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More shortly! I just wanted to dust off the podcast. Subscribe here or via your podcast player of choice if you’d like (just search for my name).
One of the biggest revelations I’ve had this summer doing in-depth research on Mind Body Education (thanks to the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning and Wilson Hall for introducing me to current educational psychology research these past few months) is the value of retrieval practices in classroom learning.
A particular eye-opening part of that summer learning for me is how we process information as learners immediately and in the long-term. This quote from Willingham’s Outsmart Your Brain hit me particularly hard as someone who has been a highlighter for the last 20 or so odd years! I’ll be writing more about these topics in the next few days. Thanks to Readwise for resurfacing this quote from my readings earlier this summer!
Got my classroom name plate for my new classroom and teaching position at Wilson Hall today. I’m teaching 7th grade science, Environmental Science, and Physics. All three subjects should be a blast.
I look forward to this being the last classroom name plate I collect to finish out my career here at Wilson Hall in the next few decades (I still have my others from previous schools)! So exciting!
Voyager 1 and 2 were launched in 1977 and have, by all expectations, exceeded their missions and then some. I was born in 1978, so I share some sentimental affinity with these two marvels of human engineering. Glad to see we reconnected with Voyager 2 after a few scary days there as it continues its incredible journey outside our solar system.
We’ll be in touch with the two Voyagers until they run out of their power reserves sometime in the 2030s. That will be a sad day. May we all contribute a verse to humanity’s story and the cosmos, much as these robots have done during their time!
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my daughter was born on August 1, either 😉
NASA reestablishes full communications with Voyager 2:
Voyager 2 resumed communications with Earth after remaining silent for two weeks. At 12:29 a.m. EDT on Aug. 4, the spacecraft began returning science and telemetry data, indicating it is operating normally and remains on its expected trajectory, stated NASA.
I decided to take agency and move on from social media this month after the birth of our daughter. It has been a humbling experience to live in these moments of new life made tangible by her awakening. To walk beside Merianna and be present there with her in these moments is something I never want to forget.
Moving on from social media has already been an epiphany for me in so many ways. I’m sure I’ll be reflecting on that in the coming months here.
This post is worthy of your time to read and reflect as you contemplate your next IG Story or TikTok video…
The difference between creative & uncreative people:
When we satisfy our desire to certify the moment with a Tweet, or a Story, or a text to a friend, or a TikTok video, we sell it short. We reduce the experience to a single, throwaway-able moment, swiped by in a second, and we set the moment free. Even worse, we leave our experience (just born, fragile and fresh) in the hands of others who may not treat it with respect. They might perceive it differently than we do, mock it, minimize it, skew it in our memories, compare it to their own experience, taint it, steal it, rob it of the feelings it initially gave to us in that first, pure moment.
If you ask almost any of us teachers what sort of skills or attitudes we’d love to see more developed in our students, you’d hear responses such as “resiliency” and “less anxiety.” In this first large-scale study of social and emotional learning approaches in k-12 education, Yale School of Medicine lays out some great findings (emphasis mine):
Students also showed improved social and emotional skills, attitudes, and behaviors, such as student self-efficacy, self-esteem, mindset, perseverance, and optimism, among others. Furthermore, the report confirmed that students who participate in SEL programs also feel better in school, reporting less anxiety, stress, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Students were also more connected and included and had better relationships with peers and teachers.
Elizabeth (Lily) was born this afternoon at 2:30 PM in Columbia, SC. She is 7lbs 6oz (I called it exactly) and 50cm (19.7 inches). She and Merianna are doing great and excited for walking this journey of life together with our family, friends, colleagues, and community!
As I always tell my students on Tuesdays, “It’s the Optimistic Day!”
Must read from Mr. Brent Kaneft (our Head of School at Wilson Hall, where I am a teacher)…
So the strange paradox of innovation is that every innovation has the potential to be an existential threat to the physical, social, spiritual, and cognitive development of humans. The allure is the convenience (our brains are always looking to save energy!) and the potentiality innovation offers, but the human cost can be staggering, either immediately or slowly, like the impact of mold secretly growing behind an attractive wallpaper. To return to Tristan Harris’s point: machines are improving as humans downgrade in various ways. As professional educators, we have to ask whether innovation will prove detrimental to the fundamental qualities we want to develop in our students.
