Research Ed St Louis Conference Notes

These are raw notes taken in real time during the presentations. Some of my own thoughts are blended with those of the presenter. I make an effort to separate them, but I am not always able to. So, if you read something you don't like, don't automatically blame the presenter; it might be me your are upset with.

Research Ed Intro - It is evidence based, collaborative, cultural, practical to classroom the classroom, and for educators. The science of learning becomes an art when you are employing it with 28 8th graders who are running around and not listening to you.

Keynote: Inclusive Teaching: How Do You Teach 30 Students at the same Time? by Tom Sherrington

He has been at 53 ResearchEd conferences, starting with the very first one. 

If you don't understand the problem, you have no chance of being part of the solution. Knowing all of the research doesn't make someone a better teacher unless we can translate it into what it looks like in the classroom. 

We need to be certain that every single student in our classrooms is learning. "We aren't just doing our best with most of them." How do we support vulnerable learners? It's not primarily through taking them out to do special interventions. It starts with the way we teach the things from the very start. If you aren't doing that well, the kids with special challenges will suffer the most. 

The stuff that works isn't new and groundbreaking. We don't need to do new stuff. We need to do the stuff we know really, really well. Explicit instruction improves learning outcomes for everyone, especially for those with additional needs. Show them what to do. Don't ask kids who haven't learned yet to guess. Don't be afraid to give the answer to kids who don't know; don't just say, "Have a think about it." Most kids (but especially vulnerable learners) don't have the background knowledge it takes to make that work.

• Break complex things into simpler steps. 
• Use clear and unambiguous language. 
• Explicitly teach vocabulary. 
• Deliberately involve EVERYBODY in answering questions and checking for understanding. 
• Don't just call on the kid with his hand up or make kids compete to answer - plan in a way that you get an answer from the full spectrum - from the shyest child to the most confident child. The quiet kid's ideas don't matter less. The loudest kids ideas aren't always the best ideas.
• You can't say you believe in equity if you are reinforcing the culture of dominance.

An opinion doesn't matter if you don't have enough background knowledge to explain the thing you have an opinion about. We need to know things because it affects our understanding of the planet (Personal note: This is different from "using this in real life."). Knowledge matters to being informed citizens. 

Dan Willingham is the Godfather of evidence informed education and the most quoted at conferences. In Why Don't Students Like School, there is a chapter called "Why do students forget everything I say?" It's where he provides the model of the learning mind. 

Think Pair Share - If you want kids to talk about their learning, assign them a talk partner. It is the most efficient way; three is possible but requires additional structure. You also must have an accountability structure ("I will select people to respond, and it might be you."). Don't skip the "think" step. You choose which partner will go first. Ask them to generate. All students must practice, not just complete. Whatever method you use, always ask everybody rather than asking for volunteers.

In behavior management, communicate, "I love you dearly, but don't mess with me." Signal. Pause. Insist on compliance before moving on. 

Kids don't have poor attention spans; they have human brains. "Some of you, since we started today, have thought about other things. Outrageous." It is your job as a teacher to redirect their attention.

• Is everyone thinking? 
• Is everyone making sense of this?
• How do I know?

The ways NOT to do it - the veneer of learning

• Did that make sense?
• Any questions?
• Everyone good?
• Yeah? Yeah.
• Getting a response from only one student
• Asking them to think when there is nothing to think with (If they don't have the base knowledge, it doesn't matter how long you give them to think.) You can't think with knowledge you don't have.

You may have to create an experience for students who don't have prior knowledge to activate. If they have never seen coastal erosion, you may need to show a video. If they have never seen a curveball, you might need to have a baseball player throw one. Build from concrete to abstract deliberately.

You don't need them to practice getting it wrong (which is what happens when you ask them to speculate). You want them to practice getting it right after you have given them correct information to practice with. You cannot retrieve what you have not encoded.

Session 1 (103) Making Good Activities Even Better: The Power of Cognitive Alignment by Elida Laski 

Number Comparison: Give two numbers and ask which is more?

Number line estimation: Give them a blank number line and ask them to estimate where the number would be. When you give them a new number they cannot use their others for reference. 

Kids who do well on the comparison task do not necessarily do well on the number line task. Yet, a preschooler's performance on a number line estimation is predictive of their math performance for the future. The number line task has more context and more relationship. A preschooler's relational reasoning maps out to their algebra performance later.

When we plan a task, we need to :

1. Identify the desire mental representation. (e.g. Build a mental number line)
2. Select material that provide instances of the properties of that desired representation. (e.g. 0-10 board game rather than two number card game) Make sure you materials more closely align with the mental representation (e.g. a spiral game board doesn't match as well as a square with lines)
3. Structure the instruction and procedures to promote the processing of the key features of the materials. (e.g. Is the way they play the game forcing them to process the numbers? If they spin 3 while they are on 15 and they just count 1,2,3 to move, it won't develop their number sense as much as if they have to count from where they are 16, 17, 18. It leads to more encoding because it requires more thinking about meaning.)

Learning materials will be most effective if their format, procedures, etc. are aligned with the mental model and the learning goal. The teacher's comments should also align. In the case of comparing numbers Don't say, "You are on 87 now." It's not comparative. Instead, say, "You are two rows ahead of me. You are 5 squares behind her." These are comparative statements. The more aligned the whole experience is to the learning goal, the more likely the goal will be achieved. 

How do you go from concrete to abstract in a task?

• In a pattern, rather than saying colors in a pattern (red, green, green), abstract it in a way that will fit any pattern (A, B, B)
• Teacher gestures support equivalence. It aligns abstract processing to concrete behavior.

