Music and Learning

Peanut butter and jelly

Black and white

That's right, H and O...before Oates got dissed (was it the stache???)

If there were ever two words that went together- music and learning is right up there with the rest.

Music and learning are two things that I have always known goes together. I have taught music on and off for 22 years and was a student of music as well. While I cannot say taking all of those flute and piano lessons made me smarter, I don't know how dumb I would have been without them? Who is to say?

Studies show that taking lessons really true;y does make kids IQ jump a bit. Now I finally have real, evidence-based findings to coerce my 9-year old to those cello lessons. And if he doesn't like it, he can wear the dunce cap to school.

Language and reading

I always knew I did something right. I just did not know why.

When this cute little boy was little and I was a young mom, I decided that my boy would be bilingual Try and stop me! I spoke nothing by Spanish to him all day. I bought Dr. Seuss books in Spanish. I named everything in the house only in Spanish. He would point to the sky at only 12 months and say "Avion!"

Then tragedy struck. My in-laws were in a terrible car accident and came to live with us while recovering. When my baby, now 2,  discovered that everyone else around us spoke another language and they were enjoying it, he put his foot down. He threw his Corre, Perro, Corre!  at me when I picked it up to read. "Plan, mom, it's a PLANE!" he'd shout, avoiding my attempts to maintain the language that I had so carefully planted in his cabeza. I was devastated, and finally after months, I gave up.

Well, payback came. He is now in Kansas working volunteer missionary work with Mexican immigrants. He speaks only Spanish. And from what I understand, he picked up the language extremely quickly and with a beautiful accent. I was not surprised. I had read when he was in utero that if I spoke to him in Spanish that he would develop a part of the brain that would be more mature and developed and pick up the language later in life even if he did not continue with the Spanish.


With his friends from Peru and Ecuador

I give a great deal of credit to grandma, who, after the accident when she was confined to bed for a year, read to him for hours, literally HOURS every day, at age 2-3. He was incredibly bright and "listo", all of his teachers and friends would comment on his alertness, curiosity, and bright-eyed-ness. Grandma was a teacher and she knew what she was doing (I thought she was just giving me a break so I could make dinner). But to myself, I credit for following my hunch and introducing him to the Spanish  language at his young age, and sticking it out as long as I could. I kept telling myself that his brain was developing and would come back to him one day...and I was right.

 

Being "relational"

The biggest question is, not what does it mean, but how do you do it with your high school students???

NOT an easy task. With teenagers MOST especially.
First, define "relational". The term is simple: to connect.
And to connect means to be able to have some sort of emotional relationship with someone.

Emotion. Teenagers. Emotions +Teenagers= death wish
Or does it?

Teenagers are creatures from another planet. Their hormones are changing. Not monthly, or daily, but by the minute. They have bodies that are capable of takign on the most important and serious responsibility in the world: being a parent. But their mental, emotional, and other developmental areas are in a state of chaos. They are :
impulsive
confused
seeking attention
looking for validations
searching for status
tired
not tired
wanting, not wanting
argumentative
scared
daring
exhausting

I should know; I have three of them.

If I want to connect with students as a high school teacher there are some do's and some don'ts
DO:
validate
compliment
seek the good
consistent
dependable
calm
smile
look them in the eye
remember their name
remember their boyfriend, favorite team, and hand lotion
reward and penalize fairly
listen listen listen listen listen
give them a second chance whenever possible
 hold them to high expectations. because they can do it if we expect them to

DON'T:
tell them what to do
tease inappropriately
tease at all unless I am positive what i am dealing with
be negative. EVER.
do anything to make them stand out unless they want to
demand
forget their name
ignore them
send them out of the room when i get tired of them

the list could go on. But I will stop there. THose are the highlights. In order to be relational with teens, you have to understand them. you have to try to understand them. And you have to really truly care, because they are like bloodhounds and they will detect it quickly if you are a fraud.

If teens like you, they will listen. If they listen, they may learn. If they learn they will succeed.

