UNICEF released the report “The State of the World’s Children 2011: Adolescence – An Age of Opportunity†that outlines challenges adolescents face in health, education, protection and participation, and the need to give young people a voice and help form the future by taking action immediately.
Friday Profile: “Fighting” the addiction
We’re getting ready to watch the Academy Awards this Sunday and are talking about our favorite nominees. “The Fighter” is an office favorite, nominated for multiple Oscars including Best Picture. For those who haven’t had the chance to see it, the movie shows the early life of boxer Micky Ward working his way up to pro status in the economically drained town of Lowell, Massachusetts. Micky’s half brother Dicky, also a boxer, is Micky’s trainer but proves to be consistently unreliable due to his crack addiction. Dicky agrees to have his daily life as a crack addict captured on film by an HBO camera crew, believing this is his shot at a boxing comeback, but which ultimately casts him in a less-desirable role as a leading man in the documentary “High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell.” If you’re interested in learning more about the documentary that’s depicted in “The Fighter” you can watch it in its entirety online, but due to its graphic nature isn’t recommended for young viewers.
While the role of addiction is still in the hollywood spotlight, I am inspired to take this opportunity to share some statistics from a presentation by Pat Wolfe, Ed.D entitled, “The Adolescent Brain and Addiction.”
- The substance dependent brain is physiologically and chemically different rom the normal brain.
- The progression of the disease is influenced by genetic and environmental factors.
- The brain uses natural opiates to reward behaviors that enhance survival and are commonly released by:
- Food
- Sex
- Social Interactions
- Some non-natural opiates (drugs) are so similar to neurotransmitters in their chemical composition that they fit into the receptor sites of the brain’s own opiates.
- When the brain is consistently subjected to artificially high levels of dopamine, the brain starts making less of its own, leaving the user depressed, fatigued, and going into withdrawal unless they relieve it with more of the drug.
- Addictive drugs dramatically blunt neural activity which may lead to poor decision making and problems with impulse control.
- The average age kids start to drink is 12.94 years
- By 12th grade more than 80% of students have consumed alcohol in the past 30 days
Early intervention is key in making sure addicts have a chance at a successful future. Dicky Eklund had a reality check to a degree that many will never get from watching himself as an addict in the HBO documentary and years later in a box office hit. If you know someone who can’t see the addiction, help them yourself or ask for help from someone you trust. To learn more amazing facts about the brain, visit Pat Wolfe’s website www.patwolfe.com
4 ways for parents to help students ace the state test
As testing dates get closer, parents and students can work together to turn testing day into a stress-free event. Start talking about testing now so you can identify where your student is having problems early and intervene.
– ANXIETY: If students have anxiety about testing, identify why. It helps for parents to talk to their children about the test. Offering reassurance and talking about the process can be a great stress reliever, says Susanna Ramirez-Raab, director of categorical programs for the Enterprise Elementary School District (Redding.com).
– IDENTIFYING STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES: Where can students improve? Set time aside every night to help your child improve in their hardest subject. Students won’t learn basic standardized test concepts overnight. To encourage your child to approach learning on more than a superficial level, give them ample time to wrestle with the subject that’s troubling them so they know it through-and-through by testing day.
– WELL-ROUNDED TESTER: Practice tests are available through the student’s school or you can get practice books and find resources online. Work on getting your student comfortable with answering multiple choice, true/false, essay and fill-in the blank questions. If they have trouble answering a question, ask them: What do you think the answer is? What can you tell me about this topic? Why are you considering another choice?
– HEALTH: Healthy sleep and eating patterns should be part of the student’s everyday life, but if they are rare occasions make sure your child is rested, full and in class on time on testing day.
For more study tips, visit the following blog posts I posted earlier this month to get students prepared to ace the test: The 5 R’s of Note Taking, Students Studying with a Plan, and Preparing Your Student with Skills to Ace the Test. Also, LifeBound’s parent engagement webinar PARENTING TIPS FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS: PROMOTING SUCCESS AT SCHOOL AND AT HOME is coming up on March 1. Click here to signup now while space is still available.