None of this requires no resources or monetary investment. It's about thinking deeply and intentionally about how to represent what is happening in their minds while learning. 

Session 2 (100) - Routine, Retrieval, and Relationships by Amber Haven

STEM teacher 5th-8th graders

Intentionally minimize distractions to prepare young minds for learning - Don't make your welcome slide distracting with extraneous information. Make your agenda slide show your agenda. What is the purpose of a welcome slide? To draw attention to the objective or agenda or give an instruction. Making it busy just strains their working memory. There are already so many distractions you cannot control; for the ones you can, don't compete with yourself.

Audit your opening routine. Do you have your desks facing you? Is your decor a distraction or an aid to learning? Do kids know where to sit? Do they have some things that should be automatic by the end of week one?

"When students consistently find themselves in a predictable learning environment, they can let their guard down and engage."

1. Identify the learning objective (the What)
2. Call upon what they have already learned (Retrieval)
3. Plan the lesson (the How)
4. Gesture where appropriate and have students gesture too.
5. Repeat the same activity with a variety of examples.
6. Remove scaffolds as it becomes appropriate
7. Change context as it becomes appropriate

End your lesson in a way that you can confirm students have met the learning objective.

• Exit ticket (WITH verification to prevent encoding whatever they did even if it was wrong)

Relationships are not built before instruction; they are built THROUGH instruction.

Consistent success through well designed instruction will increase your credibility with the student, making them have a relationship with you. Playing hacky sack with them is not relationship building. Doing your job with them leads to success, trust, engagement, feeling good about progress, and then relationship.

Session 3 (107) - Masterful Modeling: Making Thinking Visible by AJ Pettway

Showed a video from Schitt's Creek of trying to follow a recipe with no knowledge of the what the term "fold in the cheese" means.

Albert Bandura - "Learning would be exceedingly laborious and hazardous if they had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling . . . later , this coded information serves as a guide for action."

Don't be afraid to show students how to do things rather than having them figure it out for themselves (my note: and encoding all of the misconceptions they have along the way).

Mondeling conditions

• Attention - Are student attending to the salient features of the model?
• Retention - Is the model understandable and memorable?
• Reproduction - Students need an opportunity to make the model for themselves.
• Motivation - Are students willing to take the action? Do they see its purpose? Are they seeing that their actions lead to their success?
• Trust - Are you a credible source for your students?

Strong modeling - an expert demonstrating something to novices

• Unpacks expert thinking
• Makes the abstract concrete
• Sets the bar for quality work
• Provides cognitive support that prepares students for independence

Four ways to use models

1. Worked examples - a completed or partially completed example, showing the steps involved
2. Live modeling - reveals expert thinking while demonstrating in front of students
3. Comparing models - Show students multiple model responses and have them compare and evaluate which is better
4. Student models - displaying student work to show how it meets success criteria

Preparing to model

• Clearly define success criteria
• Carefully select CLEAR examples/non-examples
• Anticipate common mistakes
• Script your thinking "The first thing I do is . . . I make sure I have considered . . . I don't want to forget to . . ."

Delivering a model

• Communicate broader context
• Signpost what to notice - direct attention
• Talk through your thinking out loud "I know I'm on the right track when . . . I used to find this part challenging, but I overcame that by . . . "
• Link to success criteria

Faded example - Start with a fully worked problem on the first one. Leave the final step out on the second one (the same type of problem). Leave out a couple of more steps on the third one (same type of problem). Students solve the fourth problem (same type of problem) on their own.

Using student models helps build efficacy because students see themselves represented in their peers. "Someone like me can do this" is a powerful motivator.

One of the challenges of student modeling is building a culture of error - Make sure you are creating conditions where mistakes are honored, considerate behavior is primed and sharing how the student's example succeeds.

Session 4 (213) - Behaviour by Design: Designing Scaffolds to Improve Student Decision-Making by Richard Wheadon 

Sometimes, even when we know better, we just make stupid decisions. How do we get them to make better ones.

Judges make different

Sessions 5 and 6 (103) were my presentations, so I have no notes for the here. However, if you would like the slides, you can find them in pdf form at my website thelearninghawk.com 

Brain Myths: Part 4 - Learning Styles

This is the big one, y'all. 

It's the myth that will not die. 

Not only to 90% of teachers in surveys espouse this view, the general public views it as a given. It shows up in the most unlikely places, from casual conversations to group fitness trainer certification videos. People have decided what their learning style is and believe they will learn better if they are taught in that style. One problem, 40 years of research have not found any evidence for it. In every study, there is no improvement in performance if the teacher uses the students' preferred style, even if every student in the room believes themselves to be the same style and the teacher exclusively uses it.

So, how did we get here? As with many of the myths we have discussed in this series, it comes from a well meaning person who didn't know the difference between conclusion made from observation and conducting science.

It starts with a New Zealand government official named Neil Flemming. Neil had the role of Chief Faculty Inspector for the country of New Zealand, a job I would love. He traveled the country observing as many classes as possible and making recommendations to the government based on what he observed. 

In observations of 9000 classrooms, he noticed something that isn't exactly groundbreaking. Some teachers were able to reach more students than others. He went to his notes and notice a correlation - those teachers who were more effective taught in multiple modalities, pairing visuals and hand motions with their verbal instruction.

Now, if this led him to contact a researcher and say, "I see something here. Can we test it?" we might be onto something. After all, in any scientific study, 9000 would be an awesome sample size, and he had an interesting hypothesis. But that's not what Neil did. He went straight from proposal to conclusion and made recommendations for policy changes. 

