Neurons Firing

14 Comments Add your own

• 1. Steve Rosenbaum  |  September 3, 2007 at 12:02 pm

  I’m looking for contributors to my blog. Maybe you’d be interested. It’s called learningatlightspeed.wordpress.com.

  I’m the author of the book Learning Paths which is about how to reduce time to proficiency. Almost all of the experience is in a business setting but it can apply elsewhere. My email is learningpaths@gmail.com

• 2. Amy  |  February 11, 2008 at 4:46 am

  I hope you are aware of the wealth of neuroscience course content on the MIT site. I don’t have the URL on me, but I’m sure you could find it by going to the home page.

• 3. synapsesensations  |  February 11, 2008 at 8:02 am

  Hello and thank you for the heads up. I’ve spent lots of time visiting the Harvard Graduate School of Education site to check out their Learning and Teaching program, as well as other programs, but have not visited MIT. Just spent some time on their site this morning and see why you suggested it. Am looking forward to checking it out more fully later today.

  In addition, I’ll check to see if they have any podcasts available.

  Again, thanks!

• 4. Jennifer  |  February 21, 2008 at 6:10 pm

  Hi Laurie,
  I noticed that you are getting a grant to attend the Learning and the Brain Conference in April 2008. How did you get your grant and from where? I would love to attend, but cannot afford to go without assistance. Any ideas? By the way, I am a second-grade teacher and graduate student (graduating in May 2008).

  Thanks!
  Jennifer

• 5. synapsesensations  |  February 21, 2008 at 11:16 pm

  Part of my response to Jennifer:

  Ah, I wish my response could be more helpful to you. My school has a grant process whereby faculty may apply for funding for professional development opportunities. I applied for funding for the entire conference plus hotel for three nights, and the grant was funded. With that said, I believe there are ways to get financial assistance through the Conference folks. For instance, if you volunteer to help out at a presentation then you can get some funding towards your attendance. Helping out could consist of handing out materials for the speaker or similar activities.

  There is a Grant Funding link on the site (http://www.edupr.com/grantsapril.html) but at present there is no info posted. You might want to try emailing or phoning someone for further information (http://www.edupr.com/contact.html). Alternatively, if you cannot fund the entire conference, perhaps attending some of the pre-conference workshops will suffice for this time round. I have done that in the past and found them quite useful.

• 6. Pamela Smyth  |  May 18, 2008 at 5:25 pm

  Hello. About five hours ago I googled ‘imagination’ to search quickly for anything Ken Robinson may have said recently about it. I found your site, Thank you so much. It is so clear, the links are so interesting, thought provoking and pertinent, and your commentaries have taken me in, along and out again like a conversational quest with a friend. Yes I did find Ken but I’ve listened to others too and found I’m still thirsty. My thesis is on creativity in children’s reading and writing, but I have realised that it is more about aesthetic imagination.

• 7. synapsesensations  |  May 19, 2008 at 6:17 am

  Hi Pamela,

  Thanks for your comment! I am glad my posts have been helpful.

  I am eager to hear more about your thesis. Are you a teacher? Grad student? Both When you mention “aesthetic imagination” it makes me think of adults, as well.

  Regards,
  Laurie

• 8. Dominic Bernardi  |  May 27, 2008 at 12:55 am

  Hi Laurie,

  Love you site, it doesn’t really look like a blog to me - way to much of the teacher and way too less of ‘marcia, marcia, marcia’ middle child stuff !

  However, I am in the middle of an assignment for my Brain & Behaviour psych course as part of an arts degree at Sydney Uni and I need to know how you (and the info presented) would prefer to be cited. Usually I put “Doe 2008 cited in…”, but I can’t seem to find your surname on this site, and I haven’t quite figured out how to incorporate your work just yet (I don’t know if APA has got blog cititation sorted yet), but at the least I will need your surname. If you prefer not broadcast that over the net, you can send it to my private email adress- calve445@tpg.com.au or my uni email, dber9185@mail.usyd.edu.au.

  Oh, the assigment is on the diffs in teen and adult brains - phyisiology and behaviour.

  Thankyou
  Dominic Bernardi.

  PS. The brain and learning is fascinating stuff, prob because as a ‘mature age student’ - it’s such a challenge !

• 9. Mary Dean Barringer  |  June 23, 2008 at 2:29 pm

  Laurie, I love your thinking about Dr. Levine and Sir Ken Robinson. In fact, our staff is wanting to do a podcast with the two of them. Maybe it will happen.

  Have you participated in any of the All Kinds of Minds programs–Schools Attuned, or other offerings? Your kind of insight is exactly the kind of dialogue we’d like on our blogs as well.

  Stay in touch with us.

  Mary-Dean Barringer, CEO All Kinds of Minds

• 10. synapsesensations  |  June 23, 2008 at 5:18 pm

  Hi Mary-Dean,

  Many thanks for your comment. Several years ago I investigated participating in a Schools Attuned program and would have registered but the timing was not convenient. Since then, my interests have evolved more towards teenage and adult learning. I am considering applying to grad school for a program in Learning & Teaching (geared to adult learning and professional development).

  It’s quite likely that the talks I’ve heard Dr Levine give, and reading A Mind at a Time, helped plant the seed for my interest in the brain and learning. In addition, the middle school learning specialist at my school is a proponent of Dr Levine’s approach, and I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with her.

  Ah, a podcast with Mel and Ken would be WONDERFUL!

  Regards,
  Laurie

• 11. Tina Ryan  |  July 23, 2008 at 10:02 pm

  In my own experience I’ve found that if you can get students to experience some sort of positive emotional involvement in the subject matter then learning is facilitated. “Fear” of failing exams is a motivator but not a very positive one….and some students don’t care anyway. Students are better learners when highly motivated by personal desires etc.

• 12. Tina Ryan  |  July 24, 2008 at 10:23 am

  Thanks for e-mail. I taught Remedial Reading. The students were highly frustrated and discouraged by their lack of reading ability and not initially confident about learning. Many children’s literacy problems can be attributed to undetected problems with vision. A common expression amongst such children is: “I always though words were just supposed to be blury”. They cannot believe the differance their glasses make.

  My methods revolved around games which the children would go on a word hunt in a given text and they had to find as many incidences of a particular word. It was just fun then….this is important for all children’s education.

• 13. synapsesensations  |  July 24, 2008 at 12:06 pm

  Hi Tina,

  Thanks for your comments! Am glad that the information is proving useful.

  I agree with you about the impact of positive emotional involvement. What do you teach?

  Regards,
  Laurie

• 14. » From SharpBrains:&hellip  |  August 9, 2008 at 3:39 pm

  [...] her latest post for SharpBrains™ Laurie Bartels reviews some of the principles of brain plasticity. One principle that she mentions that I think [...]

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