:56:00.000-07:00

I´m up and about, ready to share more ideas and tips after a while now.

My baby was born on March 3rd and since that moment my life has changed completely forever. I´m a whole different person now, and Tobias is responsible for that. I wanted to share this quote Silvina sent me with all of you, not only because it´s absolutely true , but also because I liked it very much!!!

“A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for”

Amazing webpage!

2010-02-24T08:33:00.000-08:00

Dear teachers:

Here goes a real life saver. In this webpage you´ll find all sort of free worksheets divided by topic and age, when you find the worksheet you like you can either save it or print it. Help yourselves!!!

http://www.tlsbooks.com/englishworksheets.htm

Specially for Rio de la Plata staff...lots of love!

2010-02-19T06:42:00.000-08:00

You Can Make History (Young Again)

Music: Elton JohnLyrics: Bernie Taupin

I can feel the time closing in
I can feel the years crawling through my skin
And if I doubt myself I can count on the rain
To cover the tears of this aging game
But I can count on you to play your part
I don't miss a beat of your animal heart
And when you push from behind I know
I canCover a mountain with the palm of my hand
And oh babe, you can make history young again
You could rewrite, you could decide
The things that should or shouldn't have been
You could look at me in the scheme of things
Oh babe, you could make history young again
I can watch the weeks sweeping by
I can recollect the hearts hanging out to dry
When the world shuts down I can touch my fears
I can hear lost youth ringing in my ears
But I lost nothing when I gained you
You just blew me away with yesterdays news
When you run your fingers down my spine
It's like throwing a switch on the hands of time
Ancient minds, ancient livesGot a way of coming around
If I knew then what I know now
I'd make it back to you somehow

Interesting web page

2010-02-08T07:08:00.000-08:00

Sir Ken Robinson´s web page! Plenty of videos and radio interviews to enjoy and to learn from.

Don´t miss the chance to know about the writer of

" The element"

Hope you take profit from his enriching ideas! Your students will certainly benefit.

http://www.sirkenrobinson.com/

Way back into love!!!

2010-02-05T06:40:00.000-08:00

Soundtrack of the movie " Music and Lyrics". It´s a great song to present Present Perfect Continuous and some other structures and collocations.

Hope you can use it with your students!

The very hungry caterpillar

2010-02-05T06:31:00.000-08:00

Meet the author of this wonderful story and discover how he created it!

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/video.jsp?pID=1640149541&bcpid=1640149541&bclid=1557820329&bctid=14259130001

Specially for teachers

2010-02-03T12:23:00.000-08:00

A true life saver for all the teachers! All kinds of worksheets to download for free....! Can you believe it?

Browse through this link, you´ll find whatever you need!

http://vanda51.blogspot.com/2009/08/means-of-transport-land.html

Tea, tea, tea song!

2010-02-01T11:12:00.000-08:00

Specially dedicated to Mariela who managed to put together the most amazing tea table for all the Rio de la Plata staff!! Hats off to you!!!!

Famous characters

2010-01-31T13:45:00.000-08:00

Here are the answers......

To see full size image click on the link below:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01367/famous-faces-answe_1367694a.jpg

1 Bill Gates, Microsoft founder
2 Homer, Greek poet
3 Cui Jian, Chinese singer
4 Vladimir Lenin, Russian revolutionary
5 Pavel Korchagin, Russian artist
6 Bill Clinton, former US President
7 Peter the Great, Russian leader
8 Margaret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister
9 Bruce Lee, martial arts actor
10 Winston Churchill, former British Prime Minister
11 Henri Matisse, French artist
12 Gengis Khan, Mongolian warlord
13 Napoleon Bonaparte, French military leader
14 Che Guevara, Marxist revolutionary
15 Fidel Castro, former Prime Minister and President of Cuba
16 Marlon Brando, actor
17 Yasser Arafat, former leader of Palastine
18 Julius Caesar, Roman emperor
19 Claire Lee Chennault, Second World War US Lieutenant
20 Luciano Pavarotti, singer
21 George W. Bush, former US President
22 The Prince of Wales
23 Liu Xiang, Chinese hurdler
24 Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General
25 Zhang An (the painter)
26 Mikhail Gorbachev, former Russian leader
27 Li Tiezi (the painter)
28 Dante Alighieri, Florentine poet
29 Dai Dudu (the painter)
30 Pele, footballer
31 Guan Yu, Chinese warlord
32 Ramses II, Egyptian pharoah
33 Charles De Gaulle, French general
34 Albert Nobel, Swedish chemist, founder of Nobel prizes
35 Franklin Roosevelt, former US President
36 Ernest Hemingway, American novelist
37 Elvis Presley, American singer
38 Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist
39 William Shakespeare, English playwright
40 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer
41 Steven Spielberg, American film director
42 Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter
43 Marie Curie, physicist and pioneer of radioactivity
44 Zhou Enlai, first Premier of the People’s Republic of China
45 Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, German writer
46 Laozi, Chinese philosopher
47 Marilyn Monroe, American actress
48 Salvador Dali, Spanish painter
49 Dowager Cixi, former ruler of China
50 Ariel Sharon, former Israeli Prime Minister
51 Qi Baishi, Chinese painter
52 Qin Shi Huang, former Emperor of China
53 Mother Teresa, Roman Catholic Missionary
54 Song Qingling, Chinese politician
55 Rabindranath Tagore, Indian poet
56 Otto Von Bismarck, German statesman
57 Run Run Shaw, Chinese media mogul
58 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher
59 Audrey Hepburn, Belgian-born actress
60 Ludwig Van Beethoven, German composer
61 Adolf Hitler, Nazi leader
62 Benito Mussolini, Italian fascist politician
63 Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq
64 Maxim Gorky, Russian writer
65 Sun Yat-Sen, Chinese revolutionary
66 Den Xiaoping, Chinese revolutionary
67 Alexander Pushkin, Russian author
68 Lu Xun, Chinese writer
69 Joseph Stalin, former Soviet Union leader
70 Leonardo Da Vinci, Italian painter
71 Karl Marx, German philosopher
72 Friedrich Nietzche, German philosopher
73 Abraham Lincoln, former US President
74 Mao Zedong, Chinese dictator
75 Charlie Chaplin, British actor
76 Henry Ford, founder of Ford motor company
77 Lei Feng, Chinese soldier
78 Norman Bethune, Canadian physician
79 Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist
80 Juan Antonio Samaranch, former International Olympic Committee president
81 Chiang Kai Shek, Chinese general
82 Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom
83 Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist
84 Li Bai, Chinese poet
85 Corneliu Baba, Romanian painter
86 Auguste Rodin, French artist
87 Dwight Eisenhower, former US President
88 Michael Jordan, American basketball player
89 Hideki Tojo, former Japan Prime Minister
90 Michelangelo, Italian Renaissance painter
91 Yi Sun-Sin, Korean naval commander
92 Mike Tyson, American boxer
93 Vladimir Putin, Russian Prime Minister
94 Hans Christian Andersen, Danish author
95 Shirley Temple, American actress
96 Albert Einstein, German physicist
97 Moses, Hebrew religious leader
98 Confucius, Chinese philosopher
99 Ghandi, Indian spiritual leader
100 Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch painter
101 Toulouse Lautrec, French painter
102 Marcel Duchamp, French artist
103 Behind George Bush is Osama bin Laden