What was his conclusion? Students must have an individual style in which they learn best. He laid out four styles - Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, and Tactile/Kinesthetic.  If we start having teachers plan their lesson in all of those styles, we could reach all students. Because he was in a position of advising a national curriculum, it took hold.

To make matters worse, this was all taking place in the 1980s, the beginning of the "everyone is special" era, so people liked the idea that they had their own style. It's also a handy way for parents to blame the teacher when their child wasn't doing their work. "He can't do it because it isn't in his learning style."

We all took learning styles assessments (sometimes in every class period on the first day of school) and "discovered" what our style was. Teachers started wearing themselves out in the attempt to make differentiated lesson plans, which isn't possible. 

As I said earlier, this is one sticky myth. That is, in part, because we still like the idea of being special. But it is also because teachers did, in fact, get results when they added visuals to their instruction.  Herein lies the kernel of truth behind the learning styles myth, a concept known as dual coding.

In all of our brains, there are two pathways for the processing of incoming information - a verbal pathway (words, whether heard or read), and an image pathway. It absolutely helps to pair high quality visuals with verbal instruction, but it is not because some kids are responding to the visuals and others are responding to the sounds. It's because we ALL learn better when the two pathways support each other. 

Teachers, this is good news! You can stop beating yourselves up for your inability to plan the same lesson in three ways. You can start focusing on the creation of one high quality learning experience that includes visuals (including hand motions - they are a way of creating a visual with your hands) that support the instruction. 

NOTE:  Not all visuals are created equal, so it doesn't mean to just throw an image on the screen and call it a day. If I am teaching about velocity, little will be accomplished by adding a picture of a race car to the screen. But a position v. time graph that I can reference and point to while I'm teaching will be useful. A labeled diagram of a flower will do more good than a photo of a daisy. You are looking for visuals that support the content you are teaching.

Teachers, when. you show your work, students learn about themselves. If you say, "I know some of you believe you are visual learners, but in reality we all benefit from a strong visual image because we all have that pathway into our brains, you stand a better chance of having an impact on their learning. 

Brain Myths: Part 3 - Left Brained/Right Brained

I went to school through the 80s and 90s. Then I started teaching at the turn of the century (1998) and continued until 2024. I tell you this so that you will understand how many fads I have seen in education. As sure as the return of bell-bottom jeans as "flared-leg," some of those educations fades have faded and then returned under new names. Fashion has to have fads, or the fashion industry would die as we all just held onto our clothes until they wore out. Education doesn't have to be that way. The education curriculum and product industry needs it to be that way, but actual teaching doesn't. We can find out what works - there's tons of research available - and do those things.

Some of the things that prevent us from doing that are out of our control. We can't prevent administrative initiatives. But there is one that is in our control - our own wrong beliefs. Teachers often hold myths about the brain that prevent them from doing what works. I'm not judging them. Many of these myths were taught to us by trusted sources - some even in our teacher preparation classes or professional development sessions. Additionally, when you start looking into the history of these myths, you find that there was a certain logic at the time they were proposed. As G.K. Chesterton wrote, "All heresy is a truth taught out of proportion," most brain myths begin with a kernel of truth.

I'm developing a presentation for conferences on myths that are popularly held about the brain, looking into how their kernels of truth ballooned into myths and what that means for our classrooms. I have to fit 3-4 myths into a 40 minute presentation (Let's be real; I'll never get to the 4th), so I thought I would do a deeper dive into each of them on the blog. This is the one I see the most online. This is also the one I won't be able to get to in my presentation.

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You have, do doubt, seen at least one of these images roaming around your social media feeds. They claim to be tests of which of your brain hemispheres is dominant based on no more than what you see in an abstract shape. 

They are, of course, just click bait designed to make you comment because no one can see any of the things described in the text. 

These are quite clearly (moving clockwise) an ostrich with bulging eyes, Michael Myers from the Halloween movies, a bird singing to the Lord, and Godzilla. There's nothing else to see here people.   ;^)

But comment people do - a lot. They comment in droves. The popularity of these memes reveal something about us, and it is not which hemisphere is dominant. It's that we desperately want to fit into a category - whether it is a "learning style," and Enneagram score, hemisphere dominance, or which Disney princess Buzz Feed says we are. We like thinking we are special and that we belong to a group of people who are special in the same way as we are. 

I hate to burst your bubble, but it just isn't true. You do not have a dominant hemisphere that changes the way you think about things. If you are creative person, it is not because you think with the right side of your brain more than the left. Likewise, if you are good at math, it is not because you have a stronger left hemisphere. 

Like all of the other myths I've addressed in this series, there is a kernel of truth that got blown all out of proportion. How did we get here?

In the 1940s, neurosurgeons began cutting the corpus callosum as a way of treating some severe forms of epilepsy. For those who may not know, the corpus callosum is the tissue that forms a bridge between the two hemispheres of the brain. It's the red area in this image. It has many purposes, but one of them is communication between the two sides of the brain. The reason it worked for the treatment of some kinds of epilepsy is that those types involved sending a signal from one hemisphere to the other. But this surgery also revealed some things we had not previously known about the responsibilities of each hemisphere.  Because it was the 1940s, however, the tools we have for examining brain activity now did not exist. So, the information they got was painted with a broad brush. 

All of our brain's functions are in some way controlled by parts scattered throughout both hemispheres and the communication between them. The right side of the brain does control more of the areas responsible for spacial awareness and big picture thinking. The left side tends to have a higher hand in perceiving details and language processing. Because they did not yet have MRIs and PET scanners, the nuances of where electrical activity was distributed while doing certain tasks or thinking in certain ways, the very broad understanding became "logic on the left, artsy-ness on the right."

