Girls on the Edge pt.2

Well I am sure of it... I do NOT want to have a daughter. I am mostly joking of course, but this book can get your mind going down a rabbit hole....

Early in chapter 5, Sax is speaking to early childhood education and says that its "all about doing the right thing at the right time." This advice seems to sum up the advice of the entire book on raising a daughter.

I found chapter 5 to be very interesting. The idea that waiting to begin school till age 7 rather than 5, may produce children that are more ready to learn and more excited to learn in a classroom setting. The parents role in choosing when to start their child is obviously most important. As the book suggest if a girl is not ready to begin kindergarten there is a chance she could be misdiagnosed with ADHD. The medications and other implications that follow can be problematic. The parents role in educating themselves on these issues and understanding what kind of a school is developmentally appropriate for their daughter is a tough task requiring not only education but also socio-economic assets.

I have known of the "monkey tests" for sometime and have often referred to the tests when debating friends who claim gender roles are ONLY social constructs. Adding the "what" and "where" systems of the human brain to my arguments will be fun. As a teacher, knowledge of gender differences is essential. Finding creative ways to breakdown gender stereotypes will help both male and female students.

Sax suggests that anyone can teach boys with the right strategies but to teach a girl you have to really care about her as an individual and she needs to know that you care. I have found this to be very true through my coaching experience with both boys and girls. When I figured out that simply checking in with a player as she was shooting baskets before practice or greeting her as she came into the gym made a big difference when it came to her attention and respect during practice.

Sax speaks extensively on spirituality. I was raised catholic and went to private school for 12 years. Today I am more or less against organized religions and think that some can be quite dangerous, especially for young girls.  I worry about children being indoctrinated into religions and it is difficult to here conversations at school about bible study. Ideally I want children to explore and learn about their spiritual sides for themselves but I am not sure what the teachers role is in that pursuit.

Girls on the Edge pt1

I coached girls high school basketball for 4 years. We had an incredibly competitive program that won 5 state championships in a row. Some days I wondered how it was possible for the girls to work and perform as well as they did while going through the high school experience. Girls on the Edge does an incredible job of describing the challenges that girls face today. I watched our girls deal with all 4 of the main issues outlined by Sax in the book. While I never thought it was my place to lecture the girls on some of their personal issues, we as a coaching, staff always tried to sneak in advice and helpful ideas whenever we could. 

Factor #1 - On Sexual Identity

I coached at a Catholic school, which I believe already put the girls in a slightly awkward place when it came to discussing the topic. I attended the same school in the late 90's and our health and sex education was extremely basic and limited to heteronormative Catholic prescribed curriculum. Our team wanted to dress up for game days. We told them they could dress as a team in jeans (without holes) and to coordinate and wear one of our team t-shirts for each game. They always did this and always looked nice. The fashion trend of the yoga pants started while I was coaching and the girls, of course, wanted to wear them and this led to debate among myself, the players and their parents. As suggested in the book, putting your foot down on some issues and taking the upset looks and comments from your children is the best policy. 

Factor #2 - On  The Cyberbubble

Our team walked into practice on their phones texting and our team left practice on their phones texting. Bus rides to and from games were filled with "selfies" and talk of "tweets" and "snaps." We also had a cyberbullying incident that disrupted our team for a week or so. Most of this I wrote off as harmless and just the ways teen girls are expressing themselves today. However in the book, Sax points out that homes with MORE computer availability show a NEGATIVE relationship to math and reading scores. 

The connection of social media creates this illusion that you have to respond to everyone, like pictures, comment on posts, and tweet about your day. Looking back and reflecting on this portion of the book, I can see that many girls on my team might have felt this pressure to keep themselves active in social media just to be seen and recognized.

As a coach (which is clearly not a parent but the closest I have been) I attempted to be authoritative. We had team rules but we could be flexible. We had the teams respect but not fear. However, I can think of instances with individual players where I was a permissive coach and those individual relationships ended up working against me and our team. 

I think overall the idea of helping to guide a young woman to form a positive self-image of herself is the ultimate goal. Pop culture today has packaged that image in a way that is realistic and social media, texting/sexting and the increased sexualization of young women combine to form a real challenge for families. The book makes many suggestions about parenting styles and technology monitoring systems but open communication with your child must be the starting point and the most important tool for a parent to poses. 