Famous characters

2010-01-31T13:26:00.000-08:00

Look at this incredible painting.... How many famous characters can you find?

This would be a great activity for your students to find and group different people as regards their intelligences. You can even turn it into a game like activity!!!

I hope you find it useful

You can find the full size image at:

http://www.patricksemaan.com/projektcyan/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/painting.jpg

There are 103 characters. Answers..... coming soon!!! jajajaja

Parts of the brain by Pinky & Brain

2010-01-31T13:00:00.000-08:00

This is a very nice video to teach children the parts of the brain. I saw it in one of Lucrecia´s conferences and I´d like to share it with you all. Enjoy!

You are the reason I have, you are all my reasons...

2010-01-29T08:34:00.000-08:00

This is the last scene in the movie " A beautiful mind" in which you can see John Nash( respected mathematician) recieving the Nobel prize.
After a hard life he discovers that in the mysterious equations of love any logical reason can be found.

All you need is love.....Love is all you need.....!

Look what I´ve found!!!!!!

2010-01-27T09:43:00.000-08:00

This is part of the presentation Lucrecia Prat Gay delivered in Jornadas de Neurosicoeducación 2009

Follow the link and enjoy!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8SEuhYj3ks

Two questions to be admitted in heaven

2010-01-27T09:21:00.000-08:00

What would you answer? .......

Que importante es saber idiomas!

2010-01-21T15:05:00.000-08:00

The power of translation and interpretation.....hilarious!

children see, children do

2010-01-19T01:32:00.000-08:00

Children see, Children do!

A shocking add to understand the power of modelling and imitation...Food for thought!

I´m back again!

2010-01-18T00:01:00.000-08:00

After a while here I am back again! Pregnancy has kept me busy.. I can´t imagine motherhood!!!
I wanted to share with you a web page where you can practice Yes/No questions.... Try it out it´s really amazing!

http://en.akinator.com/

For those days when we need to ponder what to do....

2009-11-07T09:47:00.000-08:00

Hang up and drive

2009-10-23T15:07:00.000-07:00

When multitasking can put your life at risk......

FAAPI 2009

2009-10-05T16:17:00.000-07:00

Proud representants from Rio de la Plata Sur at FAAPI Conference!!!

Malen, Caro ,Lucre ( renowned Speaker at FAAPI) and Pauli.

Happy teacher´s day

2009-09-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

Teacher´s day 2008!!!

Rio staff - Who is who?

Happy teachers´day!!!

2009-09-11T12:53:00.000-07:00

"For all the teachers at heart" - Part of Rio de la Plata staff

Rad teach by Judy Willis

2009-09-11T12:27:00.000-07:00

An honour and a challenge for those who`ve had the possibility to have her at school.

An amazing talk full of tips, ideas, suggestions and fun!!!! Hope we can see her again soon she´s a true role model for all of us to follow, and for those who are always wondering how to teach what we teach.

http://www.radteach.com/

Have we lost our curiosity over the years?

2009-08-31T14:33:00.000-07:00

The 9th Intelligence:
The existencial intelligence: Are you wondering smart?

Nati.....You`ll always be in our hearts!!!!

2009-08-15T09:55:00.000-07:00

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face;

the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,

may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Something to think about...

2009-08-13T17:07:00.000-07:00

Thank you Mariela.... I took the liberty of using this wonderful info you´ve sent us in my blog!!!!

This post goes for you!!

Washington , DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007 The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.
4 minutes later: The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.
6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
10 minutes: A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.
45 minutes: The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money, but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.
1 hour: He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

Findings:

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the Metro Station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and people's priorities. The questions raised: "In a common place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?"

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.... How many other things are we missing?

