Sea of Green Life

 This pictures shows 6 brand new 240 watt panels. We were hoping for a game changer, and so far it has been. We haven't lost power since they were installed last week. Our solar electrician gave us some insight on how to use a solar system that we didn't have before. We were using it more "on demand." I'm thinking of course, yeah that's how I want my power to work, I turn on a light switch it comes on.  Anyway, the new plan is to watch the weather closely and keep the inverter? (the little black box with numbers) between 50 and 54. We lose power about 46, or if the well pump engages and we are below 48. The well pump is our biggest power sucker. Water going into or out of the house is the overall biggest problem for off grid. Or so I've been told----repeatedly.  He also left us with a little gas generator that will run for about 8 hours on a gallon of gas to keep it up to 50 on cloudy days. That worked out great, except it was too close to the

  Look at a lesson that you are planning or have already planned. How many boxes in Pritchard's checklist can you tick with confidence? Would you change the lesson plan? If so, why and how? Most of the lessons that I am currently teaching are coming out of curriculum books so I am not necessarily planning all or the parts, but also, I am having to modify and differentiate based on the needs of the child or children that I am working with. This week my phonics group is working on the /k/ sound specifically when we would use ck instead of c or k. To compare the parts of the lesson that I will teach in 4 20 minute sections. The blue sections are from Pritchard's guidelines, underneath is how I would approach them to meet my lesson objectives.  The remaining points from Pritchard’s website primarily focus on the   writing process in a more detailed way than I would need to get into for this lesson as well as with the goals of this student group. I would not change my lesson a

  What are the dangers of encouraging children to develop as spontaneous, creative individuals by allowing them to view situations from different standpoints, take risks, make mistakes and follow their natural impulses? Let’s get the obvious out the way first. The dangers of allowing kids freedom to be themselves? Mostly, they won’t be who we wanted. They will be themselves. Spontaneous and creative kids, they are also, messy, accident prone, and will fail a lot before they succeed. It will be hard to watch, and if you have a strong need to control things, trust me……sometimes don’t watch. As a teacher and a mother of teenagers I can give you advice on both sides of the issue. Let them do and follow where ever they want to go. Let them climb and fall, make messes, and change their minds. They may want to quit dance after 5 years, it OK. What I would suggest to parents is that as they are giving their kid freedom, remember that they are looking to you for the structure, t

  What do you think about Tuckman's assertion that the team needs to experience and resolve conflict before they will perform well as a team? In general, people only find out how strong they are when they are going through some type of adversity. Not to say that you need hardship in your life, or a team can not perform until they are short staffed, under deadline, or dealing with some other catastrophe. As a team to really come together, they need to have a common goal that binds them and more often than not, those things come to play when there is a problem that needs solving and a deadline to meet. Another reason that conflict or difficulties bind people as a team unit is because in a work setting we may be unsure of feedback and hold back some of our ideas or skills. When a problem is at hand, all hands and skills are on deck and people are eager to hear solutions. A person’s idea that they may have been too hesitant to bring up when things were going well, may toss it out t

  Do you believe that a strong sense of their cultural identity is essential for an individuals overall well-being in a community? Being a part of a community is essential to one’s well being. How they define that community is very fluid and can be based on many things. I personally struggle with the word culture. To me I think of places with history and continuum as having culture. Foods that are known to an area or are shared for generations are culture. Traditions, festivals, and community is culture. In school I was so confused, what is American culture? Cheeseburgers and french fries, Rock and Roll music, materialistic focused holidays that no one knows why they are celebrating or make up their own reasons. Don’t throw me under the fire, I’m legitimately curious as to what others would say. When I think of the community that is essential for my well being I think of the cultural norms of mother, teacher, participant, helper. I think of the places that are a part of

     This picture shows us going on a winter walk during our first 6 months. Uffda. That was a long time ago. We are just about to head into our 4th winter. That first one, it was a doozy, with a steep learning curve. Small kid and I miss that first year though because we had to get outside and do stuff. One, it was all new and we wanted to explore, two with barely functioning heating system, it was easier to get dressed and go outside than to make your body happy at 60 with no coat.       We also had to snowmobile in and out of the house to our cars, which was super cool. We picked the best spot to use our downhill skis on the driveway and towed kids back up with the snowmobile. Hubby got me a pair of skis that work like snowshoes (pictured above), and we were pretty excited to have easy access to places to use our snowshoes. Although we learned quickly that it was much more enjoyable to go on a walk on trails that the hubby had packed down with the snowmobile.      A bit

