Rounding up the year, part one: On how bottlecaps made my life easier

I've been an inconsistent blogger and I'm sorry for that. I think I'll remain inconsistent, so just stay tuned and don't give up, because as inconsistent as I may be I'm here to stay ;).

It's that time of the year when schools are all about summing up and report writing, so I've decided to draw up one or two of my own. Those who've paid attention will remember this post: On Antennae and Token Economy . It was a short report on something I've found and decided to give it a try - token economy. In short:

Within the notion of token economy, tokens are items (buttons, bottlecaps, stickers...) used as positive reinforcement. They are of no value of their own, but they symbolize praise.

In the classroom, tokens are used to acknowledge a good action as simple as it may be - opening a book, apologizing, writing something down, being patient in a game, waiting for one's turn, etc...

Open the book - get a token...

Raise your hand - get a token...

So I gave it a try, and expected the fad to last for a week, maybe two... Three, if I'm lucky. But my student really grew fond of it - collecting tokens became a kind of a game. The class was curious and supportive about it as well. And a week passed, and then another one, and then another... I decided to make a table, recording the number of tokens collected each lesson and placed it on a visible spot in the classroom. And then it went on for a bit longer than two months - right up until the school finished. And it didn't get boring, nor did it lose its power. It focused us all on the good and helped us set our minds on learning.

I made a little diploma and added the numbers of all of the tokens collected in the two months - it came up to 700 so I wrote:

 This certificate is awarded 

in recognition of
700 good things done during English lessons
from April to June 2013.
Thank you for your cooperation and good will!

I signed it and presented it and confused my little troublemaker, but it really meant a lot to him. 700 good things - sounds pretty great, doesn't it? Especially when all one hears is Don't!!, oh no!, why did you?!, how could you?!, stop it! and the like.

It's just a simple little thing.

And it sounds silly.

But really -
It worked.

Bye for now,

Do 

On Antennae and Token Economy

My last post was basically a link to a documentary. If you haven't seen it yet and there's a possibility for you to have to deal with ADHD at some point of your life or work, it's time you do it. But that's not the tip I'd like to disseminate with this post. The film is a wonderful insight into what ADHD is. You won't learn many tips from it and chances are you won't be taking notes while you watch. But that one tip I've picked up is so simple anybody can do it and it has an incredible change potential.

The tip is called "token economy" and it comes up around the 45th minute of the documentary. "Token economy" has roots in what psychologists call conditioning and it's a form of immediate positive reinforcement of desirable behavior or in plain words: whenever a student does something well they get an object which has no value unto itself, but represents a currency through which a reward is attained. So, if you want a student who cannot keep quiet to learn how to raise their hand and wait for their turn, whenever they quietly raise their hand you give them a token, whenever they remain quiet with their hand up while you're speaking to another student they get a token, whenever they give a relevant answer after you call their name they get a token. The student receives a token for everything they do well, as small as it is, and they MUST receive a token immediately.

Think well before you use anything edible for a token.
There's a possibility they might disappear before being counted.

Tokens can be anything: marbles, stars, stamps, bottle caps, pencils, stones, sequins, buttons, pieces of cloth/string, paperclips, stickers, rubber bands, anything made of cardboard (stars, suns, flowers, birds, lions, faeries...)... I think you get the point. The aim is for the student to collect as many as possible in a given period of time - e.g. a lesson. I repeat - they MUST receive a token for EVERYTHING they do well, as small as it is, IMMEDIATELY. And a deal must be made: 

If the student collects X tokens, the teacher will ________ .

This is where you need to think about your student and figure out what is important to them. If nothing comes to mind do what I did - Ask them "Who should I tell when you're being good?". Chances are they know exactly who you should call, so follow through. You MUST FOLLOW THROUGH. 

But be flexible the first time you start doing this. I tried the recipe from the documentary and set an objective of 50 tokens in a 45-minute lesson. The student only collected 35, but behavior change was so dramatic, I followed through with the deal nonetheless. As I said, smiles all around ensued. 

The trick is in the fact that tokens focus us, teachers, students and parents on students' strengths and abilities and help us overcome the difficult bits and reduce difficulties into bits, wherever and whenever possible. And as I said, smiles all around ensue.