Dancing in the train station

2009-07-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

Movement anchors thought...... what a great idea to start the day with a bang!!!!!

inspiratonal Speech

2009-07-06T15:35:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Alejandro Salgado for his always valuable contribution and for being an English life-long learner!!!!! Hats off to you!!!! :)

Rad teaching

2009-06-27T06:52:00.000-07:00

RIO DE LA PLATA SCHOOL PROUDLY PRESENTS
September 3rd, 6 to 8pm

Increase Student Engagement, Motivation, and Memory
using RAD Neuro-logical Strategies

By Judy Willis M.D,M.Ed

How does the brain turn sensory input into memory and useable knowledge so it is truly learned, stored as long-term memory, and can be applied to future learning and problem solving? Educators will learn how to apply neuro-logical strategies to increase student engagement, focus, memory, and build their emotional control as well as their executive functions such as goal-planning, critical analysis, organization, prioritizing, perspective, and creative problem solving.
The first part focuses on attention, focus, and how to get students to want to know what they have to learn - that would be about RAD and strategies to get the information from sensory input in the environment (what they hear, see, do) into the thinking parts of the brain (prefrontal cortex) instead of the lower reactive brain where the unconscious choices are limited to fight/flight/freeze and long-term memories and active thinking are not possible. There are strategies to insure the information taught makes it through the brain’s filters into the reflective, cognitive, thinking brain- the prefrontal cortex.

The second part of the workshop focuses on how the brain makes long-term memory and uses executive function so learning becomes permanent and usable in other contexts. It is about strategies that have students mentally manipulate and use information so it becomes true learning. A side benefit of strengthening the networks (neuroplasticity) in the prefrontal cortex is that these same networks improve emotional control, critical analysis, concept building, and creative problem solving.

Cost: 20 dollars
Free of charge for Rio de la Plata school staff.

Brain Rule Nº8 "Stress" By Doctor John Medina

2009-06-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

Movement anchors thought

2009-06-12T15:03:00.000-07:00

This video clip highlights how PE and classroom teachers are using the latest research in neuroscience and implementing it with their students. It was used as part of a presentation to fitness leaders to promote the importance of exercise and brain plasticity.

Helping hands

2009-06-10T17:36:00.000-07:00

A beautiful video to teach kids the value of help with a funny song.. Hope you like it!!

Communicating in English???????

2009-05-31T14:17:00.000-07:00

TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN ENGLISH

Clarify ideas before communicating: Systematically think through the message and consider who will be receiving it and/or affected by it.

Examine the true purpose of communication: One must ask himself/herself this question – what am I really aiming to accomplish with this message? The use of language can then be suitably adjusted.

Take the entire environment, physical and human, into consideration: Questions such as, what is being said, to whom and when are very important. Your skill lies in how you say it and, of course, your timing. Adapt your language to the environment.

Be careful of the overtones and the basic content of the message: The listener will be affected by they way you put across your message. Your tone and facial expressions are also to be considered.

Use crisp language and be clear: It is very important that the words are well chosen and that you stay as crisp and concise as possible. In other words use minimum words to send across the message and convey useful information.

Follow-up on communication: One must solicit feedback in ensuring that the receiver has understood the message. If the person has not understood, tone down the language.

Be a good listener: By concentrating on the receiver’s response you can ensure his extent of interest in you and also if he is concentrating.

In this video you will see none of these tips is applied. An example of how far we can reach when communication is not the end goal of our conversation.......Absolutely worth watching!!

Teaching the whole child - ASCD Conference

2009-05-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

This is where you come in ......Get involved and protect the whole chid!!!!

RAD TEACHING

2009-05-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

When a Neurologist becomes a classroom teacher, Brain Learning Reseach promotes teaching strategies. Dr. Judy Willis, a board-certified neurologist and middle school teacher in Santa Barbara, California, has combined her 15 years as a practicing adult and child neurologist with her teacher education training and years of classroom experience. She is an authority in the field of learning-centered brain research and classroom strategies.
Dr. Willis concludes that there are three main brain systems she refers to as RAD which are the keys to building better brains.

RAD is short for:

R: Reticular Activating System (RAS)
A: Amygdala
D: Dopamine

Reticular Activating System

The RAS is the attention activation switching system located at the brainstem. You can
control where students’ focus goes in the classroom, and what information gets through the RAS by incorporating novelty, multi-sensory learning, goal-motivated attention, and creativity with learning activities.

Amygdala

The amygdala is the center of the brain’s emotion relays in the limbic system and it also strengthens the long-term memory potential of information that enters accompanied by positive emotion. With low-risk, low-stress, positive learning activities, the RAS and amygdala can help
the brain focus on the sensory information of the learning activity.

Dopamine

Dopamine is one of the brain’s most important neurotransmitters, proteins that carry information across spaces between nerve endings. When you can incorporate pleasurable learning experiences and activities into lessons, the dopamine released is then available to increase pleasure, attention, and memory.

Judy Willis Will be delivering seminars in Argentina "Learning and the Brain Conference" Sept 4-5, 2009.

Ken Robinson ... Do schools kill creativity?

2009-04-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

A hilarious lecture and a critical overview of the schooling system around the world, Are we aware of our responsibility and our influences on the future generations?
Creativity is the imagination put into practice, are we afraid of letting our students creativity flow? or we´ve just stopped being creative ouselves ?
In this presentation the writer of " The Element" makes it clear that nowadays creativity is as important in education as literacy....... Enjoy!!!!

Susan Boyle - A star is born!!!!