Factor #3-  On Obsessions

I have seen obsessions with weight, body image, boys, with the game of basketball itself and as a coach (or parent) I tried to keep my eyes  and ears open to these. The player would report that a teammate isn't eating well and thinks she is fat when in fact she was a very fit athlete. The world we live in and the body images that girls see makes life very difficult. It is hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that a girl who is pretty, smart, physically fit and a tremendous athlete would have a problem wth how she looks. 

Although I have seen a lot of "crazy" things on the internet, I was shocked to read that there are pro-anorexia websites. 

While reading about the girl obsessed with her gradesI began to think that this too is a comparison. When you strive to be the top of your class you are trying to beat out others. You compare your grades to theirs. Our competitive culture in sports, singing contests, beauty contests and academics makes for a difficult life for many young people. The simple message of the legendary coach John Wooden comes to mind, "Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming." This is easier said than done, however. 

Factor #4- On Environmental Toxins
The statement that boys view their maturation and puberty with a sense of satisfaction, as opposed to girls who become less satisfied with their bodies during puberty, struck me as very interesting. This seems to be an area that parents and educators can affect in the years leading up to puberty by better preparing them for these changes, both the physical and emotional/social feelings that will emerge. 

I was also surprised to learn about the multitude of health disparities that come for girls who go through puberty at earlier ages. This is linked to endocrine disrupting chemicals which mimic female hormones and might be triggering the early onset of puberty. I have never heard of this but found it fascinating. 

While I appreciated all of the tips on avoiding these environmental toxins, to follow the authors advice completely would be to make massive lifestyle` changes, many of which would be nearly impossible for most people. 

Emotion and Meditation

The EQ Factor was very enjoyable to read. But why did I have this emotion of joy? As I read and while I reflected afterward, I continually recalled different books, podcasts and news stories related to this subject that I have encountered in recent months. My sense of joy came from the connections I made between this article and Gad Saad’s book The Consuming Instinct which covers the innate evolutionary influence on what we eat, clothing we wear, give as gifts and consume for entertainment. I also made a connection to Sam Harris’ Podcast with Paul Bloom, The Virtues of Cold Blood, in which they discuss the potential problems of allowing empathy to direct our lives. Finally, I connected the story of a parent negatively imprinting a behavior and response on a child early in life to this article from the Atlantic, No Spanking, No Time Outs, No Problem.

I worked in two different life skills classrooms for a total of 7 years. During that time I encountered a wide range of behaviors and emotions from the students and the staff as we ALL worked through the days together. I have been to a dozen professional development classes and Mandt training where the instructors preach the mantra that “behavior is communication” and I agree. These trainings always suggest ways to identify and safely assist students with escalating behavior and emotions. However, we rarely discuss ways to pre-teach emotional intelligence and recognition. The classes and licensed teachers that I have worked with have rarely spent time in this subject area.

I found the anecdote about the high school who was adding EQ to its curriculum to be fascinating. For many years, I have thought that teaching students (ALL students, not just Life Skills students) how to recognize and manage their emotions and behaviors could be massively beneficial. I believe that part of my success in calmly and safely working with students in escalated behaviors is due to my own personal ability to manage my own emotions. For the last two years, I have begun to practice mindfulness meditation. This practice has further improved my ability to deal with my emotions and to recognize emotions in others. Ideally, I would love to find a way to implement the practice of meditation into my own class someday. I am sure there are some obvious hurdles in the way of this goal but there is also a growing body of research that supports the efficacy of meditation for improving multiple aspects of life, including emotional intelligence. I know from personal experience that when I start my day with  5,10 or 20 minutes of meditation I feel more relaxed, clear headed and able to manage the problems that come up in everyday life.

“You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes per day, unless you are too busy, then you should sit for an hour.” - Old Zen Saying

Teaching with the Brain in Mind (part 2)

Relating Teaching with the Brain in Mind to my experiences in the classroom:

Chapter 7
This chapter reflects my primary, daily challenge. I teach four Math Intervention classes throughout the day. These students have been placed in my class by their parents, case managers and specialists. I can think of only one student who comes to class motivated every day. I can not blame them, what middle schooler would want TWO math classes, especially if they already struggle in the subject?