A different kind of fire. The analogy is that we want what we are teaching to not only be a flicker, but become a continuous flame.   What do you think that Hebb meant when he claimed that, 'cells that fire together, wire together'? How will this influence the way that you teach? I just love how the above quote rhymes. Makes it easier for me to remember and to process. I’m also a big fan of analogies and this quote helps me imagine the learning process, ZIP, ZAP, POW. All that electrostatic neuron action. Overall, I agree with what this statement is (I think) intended for. Actions that are done repeatedly together will eventually become one. I think of all the things this is true for. For example as I type, I don’t need to look at my keys to know where the letters are. I’ve wired the hand coordination into my brain and hands with repeated trials (and mistakes, but now I am even proficient with the delete key without looking). Also, reading without sounding out wor

  Think of an instance when your convictions on a subject were so strong that you refused to back down and accept a well-presented argument to the contrary. How did you feel? What impact will this have on the way that you teach?           I struggle to think of times that I refused to back down and accept a well-presented argument. First, I am a people pleaser that avoids conflict. Although I have opinions and lead, I do not like conflict so even if I have to back down, try again later, go around the problem, or compromise. Second, the people in my life I have conflict with tend to fall in two categories, superiors who set the expectations and I follow or family who doesn’t present an argument to support a different idea.           When I do have conflict, I tend to feel frustrated and/or mad at first but quickly adjust to move on. If needed I vent to a trusted source to help me process, but it does not have a lingering effect on my person. The impact it has on my teaching sometime

  Rogers argues that the teacher's role should be facilitating the process of individuals arriving at their own solutions rather than providing answers to problems. Do you agree with this? Explain why or why not. I agree with this statement. I could just end right there, but some people might disagree so I will elaborate. Thinking back to some of my own schooling and also what I have gone through with middle schoolers and high schoolers at home, some teachers are “teaching” the answers. A approach coined as “teaching to the test.” What we refer to in our house as “Read it and then barf it back out,” (charming, I know). All of these things are the same, and I can tell from first, second, and third hand experience that it isn’t teaching, and the people aren’t learning. Effective teaching is showing kids information but also teaching them the skills on how to interact, delve deep, and ask questions. Knowing the multiplication table is fine, but understanding the concept of multipl

What do you think of Ausubel's approach to teaching: Tell them what you are going to teach them, teach them the subject and then tell them what you have taught them? It is a well proven fact that people learn when they are most engaged in the learning process. Ausubel’s teaching approach incorporates this idea in that teaching should be aware of where their students are at and meet them there. I think this approach is closely related to the KWL charts. Figure out what you K now, W hat you want to know, and what you L earned.  As an intro to a unit, teachers will preface it with what student’s already know and build on prior knowledge. When you tell them what they will be learning, you are essentially “priming the pump.” Preparing their brain for information and engaging students in a “I Spy” type of learning. Whenever the topic or related content to what the teacher primed them for comes up, in theory, the students will go “Aha!” they said we would learn (see, hear, feel, do) thi

  What do you think of Engelmann's assertion that, 'if the students haven't learned, the teacher hasn't taught'? There is no more essential time to ensure that the teacher taught and the student learned than letting a 15 year old drive for the first time.  In my last post, I commented on how I can see both sides to any argument. Which sometimes makes it hard to argue a point without arguing with myself! Engleman’s stance of, 'if the students haven't learned, the teacher hasn't taught,’ poses no such dilemma. The entire point of teaching, whether it be teaching as a profession or when teaching a skill is for the student to learn. If learning isn’t happening, then teaching isn’t happening.  Wow that seems harsh. Especially as I spend more and more time with students that need a lot more support. Here’s where the classification lies though. Although what the teacher intended to teach may not be learned in that lesson or time frame, learning is h

  Being both cursed and gifted with the ability to see and understand both points of an argument or decision, I can see the benefits and pitfalls of Dewey’s belief and theory on the education system. The bare bones are that Dewey believed tradition education was rooted in forcing students to memorize information that others set as important versus his idea that students should learn with and through their actual learning experiences and capitalizing on their interests. My position is firmly in the middle as usual. I absolutely agree with Dewey, we should be capitalizing on the students interests and life experiences to make their learning the most relevant to them. When they are invested and engaged, learning happens faster, deeper, and is retained longer. However, some things need to be taught to children even if their interests do not lie there, like world geography, history, and math. At one time or another everyone hates these topics, but we still needed to know the information.