2009-04-24T09:40:00.000-07:00

Is beauty in the eye of the beholder or we simply judge the book by the cover?

In this video you will see a typical example of labelling.
Will we ever be able to change our preconcieved ideas and our mind frame ? Will we ever accept others and even ourselves the way we really are?
"Be honest and true to yourself, always dream big and give everybody a chance to be who they are, Angels come in all kinds of shapes"

Thank you Caro for telling me about this video and thank you silvi for sending it to me!!!

Class observation

2009-04-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

Helpful or dreadful? That´s the question.....

Have you ever been in a situation like the one in the video? I hope not, when the observer is helpful and relaxed everybody enjoys and everybody profits from the observation. Even the teacher who is being watched...the problem is: Are we open to suggestions? Is the observer open to new ideas? Do we always accept other´s points of view?
It is always hard work to accept criticism even if it is constructive.

Specially for Miss Marie who´s always hated ( like me) being observed, and who´s proven to be a devoted English teacher and an irreplaceable partner.

All my love and gratitude to you......

9 BRAIN COMPATIBLE ELEMENTS

2009-04-13T15:35:00.000-07:00

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST......

ADEQUATE TIME

In terms of the pattern seeking and program building nature of the brain, adequate time is not a luxury, it is a prerequisite. It takes time to extract meaningful patterns (make meaning) and it takes time to know how to use what we learn in meaningful ways (acquire useful programs). Adequate time is needed to get the job of learning done well, to accomplish mastery (the ability to use the concept/skill in real life settings), to fully understand the connections among prior learnings and learnings yet to come. Using fragments of time--20 minutes for this, 40 minutes for that--is the ideal way to guarantee a low degree of meaningfulness and high failure rates. Using uninterrupted time to allow students full concentration is the ultimate gift, e.g., a two-hour block, all morning or even an entire day devoted to a major concept and its application to real life. Learning should be more than covering the material and building mental programs for use.The implications for the classroom of the 21st century are obvious--we need to do less and do it better and more in-depth, giving students time to use the information again and again in varying settings until the information is recallable in a usable form, i.e., as a behavior, a mental program

For those who´ve read and enjoyed " To everything".

Special thanks to Caro who told me the story was actually a song.

This video is specially dedicated to Sabri Catagno who really charishes the book as much as I do.

9 BRAIN COMPATIBLE ELEMENTS

2009-04-07T14:50:00.000-07:00

CHOICES:

Webster defines choice as "the act or power of choosing, the thing chosen, alternative, preference, the best." We especially like the phrase "power of choosing" because it pinpoints the essential characteristic of the lifelong learner. "Preference" acknowledges what brain research tells us over and over again: every brain is different and, therefore, each individual learner has preferred ways of learning that the individual knows to be more effective and reliable for him/her.
Frank Smith, in to think , 1990 ( p. 27), notes that thinking is made easy and effective when two fundamental requirements are met: 1) we understand what we are thinking about; and 2) the brain itself is in charge, in control of its own affairs, going about its own business. Smith goes on to say that "Thinking becomes difficult and inefficient when the brain loses control, when what we try to think about is contrived rather than an integral part of whatever we would otherwise be engaged in at the moment. ...the most difficult kind of thinking is that which is imposed on us by someone else..."
The definition of "power of choosing" is wonderfully descriptive because it pinpoints the essential characteristic of the lifelong learner. Making wise choices comes from practice; the desire to choose comes from confidence that choices will be good ones. "Preference" acknowledges what brain research tells us over and over again: that every brain is different and, therefore, each individual learner has preferred ways of learning which that individual knows to be more effective and reliable for him/her.

What do you choose? I choose love!!!!

9 BRAIN COMPATIBLE ELEMENTS

2009-04-06T14:47:00.000-07:00

COLLABORATION

The choice of the word "collaboration" rather than "cooperation" or "cooperative learning", is deliberate here. In Webster's Dictionary it means "to work in association with, to work with another." Frank Smith, in Insult to Intelligence, 1986 ( p. 62) lists opportunity for manipulation of information as one of his key ingredients for learning,. Full understanding of what is being learned and the ability to apply it in real-life settings--creative problem solving and flexible use of what is learned--depends upon ample opportunity to manipulate information in our heads, to test it, expand it, connect it with prior learnings. Collaborating with others allows us to examine our own thinking while expanding our knowledge base.

9 BRAIN COMPATIBLE ELEMENTS

2009-04-01T10:39:00.000-07:00

MASTERY/COMPETENCE

Leslie A. Hart has a dual definition for learning:
1) Learning is the extraction, from confusion, of meaningful patterns.
2) Learning is the acquisition of useful programs.
Simply translated, the issues are what do students understand and how they can use it.

Part 1 of the learning process involves processing of incoming data, making meaning of the input. While every learner's perspective differs somewhat, care should be taken to uncover the accuracy of those patterns.
Part 2 of the learning process involves using what we understand, the mental patterns we have detected to get translated into specific actions.
Assessment procedures should be established in the classroom to permit the teacher to determine the accuracy of patterns and the depth of understanding they represent and to determine if mental programs have been developed and stored in long-term memory.

The most incredible movie about perseverance and motivation, a true story about hope and love. We can always reach mastery if we set our mind heart and soul to do so.

