Doc Meek

Posts Tagged ‘change’

It’s OK to make mistakes; that’s how we learn

When this “truth sign” was first posted in a teacher’s classroom, some people complained that the teacher was condoning, and even encouraging, bad behavior on the part of students. “Not so, ” say Dr. Merrill Harmin and his predecessor in classroom effectiveness, Grace Pilon.

When students lose fear of failure as they are encouraged to risk giving wrong answers, they become more involved in their own learning, and they not only learn more, they enjoy learning more.

Likewise, teachers enjoy the daily teaching-learning activities more.

Dr. Harmin, in his book entitled Strategies to Inspire Active Learning: Complete Handbook (1995-2002), for teachers and students, acknowledged his deep indebtedness to Grace Pilon’s pioneer work in increasing student achievement. Using active learning strategies means that not only are students getting higher marks, both teachers and students are enjoying the daily learning processes more.

Dr. Harmin repeated this acknowledgment of Grace Pilon’s leading-edge work in his expanded 2nd edition, entitled Inspiring Active Learning: A Complete Handbook for Today’s Teachers (2006).

Photo of Expanded 2nd Edition below is from Amazon.com

Photos from WorkShop Way (TM). URL: http://www.workshopway.org

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We’ve been blogging about changing the world, or changing the world by changing ourselves.

Many have suggested that instead of the focus being on changing the world or changing ourselves, the focus should be on LOVE.

We are not talking about the popular culture version of love here. We’re certainly not talking about sensual love. We are talking “filios,” “brotherly love” or “sisterly love.”

We are talking about simply caring about others (say, children and students) in a genuine personal way, no matter what their academic performance is, no matter what their behavior is.

This is not easy. We do have to learn to love and respect ourselves first, completely, with our combination of strengths and weaknesses, as we learn to love students completely with their combination of strengths and weaknesses.

If love and respect are performance-based, if love and respect are conditional, they don’t work very well. Not safe. Not secure. No ultimate trust. Students need the trust to move ahead confidently.

Respect and love are effective!

And they are do-able.

Teachers or parents, for example, are not just simply purveyors of subject matter or rules.

In the classroom this translates, according to Grace Pilon, into paying attention to specific and obvious TRUTHS that apply to all of us, and certainly to students. She liked to see teachers put up LEARNING TRUTHS posters in their classrooms.

The LEARNING TRUTHS

• We respect the rights of others.
• It is intelligent to ask for help.
• It takes courage to be willing to risk.
• We are free to make mistakes while learning.
• Everyone has a right to time to think.
• We don’t have to know everything today.

These learning truths posters are not just for decorating the wall with “nice sayings.” The teachers refer to one or more of them daily, in the course of the day’s lessons, so that the students will learn how to apply them effectively. ……………………………………………………………………………………….

This applies to children in the home environment as well.

This needs more discussion in a future posting.

Filios, Doc Meek, Wednesday, June 16, 2010 (1st posting, morning)

Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA

“A cold in the head causes less suffering than an idea.” – Jules Renard

Image from URL below:

http://www.cdc.gov/getsmart/campaign-materials/print-materials/FactSheet-RunnyNose.html ……………………………………………………………………………………………

Speaking for myself, when I have been involved in an activity, such as teaching or parenting, and I have developed (or learned by default) a set of activities, behaviors, and ideas, I tend to stick with them out of sheer practice. I do what I do. I am used to it, and I may not even question it. Especially I don’t question my own practices if I am so lucky as to feel a modicum of “success” in doing these things.

What a shock then, when unfolding events prove I have “missed the mark,” as it were, and failed to address the right set of parameters.

One example may suffice for now. This topic will require more discussion later I am sure.

Suppose I am teaching someone to read (or any other relatively complex task). I use the conventional methods that I know and perhaps some less-known methods as well, particularly if the student or child appears to be struggling with this new learning.

No matter the amount of effort I make, the learner doesn’t “get it.” I grow frustrated and try harder. Doing about the same things of course.

As Einstein said, “Doing the same things, and expecting a different result is insanity.”

The learner, meanwhile, looks around and sees that others are “getting it,” no problem, and concludes, “What’s the matter with me? I must be dumb.” And later, if the failure keeps up, “I am no good.” This is a killer of future potential, just as surely as a smashing car wreck.

Sometimes, the pupil just quits, “knowing” they are “never” going to “get it,” “never” going to “make it” to success.