Temporary Demotivations In My Class
I can see students “shutdown” when I am frustrated and say something direct like “get to work” and I see how this may trigger an emotional response to a previous math teacher that they could have struggled with. I hear kids tell me about the math teachers they do not like. This “demotivation” seems to be the easiest to adjust to. When I am mindful, prepared, and work hard to give a little personal time to as many students as I can, I think we see better results.

Our class uses three “learning stations” (group project, homework/individual lesson practice and Kahn Academy on the computers) that the students rotate through everyday. We felt that this would break up the monotony and give a variety of learning opportunities to our students. This worked initially but now our demotivated students will only work on the computers and often times cause problems with their behavior when it is time to rotate off the computers.

The third motivation is a student's relationship to the future. I try to focus my motivation on encouraging and reminding them that their brain is  “the most powerful computer in the world” and that they have the ability. Many students ask the classic question of “what will I ever use this for?” This year I have shifted the focus to tell them that they might not use it, but in learning it, practicing it and applying it to other problems they will “strengthen” their brain and their problem solving abilities. Then I reinforce that a big part of adult life is solving problems for yourself. This script has been well received and I think that 7th and 8th graders prefer to hear this, rather than the “you want to go to college and get a good job” script.

On Creating Intrinsic Motivation
Many of suggested methods of creating student buy in, relating to the work and participation I find myself doing already. At the same time we also use a stamp card reward system. After reflecting on this chapter I am going to suggest to my coworker that we phase out the stamp car and put any of that time and effort toward any of the five suggested alternatives to reward.

Chapter 8
As I read this chapter I reflected on the emotions I see everyday. Middle school is of course an emotional aquarium with every type of feeling, reaction and behavior on display at any given time. I have seen kids come into the class after a fight in the hall or transitioning from their least favorite class. These events can make learning difficult for anyone, but the average middle school student has a very difficult time recognizing and dealing with these emotions. As a teacher it is important to create an environment that allows students to safely deal with these emotions and transition back to a level that they can learn at. I know that I often forget about this transition time, in a rush to get class started. This leads to a “false start” of class, then a restart, occasionally frustration for students and staff and more emotions. The idea of using rituals, discussion about something in the news, or seeing a short interesting or inspirational video can help a class avoid the “false start” and make a smoother transition of the emotional balance that our students have to make.

Chapter 9
Movement and its relationship to learning is fascinating. In particular, I found it interesting that some countries have mandated music, sculpture and physical education. I wish that we could and/or would do something similar here in the US.

I spent two years working in a life skills classroom at the elementary level. We took a professional development class called “Brain Gym” and implemented some of the exercises, stretches and activities into our daily schedule. I found it to be very beneficial to help our student transition between classes and as a behavior calming activity.

Chapter 10
Searching for relevance with students in a math intervention (extra math review) class is very difficult. I have had success when I let the class lead the discussion and try to find their own meeting. As chapter 10 suggests, imposing your own personal meaning is often unsuccessful. How relevance is achieved aside, I found the information about the chemical connection to relevance to be fascinating. What does it really mean learn and make something relevant? So many questions arise as science reveals the nature of the brain and learning.

The portion of the chapter that lays out different ways to make emotional connection as well as the practical suggestion bullet points was also  of interest. I like to think that I am a creative teacher and I use some of these strategies in my class and with my nieces but I never really thought about WHY I was trying these strategies. This chapter is very motivating and makes me want to create new and exciting lessons and activities.

Chapter 11
I was interested to read that while diet and “brain foods” have some small effect, this chapter glances over the subject rather quickly. There has been a growing segment of the supplement industry trying to fill this niche market with vitamins they market as nootropics. I listen to a podcast that is sponsored by Alpha Brain which claims that it “may help you remember names and places, focus on complex tasks, and improve your mental speed in response to stimuli. Whether it is a work project, a social gathering, or an athletic performance, taking Alpha Brain is like another gear for your brain.”

I found this book to be very enjoyable, a wealth of knowledge and overwhelming at times. Rereading this book will be a part of my summer reading list.

Teaching with the Brain in Mind

As I read this book, especially chapters 3-6, I constantly reflect back to students and classrooms that I have worked in. For nearly every topic discussed I could think of both good and bad examples of how the brain grows and what it needs to learn most efficiently.