9 BRAIN COMPATIBLE ELEMENTS

2009-03-31T10:00:00.000-07:00

ENRICHED ENVIRONMENT

When creating an enriched environment, it is important to keep in mind the extent and kind of experiences with the natural and manmade world that your students bring with them to school. The key here is to balance that experience, not replicate it. For example, if students come to you long on TV, videos, video games, and secondhand resources (books and pictures), then the classroom must provide the REAL stuff--not books about, videos about, pictures about, replicas of, models of, but the real thing! If the environment is inner city with typical harshness, chaos, and dirtiness, then you must take the time and effort to create an environment in the classroom and school that is brain-compatible, e.g., aesthetically pleasing, clean, orderly, calming, etc.
Some other things to keep in mind: Make the environment body compatible. Eliminate clutter; avoid distraction and over stimulation. Provide each class with a broad-based reference library; trade books, current encyclopedias, CD-ROM and video discs. Change bulletin boards, displays and materials frequently; always stay current with what is being studied at the moment. Put away the old except for a few items which will job recall.

9 BRAIN COMPATIBLE ELEMENTS

2009-03-29T17:43:00.000-07:00

ABSENCE OF THREAT/NURTURING REFLECTIVE THINKING

What constitutes threat--real and perceived--is in the eye of the beholder. Thus, creating an environment free of threat includes a wide range of issues much like those described by Abraham Maslow. First physical safety, then psychological safety--necessary conditions for effective collaboration between teacher and students, and among students themselves, in the classroom and schoolwide. It is important to note that the environment of the school at large also spills over into the classroom. Creating a threat-free environment requires that teachers work together to alter the entire school environment.

9 BRAIN COMPATIBLE ELEMENTS

2009-03-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

MOVEMENT TO ENHANCE LEARNING

Motor skills are fundamental to learning. (Eric Jensen) "Physical activity is good not only for the heart, but also for the brain, feedingit glucose and oxygen and increasing nerve connections, all of which makes it easier for children of all ages to learn. Numerous studies show that children who exercise do better in school."

9 BRAIN COMPATIBLE ELEMENS

2009-03-26T09:57:00.000-07:00

MEANINGFUL CONTENT

How would one describe meaningful content? That's a tricky question for an educator because, in fact, it is not the educator's question to answer. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is meaningfulness determined by the learner. And yet, it is worth answering because meaningful content is the most powerful brain-compatible element. It digs deeply into the learner's pool of intrinsic motivation and provides focus for the ever active brain, thus harnessing the brain's attention and channeling its power. Fortunately, thanks to brain research, we can do a better job than ever before of surmising what the learner beholds and how he/she processes learning.

Lack of meaning in learning something can be just a void repetition of patterns or words that have no link whatsoever to our previous knowledge, thus the information learnt cannot be stored in our long term memory.

Here is an example of how meaningless repetition leads to nothingness!!!!!! F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

Nine Brain compatible elements

2009-03-25T08:55:00.000-07:00

Immediate Feedback

Each of us has personal experiences with learning when the feedback was confusing, delayed, or not forthcoming at all. Such feedback is dangerous because it too often results in development of incorrect patterns (misinformation) and programs (wrong responses). Examples abound. Many among us experience the frustration of fumbling over the spelling of a particular word; our two choices are always the same, the same incorrect version vs. the correct. Years later, we continue to fumble between the same competing set of possibilities.
Contrary to popular belief, the hardest thing the brain does is forget something it has learned, as distinguished from forgetting something it never learned in the first place or that was never meaningful....which occurs for 80 percent of the students on the bell curve who stopped just short of mastery, just short of building a program. Feedback (and time) must be sufficient for the student to develop a correct mental program.
The importance of immediate feedback to the student, then is obvious. Feedback, accurate and immediate, is needed at the time the learner is building his/her mental program to ensure that the program is accurate and to help speed up the building of a program.

We need to learn from our mistakes and the best way to do so is knowing that we are making them in the first place, so that we can work on them conscientiously. Watch this hilarious video about mistake awareness. Enjoy!!

The very hungry caterpillar

2009-03-20T15:03:00.000-07:00

For all those who love the story and enjoy reading it over and over again!!!! One of the most precious teacher resources in the google ad!!!!!

Specially for Maira and Caro

2009-03-17T12:50:00.000-07:00

All Wired Up: The Teenage Brain Revealed

Dr. Sheryl Feinstein is an Assistant Professor of Education at Augustina College in South Dakota, where she teaches courses in educational psychology and adolescent development. In her presentation titled “Teaching the At-Risk Teenage Brain,” Feinstein explored the functions of the teenage brain and how these processes explain their sometimes questionable behavior.Feinstein, who has conducted boundless research and written two books on the subject, defines the at-risk teenager as one in danger of emotional and/or academic problems, including youth crimes, violence, and substance abuse. Factors that put teens at risk include poverty, academic failure, and delinquent friends, among others.According to Feinstein, the adolescent brain differs from the adult brain in three primary areas:
1- There is an overproduction of dendrites (greater propensity for learning new things).
2- Pruning, or loss of dendrites not being used, occurs more rapidly.
3- The decision-making process is governed by the amygdala (rather than the frontal lobe), making teens more emotional and less logical than adults.
Use of the amygdala as the primary cerebral decision-maker is also the cause of misunderstandings, incendiary language, bad decision making, disorganization and forgetfulness. With these things in mind, teachers can use proactive and reactive strategies for possible student confrontations, including:
-Transitions are difficult; give one-step directions.
-Teach self-determination skills.
-Reduce distractions, seat them near the front, clear the desks of objects.
-Stay calm and non-confrontational.
-Don’t get off topic and don’t defend yourself.
-Don’t point the blame.
-Understanding the cerebral functions that cause certain behaviors is a big step towards knowing how to effectively teach teenagers and defuse any possible confrontations.