I'll confess having reservations about all of this at first, but I decided to give it a go because something had to be done. It did not magically change everything for the better, nor did it magically cure ADHD, but it gave a strong positive note to my lessons.

So be brave and persist.

Finally, keep your antennae on alert whatever you do, because you never know when and where you might come across a brilliant idea. 

When you get one, pass it on.

Love to all,

Do

P.S. 

For those interested in research on token economy, click on the titles to go visit:

Wikipedia - to start off.

R.P. Liberman: The token economy. American Journal of Psychiatry, 2000

G. LeBlanc: Enhancing intrinsic motivation through the use of a token economy. Essays in Education, 2004, 11.

K. Zlomke & L. Zlomke: Token economy plus self-monitoring to reduce disruptive classroom behaviors. The Behavior Analyst Today, 2003, 4, 177-182.

Astounding Details and Heartbreaking Difficulties

48 minutes and 56 seconds of pure food for thought in the shape of a BBC documentary. It's not about preaching or giving advice (although one or two at the end will maybe come in handy), it's a snapshot of what living with ADHD means.

  

Love to all,

Do

Why can't we all just get along?

"You're the ONLY one who's been complaining!" I've been told on a Monday.

"Yes, but we've received no support three years ago when X did this and two years ago when Y did that. Why should I expect any support now?!" I've said on a Wednesday afternoon.

"Stop writing notes in the teachers' journal, because everyone else will think you can't deal with them." I've heard on an idle Friday.

The context doesn't really matter. Explaining the situations above won't make things clearer for anyone because they're all THE situation in which the grown-ups are at the end of their wits and the blame-game begins. If you haven't been involved in one, you've witnessed it. If you haven't witnessed it, you either haven't paid attention, haven't worked for very long in child care or are that one human embodiment of luck no one really believes exists.

I may be childish in thinking asking for help when one needs it is actually a sign of strength and self-awareness, and sometimes I may be a wee bit too honest about what I see and notice in the classroom at my own expense, but I actually think it's the right thing to do. Experience is probably going to try to teach me otherwise. So this is a post, for future reference.

SPLITTING is an unconscious defense mechanism: "The child unconsciously protects itself from difficult feelings by starting to view people as either all bad or all good, rather than a mixture of the two." (Delaney, 2009:92)

The SPLITTING PROCESS is what groups of people go through when under pressure or peril. The three examples from above are textbook cases of splitting in school environment - seeing others as not doing their job, warning them to do their job or hide their faults, when actually constructive advice, naming the emotion of helplessness, noticing what does work or simply describing the situation would do a far better job. (Delaney, 2009)

And now I wonder, am I taking a risk for even speaking up?
Maybe it'll do some good for someone else (hopefully, not ammo-wise) even if it doesn't do any good for me.

Just remember,

Do one thing everyday that scares you.

Sing. 

(Baz Luhrmann, Wear sunscreen)

All my love,

Over&out,

Do

References:
Delaney, Marie (2009) Teaching the Unteachable. London:Worth Publishing

In the eye of the beholder...

I think I've mentioned this before - the thing about describing the behaviour to the student and not making judgements, but here I go again, because I've come across a perfect video to illustrate it.

To sum up simply: If someone seems like they're not listening to you, that doesn't mean they don't hear and understand every word you say. The same goes for a whole palette of possible misinterpretations...

And then there's this (be sure to click on the link, seriously - it's a gem). It begins with dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang of Rossier school of Education saying: "Real thinking is never divorced from emotion". Later on she elaborates it mentioning Descartes' error, term which also stands for António Damásio's book and signifies the division Descartes made between mind and body, emotions and reason which is erroneous in  Damásio's  view- skip to 5:20 to catch that. There's also a discussion on standardized tests and frustration in learning. I was happy to hear an expert say we should teach kids what they need to know regardless of the test format and then just help them apply it to the test, because it only covers a little bit of what they'll need in life. So very true about the school leaving test my students will take at the end of fourth grade - which is why I'm trying to bring the context of the outer world into the classroom as much as I can.
All in all -I've seen the video twice and am still discovering things. Check it out!!!