5 Parenting Tips for Academic Success
At LifeBound, we’re starting the month of March off with our free webinar, PARENTING TIPS FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS: PROMOTING SUCCESS AT SCHOOL AND AT HOME. In anticipation of this exciting parenting session, I’m offering 5 parenting tips you can start implementing today.
1. Help your student discover an after-school activity. The after-school hours between 3-6 p.m. is known by law enforcement officials as the “danger zone” because it is the most likely time for kids to engage in gang activity, become victims of a violent crime, experiment with drugs and alcohol, and become pregnant (afterschoolstars.org). Not only do after-school activities give kids something to do besides get into trouble, it also gives them an opportunity to find something that they’re passionate about that schools don’t always have time or resources to offer and nurture.
2. Get involved at school. Parents need to show their students they think their education is important by putting in the time to meet their teachers, get familiar with where their student struggles and excels, and possibly volunteering at events, in the classroom, or attending parenting sessions offered by the school.
3. Give them the tools to get organized. Telling your child they need to get organized will only get you and them so far. What organization tools do you use or wish you used to keep your life in order? If you’re unorganized, take this as an opportunity to show by example and find the tools you need to get organized daily, weekly, monthly, and so on.
4. Schedule. If students are going to engage in after-school activities and work part-time jobs that are requirements for becoming well-rounded, they need to learn to make a schedule and stick to it. The first step in teaching your child time-management skills is letting them know it’s okay to say “no” when they start feeling over-burdened by activities, whether it’s telling a friend they need to stay in or explaining to a teacher they don’t have time to join the speech-and-debate team.
5. Reading for pleasure. When students read for pleasure, they effortlessly learn skills to an acceptable level in areas like spelling, grammar, understanding complex grammatical constructions, and writing style, which in turn ensures their literacy (nationalliteracytrust.net). Congratulations if you have a student who loves classical literature but most parents will probably have to get creative if they expect to see their child voluntarily sticking their nose in a book. Expose them to the many different genres and joys of reading and writing by introducing them to magazines, like National Geographic; fact books, like the Book of Useless Information; biographies of someone who shares their passion or interest, like Jane Goodall: A biography; blogs, like hellokids.com; and many other countless options.
LifeBound’s webinar on March 1 will give parents insights on how they can bolster their students’ study, time-management and organization skills, as well as their overall interest and motivation both in and out of school.
We will explore ways to create a culture of learning in the home that supports high expectations, improved academic achievement, and the persistence needed to overcome challenges when things are difficult. Please join us and be sure to tell a friend about this event. Click here to learn more about the session and registration information.
How are you celebrating Black History Month?
In 1920, the fraternity Omega Psi Phi at Harvard University created Negro History and Literature Week. Carter Woodson, the son of former slaves and the second black person to earn a degree from Harvard, chose to celebrate in the month of February as a way to pay respect to Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass who both have birthdays in February. By the 1970s, the Black Power Movement was going strong and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History changed the weekly observation to a month-long observation, now known as Black History Month.
Many teachers will use this time of year as an opportunity to show students the importance of remembering the triumphs and tragedies in black history as well as to examine today’s culture and realize contemporary triumphs and tragedies. Nationwide, cities are celebrating throughout the month with literature, sculpture, music, stories, film, dance, lectures,  community gatherings and more. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation selected pieces from the city’s permanent sculpture collection representing influential people in black history and displayed them on their website for the public to learn more about these immortalized key players, like Duke Ellington and Jackie Robinson. In Denver, the University of Colorado Denver Black Staff and Faculty Affinity Group is calling on black staff, faculty and students to come together to create a support group to take action and invite discussion. In Tallahassee, their Black History Month Festival focused on local people who will one day make the history books. “Our black history cannot be just Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King — we are so much more than that,” Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll said.
Do you know a courageous person who should be recognized for Black History Month? Use the comment box below to share your story of a trailblazer you know who is working in your community or someone else’s.