In chapter 3, “Getting Ready to Learn,” I thought of how my sister raises her three children in contrast to what I pick up through conversations with the students in my classes. My sister rarely lets her kids watch TV and when they do it is a special treat. Often, when I talk to students about their night or weekend they will reply, “I watched TV all night.” Or “I just played video games this weekend.”  Granted these responses come from middle school children who are not engaged in the conversation very often but I do think it might speak to some of the challenges that many of my students face. The comparisons only go on from there; diet, sleep schedules, home life/environment. 

I admit that my sister has the education, time and resources to be able to parent the way that she does and many other people do not. It is to this point that the end of chapter 3 that I found the most useful and actionable ideas. The authors suggest many ways to inform and educate parents on how to get their children ready to learn. I personally do not see this happening in our school district and I think it would be a great use of some of our resources. I do know that the Head Start program is very good at distributing this information and providing classes for parents. This program targets pre K students, which as the book suggests is a massively important time in development.

Chapter 4 breaks down the total number of hours a student will spend in a class in their life time, over 14,000, and the ethical responsibility teachers have to use this time to enrich their lives.  I notice a growing trend, at least at my school, to maximize classroom time. While I do think that this is coming from a good place and backed by research, there are many more ways to enrich the lives of students at school that are not class room instructional times. In just a few years I have seen a drastic decrease in field trips, music assemblies, and school community activities. I feel that these events can be equally enriching and help students build bonds and the feeling of community that will only help their academic enrichment.  (my soap box moment for this blog.)

Finally, I found chapters 4 and 5 to be very thought provoking. The combination of the two relating the brains attention capabilities and the environment that the student is in made me reflect on my classroom.  As a classroom teacher I do not have control of a student’s brain chemistry but I can control the environment for the most part. Creating a classroom environment that allows students to feel safe and engaged can make a huge difference in attention, discipline and ultimately learning.  I think that this can be achieved by changing seating charts, decorations, routines (slightly) and classroom jobs frequently. 

The Heinz Predicament

While I read about the two students described and their reasoning on the Heinz problem, I could easily see myself as Jake. The answers he gave and his line of reasoning is very much in step with how I would think about this problem (although I would hope that I would rate a level 5 or 6 on the moral development scale). I also found that the reasoning used by Amy and Clair in the article very much matched what I would expect. In my own life, when discussing disputes or ethical dilemmas with a woman that I am dating, I have found that their general line of reasoning matches the depictions in this article. Understanding this and being aware of how I think differently than some people in my life is useful. But how will this apply as a teacher?

In the classroom there are hundreds of combinations of relationships happening all at once. Having an idea of how different people view relationships and make decisions based on those relationships is very important. Thinking about our students moral reasoning is an interesting but overlooked area of teaching; in fact the subject area is basically left completely out of education. In public schools, it seems, that there is only time for an occasional aside during the reading of a classic novel or during the study of civil rights for the discussion of morality. In my opinion, if we are trying to prepare young people to be productive members of society, we need to find more time to discuss morals, values and ethics. We also need to help students understand that they may have differing paths of reasoning toward their ethical answers. My ideal school system would incorporate lessons along these lines. However, the obvious question is then raised; what morals do we teach? are we teaching them to think morally or are we teaching them to think critically and then discover their own morals?

Caution: Constructivist work ahead

As an aspiring teacher, my idealistic side wants to take a constructivist view of knowledge gathering. However my realist side has doubts about how this can work in a real classroom. The article, Constructivist Cautions, points out many of my concerns.  The metaphor used by the authors of "lighting the flame" versus "filling the bucket" resonated with me. I am beginning to think that you can not have one without the other. It seems that at least some direct instruction is needed to get the project of a constructivist based classroom off the ground.

Of my many concerns, the most pressing is; how do we evaluate the various constructions students will make? Clearly some will students will make "better" or more accurate constructions. But who is to say that it is in fact better? Constructivist epistemology that takes into account a students social and cultural backgrounds seems like a slippery slope to relativism where every students construction could be justified as correct.

This article also made clear that constructivism is more of an explanation of how we come to knowledge and not a set of steps that can be applied to a classroom. This clarification was helpful. However it raised the question; What is knowledge? Where is it? What kinds of knowledge are there?
These questions recalled to memory a podcast conversation I recently listened to on the subject of knowledge, between neuroscientist and author Sam Harris and his guest Professor of Physics at Oxford University David Deutsch found here https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/surviving-the-cosmos .