All my love,
Over&out,
Dora

Hand in hand

I'm not an astrology believer, but the other day I found myself sitting in the car listening to an astrologer making predictions for 2013. He was trying to explain that he's only the bearer of news and it's not really his fault the theme of 2012 was, has been, recession. And then he stressed the key term of 2013: collaboration.

He said something along the lines of Marin Luther King Jr.:

 We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools. We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.

Or John Donne:

No man is an island entire of itself.

Or Cloud Atlas:

Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others. Past and present. And by each crime; and every kindness we birth our future.

So here, to close 2012, is one of the best Prezis of past year to start the new one. A Curriculum for Future Minds (a.k.a what the next generations seriously need to know) by Sunni Brown as seen by Amber Lewis

Happy New Year to All!!

Lots of love, health and happiness!!

Over&out,

Dora

Smart mice

Sometimes things look impossible. Like there's no way out, no possibility of change, no sliver lining. And the worst possible thing you could hear is "It'll get better", because deep down you somehow know it won't.

Getting stuck in a downward spiral is easy and the only way out is using your will power to try and see something good and attainable and go for it.

If what you're doing isn't working, try something else.

And if what you're telling yourself you'd never tolerate from a friend, stop saying it. Be a smart mouse and give yourself a treat.

 

Love to all (far and near),
Do

How does putting a ding in the universe sound?

Money makes the world go round is a famous cliché, but is it true? Are sticks and carrots really the key to motivation?

There are people around this world coming home from their paid jobs who continue working in their free time. This work can constitute volunteering of any kind, programming of any kind, design, music, writing, teaching, coaching, searching for ideas and solutions. I'm obviously one of them. Last night, after an exhausting day I sat down and started blogging. Two of my friends asked me WHY?! with a mixture of why don't you just go to sleep? and laughter (they know me too well). I didn't tell them but I asked myself the same thing. And this morning, an answer came:


 

Remember - autonomy, mastery, purpose.

Have a happy International Volunteering Day 2012!

Click on the picture for a bit of inspiration! 

Now go and put a ding in the universe! ;)

All my love,
Dora

Episode Three: Dissemination strikes back

My two latest Prezis - created for my primary school colleagues. They're both in Croatian. The second one is nothing new, just a little bit different. But I've never made a Prezi on Comenius before.

Comenius/Canterbury/Brajda - uvod u Comenius on Prezi

Comenius/Canterbury/Brajda - Škola kao sigurna baza on Prezi

If you're one of the people I spoke to today - thank you for taking the time to find my work. I hope you'll find it useful.

If you're one of the people helping me through all of my ventures - You are precious and I love you to bits.

Over&out,
Dora

Be all ears

Many people take refuge in headphones, but they turn big, public spaces like this, shared soundscapes, into millions of tiny, little personal sound bubbles.(Julian Treasure @TEDGlobal 2011)

“We spend roughly 60 percent of our communication time listening, but we’re not very good at it. We retain just 25 percent of what we hear.”

(Julian Treasure @TEDGlobal 2011)

I guess I could copy/paste videos and a couple of quotes to make my task easier this morning, but I need to explain the point I see in it all. I've been writing a lot about learning styles and understanding oneself so this one could understand others, but this time I'm about to be a little more specific.

Everyone reading this blog know by now that our learning styles influence the way we communicate with others, and for teachers that means that their learning styles influence their teaching styles and perception of what's happening in a classroom. "You're not listening to me!!" and any of its variants in any of the world languages is probably one of the most commonly heard utterances (not just in a classroom). But what does it really mean?

I gave a presentation recently and started it with: "Could you take a piece of paper now and make a table like the one on the screen?" and someone said "What makes you think we've got paper and pen?" A brilliant point. What does make me think people bring papers and pens to presentations?, thought the person with a special notebook just for presentations and a particular appreciation for good stationery. Starting from our own habits and values, can lead us to believe someone is not responding to us in a desired way. If someone's rhythmically tapping their pen during a lesson and looking out of a window - it says nothing on how attentive they are. I know a person who closes their eyes during meetings - to the horror of all attending, but trust me they're one of the best listeners I know. They're remembering and analyzing what's being said to amazing detail and phenomenal precision, while some people may be lead to conclude they're dozing off...

