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Alan Kay is a brilliant computer scientist who has a passion for improving learning for children.  In a TED talk last year, he explained highly effective techniques for teaching by using technology in ways to make complex learning simple and accessible.  Kay has spent his life envisioning and devising better techniques for teaching.  In this talk he shows us that “the world is not what it seems,” and he demonstrates how technology can help children make more sense of their world. His amazing software lets children learn by doing, but also learn by computing and by creating lessons themselves.

Rick and Dick Hoyt

Eighty-five times Rick has pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair, but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars–all in the same day.

Dick’s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much–except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester , Mass. , 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
“He’ll be a vegetable the rest of his life;” Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. “Put him in an institution.”

But the Hoyts weren’t buying it. They noticed the way Rick’s eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the Engineering Department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,” Dick says he was told. “There’s nothing going on in his brain.”

“Tell him a joke,” Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed Him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his Head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? “Go Bruins!” And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, “Dad, I want to do that.”

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described “porker” who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. “Then it was me who was handicapped,” Dick says. “I was sore For two weeks.”

That day changed Rick’s life. “Dad,” he typed, “when we were running, It felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!”

And that sentence changed Dick’s life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

“No way,” Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren’t quite a single runner, and they weren’t quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, “Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?”

How’s a guy who never learned to swim and hadn’t ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they’ve done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don’t you Think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you’d do on your own? “No way,” he says. Dick does it purely for “the awesome feeling” he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best Time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992–only 35 minutes off the world Record, which, in case you don’t keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the Time.

“No question about it,” Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.”

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a Mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. “If you hadn’t been in such great shape,” One doctor told him, “You probably would’ve died 15 years ago.” So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other’s lives.

“The thing I’d most like,” Rick types, “is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.”
(author unknown)

Here’s the video:
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-772282914668096494

Also check out the Team Hoyt video at the same site.

Calvin Coolidge was the 30th President of the United States.  His term of office was from 1923 - 1929.  Coolidge was a very successful leader. He restored public confidence in the White House after the scandals of his predecessor’s administration, and left office with considerable popularity.  He is remembered for many famous quotes during his time in public life.  He once noted that: “If I had permitted my failures, or what seemed to me at the time a lack of success, to discourage me I cannot see any way in which I would ever have made progress.” But perhaps his most famous quote is the following:

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.  Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not: unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.  The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and will always solve the problems of the human race.”

I think that as teachers it is very important for us to share stories with our students of how persistence can ultimately overcome any obstacles.  I have provided a link to a compelling story of persistence based on the life of another great American president.

The Power of Persistence

There is a wonderful story told of a woman who took her child to a Master and asked: “How can I stop my child eating so much sugar?”
The Master asked her to come back in one week’s time and he would have an answer.
When the woman returned for an answer, the Master asked her to return the following week.  When she returned, he told her she would have to wait another week for the answer.  The woman asked the Master:
“What is the matter?  Why can’t you give me the answer now?”
“I didn’t realize,” replied the Master, “how difficult it would be to give up sugar.”

Beginning a new year of teaching is a great opportunity for teachers to try new ways of relating to their students.  Always remember that students are far more interested in you as a person rather than as a teacher of the subject matter you are teaching.  I suggest you keep this story of the Master in mind as you determine how you will be an authentic person with your students.  A great way to do this is to determine how can you bring your own experiences to your daily teaching?

This week the national and local newspapers have been running many stories about students celebrating excellent Year 12 results.  And that’s a great thing.  These students have most likely worked very hard to get these results and they deserve their accolades.  Then there have been the stories of schools who are proud of statistics such as “30% of our students received ENTER rankings above 70″ and the like.  Again, it is a good thing to celebrate such achievements and congratulations to the teachers and students who worked so hard to ensure such successes.

Amidst the euphoria and celebration of success, there have been some consoling messages for those who did not achieve great ENTER rankings.  In this category are the majority of students completing Year 12, those who received just above average, average, and below average results.  Isn’t it time we began to question the stupidity of an education system that is assessed, scored, scaled and standardised to ensure that only a certain number of students can succeed at the highest levels - a system that guarantees the majority of students cannot score highly?

The truth about Year 12 results is that they are part of a system deliberately designed to ensure that not all students can succeed at high levels.  The system is a brutal number crunching exercise that enables universities to readily sift and sort students into various institutions based on demand.  As I looked at the photos of 8 high achieving students from one school celebrating excellent results, I wondered about the students at that school, and at schools across the country, who would have received rankings less than 70.  Their options have now have been severely reduced because of this highly inaccurate ranking system that has reduced 13 years of schooling to a single number.

So, did they fail the sytem - or did the system fail them?

Can a teacher really make that much difference to a class of disinterested and disengaged students?  The accompanying Newsletter details stories of the impact two different teachers had on the same group of students.  These stories seem to add substantial weight to the adage, “the only way to change others is to change yourself.”  What do you think?

A Tale of Two Teachers

Many schools are now beginning to use learning technologies in very powerful ways that are highly engaging for their students.  One of the keys to doing this successfully is for schools to incorporate the learning into efficient digital content management systems.  There are a huge range of CMS’s available - many are free and others are available at a cost that includes high level support.  One option that is gaining more fans every week is a free open source system called Moodle.  To see how one school has used this system, view the following the videos at these links:
How can Moodle change a school Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjLukDNtf3k

How can Moodle change a school Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8RuxnXeBos

Mastery learning is all about developing high levels of competence. It does not allow for poor performance or failure. This Newsletter explores a case study in which student performance was greatly enhanced simply by raising expectations. Click on the link below to read more.

Mastery Learning Newsletter

One of the most fascinating and intriguing areas of new knowledge development is about how our brains function. Recent research into the phenomenal plasticity of the brain and discoveries about the brain’s capacity to grow new cells for the duration of its life are challenging many long held beliefs about the development of intelligence. Coupled with these discoveries is the fact that we now have an extraordinary range of incredible technology options with which to interact and to process and access information. What impact will this increased use of technology have on the development of our brains? This is a question that is increasingly being considered by neuroscientists. A recent interview with Dr.Martin Westwell has some interesting points that are worth considering. The following podcast of his views takes just over half an hour. So give yourself some good quality time when you are ready to listen to his ideas. The following link will take you to the webpage containing the podcast.

Mind Over Matter Interview with Pro. Martin Westwell

We have to face up to it at some stage. Schools as they are currently structured in most settings today are not the best places for all students to learn effectively. Just this week I have been talking to several educators who told me the reason they are teachers is because their own education was so inadequate.

Learning is surely one of the most natural of all human processes. Everyone loves to learn. Research consistently shows that the human brain is excited by doing new and novel things.  Why is it then that so many schools are places that students dread?  Why are they not places all students love attending?

In the following video clip, Ken Robinson presents a very humorous and entertaining view about the inadequacy of schooling today. Consider how his views might alter your thinking about systems of education.

Do Schools Today Kill Creativity?