Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Grow your brain in just 48 hours

Not satisfied with the current capacity of your brain? Try growing it.

"In 1967, brain pioneer Marian Diamond, a University of California at Berkeley neuroanatomist, discovered an amazing malleability to the brain (Diamond 1967). Her studies - and subsequent research by dozens of colleagues - have changed the way we think about our brains. The brain can literally grow new connections with environmental stimulation. Diamond says, 'When we enriched the environment, we got brains with a thicker cortex, more dendritic branching, more growth spines and larger cell bodies' (Healy 1990, p. 47). This means the brain cells communicate better with one another. There are more support cells, too. This can happen within 48 hours after the stimulation."

Source: Teaching With the Brain in Mind by Eric Jensen.


Image credit: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/

Monday, June 12, 2006

Studies Suggest Starting Career Search Earlier

The following is contributed by guest writer - Courtney Webb, M.A.

The relatively new field of career exploration for youth is on the verge of taking off. Children as young as 9 years of age have surprising amounts of information on "what they want to do." The trick is really in tapping into the child's own inner visions, creating a global career goal and thereafter, supplying the young 'client' with educational information and learning opportunities that will allow them to refine their initial goals. There is no reason a student cannot have fairly well defined career goals by the time they are in high school. Also, research indicates that students who are not 'plugged in' with some general goal in mind by the time they are 13 years old; are in much greater risk of getting involved with drugs, alcohol and of becoming school dropouts. So, let the floundering stop, and let the clarity begin with assessments and advisement for your son or daughter.

If you are interested in the E-WOW, Holland Code Assessment, learning more about natural preferences in the world of work, or finding educational programs to fit you or your child's personality type, contact Courtney Webb directly.

Phone: 916-955-2466

E-mail: courtne@earthlink.net


Saturday, June 03, 2006

King of the who?

As you’re going through your day, remember that “supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.” Below is a lesson in government from the writers of Monty Python, excerpted from The Holy Grail. As much as I’d like to be the first to use this bit as a way to introduce students to government, the idea has already been used. I credit Todd Millick with reminding me of the sketch. One of his professors at UC Davis actually showed students the movie clip as an introduction to his government class. Anarcho-syndacalism, by the way, is a real term and is explained here.

Source: Monty Python's Completely Useless Website

ARTHUR: Old woman!


DENNIS: Man!


ARTHUR: Man. Sorry. What knight live in that castle over there?


DENNIS: I'm thirty-seven.

ARTHUR: I-- what?

DENNIS: I'm thirty-seven. I'm not old.


ARTHUR: Well, I can't just call you 'Man'.


DENNIS: Well, you could say 'Dennis'.


ARTHUR: Well, I didn't know you were called 'Dennis'.


DENNIS: Well, you didn't bother to find out, did you?


ARTHUR: I did say 'sorry' about the 'old woman', but from the behind you looked—


DENNIS: What I object to is that you automatically treat me like an inferior!

ARTHUR: Well, I am king!


DENNIS: Oh king, eh, very nice. And how d'you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers! By 'anging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society. If there's ever going to be any progress with the—

WOMAN: Dennis, there's some lovely filth down here. Oh! How d'you do?


ARTHUR: How do you do, good lady. I am Arthur, King of the Britons. Who's castle is that?


WOMAN: King of the who?


ARTHUR: The Britons.


WOMAN: Who are the Britons?


ARTHUR: Well, we all are. We are all Britons, and I am your king.


WOMAN: I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous collective.


DENNIS: You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship. A self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes—


WOMAN: Oh, there you go, bringing class into it again.

DENNIS: That's what it's all about. If only people would hear of--


ARTHUR: Please, please good people. I am in haste. Who lives in that castle?


WOMAN: No one live there.

ARTHUR: Then who is your lord?


WOMAN: We don't have a lord.


ARTHUR: What?


DENNIS: I told you. We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week.


ARTHUR: Yes.


DENNIS: But all the decision of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting—


ARTHUR: Yes, I see.


DENNIS: By a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs,--

ARTHUR: Be quiet!


DENNIS: But by a two-thirds majority in the case of more major—


ARTHUR: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!


WOMAN: Order, eh? Who does he think he is? Heh.

ARTHUR: I am your king!


WOMAN: Well, I didn't vote for you.


ARTHUR: You don't vote for kings.


WOMAN: Well, how did you become king then?


ARTHUR: The Lady of the Lake,... [angels sing]...her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. [singing stops]That is why I am your king!


DENNIS: Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.


ARTHUR: Be quiet!


DENNIS: Well, but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!


ARTHUR: Shut up!


DENNIS: I mean, if I went 'round saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!


ARTHUR: Shut up, will you. Shut up!


DENNIS: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system.


ARTHUR: Shut up!


DENNIS: Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help!I'm being repressed!


ARTHUR: Bloody peasant!


DENNIS: Oh, what a give-away. Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That's what I'm on about. Did you see him repressing me? You saw it, didn't you?