I wasn't able to track down exactly how the idea that you had a dominant hemisphere entered the public consciousness, but I imagine it had some relationship to handedness. If I am right handed, perhaps it stands to reason that I am left-brained. But just because something is logical or reasonable doesn't always mean it is true. 

The truth is that sensory perception, thoughts, memories, emotion, and various types of thinking don't just reside in one particular part of the brain. For example, your ability to recognize the face of a loved one involves several areas across both hemispheres. If you were to damage one of those parts, you might lose some of that functionality, but you wouldn't stop knowing what a face is. Much of your language processing happens on the left side, but I taught a girl whose left hemisphere was removed; with a great deal of work and rehabilitative therapy, she learned to communicate again within months. 

I'm not saying the hemispheres don't matter or even that they don't have separate responsibilities, but I am saying it is more complex and interesting than we give it credit for when we take an online quiz. I am saying that, no matter how artistic you are, you are not "right brained." The ability to do art requires structures from both sides and the ability for those sides to communicate to each other. You may be a math genius, but it does not mean you have a stronger left brain. Math requires both detailed thinking (left) and the ability to fit parts into a whole (right), particularly when it comes to complex problem solving.

Stop trying to fit yourself or your students into a category (more on that next week when we address the myth of learning styles). Appreciate your brain and its 85 million neurons in all of their glorious complexity. 

Brain Myths: Part 2 - We Only Use 10% of Our Brains

I went to school through the 80s and 90s. Then I started teaching at the turn of the century (1998) and continued until 2024. I tell you this so that you will understand how many fads I have seen in education. As sure as the return of bell-bottom jeans as "flared-leg," some of those educations fades have faded and then returned under new names. Fashion has to have fads, or the fashion industry would die as we all just held onto our clothes until they wore out. Education doesn't have to be that way. The education curriculum and product industry needs it to be that way, but actual teaching doesn't. We can find out what works - there's tons of research available - and do those things.

Some of the things that prevent us from doing that are out of our control. We can't prevent administrative initiatives. But there is one that is in our control - our own wrong beliefs. Teachers often hold myths about the brain that prevent them from doing what works. I'm not judging them. Many of these myths were taught to us by trusted sources - some even in our teacher preparation classes or professional development sessions. Additionally, when you start looking into the history of these myths, you find that there was a certain logic at the time they were proposed. As G.K. Chesterton wrote, "All heresy is a truth taught out of proportion," most brain myths begin with a kernel of truth.

I'm developing a presentation for conferences on myths that are popularly held about the brain, looking into how their kernels of truth ballooned into myths and what that means for our classrooms. I have to fit 3-4 myths into a 40 minute presentation (Let's be real; I'll never get to the 4th), so I thought I would do a deeper dive into each of them on the blog. This one remains prevalent in popular culture.

We have all heard someone reference this myth. "Just imagine what we could do," they say, "if we could access the unused parts of our brain." Meanwhile, every part of our brain is busy processing sensory input, interpreting the meaning of smells and sounds, and aiding us in making decisions, all while sending signals to our heart to beat, our diaphragm to contract and relax, and our motor neurons to pick up objects and write things. Our brains work hard, and we talk about them like they are lazy, only doing 10% of their job.

So, how did we come to believe this? It's history is a bit convoluted.

This is William James. He was a Harvard psychology professor at the turn of the 20th century, specializing in prodigies - you know, those people who could perform a symphony at the age of three or could carry out complex math procedures long before most children. In a lecture, he said a fairly obvious fact - "Most people only live up to a fraction of their mental potential." Notice that he did not connect it to neurology and he did not use a number. He was generalizing about the motivation of the general population as compared to the passionate practice of prodigies. But, it planted a seed.

We associate a lot of thing with the roaring twenties - flappers, jazz, parties, and women's suffrage. We likely don't think of self help, but they certainly did. Self help was huge, especially in publishing. Many people read books about how to improve themselves, and some of them latched onto the idea that we had unlimited brain capacity that we weren't tapping into. 

But the book that turned a kernel of truth (we don't live up to our potential) into an epic myth (we are neurologically limited to 10%) was Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. Nearly everyone in America read this book, and it remains one of the best sellers of all time. It's preface was the first to state the myth in explicit terms, that we only use 10% of our brains. The massive popularity of this book embedded the idea into the population. 

And it seems to be a particularly sticky idea, with movies using this concept as a plot device as recently as 2013 (Lucy - not a recommendation, not even Scarlett Johansson could make it good). This is in spite of concrete evidence from MRIs and PET scans showing that we use our entire brains. There is, in fact, competition for real estate in the brain. If you lost your sight and were taught to read Braille, that data from your fingers would be processed by the area previously used to interpret data from the eyes. There are no abandoned amusement parks in your brain.

So what's the truth? Is your brain limited? Or is there no limit to your brain's potential.

Yes.

Seriously, knowing the ways in which your brain is limited and the ways in which it is not can be super helpful in your classroom.

• Working Memory - The simplest definition of working memory is information and process that are held in active consciousness at any given moment. This is limited. How much varies by individual, but the generally agreed upon average is four. This limitation makes multi-tasking impossible, and it means the presentation of class content must be done carefully and in manageable doses. Knowing that means we can plan for it. Knowing this also means we can reduce cognitive load that is not related to what we are teaching. Classrooms are often a continuous stream of sensory input. While we can't do much about some of that input (the humming of the student next to you or the aroma that is carried by those who just left PE), there are some that we can. We can reduce the number of items on our classroom walls. We can stop playing music in the background of lessons. We can refrain from using scent diffusers. Those are just inputs we don't need to have competing with our content in a student's working memory.
• Long Term Memory - As far as we can tell, there is no limit to how much can be stored in our long term memory. Furthermore, information that is stored in long term memory is not a strain on working memory. What does this mean for your classroom? It means asking students to memorize things will INCREASE their ability to perform higher level task with it. Do they have to memorize everything? No. But they should memorize things you will want them to use or think carefully about. Don't be afraid or ashamed of asking kids to commit things to their long term memory (Yes, even in the age of Google and AI. A fact in the student's mind is more useful than a fact held external to it.)