Short and sweet

2009-03-16T13:12:00.000-07:00

Learn to count…

Count your garden by the flowers,
Never by the leaves that fall;
Count your joys by the golden hours,
Never when life´s worries call.
Count your nights by stars, not shadows,
Count your days by smiles, not tears;
And when life´s span so swiftly narrows,
Count your age by friends, not years

A very funny monolog... A bit too chauvinist but true!!!!

2009-03-15T16:33:00.000-07:00

Men´s brains vs. women´s brains

2009-03-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

How different we are!!!!!

The curious case of Benjamin Button

2009-03-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

A wonderful movie with an unforgettable message, and a wonderful tool for those teaching Multiple Intelligences. Hope you like it as much as I do!!

The most beautiful song describing women..A tribute to us all!

2009-03-08T16:33:00.000-07:00

SHE

She May be the face I can't forget

The trace of pleasure or regret

May be my treasure or the price I have to pay

She May be the song that summer sings

May be the chill that autumn brings

May be a hundred different things Within the measure of a day

She May be the beauty or the beast

May be the famine or the feast

May turn each day into a heaven or a hell

She may be the mirror of my dreams The smile reflected in a stream

She may not be what she may seem Inside her shell

She Who always seems so happy in a crowd Whose eyes can be so private and so proud

No one's allowed to see them when they cry

She May be the love that cannot hope to last

May come to me from shadows of the past

That I'll remember till the day I die

She May be the reason I survive

The why and wherefore I'm alive

The one I'll care for through the rough in ready years

Me I'll take her laughter and her tears And make them all my souvenirs

For where she goes I've got to be

The meaning of my life is She She, oh she

We are beautiful!!!!! Happy Women´s day to everyone!

2009-03-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

Multitasking drains the brain

2009-03-07T13:30:00.000-08:00

Mind is designed to handle one complex activity at a time.

Scientists have bad news for people who think they can deftly drive a car while gabbing on a cell phone.
The first study using magnetic resonance images of brain activity to compare what happens in people's heads when they do one complex task, as opposed to two tasks at a time, reveals a disquieting fact: The brain appears to have a finite amount of space for tasks requiring attention.
When people try to drive in heavy traffic and talk, researchers say, brain activity does not double. It decreases. People performing two demanding tasks simultaneously do neither one as well as they do each one alone.
The study, published in tomorrow's issue of the journal NeuroImage, was led by Marcel Just, a psychology professor and co-director of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. While this study did not examine the brain activity of people who were driving cars and conversing, it used tasks that engage similar brain regions, Just said. Moreover, he said, plans are under way to study the brains of people who are using driving simulators while someone is talking to them.
Jordan Grafman, a neuroscientist at the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke in Bethesda, Md., said that while the study did not involve cell phones, it was relevant to public policy. "Lawmakers need to know there is a cost whenever people try to do multiple tasks," he said.
Christof Koch, a professor of cognitive and behavioral biology at the California Institute of Technology, said: "No question this study was very nicely executed. After all, if you really want to listen to something, you close your eyes, right?"
In recent years, it has become possible to map brain areas involved in high-level cognitive tasks -- processing sentences, comprehending paragraphs, formulating strategies, planning many moves ahead and evaluating uncertainty.
When people do these mental tasks, functional brain imaging machines can detect which areas of their brains become most active. Because active brain cells use more oxygen, they can be seen as hot spots against a background of less-active cells.
The active regions are measured in voxels, volumes of brain tissue about the size of a grain of rice. When a particular part of the brain is working hard, more voxels light up with greater intensity.
Previous research showed that when a single area of the brain, like the visual cortex, has to do two things at once, like tracking two objects, there is less brain activation than occurs when it watches one thing at a time, Just said.
The new study sought to find out whether something similar happened when two highly independent tasks, carried out in very different parts of the brain, were done concurrently. The answer was not obvious, Just said. Maybe the tasks would work independently and activate twice as much space in the brain. Or they could compete for space and activate a different, and unpredictable, set of brain cells, he said.
Just and his colleagues chose two tasks for the study. One was language comprehension, which is carried out in the brain's temporal lobe. The other task required mentally rotating objects in space, a process that is done in the parietal lobe.
Eighteen volunteers had their brains scanned while doing one or both tasks. For one scan, they listened to complex sentences like "the pyramids were burial places and they are one of the seven wonders of the ancient world," and had to indicate whether the statements were true or false. For another, they were shown pairs of three-dimensional figures and asked to rotate them mentally to judge whether they were the same.
Then they tried to do both tasks simultaneously and equally conscientiously. Researchers confirmed that the two tasks relied on different parts of the brain. The language task alone activated 37 voxels of brain tissue, mostly in temporal regions, Just said. The mental rotation task alone also activated 37 voxels, mostly in parietal regions.
But when both tasks were done at the same time, the volunteers' brains did not engage the sum of the two, or 74 voxels. Instead, their brains displayed only 42 voxels of activity.
On closer inspection, the researchers found that the number of activated voxels was smaller and less intense in each of the two brain regions. The amount of brain activation generated by mental rotation decreased 29 percent if the person also was listening to a sentence. The amount of activation generated by listening to sentences decreased 53 percent if the person was also trying to rotate objects.
While the volunteers' overall accuracy did not suffer, Just said, it took them a bit longer to do each task. If the tasks had been more difficult, their performance would have suffered even more.
It appears that the brain has limits and can only do so much at one time, Just said. "You can't just keep piping new things through," he said, and expect the brain to keep up. With practice, the brain can become more efficient at carrying out multiple tasks, he added, but performance is never as good as when the tasks are carried out independently.
Everyone has had the experience of trying to do two things at once, like driving a car and talking to a passenger, Just said. Both speech and driving can become automatic and not very demanding of brain power. But when an experienced driver encounters a sudden increase in complexity -- an argument erupts and it also starts to sleet -- that driver probably will stop the conversation and pay attention to the road.
The difference between in-person and cell phone conversations is that a passenger can see changing road conditions and will likely shut up when needed, Just said. The person on the other end of a cell phone does not see these changes and may keep on blathering.
Making cell phones hands-free will not solve the problem of the brain's inability to carry out complex tasks in tandem. And since it is not possible to ban other human conversation in cars, the next best thing is education, Just said. People need to know that their brains have limits, even if they are under the illusion that multitasking is the wave of the future.

