{C-Span Nerd}
Self: Request unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks.
Chair: Without objection, so ordered.
{/C-Span Nerd}
Learning stuff is not that hard.
Really, it's not.
You may be studying for a test in school, trying to do well on a game show, or simply expanding your horizons. Whatever the reason, or even if you don't really know the reason, you want this information to get into your head and stay there until you need it later.
The good news is you have help.
Anytime there is communication, there are two parties at work -- the one listening, and the one talking. And in normal communication, both parties have the same goal, namely to transfer information from one person to another. We both want the same result. So the communicator -- the teacher, the author, the movie director, the artist, whoever they might be -- has a vested interest in your learning what they want you to know. So, there are certain steps they are going to take to make sure that you get what they want you to have.
Unless their name is J. J. Abrams, in which case all bets are off. "Lost" is, after all, an apt description of what it's like to try to understand what's happening on that island.
As a student then, if you know what the teacher is trying to do and how they are trying to do it, you can pick up on certain clues the teacher is giving you about what she wants you to know. A capable teacher knows how to make the most important parts of the lesson the easiest to learn, and how to put them in front of the student over and over and over again.
It may seem blatantly obvious that that which is most important is what is going to be most frequently emphasized. It's also human nature. Placing a higher priority on something calls it to mind more often. As teachers, we just can't help ourselves.
But that's the point. The important stuff is supposed to be the easiest, because later on when we talk about connections we'll see how to use the obvious to teach us what is harder to see. But that's Step 6. We're not there yet.
Students, then, can make themselves "smarter" simply by noticing what comes up most frequently. Pay attention not only to what is said, but how and how often. Put yourself in the teacher's shoes and try to figure out what is front and center in his mind. If you're willing to be on the receiving end of the communication and simply pay attention, even if you don't understand or follow 95% of what's being, you'll get what the teacher thinks is important.
As a student, if you will make your education a team effort and cooperate with those who are trying to teach you, you can be smarter than you think.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Introduction to Trebekistan
In 2005, Bob Harris wrote a groundbreaking book on learning theory called Prisoner of Trebekistan.
OK, the learning theory part is only a few chapters early on. The rest of the book is how he used what he learned on Jeopardy. And some of the language is . . . well . . . let's say not what you'd want repeated at your church-based co-op. Millard Fillmore's middle name is especially colorful.
But it's also especially memorable. And that's exactly the point.
The Trebekistan method teaches how the mind prioritizes information and how to use that knowledge to make what you want to remember memorable. It's useful for test-taking, studying, and especially quick recall in high-pressure situations.
There are eight steps to the process. I'll treat each step as a separate blog post as I have a chance to write them.
OK, the learning theory part is only a few chapters early on. The rest of the book is how he used what he learned on Jeopardy. And some of the language is . . . well . . . let's say not what you'd want repeated at your church-based co-op. Millard Fillmore's middle name is especially colorful.
But it's also especially memorable. And that's exactly the point.
The Trebekistan method teaches how the mind prioritizes information and how to use that knowledge to make what you want to remember memorable. It's useful for test-taking, studying, and especially quick recall in high-pressure situations.
There are eight steps to the process. I'll treat each step as a separate blog post as I have a chance to write them.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
PowerPoint
Tonight, a personal first.
I have never in my life constructed a PowerPoint presentation. Honestly, I've never had a reason to. True, I'm a preacher. But my preaching style is more literary than didactic, so it doesn't really lend itself to visuals. My theory is that preaching is oratory, and should uplift and inspire. If PowerPoint could make a message resonate more deeply with an audience, politicians and Presidential campaigns would have been using it already. The best orators in the world intentionally avoid PowerPoint, and I suspect for good reason.
And yes, I teach quiz bowl. I suppose there might be a use for it there. After all, I am not averse to showing music videos or projecting a crossword puzzle onto the screen for the class to solve together. But the lessons I've taught so far just haven't called for PowerPoint.
Tonight, though, the LCHE Christmas Party is featuring end-of-semester presentations. The Quiz Bowl class has been learning how to write questions. (After all, the best way to get good at answering questions is to get good at writing them.) So tonight we show off our work in a game of Parent Jeopardy.
The kids have some good stuff. The only question remaining is whether or not I can put a presentation together to properly show it off.
Wish me luck.