Achieving our potential is a life goal for all of us, but it doesn't equate to using our whole brain. If it did, we would have been successful from the moment we were born. It equates to showing up every day, using our limited working memory 

Brain Myths - Part 1 - It Doesn't Change Much After Age 10

I went to school through the 80s and 90s. Then I started teaching at the turn of the century (1998) and continued until 2024. I tell you this so that you will understand how many fads I have seen in education. As sure as the return of bell-bottom jeans as "flared-leg," some of those educations fades have faded and then returned under new names. Fashion has to have fads, or the fashion industry would die as we all just held onto our clothes until they wore out. Education doesn't have to be that way. The education curriculum and product industry needs it to be that way, but actual teaching doesn't. We can find out what works - there's tons of research available - and do those things.

Some of the things that prevent us from doing that are out of our control. We can't prevent administrative initiatives. But there is one that is in our control - our own wrong beliefs. Teachers often hold myths about the brain that prevent them from doing what works. I'm not judging them. Many of these myths were taught to us by trusted sources - some even in our teacher preparation classes or professional development sessions. Additionally, when you start looking into the history of these myths, you find that there was a certain logic at the time they were proposed. As G.K. Chesterton wrote, "All heresy is a truth taught out of proportion," most brain myths begin with a kernel of truth.

I'm developing a presentation for conferences on myths that are popularly held about the brain, looking into how their kernels of truth ballooned into myths and what that means for our classrooms. I have to fit 3-4 myths into a 40 minute presentation (Let's be real; I'll never get to the 4th), so I thought I would do a deeper dive into each of them on the blog. This is the first one that I was taught.

Myth 1 - The brain doesn't change much after the age of 10

The first person to tell me this was a middle school teacher. Even then, I thought, "If that's true, what are we doing here?" And if I, a curious child who loved school, thought that, the school resistant kids must have thought they had found the ultimate excuse. I mean, seriously, if this is true, it puts a lot of pressure on elementary teachers; and secondary and college professors can just go home - not to mention all of the adult learning centers. How did anyone come to believe this?

It comes down to the misinterpretation of a ground-breaking discovery and the over-interpretation of some common observations.

• Discovery of "sensitive periods" - Quite a few studies from the 1970s and 80s revealed that the human brain has windows of opportunity - dubbed sensitive periods. According to this article,  sensitive periods "refer to the developmental time windows during which experiences have an especially strong impact on brain organization." Language, for example, is most easily acquired between 6 months and 3 years, which makes sense as that is when we are learning to speak. Lots of new vocabulary is attained, and the patterns of our language become ingrained.
• Observations of the differences between adults and kids - You know the expression "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." It comes from observing that adults are fairly ingrained in their habits and that there is a significant decrease in their rate of learning new things.

If you put these two things together and ignore the entire scientific method, you can see how people jumped to the conclusion that our brain development really slows down as we reach adolescence. I'm being a bit facetious; there's a little more nuance here. If you are interested, let me recommend the book, The Brain That Changes Itself." 

So, where did we go wrong with these kernels of truth? How did these facts become a myth?

Well, first of all, sensitive periods are just that - sensitive. The definition I referred to earlier said that it is the time when experiences have "an especially strong impact." But, as education world is prone to do, we took it too far. That's only surprising if this is your first year teaching.

We decided these were the only times students could learn specific content. Spanish classes got moved from middle and high school into kindergarten. (May I point out that still puts it outside of the sensitive period - no, no time to worry about that while we redesign education over here). Math classes got moved earlier and earlier until we had 6th grade students taking Algebra. Their brains were absolutely not ready, but we read that the sensitive period for logic was 7-10, so we had to do what we had to do. It wasn't for a few more years that we realized the damage this had done because we had sophomores and juniors taking AP Calculus who didn't belong there, but we were out of math classes for them to take. I think it has gotten better since then, but given how long it takes to see the effects of a change on students, we need to think through changes a lot more carefully.

Okay, I hear you saying, maybe we were wrong about the school age parts, but you can't deny that adults drop off in their rate of learning new things. Surely, the brain of a 50 year old is less malleable than that of a child. Let me give a few examples that might change your mind.

• Me - I'm 50 years old, and I am learning about new things all of the time. At 47, I joined the Y and learned new skills in fitness. I got certified to teach cycle (and my friend is his early 60s got a personal trainer's certification, which is more or less a college anatomy course). I changed jobs and had to learn entirely new systems. Was it difficult? Yes. Did it take practice? Yes Was I exhausted at the end of the day? You Bet  Guess what? That's true for kids too. Learning is difficult, uses a lot of energy, and takes practice at any age. Two years later, I can fly through processes in seconds that took me lots of time and effort when I started.
• My Granny's sister, Grace - Grace is the person I want to be when I grow up. After she retired, she found out that senior citizens were allowed to take free classes at the local university where she lived. She enrolled in a course on Ancient Greek so she could read New Testament manuscripts. You know how your minister might say, "This word means . . . in the original Greek." She could tell you if he was right. Grace drove the same VW Passat for 28 years. While it is a very reliable car, she did have to maintain it in order to drive it for that long. And when I say she had to maintain it, I mean that SHE did it. She took a class in rudimentary vehicle repair. After that she changed oil and performed basic maintenance. This was woman was in her 70s at the time - far outside our myth's window.
• My co-worker, Kathy, is 62. Every Monday night, I hear her practicing French because she has friends in France and wants to be able to communicate with them when she visits. She practice a lot because that's what it takes to learn a new language, at any age.
• My 74 year old teacher friend - He's been teaching 25 years - long enough to rest on his standard past procedures, but he doesn't do that. He keeps reading about current research and how to best implement it in his classroom.