2009-03-06T12:05:00.000-08:00

Education Today and Tomorrow

2009-03-05T08:29:00.000-08:00

The brain reads first the colour and then the content!!! Try it out.

2009-03-04T08:27:00.000-08:00

I am a teacher

2009-03-02T12:10:00.000-08:00

I am a Teacher.I was born the first moment that a question leaped from the mouth of a child.I have been many people in many places.I am Socrates exciting the youth of Athens to discover new ideas through the use of questions.I am Anne Sullivan tapping out the secrets of the universe into the outstretched hand of Helen Keller.I am Aesop and Hans Christian Andersen revealing truth through countless stories.I am Marva Collins fighting fir every child's right to an education.I am Mary McLeod Bethune building a great college for my people, using orange crates for desks.And I am Bel Kaufman struggling to go Up The Down Staircase.The names of those who have practiced my profession ring like a hall of fame for humanity ... Booker T. Washington, Buddha, Confucius, Ralp Waldo Emerson, Leo Buscaglia, Moses and Jesus.I am also those whose names and faces have long been forgotten but whose lessons and character will always be remembered in the accomplishment of their students.I have wept for joy at their weddings of former students, laughed with glee at the birth of their children and stood with bowed in grief and confusion by graves dug too soon far too young.Throughout the course of a day I have been called upon to be an actor, friend, nurse and doctor, coach, finder of lost articles, money lender, taxi driver, psychologist, substitute parent, salesman, politician and keeper of the faith.Despite the maps, charts, formulas, verbs, stories and books, I have really had nothing to teach, for my students really have only themselves to learn, and I know it takes the whole world to tell you who you are.I am a paradox. I speak loudest when I listen the most. My greatest gifts are in what I am willing to appreciatively receive from my students.Material wealth is not one of my goals, but I am a full-time treasure seeker in my quest for new opportunities for my students to use their talents and in my constant search for those talents that sometimes lie buried in self-defeat.I am the most fortunate of all who labor.A doctor is allowed to usher life into the world in one magic moment. I am allowed to see that life is reborn each day with new questions, ideas and friendships.An architect knows if he builds with care, his structure may stand for centuries. A teacher knows that if he builds with love and truth, what he builds will last forever.I am a warrior, daily doing battle against peer pressure, negativity, fear, conformity, prejudice, ignorance and apathy. But I have great allies: Intelligence, Curiosity, Parental Support, Individuality, Creativity, Faith, Love and Laughter all rush to my banner with indomitable support.And who do I have to thank for this wonderful life I am so fortunate to experience, but you the public, the parents. For you have done me the great honor to entrust to me your greatest contribution to eternity, your children.And so I have a past that is rich in memories. I have a present that is challenging, adventurous and fun because I am allowed to spend my days with the future.I am a teacher ... and I thank God for it every day.

Success

2009-02-28T21:59:00.000-08:00

Success depends on the support of other people. The only hurdle between you and what you want to be is the support of others.
Look at it this way: an executive depends on people to carry out his instructions. If they don’t, the company will fire the executive, not the employees. Likewise a politician depends on voters to elect him.
There were times in history when a person could gain a position of authority through force and hold it with force or threats. In those days a man either cooperated with the leader or risked loosing his head. But today a person either supports you willingly or doesn’t support you at all.
But how can you get people’s willingness to support you? The answer wrapped up in one phrase is “ THINK RIGHT TOWARD PEOPLE”.
When a group of people has to consider names for a new post or a promotion, in 9 cases out of 10 the “LIKEABILITY” factor is given far more weight than the technical factor. “ I know he has a good academic and technical background, I don’t question his competence, but I am concerned about the acceptance he would receive" .
The above holds true even in selecting scholars for university professorships. Unfair? Unacademic? No. If the fellow isn’t likeable he can’t be expected to get through to his students with maximum effectiveness.
President Lyndon Johnson even developed a personal plan for thinking right toward people:
1- Learn to remember names.
2- Be a comfortable person so there is no strain in being with you.
BE AN OLD-SHOE kind of individual.
3- Guard against the impression that you KNOW-IT-ALL.
4- Cultivate the quality of being interesting.
5- Sincerely attempt to heal every misunderstanding that you have had.
6- Try to get the “SCRATCHY” elements out of your personality.
7- Never miss out on an opportunity to say a word of sincere congratulations upon anyone’s achievement, or express sympathy in sorrow or disappointment.

The mirror has two faces... How to hipnotize your students?

2009-02-28T09:08:00.000-08:00

This is a wonderful example of a motivated,participative class....I love this movie, I hope you like it as much as I do. Have a great beginning!!!!!