Attention, Emotions, & Learning

Did you know the hippocampus resembles a horse?
At least a sea horse...

You know how you know something about yourself but you don't want others to know because you will get labeled? Well, I am about to reveal a truth about myself that I have been hiding for, oh, about, well, a long time. Since I was about 14. And no, I won't tell you anything else because I don't want you to do the math.

I have the absolutely worst memory on the planet.

After thinking about what I learned this week as far as how the emotions affect the brain and learning, I had a total epiphany!!!

I grew up in a home where my needs were not always at the forefront. My parents divorced, then reconciled, then really divorced, during my middle childhood years. They both remarried soon after, I was 13 or so. I spent the next several years with a series of medical issues, including ulcers and headaches and depression. A stepfather moved in with my family. Then he moved us 3,000 miles away from my California home to New England. I started high school without a friend in the world, and in New England, it can take years to develop relationships. I did not make a friend for a year.  I ate lunch by myself. At the start of my Junior. year I moved across the US again to the West Coast to live with my grandparents for a semester. Then the last 1 1/2 years, I moved in with my father and stepmother, who did not particularly like having a teenage come into her lifestyle, and she was severely depressed as well. Three high schools, three families. A negligent mother with mental illness. A stepmother with no relationship skills. How can I be blamed for mild depression and high levels of stress. No wonder my grades suffered. No wonder I had no confidence.

A well developed hippocampus

 

 

As an adult, I struggle to remember things still! I finally found that the hippocampus is the part of the brain that makes memory, but also regulates the emotions. It is particularly vulnerable to stress.  I was constantly under stress-the stories are too numerous to tell--but I remember clearly one theme that ran throughout my three families and three schools and nine (yes nine) step parents: I couldn't focus or remember anything.

The story has a happy ending. Twenty two years of a good marriage and great kids, I have more than my share of happiness in life. But I often comment to my husband that I would have been such a better student if I had grown with a nurturing and emotionally safe environment. Now I have proof, and I am blaming it on the hippocampus.

My very own hippocampus

Vision and Hearing

You'd think after raising four kids---well, still in the process, but at least having raised them through the early years--I would have known how absolutely connected the brain is to the eyes. For example, I had all of the little mobiles hanging from babies' cribs and black and white toys for them to nibble on when they were very small. In the baby brain, color shape and form are changed, tuned by exposure to these things.

All kids have to be exposed to certain things visually in order for the brain to work correctly.

NEWS FLASH: You can be blind even with perfect eyes. Well, this explains dyslexia.

Some parts of the brain continue changing well into childhood. Furthermore, some parts of vision lost can never be recovered!

When working with disadvantaged kids, it reminds me to keep in mind that many children did not have a fair start. Maybe they did not have that  I would know. I have been in literally hundreds of their homes over the years. Not ever parent was able to purchase the Magic Cabin Nogginstick Developmental  Light-Up Rattle for their 3 month old.

Knowing that some of these kids don't come from the most attentive caregivers, as a teacher I have an increased responsibility to watch for vision problems. I should know:My 17- year old, whose vision was so bad "he couldn't ever even get a driver's license" was detected by his 4th grade teacher. Thanks to her insistence, even after he had passed a vision test three times by the school nurse, we were able to quickly get him glasses. He's a "brain" now. I wonder what might have been compromised if we had not acted on it?

As for auditory, who knew that playing video games might have a negative impact on a kid's hearing? Oh wait, I did. But what about repetitive sounds? So I guess yelling at the kids in class over and over ("Tyler! Tyler! Tyler! Tyler! Tyler...") might actually not only NOT get Tyler's attention but might hurt his ability to organize and process information. And as for living near the airport, a factory, or train tracks, thank goodness, not an issue (although it might be, if I don't get a job soon) . Can't afford to have the  brain anymore compromised than it already will be in my class.


The big message? Be attentive. Watch for problems. If they have not been caught by the time the 16 year olds enroll into my class, I'm gonna have to make some phone calls.

Ps who knew the stirrup looks exactly like a hunter seat equestrian stirrup?