Even if you considered those examples to be outliers, we would have to admit that one of the reasons adults drop in their rate of learning new things is time. As children, there are 6-8 hours of every day set aside specifically for the learning of new things - for free if that's what their parents want. That's just not the case with adults. We spend our days earning a living, driving children to soccer practice, doing laundry, and figuring out if the call we just got from the bank is a real or a scam. If adults want to learn something new, they have to find and possibly pay for an evening class as well as put off doing something else with that time. Their brains have not changed; their opportunities have.

So, teachers, what does knowing this mean for your classrooms? It means recognizing that, at any age, learning takes practice, effort, and time. You can't teach the students something today and expect them to remember it for their test two weeks from now. You have to give them multiple repeated opportunities, spaced out over time, to practice retrieving the information or using the skills you have taught. Otherwise, there will be no myelination of the neurons and know change to the synapses at the dendrites. 

Go forth, and change your students' brains - no matter how old they are.

No One Achieves Anything Alone - Thank You to Those Who Edited Me

Last week, the ice machine at my branch of the Y was broken. People love this ice machine to an absurd degree, so when it is down, hearts are broken. I tried to put a positive spin on the situation on Thursday by saying, "Just think how glad we will be to get it back." One of our members responded, "Yeah, gratitude's not really my thing." I don't know how to wrap my head around that because, for me, gratitude is EVERYTHING. 

This week, I had the launch event for my first book, Show Your Work: Teaching Smarter With the Science of Learning. The most important part of this launch was not the celebration of publication; it was the opportunity to express gratitude. I was excited to thank all the people in my life who have edited me. I had a lot to say; it took about 40 minutes. But since there were people who couldn't be there, I thought I would put the text of my speech here.

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Many of you know the musical Wicked and its emotional core song, “For

Good.” There is a line that is more profound than you usually find in big

splashy musical numbers. It says, "And now, no matter how our stories

end, I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend."

If I have learned anything from the writing process, it is the importance

of the REWRITING process. What comes out initially is in a raw form.

While it is important, it would be really bad if it stayed that way. It must

be expanded in some places, reduced in others, and refined for clarity

before it can be put out into the world to contribute something.

And the way it is being used metaphorically in the musical is true as

well. We come into the world in a raw form, and if it stayed that way, it

would be terrible. We need experiences and people who will expand us

in some places, reduce us in others, and refine us so that we can go out

into the world to contribute something.

That’s what I’m looking at in this room. You are all editors. You are the people God has used to develop my character and guide my story.

Obviously, this starts with my parents - not only providers of the raw

material but the first to edit it. I grew up in a house where learning was

valued, school was prioritized, shelves were for books, and, to the

extent that they could be, my questions were answered. (I didn’t make

that easy on them - I asked A LOT of questions.) This all resulted in a

person who loved learning and wanted to make other people love it too.

So that's what I did for 25 years. Whatever else the curriculum was, the

covert curriculum was “Learning is enjoyable, and you should do it your

whole life.”

So, I know it was a surprise to get an email from me that said, "I'm not

ready to talk about this out loud yet. I'll let you know when I am, but I

think God might be nudging me out of the classroom." It has to be weird

for your middle-aged child to say, “I’m thinking of leaving something

very stable and secure that I’m good at and I love to try something

totally unpredictable, but they have been supportive in a hundred ways -

big and small and in between. I wouldn't be able to speak at the

conferences I do without dad's frequent flyer miles. Mom makes sure I

am never peanut butter deficient. I love you. Thank you.

Speaking of someone whose life I didn’t make easy with all of my

questions - Mr. Sandberg.  For those who don't

know, Mr. Sandberg was my physical science teacher when I was 14

years old. I taught a lot of things in my career, but the only thing I taught

for all 25 years was physical science. So, there was never a time when

Mr. Sandberg was not in my classroom. If I taught you or your child,

you have benefitted from Mr. Sandberg’s work.

More personally, I have loved and admired you and felt loved and

supported by you for 36 years. I don’t know how many people can say

that.

When we think of editing, we typically focus on what has to be

removed, but an important part of editing is identifying what is essential

that MUST stay. Mr. Sandberg’s did that for me during my freshman year

in high school. In a casual hallway conversation, he said, “This curiosity

you have is an important part of you. Hang on to it.” That was big for a

14 year old nerd girl.

Mr. Sandberg was also the first person to know that God was changing

my plans. Your response, to send me part of your story, was generous

and helpful, especially during my last few weeks here.

There are so many good reasons that you are the person to whom this

book is dedicated. I love you. Thank you.

So, I spent most of my adult life in this building. It's going to be weird

for me when you are somewhere else. But of course, I know what made

GRACE my home for 21 years wasn't the building or even my

classroom, which I loved. It was the opportunity to work with and for the

best colleagues I could have ever hoped for.

We all edited each other's stories. We laughed together. We cried

together. We prayed together. We supported each other AND challenged

each other. And because of that, we grew together.