Friday Profile: Simonides of Ceos and the Invention of Memorization Mnemonics
The history of the art of memory begins with the Greek orator, Simonides of Ceos (556-468 B.C.). Legend says, Simonides invented the system of visual memory mnemonics after attending a banquet and later leaving as the sole survivor. During the banquet, Simonides was called outside, and after stepping out the door, the banquet ceiling collapsed on the guests, leaving a group of unidentifiable bodies still at their assigned seats at the table. Simonides was asked if he could identify the bodies, and to do so, he created a visual replica of the banquet hall and the guests in his mind and was able to identify each body.
This memory technique is known as the method of loci or spatial palaces. Simonides figured out that if he could conjure a mental image of the banquet hall and guests in order to retrieve a name, he could use the same method when memorizing any large amount of information. For instance, in the New York Times article, “Secrets of a Mind-Gamer,” science journalist Joshua Foer explains how memory athletes use Simonides method to bring home the U.S.A. Memory Championship trophy. At the competition, competitors must complete tasks like memorizing an entire deck of cards in under 5 minutes.
Ask a memory champion and they’ll probably tell you they have a “normal” brain — and  there is neurological research to back up their claim. What they do have above most of us is technique, and when it comes to memorizing a deck of cards, you’ll find their technique relies on spatial palaces.
To memorize a deck of cards:
- Take a familiar space like your childhood home, your school, the mall, or in Simonides case, the banquet hall. You can also create an imaginary space or the route you take to work.
- Then, take the first three cards and link each of them to someone famous doing something bizarre. In Joshua Foer’s essay, he “walks” into his childhood home and  “Inside the front door, the Incredible Hulk rode a stationary bike while a pair of oversize, loopy earrings weighed down his earlobes (three of clubs, seven of diamonds, jack of spades).” As this example shows, the more ridiculous and creative picture you conjure up, the more likely you will be to remember it.
- After getting through your deck of cards, you go back to the front door, in Foer’s case, and recall all the cards by the images you linked to them.
Want to see it in action? Below, watch the video of the world champion in speed cards, Andi Bell, revealing his techniques in a clip from the BBC documentary, “Get Smart.”
How could you use the method of loci or spatial palaces to make studying a fun activity? Have you ever used this or similar techniques to study? Share your story in the comment box below.
Study Skills: The 5 R’s of Note Taking
In order for students to succeed at learning, they need to understand their process by discovering their learning style, test-taking techniques, how to best use their memory, think critically and set goals. The following is an exercise for parents and educators to share with their students to increase note-taking skills.
- Start by drawing a line from the top left of the page to separate one third of the paper from the rest. The larger side should be on the right.
Record: On the large side of the paper, take notes on the most important points made by the teacher.
Reduce: While the information is still fresh, summarize the points you recorded on the left side of your paper. This process helps you to remember, process, and understand new information.
Recite: Cover the left side of your paper and repeat aloud what you have just written. Repeat until you can recite your notes without looking.
Reflect: Think about what you learned and apply it to something else you already know. Drawing connections will help engrave the new material.
Review: Take ten minutes to review your notes every day. This keeps the information fresh and you won’t have to try to relearn the lesson from last week.
Do you have note-taking tips you share with your students? Share with us in the comment box below. Also, be sure to visit the blog every Thursday for more study skills to use in the classroom and at home. This Thursday’s lesson was taken from LifeBound’s STUDY SKILLS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS. For more study skills, visit www.lifebound.com.
The News in Numbers: Closing the Achievement Gap with Parent Engagement
Ronald Ferguson is a Harvard professor, a national speaker at racially mixed public schools and a leader in education gap research. His research has been influential in the Gates study on evaluating teachers; the Council of the Great City Schools study of the widening gap between white and black boys; a front page New York Times story on the effectiveness of large schools versus small schools; and in landing him a spot on the eight-person panel deciding if Cathleen Black should qualify for New York City chancellor. A recent New York Times article “Closing the Achievement Gap Without Widening a Racial One” brought Ferguson into the spotlight and revealed some of his numbers on the growing gap.
– In a typical wealthy suburb:
- 79% of blacks are in the bottom 50% financially, while 73% of whites are in the top 50%
- 40% of blacks owned 100 or more books, compared with 80% of whites.