I have never in my life constructed a PowerPoint presentation. Honestly, I've never had a reason to. True, I'm a preacher. But my preaching style is more literary than didactic, so it doesn't really lend itself to visuals. My theory is that preaching is oratory, and should uplift and inspire. If PowerPoint could make a message resonate more deeply with an audience, politicians and Presidential campaigns would have been using it already. The best orators in the world intentionally avoid PowerPoint, and I suspect for good reason.
And yes, I teach quiz bowl. I suppose there might be a use for it there. After all, I am not averse to showing music videos or projecting a crossword puzzle onto the screen for the class to solve together. But the lessons I've taught so far just haven't called for PowerPoint.
Tonight, though, the LCHE Christmas Party is featuring end-of-semester presentations. The Quiz Bowl class has been learning how to write questions. (After all, the best way to get good at answering questions is to get good at writing them.) So tonight we show off our work in a game of Parent Jeopardy.
The kids have some good stuff. The only question remaining is whether or not I can put a presentation together to properly show it off.
Wish me luck.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Music To Homeschool By
I am not the least bit shy about my love for They Might Be Giants. John Linell? Genius.
Here's another taste for you science types:
Blood Moblie
(One of these days I'm going to learn how to embed Youtube videos. Until then, we'll just have to click on links the old-fashioned way. :-) )
Here's another taste for you science types:
Blood Moblie
(One of these days I'm going to learn how to embed Youtube videos. Until then, we'll just have to click on links the old-fashioned way. :-) )
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Flex Days
One lesson we learned last year is that it's unreasonable for us to expect that every week will be a five-day home-school-a-thon and go by uninterrupted. Sometimes stuff happens that gets in the way. People get sick, schedules get changed at the last minute, emergencies arise.
This happens in public schools, too, but with their class sizes and institutional safeguards in place, the school calendar is pretty much what it is.
But there's no substitute for a home schooling Mom. If she goes down, the day is lost.
Our pipe dream last year was to run school from the middle of August to the second week of May. Our plan was to go only take time off for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and a week-long trip to Grandma's house in the spring. The only other scheduled days off would be for birthdays.
As it turned out, we needed until June 3rd to get the state-required number of days completed.
Sure, there were emergencies. We missed nine days in January because of my grandmother's funeral. We started back from Christmas break a couples of days later than we intended to. We decided to take the Friday after Thanksgiving as a day off.
But what really pushed us late in the year were sick days. There were days when Laura just couldn't go, and we had no real plan for what to do when that happened. (Occasionally we would have a make-up day on Saturday, but what fun is that?)
This year, we have a plan for days (like today) when Laura isn't well. We call them "flex days."
We decided that instead of rushing through the school year, we would take our time. We started on August 11th and plan to wrap up on May 29th. We still have the same holidays planned (2 days at Thanksgiving, 2 weeks at Christmas, a week of Spring Break.) We still give the girls a day off for their birthday, Laura's birthday, and my birthday. We were able to count four of the days of our summer vacation as school days since we visited the Space & Rocket Center, the Chattanooga Aquarium, the Creative Discovery museum, and the Chattanooga Zoo.
But this year we have also built "flex days" into the school calendar. Every other Thursday, Laura gets a day off. If she feels good and wants to teach that day, the flex day goes in to the "bank" for her to use when she needs it. She promises not to "overdraw" her flex day account, I promise not to freak out about the school year running three weeks longer than it's supposed to, and the girls get nine days of school every two weeks. Everybody's happy.
So, homeschool veterans: How long does it take you to get through the state-required number of school days? How flexible are you about whether or not to have school on a given day? And what do you do when Mom gets sick?
This happens in public schools, too, but with their class sizes and institutional safeguards in place, the school calendar is pretty much what it is.
But there's no substitute for a home schooling Mom. If she goes down, the day is lost.
Our pipe dream last year was to run school from the middle of August to the second week of May. Our plan was to go only take time off for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and a week-long trip to Grandma's house in the spring. The only other scheduled days off would be for birthdays.
As it turned out, we needed until June 3rd to get the state-required number of days completed.
Sure, there were emergencies. We missed nine days in January because of my grandmother's funeral. We started back from Christmas break a couples of days later than we intended to. We decided to take the Friday after Thanksgiving as a day off.
But what really pushed us late in the year were sick days. There were days when Laura just couldn't go, and we had no real plan for what to do when that happened. (Occasionally we would have a make-up day on Saturday, but what fun is that?)