I'm not sure if you know this, but now that I am connected with

educators around the country, I have learned that this is not the norm

everywhere. I hear a lot of stories that reflect a lack of trust. I have been

so happy that I could take that for granted here.

This, of course, starts with an administration that sets a tone of

teamwork and an environment in which we are encouraged to try things,

knowing that sometimes those things will go very well and sometimes,

they will make a big mess. I felt safe taking those risks because I knew

that Eric, Mandy, Julia, Kathie, Teresa, would be there to help me clean

up the mess. (Even when I literally broke the building - twice - maybe three times.)

And then, there are my teacher friends - we have seen a lot. I’m not just talking

Covid. We’ve been through some stuff together. When you can look

down the hall and a facial expression or raised eyebrow communicates

everything you need to know, that’s a close relationship. That’s what I

had with so many of you up and down these halls. If I start listing names, I will forget someone, and I don’t want to do that.

But I do have to mention blue pod, all members - present, past,

honorary, and extended. Elizabeth, you know I always considered you to

be part of blue pod even though your room was too far away (and BJay

wouldn't install the worm hole I requested). Blue pod is not simply a

location. It’s a group of people who shared their lives. Sometimes, you

kept me sane. When one of us was weak, the others would come along

and lend their strength. Blue pod remains best pod.

I love the GRACE community. Thank you all.

Just when I thought I understood how the back half of my story was

unfolding, I made what I thought was a medium sized plot change. In

the 18 years I had been yearbook advisor, enrollment had tripled, and I

was tired. When I gave that job to someone else, people asked, "What

are you going to do with your time now that your afternoons won't be

taken up with photographing athletic events, play rehearsals, and club

meetings?” I said, “Well, my Tuesday pants are getting uncomfortable,

so I think I'm going to join a gym."

But here’s the thing. I didn't join a gym; I joined the Y - and that’s

different. If you know me only from the Y, wave your hand. That is why it is

different.

Some of my Finley co-workers are here. I love working in member

engagement because I get to find out what people need from the Y and

help connect them to it. I still get to laugh at work. Absurd things

happen in the lobby, and it is great to look over at the next desk and

acknowledge it and laugh.

Some of my classmates from group fitness are here. If you worry that

you will join a gym and only to donate money to it, group classes are the

answer. There is something special about working out in a community. I

look forward each week to seeing Michelle, who is a calm and

reassuring presence. And Kameron, who is not calm, but she’s an

enthusiastic presence on my other side. Lisa, it is fun cycling next to

you, especially when I realize that the lyrics I thought a song had for 30

years are not accurate. Did you all know the 38 Special song is “Hold on

Loosely”? For decades, I thought that song was being sung to a girl

named Lucy.

Stephen, when you are in my eye line on Saturday, all is right with the

weekend. You inspire me - not just to lift a heavier weight or do another

rep, but to be joyful and friendly in the process because you always are.

I’m ready to have you back in your spot, Buddy. I have missed you.

And then, there are the people who have turned my world upside

down in the past three and a half years - my instructors. If you want to

see what good teaching looks like outside the academic setting, these

are the people whose classes you want to attend. The first thing I

noticed when I began taking classes was their use the things I talk about

in this book. Their use of modeling and scaffolding, clarity, retrieval

practice, formative assessment, and managing cognitive load are a sight

to behold. Especially when you consider that they aren’t reading books

on cognitive science and pedagogy. They are just naturally gifted.

Liz and Stacey have seen me through from a cyclist so novice that

Stacey had to physically place my foot on the pedals to get the shoes to

clip in - to cycle instructor. Their support has been wonderfully

enthusiastic. I could have included Jay in that, but what stands out

when I think of Jay is how much he prays for me. I’ve lost count of the

number of times he has held both my hands in the cycle studio and

talked to God on my behalf. Julie was the group fitness director when I

started. She helped put my name in front of people when I was

exploring jobs. She hired me to teach cycle and then immediately left for

another branch. But you continue to look out for every opportunity for

me; thank you especially for pulling me into Livestrong as it is one of the

most meaningful things I get to do. Dana couldn’t be here tonight, but I

love her so much I do Barre with her every Tuesday. And I hate Barre,

but I love Dana so much that I like doing Barre with her. She has

become like the sister I never had - even if she is a whole foot shorter

than I am.

Matt, I can’t overstate the influence you have had on who I am the past

three and a half years. You have an amazing ability to accept me as I am

- with whatever I am able to do or not do - while simultaneously

encouraging me to do a little more. That built something in me that

wasn't there before - a drive to challenge myself without the intimidation

of potential failure. This has spread beyond fitness into every area of my

life. It’s the straight line from Studio 1 to the writing of this book. You

have edited my character someone who says, "That sounds terrifying.

When do you need me to be there?" That wasn’t in me before; you did

that. I love you.

I love all of my Y people. Thank you.

Before any of this happened, God was working a different change in

my heart, a slow process of reckoning with the fact that I wasn’t doing

church very well at all. I had grown stale and apathetic where I was. I

wasn’t contributing anything, and I wasn’t receiving anything. I went to

church because I am a person who goes to church.

I knew that was unlikely to change unless I changed it, but the power

of inertia is strong. And I was here, surrounded by Christian community

and accountability, so I told myself I was getting what I needed in a

different way. But I knew it wasn’t right. In December 2022, God started

hinting, “You know you’re going to have to deal with this soon, right?” I

couldn’t leave then because I was half way through a two-year giving

program, and I didn’t want to break my commitment, so I decided I

would get through Christmas 2023 and start looking elsewhere.

