Playing A Musical Instrument Makes You Smarter

Many studies have been conducted on the effects of music to the brain. Scientists say that children who are exposed to music, or those who play an instrument, do better in school than those who don’t. Recent research suggests exposure to music may benefit a child’s reading age, IQ and the development of certain parts of the brain. Adults can benefit from learning to play an instrument too because it helps the mind to be alert and remain active eventually helping to sharpen the memory.

Fixing schools requires all to pitch in .... Bill Maxwell

I have heard since I got involved in education about fixing schools.  This now sounds like a mantra that insinuates that it is broke.  At this point in my life, it lacks sincerity.  It seems to me that it is more of an evolutionary process.  Fixed?  I doubt it.  Schools changing gradually over time and becoming something different?  Yes!

U.S. science literacy has increased to 28%.

Miller concedes that some of the rapid increase in U.S. science literacy may reflect self-education by adults, aided by the Internet.

Over the past two decades, science literacy has nearly tripled in the U.S. to a meager 28%.  Source: Science news, March 13, 2010.

Rowdy protester target funding cuts at US campuses

BERKELEY, Calif. – Students carried out raucous rallies on college campuses nationwide Thursday in protests against deep education cuts that turned violent as demonstrators threw punches and ice chunks in Wisconsin and blocked university gates and smashed car windows in California.

Link To News Story

Brawls disrupt middle school

"We have no control, " says a teacher at John Hopkins in St. Petersburg, FL, with 60 arrested since fall.

Bill Maxwell wrote:

"Becasue people are low income, it doesn't mean they don't care about their children and don't want them to get a good education. These parents care about their kids.  They want them to have the best education.  And, tax credit scholarship affords them the opportunity."

Proof of health insurance as a condition to being a college student

The state of Florida is now at the highest level of government discussing  health insurance as being a condition for being a Florida college student. Apparently, some states already require their students to maintain health insurance at their expense as a condition for being a student.  From what I heard, I am caused to think that it will soon be a Florida student requirement. How to administer it is now their focus of attention.

I would not have a college education if I had to pay the current cost of a college education. I am from a working class family that did not value education beyond high school.  Having it proved to be a social negative. 

So, now they are going to make it even more difficult for the working class to be educated.  If doing everything that the college teachers required wasn't already enough.

What is the pay-off for the working class student that does everything requires by the University.  In my case, it was rejection.

New Brain Cells

Fresh neurons arise in the adult brain every day.  New research suggest that the cells ultimately help with learning complex tasks and the more they are challenged, the more they flourish.  Reported in Scientific American.

Source Tracy J. Shors, professor in the department of psychology and the Center for Collaborative Neuroscience at Rutgers.

What will become of homo sapiens?

Contrary to popular belief, humans continue to evolve.  Our bodies and brains are not the same as our ancestors' were - or as our decendants'will be.   source:  Beter Ward of Scientific American

Legal limit as to how far school can go.

The 3rd. U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a finding that Justin Layshock's First Amendment rights were violated, "It would be an unseemly and dangerous preedent to allow the state in the guise of school authorities to reach into a child's home and control his/her actions" to the extent it can exert control in school.

"It makes pedagogic sense for the First Amendment to allow school officials some say over the tenor of speech in  school.  But by unleashing that power to anywhere a student is, school authorities would essentially get to control the speech of the general population under 18.  That is too much discretion for schools and not enough freedom for young people."  Source:  Robyn Blumner  rblummer@sptimes.com

School spied on students via laptops ....

This happened in Philadelphia and was reported by the Associated Press on February 19, 2010.

Lower Merion School District officials actived the student's webcam when the school laptops were in the privacy of the student's home and  used them to recorded private moments.  This is a scenario from George Orwell's 1984.  Orwell wrote 1984 to warn us about the possibility of this happening.

If you are a teacher or administrator. Do not do this.  If you are a parent. Do not allow a school computer into your home that has a webcam.  If you think the laptop is being used to monitor your home: get a lawyer.