- The percentage of black and white parents who read to their children in first grade on a daily basis is the same.
- By fifth grade, 60-70% of white parents still read to their children daily, compared to 30-40% of black parents.
- 55% of white girls reported earning an A or A- average, while less than 20% of black girls and boys reported an A or A- average.
These statistics showed Ferguson that the solution to shrinking the achievement gap might not be what a teacher can do in the classroom, but rather what parents can do in the student’s home. Research has long shown the correlation between parent engagement and student success, finding when parents are involved, students gain:
- Higher grades and test scores,
- Better attendance and more homework done,
- More positive attitudes and behavior,
- Higher graduation rates and greater enrollment in post-secondary education.
In Denver Public Schools, Jefferson County and others who serve Title 1 populations with primarily low-income students, we have conducted sessions for parents on establishing a culture of learning at home, identifying and removing any personal barriers that may be affecting their children’s growth, and committing to modeling success in ways their kids need to understand success and how to be successful.
Geoffrey Canada begins this work with pregnant moms. His work in Harlem is based off Ferguson’s research and has been instrumental in the Harlem Children’s Zone Project with whole neighborhoods, communities and schools who have successful, committed and involved parents to advocate for their students and be participants in the academic advantages that they have over time.
On March 1, LifeBound is offering a parent engagement webinar for parents who want to improve their effectiveness with their students but are unable to attend a session in person. Click here for registration information. This webinar is designed for parents, counselors, educators, and administrators with students in 5-12 grade. Space is limited. Register now to ensure your participation.
Rising Graduation Rates Raises Remedial Concern
As the job market becomes increasingly more competitive, it’s become common to think of a high school diploma not as a finishing point, but as the document to get you closer to a college degree. “In a sense, high school has become the new middle school,” said James Stone, director of the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, in the article “High school isn’t enough for job market.” In December 2010, the unemployment rate hit 4.8 percent for people 25 years and older with a bachelor’s degree, compared to 9.8 percent for high school graduates and 8.1 percent for those with some college or an associate degree, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Friday Profile: Innovation and Dr. Gunther von Hagens, creator of BODY WORLDS
Dr. Gunther von Hagens (1945- ) revolutionized methods for dissecting and studying the human body after a person is deceased. When he began this work, human bodies were being dissected for scientific research, and they were often preserved by being cut and hung in sections in transparent blocks of plastic. These plastic blocks lengthened the time the bodies could be studied before they began decomposing. However this method did not allow scientists the opportunity to touch and handle the bodies. It also failed to reveal how bodies appear while in motion, which became his ultimate goal.
After acknowledging the problem and observing the current methods for body preservation and dissection available to him, Dr. von Hagens began asking questions to develop better techniques for studying human anatomy cadavers.
Dr. von Hagens began to experiment with a procedure later named plastination. By asking himself how plastic blocks preserved the bodies, he came up with an idea to inject plastic directly into the cells of a cadaver. This procedure immediately stopped the decomposition, making the cells rigid and causing them to hold their permanent form. This process also allowed him to directly handle the bodies.
Over the past few decades, Dr. von Hagens has fine-tuned the plastination process, and more than 400 institutions in 40 countries have adopted the method for medical instruction. He advocates his preservation techniques all over the world and continues to champion its practicality in the face of religious and philosphical opposition.
He created the famous BODY WORLDS exhibit which has traveled across the globe, showcasing bodies treated with this techniques. These figures illustrate human anatomy in motion including, dancing, ski jumping, ice-skating and skateboarding. Although plastination is a controversial procedure and relies on people willingly donating their bodies for dissection and public exhibition upon death, it has revolutionized the way we view and understand the human body.
How can you be more innovative? The SOLVE FOR TOMORROW competition just posted the the top 10 finalists for 2011. Students were asked to answer, “How can science or math help the environment in your community?” and answered back with 2 minute videos proposing inventions from cutting back on pollution using vegetable-powered buses to saving the salmon with solar power. Click here to watch and vote.
This profile was taken from LifeBound’s CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING FOR TEENAGERS. Want to learn about more great thinkers and creators from history? Click here.