This year, we have a plan for days (like today) when Laura isn't well. We call them "flex days."
We decided that instead of rushing through the school year, we would take our time. We started on August 11th and plan to wrap up on May 29th. We still have the same holidays planned (2 days at Thanksgiving, 2 weeks at Christmas, a week of Spring Break.) We still give the girls a day off for their birthday, Laura's birthday, and my birthday. We were able to count four of the days of our summer vacation as school days since we visited the Space & Rocket Center, the Chattanooga Aquarium, the Creative Discovery museum, and the Chattanooga Zoo.
But this year we have also built "flex days" into the school calendar. Every other Thursday, Laura gets a day off. If she feels good and wants to teach that day, the flex day goes in to the "bank" for her to use when she needs it. She promises not to "overdraw" her flex day account, I promise not to freak out about the school year running three weeks longer than it's supposed to, and the girls get nine days of school every two weeks. Everybody's happy.
So, homeschool veterans: How long does it take you to get through the state-required number of school days? How flexible are you about whether or not to have school on a given day? And what do you do when Mom gets sick?
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Co-Ops
Last year was our first as home schoolers. Having no idea what we were doing, we spent three months reading everything we could get our hands on. We found good curriculum, set up a classroom in a spare bedroom, the whole works.
We did make one significant mistake, though. We didn't join the local co-op.
That was not a mistake we repeated.
The support groups in this area are great. But the best thing they've got going for them is on Tuesdays, when all the kids come to a local church for a day of enrichment classes. This fall, the girls are taking biology, art, history, and PE, all from veteran home school parents (and Laura, but still). Even better: there are other kids in the classes. We're trying to break them of the "clingies," and having other kids they're comfortable with helps.
Of course, they call it a co-op because everybody is expected to contribute -- and not just financially. I teach high school quiz bowl, and Laura teaches elementary art. So there is a little bit of extra work involved.
The icing on the co-op cake is the socialization -- and not just for the kids. Being a preacher's wife living in the middle of nowhere makes it hard for Laura to make friends. Now she has a group of other moms doing what she is doing, people she can relate to. What's more, most of them are experienced home school parents, so they can help her when something comes up she hasn't seen before.
Are you part of a co-op? Are you trying to start one? What are the plusses and minuses you have experienced?
We did make one significant mistake, though. We didn't join the local co-op.
That was not a mistake we repeated.
The support groups in this area are great. But the best thing they've got going for them is on Tuesdays, when all the kids come to a local church for a day of enrichment classes. This fall, the girls are taking biology, art, history, and PE, all from veteran home school parents (and Laura, but still). Even better: there are other kids in the classes. We're trying to break them of the "clingies," and having other kids they're comfortable with helps.
Of course, they call it a co-op because everybody is expected to contribute -- and not just financially. I teach high school quiz bowl, and Laura teaches elementary art. So there is a little bit of extra work involved.
The icing on the co-op cake is the socialization -- and not just for the kids. Being a preacher's wife living in the middle of nowhere makes it hard for Laura to make friends. Now she has a group of other moms doing what she is doing, people she can relate to. What's more, most of them are experienced home school parents, so they can help her when something comes up she hasn't seen before.
Are you part of a co-op? Are you trying to start one? What are the plusses and minuses you have experienced?
Friday, October 30, 2009
Home School Bible
I preach for a little country church here in Todd County, which means that when we started homeschooling last year Bible teaching would fall to me. Laura has a degree in Spanish, so she gets to teach her specialty, too.
When we went looking for a Bible teaching plan, I had three goals in mind:
1) Systematic study. We wanted to cover everything in the Bible once by the end fourth grade.
2) Biblical literacy. We wanted the girls to be able to know how the different parts of the Bible fit together.
3) Cost. Homeschooling is expensive enough. Most pre-packaged Bible curricula aren't really made for a class of 2, or for 20 minutes a day.
Mind you, this is just the academic side of Bible. Spiritual formation still takes place in a daily "chapel time," plus what we do otherwise.
On the Biblical Literacy front, I devised a point system. The girls learn lists, Psalms, and memory verses, then get points for reciting them. Each quarter they are expected to have accumulated a certain number of points and are graded accordingly. Points also accrue; each girl is expected to accumulate 500 points by the end of fifth grade.