You can get the details with a Google search.

Afraid of a new idea?

There's so much power in a new idea taking shape and changing the way people live and act.  Often the rest of us are in awe or we are even afraid of a new idea and sometimes our fears spur us to learn more about it.

Souce: John Houtz, Scientific American Mind

What should I conclude if ....

What should I conclude, if after 6 months elapes; I discover that only a small percentage of teachers participate in a form or blog and even fewer have their own blog or forum?  It is going to indicate something and I cannot imagine that it will be positive.

Asperger's to be categorized as autism

The details are available at http://www.dsm5.org/

Welcome to The Educator's Forum.

Today I patched most of the broken links and added a link to my Twitter. It is now ready for you.

Forums and blogs are what you make of them.  If you ignore them or worse condemn them with your words, then you will not benefit nor will others.  If you read and publish,  we will all benefit providing what you publish is not malicious.

The Educator's Forum

This morning I upload the first version of the Educator's Forum. The path that lead to this began in December after I upgraded to a new computer system, bought Expression Web 3 and learned how to use it.  You likely were told some time in the past about prerequisite knowledge. I cannot over stress the importance of that.  It became obvious to me that I could not have learned Expression Web without first knowing HTML.

Do we learn when we are sleeping?

The answer is YES!  I noticed when I was a student at Delta College that I would be very sleepy.  I would drink coffee and NoDoze to counteract the sleepiness  Delta did not provide any place to nap nor was there any encouragement to take a nap. Occasionally, I would see Chuck sleeping in the library.  I reasoned at the time that Chuck could not be learning if he was sleeping. 

I discovered when I was a computer programmer at Dow Chemical that I would know the answer to a problem after I took a nap.  Something was obviously happening that I was unaware of.  Now, there is scientific evidence supporting the Scientific hypothesis that during sleep our brain at a cellular level completes the learning process as well as solveing problems needed during our waking state. 

I'm now teaching myself  Expression Web 3.  I noticed that occasionally I would be overcome by drowsiness.  I know now it is just my brain tell me that I need to take nap so it can do what it needs to do. Now, I don't have a boss to tell me that I cannot take a nap. I don't need permission to nap.  There is no one that can punish me for napping.  Consequently, I nap when I am overcome with drowsiness. 
I am 67 and most of you think that what has happened is an impossibility.  (The number of people that read this can likely be counted on one hand.  I could be wrong.  Prove me wrong by sending a message to StefenL@EarthLink.net  )

The details can be found with a Google search from the Educator's Forum.

This is going to have a major effect on the Freedom of the Press

Hi Ronald,

I went to Books A Million to buy a book that would help me learn Expression Web and found nothing to buy. Expression appears to be too new for a writer to have had time to write and publish.

A few night ago I listened to Charlie Rose interview a leader in the publishing industry. He said that books will not be published like they were in the past. There will be on demand publishing for those willing and able to pay the price. The books of the future will mostly be published for the Kindle or something like that. Amazons- Kindle-Wireless-generation   There will not be paper back books. Their time is over. I was looking around in Books A Million wonder if that is going to happen and what will happen to all the books and the book stores.

Stephen

Microsoft's Expression Web 3

I am continuing to learn how to use Expression Web 3.  I found these videos that are very helpful.  link to videos  I gave myself a month to learn Expression.  But, it might be another month before I'm productive. 

There is a lot to learn and if you are not already able to ready html, you are at a disadvantage.  If you are going to learn Expression Web, I suggest that you first learn basic html. Otherwise, the code that Expression Web creates will look like Greek.

It just faded away.

I watched a football game from the Lime-n-Coconut on New Years and realized that it was as phony as professional wrestling.  This morning on WUSF I saw an ad promoting a special about a pandemic: The Anamomy of a Pandemic: It Just Faded Away.  Was it ever really here?  Could H1M1 be a manifestation of the minds of people like those that created professional wrestling and NFL football.?  Hummm ...  What have be become?