Relevance

First of all, you should go and check out the 2 part pondering podcast(1,2) on education/india/china etc. fascinating.

the purpose of this post, however, is simply to mention a few plans i used in the classroom this past week--both in AP Psychology. earlier in the week as we were discussing neuroscience i had the students read the first chapter of Daniel Pink's newest "A Whole New Mind." In that chapter he discusses left brain/right brain function as well as giving description to fMRI and the like. The reading led to a decent discussion on the specifics of right/left lobe function--which was the point as far as the curriculum, and it also provided me the opportunity to expose the students to the tripartite problem of ASIA, ABUNDANCE, and AUTOMATION. That discussion wasn't as active as I would have hoped, but i think in large part that has to do with the fact that these students have never even thought of such things.

Another thing that I did this week had to do with evolutionary psychology. i don't necessarily subscribe to this theory all that much, but it did give me a chance to put up some "animal behavior" pics on my powerpoint. the one with the lady bugs doing it was a hit... i also used a pic of GWBush scratching his head and making a patented face to illustrate the similarities in genetics between humans and chimps--i know my left leaning friends will appreciate that one.

shall i return from yet another rabbit trail? so the relevant issue i used today in class came from the book Freakonomics. it was from the part that talks about people's preferences on EHarmony.com and like sites. I then related it to Evo. Psych. But again, it provided me with the opportunity to explain to them some of the premises of the text.

Igniting the conversation is what it's all about right? I even admitted not knowing how evolutionary psychologists would explain the issue of racial preference, but analyzed/synthesized and extrapolated right in front of their eyes/ears. On top of it all, I let them know that's what i was doing--that's tough sometimes with the ego of a teacher:)

I've never worked/prepared/innovated as much as I am doing this past 2 weeks in AP Psych. But they make it easy, because they provide the reward by eating it up/soaking it in and striving to do better and learn more. That type of effort doesn't get rewarded in the same way, nor nearly as often in less advanced classes. That certainly doesn't mean we should subtract time or resources from less advanced students, but it does indicate that mental/emotional-- dare i say-- spiritual toughness is required to make a dent in some of their lives. (that would be a positive dent)