At one point Julian Treasure in his TEDtalk mentions we've been  losing our ability to listen because we've come up with ways of recording what we've heard. My first response is that I think I listen better because I'm recording what I hear, but a part of me does wonder if my use of writing has made me a lazy listener. Furthermore, listening is at the very core of empathy. If we want to help our kids empathize better, we need to help them really listen and also be good listeners, in order to give them the experience of being listened to.

There's so much noise we're living in. Everything is screaming at us in order to get our attention, no wonder the kids scream as much as they do. So take a moment to listen. The video on busting the Mehrabian myth is here to point to the relevance of words themselves in any spoken discourse. The TEDtalk video is here to remind us about the importance of listening and to help us listen better. Make the moment especially silent.

Vivaldi is here to greet the snow and give you a chance to try out what Mr Treasure speaks about - How many channels can you hear? How many filters can you use?

Listen well to what's being said, then you'll understand what's not. 

(from the cover of an old Morning Glory notebook. ;))

All my love,
Dora

Brawny brains

I haven't really asked myself why learn language at all for years. My Mum took me to a language school when I was 6.5 years old and told me: "You'll learn English here." I had some objections, as all only-children do when others decide what they're going to do, but then the teacher was nice and my friends were there so I stayed... for the next 13 years or so. When I started working, though, my dear teenagers asked this question frequently and left me too shocked to give a proper answer in most cases. Somehow this rang in my head:

You taught me language, and my profit on ’t
Is I know how to curse. The red plague rid you
For learning me your language!
(Tempest, 4.2, 368-370)

I got better at answering the question, but this morning a friend posted a link that will in all likelihood help me get even more savvy. Teenagers like to hear no-nonsense scientific facts - they'll listen to that, explanations -not so much. So, if you want to know about how learning a language makes your brain bigger, read Business Insider's "Learning A Language Makes The Brain Bigger". Other than brain-building, the article reports benefits of language learning include helping fend off Alzheimer, so remember:

Evidence like this is building that the brain is still plastic and capable of growing and changing long into old age, and that this plasticity is important to keeping the brain healthy. The National Institute of Health recommends staying mentally active to help stave off mental decline. Learning a new language may give the brain the exercise it needs to stay healthy.

REMEMBER! Don't be all brawn, no brain. Give your cogs, nuts and bolts a little stretch once in a while. It's never too late to learn or try new things - amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic.

Hasta luego!! :)

Do

School as a safe base (HUPE Rijeka branch talk Prezi)

Today I gave the second of the three planned talks about what we did during the Difficult Learners course. It was a small gathering of enthusiasts of all ages and levels of experience and hopefully they enjoyed it as much as I did. Here's the Prezi I prepared - it was put together with a lot of effort and care. It also finally, covers everything about the attachment theory and its significance in the classroom environment.

Rethinking challenging learners on Prezi

And yet, there's so much left out, 'cause I had to boil everything down to just forty minutes. ;)))

So, until the next bout of inspiration, remember to always be your own best friend.

Over and out,

Do

Take five

It's been too long since I've written a thing, so here I am. There's an activity I really like and would like to share - I used it to discuss learning styles with my students and they gave it a thumbs up which means it's GOOD. It's called a "sensory dictation" - I've heard about it from Marie in class this summer, but it can be found in Unlocking self-expression though NLP by Judith Baker and Mario Rinvolucri (Delta Publishing, 2008), as well as Dictation by Paul Davis and Mario Rinvolucri (CUP, 2002).

It goes like this:

• Write on board and draw a symbol for each of the senses like on the picture. I won't be drawing here, seeing my squiggles is a privilege that belongs to my students, but if I were drawing here I'd draw and eye, an ear, a nose, a hand and a smiley sticking it's tongue out - one of my students thought of it and it took on...

