Lateral Thinking Puzzles Lateral thinking puzzles that challenge your preconceptions. 1. You are driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night, when you pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for the bus: 1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die. 2. Knowing that there can only be one passenger in your car, whom would you choose? Hint: You can make everyone happy. Solution: The old lady of course! 2. Hint: The police only know two things, that the criminal's name is John and that he is in a particular house. Solution: The fireman is the only man in the room. 3. Hint: He is very proud, so refuses to ever ask for help. Solution: The man is a dwarf. 4. Hint: It does not matter what the baby lands on, and it has nothing to do with luck. Solution: The baby fell out of a ground floor window. 5. Hint: His mother was an odd woman. Solution: When Bad Boy Bubby opened the cellar door he saw the living room and, through its windows, the garden. 6. 7.
Why Suicide Has Become an Epidemic--and What We Can Do to Help WHEN THOMAS Joiner was 25 years old, his father—whose name was also Thomas Joiner and who could do anything—disappeared from the family’s home. At the time, Joiner was a graduate student at the University of Texas, studying clinical psychology. His focus was depression, and it was obvious to him that his father was depressed. Six weeks earlier, on a family trip to the Georgia coast, the gregarious 56-year-old—the kind of guy who was forever talking and laughing and bending people his way—was sullen and withdrawn, spending days in bed, not sick or hungover, not really sleeping. Joiner knew enough not to worry. He knew that the desire for death—the easy way out, the only relief—was a symptom of depression, and although at least 2 percent of those diagnosed make suicide their final chart line, his father didn’t match the suicidal types he had learned about in school. What makes some people, such as Vincent van Gogh, desire death in the first place? Try Newsweek for only $1.25 per week
Logical Paradoxes The Costs of Overemphasizing Achievement SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR November 1999 The Costs of Overemphasizing Achievement By Alfie Kohn Only extraordinary education is concerned with learning; most is concerned with achieving: and for young minds, these two are very nearly opposite. -- Marilyn French I. Part of the problem is that we shy away from asking the right questions and from following the data where they lead. From another perspective, though, the real problem isn’t grade inflation--it’s grades, which by their very nature undermine learning. First, students tend to lose interest in whatever they’re learning. The data to support these findings are available to anyone who cares to look, and the practical problems of eliminating grades--including the challenge of helping parents understand the benefit to their children of doing so--are solvable for anyone who is committed to the task. All of these features represent the very opposite of meaningful assessment. In fact, researchers could tell you this, too. Why? II. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Some paradoxes - An Anthology Social-Emotional Needs Entwined with Students' Learning, Security UserID: iCustID: IsLogged: false IsSiteLicense: false UserType: anonymous DisplayName: TrialsLeft: 0 Trials: Tier Preview Log: Exception pages ( /ew/articles/2013/01/10/16environment.h32.html ) = NO Internal request ( 192.99.46.37 ) = NO Open House ( 2014-04-27 21:34:33 ) = NO Site Licence : ( 192.99.46.37 ) = NO ACL Free A vs U ( 2100 vs 0 ) = NO Token Free (NO TOKEN FOUND) = NO Blog authoring preview = NO Search Robot ( Firefox ) = NO Purchased ( 0 ) = NO Monthly ( dd343d2d-87d4-1ac0-8865-19ca2d84923e : 3 / 3 ) = NO 0: /ew/articles/2012/09/12/03newell.h32.html 1: /edweek/DigitalEducation/2010/12/panelists_from_the_white_house.html 2: /edweek/inside-school-research/2012/09/study_young_children_explore_a.html Access denied ( -1 ) = NO
8 Things About Concentrating “Music helps me concentrate,” Mike said to me glancing briefly over his shoulder. Mike was in his room writing a paper for his U.S. History class. Mike made a shift about every thirty seconds between all of the above. Do you know a person like this? The Science Behind Concentration In the above account, Mike’s obviously stuck in a routine that many of us may have found ourselves in, yet in the moment we feel it’s almost an impossible routine to get out of. When we constantly multitask to get things done, we’re not multitasking, we’re rapidly shifting our attention. Phase 1: Blood Rush Alert When Mike decides to start writing his History essay, blood rushes to his anterior prefrontal cortex. Phase 2: Find and Execute The alert carries an electrical charge that’s composed of two parts: first, a search query (which is needed to find the correct neurons for executing the task of writing), and second, a command (which tells the appropriate neuron what to do). Phase 3: Disengagement 1. 2. 3. 4.