What kind of thinker are you?

2009-02-27T08:08:00.000-08:00

Our Universe... a gift to all of us!!!!

2009-02-25T07:51:00.000-08:00

This beautiful video can be used in class for different kinds of activitites, It´s specially for Rio teachers to work with the year long theme.....

Open Class - Art around the World - Rio de la Plata Sur.

2009-02-23T12:01:00.000-08:00

For all my fellow teachers at Rio de la Plata Sur

2009-02-23T11:06:00.000-08:00

A little song to see what makes the universe tick!!!

Teaching the new generations: Keep updated or die in the attempt!

2009-02-22T16:03:00.001-08:00

Clear instructions to avoid misunderstanding...

2009-02-21T13:47:00.001-08:00

Four all who Reed and Right

2009-02-20T08:40:00.000-08:00

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes; but the plural of ox became oxen not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese, yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice; yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men, why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I spoke of my foot and show you my feet, and I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth, why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?Then one may be that, and three would be those, yet hat in the plural would never be hose, and the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren, but though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him, but imagine the feminine, she, shis and shim.
Let's face it,English is a crazy language.There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.English muffins weren't invented in England.
We take English for granted.But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea, nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends, but not one amend?If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes, I think all the folks who grew up speaking English should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?Have noses that run and feet that smell?How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down; in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

How do you make our classes memorable? To learn or to survive school that´s the question....

2009-02-20T08:02:00.000-08:00

Famous quotes about education...

"Don't let schooling interfere with your education". (Mark Twain)

"Get over the idea that only children should spend their time in study. Be a student so long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life." (Henry L. Doherty)

"The highest result of education is tolerance."
(Helen Keller)

Teaching and learning...... the gap to bridge

2009-02-20T07:58:00.000-08:00

The fact that we teach doesn´t necessarily mean that our students are learning.....

Why men hate advice and women can't park

2009-02-19T07:12:00.000-08:00

A new book claims to have found scientific explanations for why women can’t reverse park, and men are unable to multi-task. According to 'Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps', differences in the wiring of male and female brains affect the way we perceive the world and each other. The authors Allan and Barbara Pease say while more than 70 per cent of men can park in reverse, only a quarter of women can accomplish this feat. Although women are actually better at learning tasks, the authors claim that in real-life situations the part of the brain devoted to spatial awareness becomes overwhelmed. While women can talk on the phone, do the ironing, and watch television at the same time, men find it difficult to concentrate on anything more taxing than watching the football, the book claims. This is because the area connecting the right part of the brain to the left is thicker in women, allowing more ideas to flow. Women find to harder to immediately distinguish their left hand from their right, the authors claim, because they use both sides of their brain at the same time. Men have a dominant side of the brain, making it easier for them to tell one hand from the other instantly. The male reluctance to ask for directions when they are clearly lost is said to go back to prehistoric times. When the male role was to keep the family safe, showing weakness would been seen as failure. And finally, women really do have a sixth sense when it comes to appraising other women’s intentions due to the fact that the corpus callosum in women is thicker than in men. Among other issues tackled in the book are what men and women need to do to get on in business and why men offer solutions but hate advice.

Ordinary people making extraordinary things

2009-02-18T07:23:00.000-08:00

Food for thought...... Do you really have faith in the future generations? How are you contributing to help them to exploit their talents? Have you ever thought you could be teaching a future Einstein or J. K. Rowling? It´s in your hands.....

Howard Gardner discovered the ninth intelligence

2009-02-17T17:50:00.000-08:00

Existential Intelligence: (Aristotle, Confucius, Einstein, Emerson, Plato, Socrates)

Individuals, who like and enjoy thinking, and questioning, and are curios about life, death, and ultimate realities. Gardner’s definition for this intelligence is to exhibit the proclivity to pose and ponder questions about life, death and ultimate realities.

Children with this intelligence may show curiosity about:

What the Earth was like years ago
Why they are here on Earth
If there is life on another planet
Where living things go after they die
If there is another dimension
If there are ghosts or spirits
Who were the famous philosophers and their thoughts about life and human being

Doctor John Medina

2009-02-17T07:58:00.000-08:00

I know it´s dreadful, isn´t it? but excercise oxigines the brain and movement anchors thought...so let´s shake it!!

Parts of the brain

2009-02-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

A funny song to get to know the parts in our brain!!!

2009-02-16T12:03:00.000-08:00

Look at this amazing video ,obviously always a step ahead, Lucrecia Prat Gay ( head of my school) showed it to us this morning as part of our coming back to school training. It´s really amazing how positive thinking can affect us.Take a minute and watch carefully!!

Unforgettable moments at my school!

2009-02-15T21:41:00.000-08:00

For all Rio´s family!!!!

Spanglish

2009-02-15T15:41:00.000-08:00

Here´s an incredible contribution by Alejandro Salgado an ex-student who has sent me this video for all those who think that Spanish is very similar to English!!! Enjoy, and Have a laugh!!

The Holiday

2009-02-14T13:25:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine´s to everyone.... If you are fond of Romantic movies you cannot miss " The Holiday" one of my favourite ones!!!

Ideal for those who want to teach the differences between British and American English

One of my favourite poems.... hope you enjoy it!

2009-02-13T05:14:00.000-08:00

An Old Irish Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand

my wonderful adults group!!!

2009-02-11T15:43:00.001-08:00

my kinder students

2009-02-10T16:36:00.001-08:00