Goals are as follows:
1st Grade -- 15 points the first nine weeks, 30 by Christmas, 45 by Spring Break, 60 by the end of the year.
2nd Grade -- 80, 100, 120, 140
3rd Grade -- 165, 190, 215, 240
4th Grade -- 270, 300, 330, 360
5th grade -- 395, 430, 465, 500
Lists:
New Testament Books (27 points)
Old Testament Books (39 points)
Ten Commandments (10)
Plagues (10)
Apostles (12)
Tribes (12)
Beatitudes (9)
Fruit of the Spirit (9)
Judges (17)
Days of Creation (7)
Kings of Israel (19)
Kings of Judah (20)
Psalms are credited at one point per verse. So far we've learned Psalm 23 and Psalm 1.
Memory Verses (1 point per verse, with reference)
In addition to the memory work, we have a daily Bible lesson. The curriculum I like best out of what I found is Bible Study Guide for All Ages. It's designed with the small class in mind, and even does well in a room with kids of different ages. We use it at church now for our Wednesday Night class since it only requires us to have one teacher for half a dozen kids ranging in age from 4 to 10. I don't see any denominational bias in it, but I don't know if that's because it doesn't have any or because it caters to my own biases.
The best part is that you can buy it a la carte. You only get what you need instead of having to buy a whole package. A full year of 104 lessons only costs $25 per child. You can get as many or as few peripherals as you like, depending on your budget.
The other 76 days of Bible lessons are review, tests, and memory days. This year we also participated in the Sycamore Bible Bowl in Cookeville, Tennessee. Preparing for that took up 25 or so Bible days, but it was well worth the effort. I'll write more about Bible Bowl in a later post.
Do you do Bible as an academic subject? If so, do you use pre-made material or come up with your own lessons?
When we went looking for a Bible teaching plan, I had three goals in mind:
1) Systematic study. We wanted to cover everything in the Bible once by the end fourth grade.
2) Biblical literacy. We wanted the girls to be able to know how the different parts of the Bible fit together.
3) Cost. Homeschooling is expensive enough. Most pre-packaged Bible curricula aren't really made for a class of 2, or for 20 minutes a day.
Mind you, this is just the academic side of Bible. Spiritual formation still takes place in a daily "chapel time," plus what we do otherwise.
On the Biblical Literacy front, I devised a point system. The girls learn lists, Psalms, and memory verses, then get points for reciting them. Each quarter they are expected to have accumulated a certain number of points and are graded accordingly. Points also accrue; each girl is expected to accumulate 500 points by the end of fifth grade.
Goals are as follows:
1st Grade -- 15 points the first nine weeks, 30 by Christmas, 45 by Spring Break, 60 by the end of the year.
2nd Grade -- 80, 100, 120, 140
3rd Grade -- 165, 190, 215, 240
4th Grade -- 270, 300, 330, 360
5th grade -- 395, 430, 465, 500
Lists:
New Testament Books (27 points)
Old Testament Books (39 points)
Ten Commandments (10)
Plagues (10)
Apostles (12)
Tribes (12)
Beatitudes (9)
Fruit of the Spirit (9)
Judges (17)
Days of Creation (7)
Kings of Israel (19)
Kings of Judah (20)
Psalms are credited at one point per verse. So far we've learned Psalm 23 and Psalm 1.
Memory Verses (1 point per verse, with reference)
In addition to the memory work, we have a daily Bible lesson. The curriculum I like best out of what I found is Bible Study Guide for All Ages. It's designed with the small class in mind, and even does well in a room with kids of different ages. We use it at church now for our Wednesday Night class since it only requires us to have one teacher for half a dozen kids ranging in age from 4 to 10. I don't see any denominational bias in it, but I don't know if that's because it doesn't have any or because it caters to my own biases.
The best part is that you can buy it a la carte. You only get what you need instead of having to buy a whole package. A full year of 104 lessons only costs $25 per child. You can get as many or as few peripherals as you like, depending on your budget.
The other 76 days of Bible lessons are review, tests, and memory days. This year we also participated in the Sycamore Bible Bowl in Cookeville, Tennessee. Preparing for that took up 25 or so Bible days, but it was well worth the effort. I'll write more about Bible Bowl in a later post.
Do you do Bible as an academic subject? If so, do you use pre-made material or come up with your own lessons?
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