Here I thought I was teaching reading (or whatever). I bent every effort in that direction. After all, learning to read is an important skill, right? A very important skill as a matter of fact! So I just keep flailing away . . .  for the sake of the learner, you see?

So here’s the painful new idea:

I am not teaching reading (or whatever the needed skill is). I am teaching the learner how to fail. How to feel badly. Or worse: how to feel worthless. And how to give up hope!

Is this what I intended to teach? Of course not.

Now what?

Now it is me who feels like a failure. I feel badly. I may even want to quit. I may give up hope!

Teaching and parenting is like that. If you let it be.

Time out to seek a new idea, or many new ideas about how to teach learning success, not learning failure.

Yes. For the sake of the pupil. And me too.

Doc Meek, Friday, June 4, 2010

At Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA; not at South Jordan, Utah, USA

Habit helps us.

Habit hurts us.

Bit of a contradiction, eh?

Wikipedia: Bust of Janus, Vatican Museums ……………………………………………………………………………

Our brain wants the best for us

The brain loves us and wants to serve us well. One of the great gifts the brain gives us is to rapidly (or less rapidly) give us what we need:

the capacity to do repetitive tasks easily and well.

“Mindlessly” as my friend says.

(Except of course it does require the mind, and requires its exquisite ability to do numerous valuable things “for us,” without our having to “think about it.” Habit is a great friend. It allows us to almost effortlessly do those things that we need to do, perhaps every day (drive a car, do the routine things needed to teach a class, do the routine things needed to nurture our families, and do the routine things needed in the workplace, etc., etc., etc.). 😮

So how can habit hurt us?

Habit can hurt us in two ways:

(1) Habit can allow our thinking patterns to become less active and dull, to the extent that we not only do the habit mindlessly,we don’t exercise our neuronal cells and brain circuitry (including the “non-electric” glial cells), and our brains become “flabby,” somewhat analogous to muscles that we don’t use actively.

(2) Habit can actually become counter-productive, because our brains love to “hang onto” things that are relatively effortless to do, and so the habit “hangs around” to “serve” us, to the detriment of the purpose it was originally intended to serve, which purpose would have been a good one in the beginning (or else our brain would not have started it up for us, eh?).

So here’s the “tricky” part.

How do you keep the habits that are still serving you well (piece of cake) and how do you let go of the habits that are hurting you (not as easy as you might think!).

Tune in to future posts and maybe we can share some ideas about the process of change.

Blessings and Friendship, Doc Meek, Tuesday, June 1, 2010

At Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA; not at South Jordan, Utah, USA

P.S. The paradox:

Habit helps efficiency. Habit hurts or limits change.

All learning involves change of some sort, and all change involves learning of some sort. As a learning specialist, I have always been intrigued by this mutuality. However I have not seen the following quotation until now.

“If you laugh – you change; and when you change – the world changes.” – Shilpa Shah

Lilly Fluger: <www.lillyarts.com/html/puzzle025.html> ………………………………………………………………………………………..

This quotation reminded me of the famous book entitled Anatomy of an Illness by Norman Cousins. Published years ago now, Norman was the first person of which I am aware that first brought to my attention the healing powers of laughter.

In Anatomy of an Illness, Norman tells us of his chronic disease from which he could not seem to get any relief from pain. Wikipedia reports that he developed a recovery program incorporating megadoses of Vitamin C along with a positive attitude, love, faith, hope, and laughter induced by Marx Brothers films.

Norman reported: “I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter . . . would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep.”

What has laughter got to do with learning?

Laughter not only releases people from physical pain, it also releases people from emotional pain. Many students in classrooms and children in homes may be in emotional pain of which we may not even be aware. A steady hand on the rudder and a sense of humor as we sail on in life in the classroom and in the home (or in the workplace for that matter) can go far to ease the hidden emotional sore spots and pains.

In critical situations in the classroom or in the home, many a day has been saved by the teacher or the parent seeing the humor in the heat of turmoil, threat or anger. Many an explosive situation has been defused by the adult in the case resorting to humor instead of retaliation or force. This is not easy. With kindness aforethought, it is do-able.

Sometimes, even the student or the child can be the leader, can lead the adult  in seeing the humor that can lighten the load of both.

Of course humor and laughter responses in tough scenarios need to be thought about, practiced, and developed in advance. If we are open to humor and have done some thinking about it, and practicing with it in calm seas, it may arise and bail us out when we least expect it–and most need it–in rough seas.

