Teaching Strategies to Make Your Lesson Multisensory

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"Oh my god, I literally love the way this stores smells.  I literally have to go in" screams every teenager as they pass Abercrombie & Fitch.  A & F approaches sales like most retail stores do: using image, sex, and stereotypes.  However, they also take advantage of psychology and hack into the systems that control our behavior.

A & F uses a multisensory approach to make shopping an enjoyable experience.  Walk into an A & F store and you're bombarded with the typical good looking, stereotypical model.  I want to look like them, I'll buy the clothes.  But you are also side-slapped with an overwhelming fragrance and lung thumping music.

Why?  There is science behind it.  And further, there are implications for education.

5 New Teaching Techniques To Make Your Lesson Antifragile

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As the characteristics of our learners change, teaching techniques must change too.  Below you'll learn new teaching techniques inspired by Nassim Taleb's newest book Antifragile.

My sister has fragile wrists.  At the age of eight, she fractured both of them at the same time.  Poor girl.  Later, because her wrist bones were weakened and more fragile by the initial breaks, she broke them again (at different times).

My sister's wrists would be the opposite of more fragile if after her initial breaks, they strengthened.  Being the opposite of fragile is antifragile.  Things that strengthen from stress and error are antifragile.

Today we salute Nassim Nicholas Taleb.  Taleb is not like the others.  The Pragmatic TV Teacher embraces unconventional ways to improve instruction.  For that reason we give Taleb a big ol' bear hug because he has a lot to teach teachers.

Antifragile is Taleb's most recent book and is a mind spinning mess worth your time.  Where as his other books had a refined focus, Antifragile is more of a wandering thought process.  For that reason, I found it more readable than his others.  It had more flavor and I felt more engaged.

Antifragile is about the complexities of life.  It defines how systems are strengthened through randomness, error, and uncertainty.  Let's apply his thoughts to education.

5 New Teaching Techniques To Make Your Lesson Antifragile is about strengthening your instruction by embracing the things that make us quesy: randomness, uncertainty, error, stress, and recovery.

5 Reasons Every Educator Should Read "On The Path To Equity"

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Young teachers want to leave teaching.  In short they (we), are overwhelmed.

"On The Path to Equity" is a powerful read for educators that addresses teacher attrition.  The subtitle, however, is misleading: "Improving The Effectiveness of Beginning Teachers."  Rather than best practices to promote the success of young teachers, the resource concerns itself with teacher attrition, the inequity of effective teacher distribution, and a Comprehensive Induction program aimed to help young teachers transition into the profession.

Every educator should read the resource for 5 reasons.

6 Ways To Lead Like A Stoic

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Leaders possess qualities that are difficult to define. Marcus Aurelius offers pragmatic leadership advice in Meditations. One of the most important and strait-forward pieces is found in Book 3.
(for more on Stoicism and leadership check out Shane Parrish at Farnam Street)

Aurelius writes:

" How to act: 

Never under compulsion, out of selfishness, without forethought, with misgivings. 

Don’t gussy up your thoughts. 

No surplus words or unnecessary actions. 

Let the spirit in you represent a man, an adult, a citizen, a Roman, a ruler. Taking up his post like a soldier and patiently awaiting his recall from life. Needing no oath or witness.

 Cheerfulness. Without requiring other people’s help. Or serenity supplied by others. 

To stand up straight—not straightened."

Aurelius gives us six important qualities of a leader.

To lead like a stoic, let's look at each phrase individually.

A Case For Collective Planning Time: Innovation

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The digital revolution and the advent of data processing through the internet defines the way we currently live.  Take a second and thank the inventor of computers.  Now appreciate the inventor of the internet.

"Who invented computers... who invented the internet?  Steve Jobs, Bill Gates?"

You should be embarrassed, you don't know who invented the internet?  The computer?!?!?

That's ok, you're not alone, and you shouldn't be embarrassed.  Asking for the sole inventor was a misleading and tricky question because there is not a single individual credited for each accomplishment.  The digital revolution is the result of GROUPS of people where credit is distributed.

You should care about the digital revolution not because of what resulted, but because of the process. You should care about the digital revolution because it outlines a successful process for innovation.

Identifying the necessary ingredients for innovation provides a case for collective teacher planning time.  As hardware, let's use The Innovators by Walter Isaacson.

Relevant Reading List #4: Academic Article Series

Emotional Arousal and Learning

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A unique occupation like teaching requires unconventional preparation.  The Relevant Reading Lists are a series of resources that when read together convey a similar message imperative to teaching.  The resources listed are not included in typical teacher preparation programs. The Pragmatic TV Teacher feels they should be.  Reading these will make you a better educator

Emotion has a central role in how and what we remember.  Incorporating small emotional cues during your lesson will help your students learn and retain content.  These resources are for educators looking for a small change to increase student learning.

 Nielson, Kristy A., and Mark Powless. "Positive and negative sources of emotional arousal enhance long-term word-list retention when induced as long as 30min after learning." Neurobiology of learning and memory 88.1 (2007): 40-47.

 Steidl, Stephan, Fathima Razik, and Adam K. Anderson. "Emotion enhanced retention of cognitive skill learning." Emotion 11.1 (2011): 12.

 Nielson, Kristy A., and William Lorber. "Enhanced post-learning memory consolidation is influenced by arousal predisposition and emotion regulation but not by stimulus valence or arousal." Neurobiology of learning and memory 92.1 (2009): 70-79.

Ancient Thinkers and Education

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Marcus Aurelius is known for his pragmatic advice and he is considered one of the most important stoics one can learn from.    His writings are a foundation for any young professional searching for their identity.  Meditations is a must read.

Stoics discuss a view of life that is admirable.  They are wise, thoughtful, and “selectively spoken”.  They value education and connectedness.  They live through a special lens of life: they define the “suck it up” lifestyle.  Grit and persistence are qualities each stoic strives to embody.

Stoicism has recently gained attention in the blogosphere.  We see Ryan Holliday address it frequently Shane Parish obsess over it constantly.  What can educators learn from ancient thinkers?