By that Christmas, I had informed Eric and Julia that it was my final

year at GRACE. I had talked with Learning and the Brain friends about

what consulting would look like and had begun the writing of this book. I

was exploring jobs at the Y. There was a lot going on.

And I said to God, "Really, now? You just think I don't have enough

change going on right now?" But, of course God knew exactly what I

needed and when I needed it. He knew that when I lost weekly chapel

with Blake, teacher devotions, and Friday prayer meetings that I was

going to need to be excited about church again.

During this time, on one of our walks to and from kickboxing, I told

Meagan, “I hate visiting churches, but I’ll visit as many as I have to. I

don’t want to do this again. I want to find somewhere I can stay forever.”

So the first Sunday in January, I visited a church downtown. That was

not it - by a lot. Then, on our walk to kickboxing that week, Meagan

recommended that I visit Holy Trinity Anglican Church. “I think they

have what you are looking for,” she said. I am so glad she did. I am

excited to go to church again - not just on Sunday morning but on

Saturday night. An email come out mid-week, and I sometimes get

exited by that.

I love so much about Holy Trinity - I love the people who sit near me

on Sunday; I love the liturgy; I love the building, I love the depth and breadth of Paul Harris’ musical knowledge. I love the joy of each member the clergy takes in giving communion.

I especially love this man over here. 

His fancy name is Rev. Dr. John W Yates III, rector of Holy Trinity. But that is too stuffy for the delightful man I call my pastor.

John has been kind to me from the beginning. I emailed him after my

first visit to tell him I enjoyed the service and said that I didn’t know

much about Anglican practices or doctrine and asked if he could point

me to a resource. I wasn’t sure if he would reply. He’s a busy church

pastor getting an email from a strange woman. Replying might not be

something he is inclined to do.

I thought that if he replied at all, he would likely send me a link to a

website - which would have been fine. But that’s not what he did. He

mailed me a book - which is basically my love language. He had

written two chapters in this book and was the editor of the series. That

concern for scholarship, both his and mine, was important to me

because I had it for the first 25 years of my live, but I had not had it in a

since. I don’t think I realized how much I had missed it until I was

holding that book in my hands.

We talked the following week, and he recommended another book and

answered some questions. He’s been answering questions, replying to

emails, and recommending books ever since. I didn’t visit any other

churches.

Five weeks later, he expressed an interest in string theory, so I told

him I wanted to return the favor by bringing him a book. When I told him

it was favorite book on string theory, he said, “I think that makes you a

special kind of nerd. I was sold. Anyone who knows after only a few

weeks that I would enjoy being called a nerd is someone who will make

me feel known, valued, and loved. When I told Elizabeth Walters this

story the next day, she said, "Oh, you have clearly found your people."

And she was absolutely right.  

John, you're my people, and you have been a gift. I am grateful for your kindness and joy, the

love you show everyone and your patience. I love you and all of Holy

Trinity. Thank you.

I know I’ve talked a long time, but there are three more people I need to

mention. They aren't here tonight because they live far away, but this

story would be incomplete without them.

Kevin Washburn's book The Architecture of Learning was the first

"brain book" I ever read. It was a while ago because I read it after seeing

him present at an ACSI conference in Greensboro. I found him on

Facebook, and we have been friends for 16 years. And we’ve been very

good friends for people who didn’t meet face to face until last summer.

We’ve had a few parallels in our lives recently. After I got my cycle

instructor’s certification, he got his personal trainer’s certification (his

was harder to achieve than mine). He published a book on resilience two

and half years ago, which was good time for me as I read it while I was

making the transition from GRACE to the Y. We’ve just had a lot of

opportunities to support each other, and he has been an amazing

cheerleader.

John Almarode - John is an education professor and author - Some of

you know I have a non-romantic crush on John Almarode. When I first

met him at a Learning and the Brain conference, I tweeted, “I don’t

believe in spirit animals, but if I did, I’d want this man to be mine.” He is

just a bubbling fountain of positive energy.

He was the third person to know about my transition from the

classroom because I emailed him and asked for prayer and advice.

John was also the first person to read any of the words of this book

and provide feedback. When I was being rejected by one publisher after

another, John said, "Let's plan a Zoom call and catch up." For an hour,

he made me laugh, gave me advice, reminded me that things would

happen at the time they were ordained to, and asked if there was

anything else he could do for me.

John Almarode is a good friend to have in your corner.

Last, but certainly not least is Andrew Watson - I first met Andrew

without his name. I asked questions of the Learning and the Brain

Twitter account and got great answers. Near the beginning of lockdown,

I asked a question with an answer too long for Twitter, so he sent me his

email address. We became fast friends and immediately formed a

mutual admiration society.

One of Andrew’s greatest strengths is connecting people. He knows

everyone in this part of the education world. If he sees something in you

and wants to help you develop it, he will connect you with the person

who can help you do that. As such, Andrew has been influential my

getting selected to speak at conferences.

The day after my Zoom call with John, I had a phone call with Andrew.

One of the results of that call was that gave me the contact information

for his first editor, who is now my first editor. So, if it were not for

Andrew, we would not be celebrating today.

I started by quoting from Wicked. I’m going to end by quoting Leslie

Knope. “No one achieves anything alone.”

I may have sat alone behind a computer and typed out the words

myself, but if I had not grown up in the house I did - if I had not had

teachers like Mr. Sandberg - if I had not grown at GRACE and been

changed by the Y - If I had not been encouraged by Holy Trinity and

guided by people in the mind brain education world, I would not have

something to say that is worth putting into print.

“No one achieves anything alone.” What I most want tonight is for you

to know each other a little. After John closes us in prayer, I want you to

meet someone outside of your place in my life.