If good humor and laughter are used as everyday things, practiced as part of the ordinary teaching-learning patterns in classrooms and in homes, they can make a huge difference in learning, both for students and teachers alike.

“At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.”  – Jean Houston

Humor knows no equal when it is used to respond to insults.

Abraham Lincoln [a man with an ugly visage, we are told] was called a “two-faced liar” in a very public forum. He paused a moment, took a deep breath, and responded:

“I submit to you . . .  if I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?” The house roared with laughter and the danger was gone.

Blessings,

Doc Meek, May 24, 2010, at Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA

P.S.  And finally, for teachers and parents who bear a heavy load, Abraham Lincoln lifts our burdens with these poignant words:

“With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.”

We as teachers and parents can often be found exhorting or commanding our students and children to do better in school. We may say such things as:

“Study harder!”

“Work harder!”

“Remember to do your homework every night!”

“Remember to pay attention to the teacher when you are in class!”

We know that these skills and practices  are important for their success in school now, and their subsequent success in life. This is only common sense and besides, we may feel it is our duty as teachers and parents to exhort, command or scold our students and children so that they become better people in school and at home and elsewhere in their daily life. We may fear we are failing in our proper responsibility as teachers and parents if we do not push our students constantly.

We may feel that we need to show proper leadership to our students and children.

Leadership is a skill that not many have mastered well. It is not as easy as we may think. It is more than words I think.

“We must be the change we wish to see . . . ”   – Mahatma Gandhi

Would it come softly to our minds to gently say to our students and children the following kinds of things?

“Let’s find a way together to help you enjoy your studies more.”

“Is there something I can do that will help to make your schooling more meaningful to you?”

“Let’s find a way together to help you find homework more attractive, more desirable.”

“I wonder what I can do to help you want to engage more actively in classes at school?”

Or perhaps even better:

“What can I change that will help you change?”

Because all learning involves change of some kind.

And if we are not willing to change, we are not setting an example our students and children can follow. We are simply saying, “Do as I say, ” not “Do as I do.”

“Do as I say,” works for the moment.

“Do as I do,” works for a lifetime.

A lifetime love of learning.

When you lead, or are led yourself, by doing, by example, by actual behavior, not just words, you develop intrinsic or internal change. Even students and children themselves can learn to lead, if encouraged to become involved with you in active learning, in interactive learning behaviors.

Picture from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Engineering. If you wish to read the whole story, copy and paste the following URL into your computer’s browser line (where you usually place website addresses for websites you are seeking):

<http://www.engineering.unl.edu/publications/ENonline/Fall06/20.shtml> …………………………………………………………………………………………..

Even very young students and children can learn to lead by example, in the classroom and at home. Motivated from within. That’s the goal.

“Do as I say” creates change from the outside in, often based on fear.
“Do as I do” creates change from the inside out, often based on love, honor and respect.

Words can be good, and inspiring even. Examples are even better.

The best? Encouraging words and encouraging examples, together, are the very best you can offer any human being.

Particularly for our students and children who rely on us for leadership.

If we don’t change, our students and children won’t find it easy to change.

If we are not willing to change, our students and children may not be able to find the way to change.

Pushing students and children to change “punches” them to act.

Pulling students and children along with our own enjoyment, laughter, humor and joy even, inspires them mightily.

It is so much easier for us as teachers and parents to just tell our students and children what they should be doing, rather than showing them what to do by having them follow our leadership, our example, our own love of learning, our own love of change (in ourselves, not just them).

It is not just our duty to exhort, command or scold. It is our sacred duty to lead by joyful example, each new day, in every way that we can do.

In every way that we can be, or be in the process of becoming.

Will we be able to do this every day, all the time, consistently, without fail?

Not at first.

Neither will our students and children.

Developing our example behavior, making our own changes, in ourselves, takes time.

Just so with our students and children as well.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

Doc Meek, May 20, 2010, at Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA, right now, visiting with my 91-year-old Mom, teaching school children how to learn more easily now, and looking after other things as well; not with my beloved wife Jeannette in South Jordan, Utah, USA, right now. Hopefully soon. 😮

P.S. “What is my example showing today?” I ask myself. “What is my behavior showing right now?” Oh . . . oh . . . hmmm . . .  😮

“How can I change?” I ask myself.

“How can I make a simple start?”

Today. Right now.

Just one simple step. 😮