• Next, the teacher should dictate a list of 20-30 words. It can be anything really - I used just random everyday words I knew they were familiar with, because the point wasn't to revise, but to speak about learning styles. Next time, it might be words from a text or a unit. 
• As the teacher dictates, students write the words in columns according to what comes to them first when they hear the words. Let's say the word is ice cream: Do they see an ice cream? Do they hear that annoying ice cream truck or someone talking about an ice cream? Do they taste ice cream? The first ones will write the word in the first column, the second ones in the second and the third ones in the fifth I taste column. 
• After the dictation is done they discussed the following three questions in groups of three or four: In which column have you written the most words? Are there any empty columns? Why did you put a word in a column - is there anything interesting you noticed about yourself? 
• In the end I talked to them about learning styles and about how they scored in the dictation and what might that mean for them as learners. I felt listened to, because they asked questions, gave examples - some light bulbs were definitely lit.

So try it out. ;)

And another thing. Some exams like IELTS, TOEFL and CPE contain something called a long turn task. The candidate receives a question or a topic and needs to speak about it for a minute or two or 45 seconds, which is a long time. Some people simply shut down in the face of it repeating "What do I say? I have nothing to say." Pointing them towards thinking in terms of the five senses helps. If the task is to describe an experience, a person or a place, chunking the task down to the senses: What do I remember seeing/hearing/smelling/touching/tasting there? helps. Simple, but it was a revelation to me. 

Have a nice week.

All my love,

Dora

    

How do you feel about learning today?

Hello everyone,

As I've learnt a lot this summer I've decided to introduce some changes to my lessons and I did it from day one of this school year. I've actually decided to try out everything I feel might be useful, so this is actually my first step of putting theory into practice.

The change my students have grown very fond of is asking them "How do you feel about learning today?". They don't even wait for me to ask anymore, they just show me with their thumbs or tell me. It really is a great way to start a lesson, because they get the chance to let all of the distractions go and warn me if there's something I can help with or need to take into consideration. As there is only 45 minutes to a lesson, the best way to approach this is by a quick survey. And here are some ways of how you can approach it:

• A SHOW OF THUMBS: thumbs up for great, in the middle for so-so, thumbs down for not well.
• A SHOW OF FINGERS: give yourself a grade from 1 to 10. 
• DOODLES: draw something that represents how you feel - you can limit this to an animal, a plant, a film character, a cartoon character, a monster,  or a household object, 
• MELODIES: Pick a song or a tune which represents how you feel and sing it or whistle it (noise risk factor to be taken into consideration!!)
• CALLING OUT EMOTIONS: This is great if you've just done adjectives about feelings, you or a student might call out words for emotions and people sit down when their emotional state is named. This is good for developing empathy as the one calling out words needs to think about others. 
• STRIKE A POSE: This one's primarily for young learners and only, and just maybe, for very open teenagers. Show how you feel by miming it or striking a pose. 
• JUST ASK THEM: It's pretty obvious. But don't insist on everyone sharing, some things are private. 

Finally, it's a good idea to ask yourself the same question about teaching - just so you know where you stand  and if there's something you could do for yourself to feel better. 

Maybe this was more of a Monday post, but I wanted to finish the week on a positive note. 

Now I'll go home and rest. Monday's a very BIG day.

Love to all,
Dora

The Lost Art

A couple of people lately came to me saying they've been typing so much spelling has become an issue for them. I'm illiterate in two languages now!! one of them wrote in honest distress and I understand the unease in realizing you've forgotten 5th grade lessons... Once we were annoyed because teachers were constantly correcting us. It stopped, for a while we were relieved and now we miss being corrected....

It also reminded me of a discussion I took part in a couple of months ago. It was something about digital textbooks and two comments were made which really got me thinking.

I don't really care what happens to "handwriting skills" as I am sure that will be a forgotten art in a generation or two anyway.

About handwriting, maybe there would be some special courses for those students who might be interested in learning it.

The comments also inspired me to do some research and write a post which I'm going to re-post here. This is for the kinaesthetic learners out there who need to know why handwriting is important for learning and maintaining the skills of reading and writing.

Hope you enjoy it,
All my love,
Dora

The Forgotten Letter - Q as in: Quills or why teach handwriting at all? 

 Submitted by dxplorer on 10 February, 2012 - 19:35 

The revered Steve Jobs in his 2005 Stanford commencement address mentioned the impact enrolling in a calligraphy class had on his life, Apple and ultimately the world. It’s interesting how comments to my post about something Apple introduced into this world made me wonder: with all the swiping, typing, texting and tapping, why teach handwriting at all?



