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Category: April 2020–Professional Development
Hiro Passed!
Hiro was obviously not your typical student in my class of 70. I asked that all students have new partners every class to make it more exciting and so they could re-use many of their conversation strategies that they were learning in the “Ways of Learning” class. Hiro sat in the front usually and when we sang songs, he sang very loudly and vivaciously. But his ADHD profile made students avoid him at first, and I must admit, me too as a teacher. However, after reading Hiro’s action log and talking a bit to him after class, I could understand his passion and his difficulties in regulating himself and the social situations around him.
The Neuroscience of Learning A Mind, Brain, and Education Course for Educators
Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa has an online Harvard course called The Neuroscience of Learning: An Introduction to Mind, Brain, Health, and Education.
Unlike other Harvard courses in their degree programs, the course is pretty much open to anyone with a decent level of education and English proficiency, and the course can be taken for undergraduate credit, graduate credit or non-credit, with different levels of requirements for each category.
Educational Neuroscience: Trans/Informing our practices through knowledge and use of Educational Neuroscience
As educators we love new ideas on how to enhance our practices. We try the “latest and greatest” and just hope that it is not yet another fad that may fade away again. Good news: Educational neuroscience is here to stay and is solidly evidence-based in scientific research and good practice.
Embracing the Intellectual Discomfort of Transdisciplinarity
Nearly a thousand of us were sitting under an orientation tent when the Dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education warned us about the imposter syndrome. It’s a surprisingly common feeling that starts to creep in when people compare themselves to their talented, successful, and hard-working peers. Like Eleanor Shellstrop in The Good Place, they get the feeling that there must’ve been some mistake and they don’t really belong here.
How Professional Development Choices Changed my Life Forever
There are clichés about how learning should never stop, but to be brutally honest, many professional development (PD) courses seem like a chore. In fact, they are often dreaded. I think I may have felt that way a long time ago, but because my feelings have changed so drastically, I have a hard time remembering the dread!
A long and winding road
Looking back on it, my career tells a much more cohesive story than it felt like at the time. We usually think about a career as a series of sequential decisions, each building logically and systematically towards an end goal. However, that narrative is more often created in retrospect than prospectively. My, like many, careers felt haphazard and disjointed at each step. As BRAIN SIG members will know, we are plastic individuals with gradually (and sometimes rapidly!) shifting identities, interests, desires, and goals.
Learning about TESOL and the Brain at the NUFS Language Workshops
I’ve been attending the monthly workshops at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies (NUFS) now for about five years. Originally, I went as a way to rehearse what I was learning in my TESOL MA, but now I go just because I get so much from it that… well, why wouldn’t I?
Mezirow Moments: The Value of Conferences for a Mother Returning to Study
It’s not easy to change career paths, but it is something that teachers often consider after working in one field for many years. This can mean a return to study, but as Adult Education experts have noted, older learners usually face some specific barriers in returning to school that younger learners do not, and sometimes these barriers prevent them from trying. And if you are a mother, like I am, even going to a conference can be difficult. This is my story of the challenges I faced in returning to study, and of the people who helped me to overcome them.
How I Study the Brain
Editors: We asked our authors and advocates how they learn more about the brain. You’ll be surprised at the wide range of ways they offer.