International: The lottery of life Warren Buffett, probably the world’s most successful investor, has said that anything good that happened to him could be traced back to the fact that he was born in the right country, the United States, at the right time (1930). A quarter of a century ago, when The World in 1988 light-heartedly ranked 50 countries according to where would be the best place to be born in 1988, America indeed came top. But which country will be the best for a baby born in 2013? To answer this, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a sister company of The Economist, has this time turned deadly serious. It earnestly attempts to measure which country will provide the best opportunities for a healthy, safe and prosperous life in the years ahead. Its quality-of-life index links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys—how happy people say they are—to objective determinants of the quality of life across countries. A forward-looking element comes into play, too. Where to be born in 1988 Boring is best
The size of my problem thermometer We all encounter problems routinely. Some of them are caused by our own mistakes, such as sleeping through the alarm or missing a meeting. Some are caused by others, (a stolen wallet) and some are just bad luck (getting stuck in a traffic jam)! Just about everything we do throughout the day involves solving some kind of problem; it’s just an unavoidable fact of life. What we can do, however, is learn to manage our problems. This involves, in part, managing the emotions that arise when a problem occurs. Our ability to regulate our emotions in problem situations greatly influences how effectively we are able to solve the problems we face. Defining Socially-Based Problems Einstein once said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” Defining a social problem may include: Understanding the stated or hidden social rules—what’s expected in any given situation. A Problem-Solving Equation A socially-based problem =
UDL: The Three Principles Three primary principles, which are based on neuroscience research, guide UDL and provide the underlying framework for the Guidelines: Principle I: Provide Multiple Means of Representation (the “what” of learning) Learners differ in the ways that they perceive and comprehend information that is presented to them. For example, those with sensory disabilities (e.g., blindness or deafness); learning disabilities (e.g., dyslexia); language or cultural differences, and so forth may all require different ways of approaching content. Others may simply grasp information quicker or more efficiently through visual or auditory means rather than printed text. Also learning, and transfer of learning, occurs when multiple representations are used, because it allows students to make connections within, as well as between, concepts. Principle II: Provide Multiple Means of Action and Expression (the “how” of learning) Principle III: Provide Multiple Means of Engagement (the “why” of learning)
How Forgiveness Can Change Your Life | Psychiatric Drug Facts By Dr. Peter Breggin 01/02/2013 Early in 1865, in his second inaugural address, little more than a month before his assassination, Abraham Lincoln stood before the bloodied, fractured United States to speak about forgiveness, the letting go of hatreds, and the binding of wounds. With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. Forgiveness has been central to the lives of the most admirable and inspiring people to walk the face of the Earth: Jesus, of course, and in our time from Mother Teresa to Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King Jr. Mother Teresa declared: People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Gandhi told us: The weak can never forgive.
151 Leading Sites for Elementary Educators » Elementary Education Degree Today’s elementary school kids grew up in the digital age, and they love computer-based activities and learn from them easily. Learning and sharing online isn’t just for students though. There are hundreds of fantastic sites online to help elementary educators do their jobs as well. The sites here aren’t listed in ranking order, as they all have different strengths and will meet different readers’ needs. Many sites on elementary education do a good job of pulling together info from every class subject or just sharing advice on how teachers can work with the education system to provide the best learning experience to their youngsters. Edutopia Edutopia helps Identify trends in education and what methods are currently working. 4th Grade Frolics is a useful site that helps 4th grade teachers with the particular challenges people confront when working with that specific age group. There’s hardly a better place to learn about elementary education than from an actual working professional.
Triumph Over Suicide | Psychiatric Drug Facts By Dr. Peter Breggin 09/26/2013 Hopelessness about life is the ultimate reason many people take their own lives. Among the military, as in civilian life, suicide often results when individuals feel isolated, abandoned, and without hope. Our military and veterans need to know that we Americans appreciate their sacrifices and the horrors they have endured, and that we want to extend them help. But what kind of help should it be? Hopelessness itself is tangled up with a host of negative or self-defeating emotions, such as guilt, shame and anxiety. There is yet another potential contributor to suicide that is given far too little attention: psychiatric drug-induced suicide. At the present time, several classes of psychiatric drugs carry a black box warning about suicidality. I have done a series of easily available blogs on Huffington Post about the massive psychiatric drugging of our troops and veterans. What really helps suicidal people in the military or in civilian life?
How Psychological Injuries Cause Physical Illness—And How Therapy Can Heal It Your brain really wants to keep you alive. It is a major preoccupation, literally of life and death importance. And with good reason — the people in the past who did not detect danger got gobbled up by the wolves or bears. You are alive because your ancestors’ brains noticed the predators, and turbocharged their muscles to get away faster than their neighbors. Our skill at reacting to dangers that we can see applies to more than snakes or tigers. What Are the Invisible Killers? But there is a problem. That was then. We need to know what that is. But we are not. Which is why you are lucky to be reading this article. Where the Invisible Injuries Come From First of all, we need to understand the injuries that our healthcare system cannot see. Well, that is a surprise. How Emotional Wounds Damage Our Flesh How on earth does this happen? When a person experiences a terrifying event, one system in the brain kicks in very rapidly, the fight or flight response. The Tears in Our DNA