My little Google research lead me to this describing the work of Karin Harman James from Indiana University which showed the following interesting points:

• The brains of children who learnt letters by writing them down reacted more intensely when they were shown a letter, than the brains of those children learnt about the letters otherwise.
• Adults who were taught a set of new characters by writing them down more easily distinguished those characters from their mirror images.

These two findings point that by writing we take in the characters more deeply – not only visually, but also kinaesthetically. By writing the parts of our brain in charge of motor skills and sensory memory is activated too. And that leads not only to better writing, but also better reading, because if perception of a character activates more parts of our brain, we recognize it more easily.




To conclude: As obsolete as it may seem to be becoming – writing by hand is a skill not to be underestimated.

So stay hungry, stay foolish – and make your students’ hands write… at least the important things. ;)

Love to all,

Dora




Further reading available at the Science of Learning Blog and Science Daily.

Before I start posting about theoretical stuff again...

...I want to share an idea that found its way to my Google Reader this morning. Some people think that an idea is the most dangerous parasite in the world ;) - this one surely is contagious and may bring change and open dialogue, so it might be risky if you don't know how to deal with those things. BUT!! It may help you with tapping into what your students want/need/care about in a safe way - they may be seen writing it, but once the message is written it stands alone. I'm going on about something and you don't even know what it is, so without further ado:



You can change a classroom, seating order, the content of a lesson, the colour of a corridor or door, make plans of virtually any kind, ask and share whatever comes to your mind. "When I'm trying to learn a subject that's difficult..." may lead to a discussion about how they learn, how they feel about learning and tips on how to learn better. They can learn from each other.

I'm going to make a class of mine occupy a wall like this because I want to help them own their classroom - there are blank walls, old posters and so much wasted space which could be taken over by their own imagination.

So, after I'm done with this post, I'm going to spread the idea and hopefully it'll catch on. What about you? ;)

Over&out,
Dora

On Prezi

You might have noticed I use a presentation tool which somewhat differs from the usual Power Point. It's called Prezi and I love it very much. I've blogged about it before and you can find the post if you click here, but what made me blog about it again is a Prezi about Prezi made by Prezi team.

I think I liked it so much because in the first three slides they appeal to the kinaesthetic learners. It might be that they did so unwittingly or not, nonetheless - Prezis are a way to appeal to your students better. So here it is - What makes a Prezi beautiful? in the words of its upkeepers:

Presentation On Presentations on Prezi

Hopefully you're having a great weekend before school starts.
All my love,
Dora

Report no.1

On last Friday I held my first presentation of what we did at the course. It was for the staff meeting at the high school I work. I tried to keep it as short and resourceful as I could and still there was some resistance, but! most people reacted well and I've actually already had some really productive talks about how to approach some students. I guess some of my words really resonated which makes me very happy.

So, this is my first Prezi in Croatian - I'm sorry others won't be able to understand it, but it'll help spread the word among people I work with.

Za Moravice, 23.08.2012 on Prezi

One of these days I'll make a copy in English, because this is what I was going to write about  next. I wonder how other Difficult Learners are doing presentationwise... Hm...

That's all for now,

Dora

Something found :)

I did some searches and found our trainer's TeachingEnglish webinar session. I'll be putting a link in the "Recommended Reading and Viewing" section of the blog, but I'm also posting it here in hope it will be more visible.

So here is the link to a recording of TeachingEnglish webinar of 14 February 2012 called "Dealing with challenging learners".

And here is the TeachingEnglish introduction to the webinar:

Theme: What is a challenging learner? Why do some learners challenge us more than others? How can we understand challenging behaviour in a different way so that we can teach these learners better in the classroom? This webinar will address these questions and explain the effects of loss, trauma, violence and neglect on the brain, learning and behaviour.

About the speaker: Marie Delaney is Director of The Learning Harbour, Cork, Ireland. She is a teacher, trainer and Educational Psychotherapist with many years of experience of working with school management, staff and pupils around challenging behaviour.
(As submitted by Rob Lewis to TeachingEnglish Teacher development section on 24 September, 2011 - 15:22)


Hope you enjoy it.
All my love,
Dora