Neitzsche is not unlike most of the other famous philosophers that people have or have not heard of. He had some groundbreaking thoughts that changed how people look at things, but also like many other philosophers, said some things that probably made people mad. One of those things may be what he said about achieving “true education.” According to Neitzsche, to achieve a true education one must confront and surmount three main obstacles or “dangers.” They are isolation, crippling doubt, and the pain of confronting one’s limitations. Uffda. Those are rough, and as most of us can relate to, they are also absolutely present in at least one of our childhood memories of school. This I could agree with Neitzsche on. Those are our biggest obstacles to really succeed at school. If we are reserved, or are not taught the skills to approach and overcome those barriers, then we will absolutely struggle or possibly not even achieve all that education has in store for us.  The part that sets Neitzs

Have you heard the phrase, “Believe it and you can acheive it?” There are endless phrases and mottos to motivate yourself to suceed. This stemmed from Aristotle, who observed and believed that not only can we effect the sucess or failure of our own lives with our positive or negative thoughts, we can also change the lives and trajectory of those around us. As an educator and mother this is monumental information and I have seen it in action throughout the years. Years ago on the first day of school in my combined second and third grade classroom, we were discussing things we wanted to do that year and books we enjoyed. Suddenly a little boy next to me burst into tears. I was shocked as to what might have caused this. When asked, he adamantly responded that he couldn’t read (entering second grade). His friends could read big books, but he could not. Now he was in with second and third graders and he felt everyone could read-except him. This boy was coming in with his own self-fufilli

 "The unexamined life is not worth living." -Socrates      Socrates coined the phrase that the unexamined life is not worth living. What do you think about this assertion that admitting failure and learning from errors is as important as reflecting on your successes in making you a good teacher?      Just as a car can not continue without regular maintenance and fuel, teachers also need to address their needs to maintain effective teaching. Teachers do this by not simply enjoying and building on past successes, but also by continually reviewing lessons, days, or even minutes of interaction.    This car was trying to get it's problem across, but I didn't reflect on what was happening. It seemed to be running well, until it wasn't.  When things are going well, teachers should reflect on what was going well and why. This will make it possible to repeat successes. However, we are not in a position where we have set items that we can simply copy and paste.

  How Brain Compatible is My Teaching/School/District Quiz Reflection Page 11 of How the Brain Learns, 6th Edition by David A. Sousa Most of the scores for this survey fell in the mid to high range. Those items that fell in the mid (3) range, were because as a teacher I feel that I am not as intentional about setting up some of those opportunities. For example, giving students time to talk about what they are learning could certainly increase, but there is a line between discussing the learning and getting distracted. Numbers 9 and 10 I rated as a 2 overall because they are not terms I am familiar with (chunking and primacy-recency effect). After reading the definitions, those are present in my lessons and daily teaching, but I am not intentional with the approaches yet.  The other item that I would score at the mid range is adapting the curriculum to the windows of opportunity during cognitive growth. This happens naturally in the curriculum, first grade concepts are in

  Reflecting from How the Brain Learns, 6th Edition by David A. Sousa Taking the quiz on page 10, What Do You Already Know? My overall score was 60% which I thought was low because of the history of Traumatic Brain Injury/Post Concussion Syndrome in our house. After reviewing the results, I felt a little better because the ones I got wrong were technical. For example the first question asks about what part of the brain decides what goes into long term memory. I don’t know the names of the parts of the brain, just how it works and adapts. Which is shown in the next two questions I answered correctly. The focus was about how learners learn and whether cramming before a test is helpful. Personal experience was all I needed for those answers. If you are wondering, cramming right before doesn’t help.  Taking this quiz as soon as I got the book helped me see the things that will be covered in the text.  It also allowed me to clear up some of my misunderstandings right away as I