chez Odile

from pokemon to biology

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:40:00 +0000

It has puzzled me as a child that most of my classroom friends didn't seem to realize how fortunate we were to have very good teachers sharing some of their knowledge with us. I liked biology and chemistry because the teacher gave interesting lessons. Unfortunately in the last year I was distracted, probably due to hormonal influences. I did use my knowledge when studying. Now it's my turn to raise children and I try to think back how my teachers and parents influenced me to interest me to learn. Today there is biology for children on internet, but there also is a lot of distraction; television all day and computer games. Even books are an escape. I started the day today with a demo English lesson, some neuropsychological fun for kids and Pokemon. I had to use power to stop Pokemon.

geography by letters

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:15:00 +0000

One letter a time to learn places around the world was the idea on education world. This pdf is printable. I'm going to try it with my son who doesn't do well at learning geography the normal way. Maybe the alfabetic approach is better for him, I'm going to try.

brains for kids

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:28:00 +0000

Would like to tell your children about brains? Neuroscience for Kids from Washington would certainly help.

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:28:00 +0000

I'm taking a break from blogging for a month. I'm going to be busy with my household and children.

oddblog

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:41:00 +0000

The earth is one universe with a multitude of colours. Each one of us is odd. We are all odities.

15 secondes chez Odile

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:25:00 +0000

I'm trying out a new concept of blogging, few words, maximum thought on my new French blog; 15 secondes chez Odile.

psychology museum

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Sun, 25 May 2008 10:32:00 +0000

Every piece of art is a personal lesson in psychology, a lesson for life, not for a museum.

What piece of art is a lesson for you?

Does art make you feel alive and vibrant?

Art is a projection of words fixed in time.

let's make things beautiful

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:47:00 +0000

learning to relate

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Mon, 19 May 2008 12:11:00 +0000

Why do I need to learn new things? I'm over forty years old and a parent, so why bother? the truth is that the (fresh) experience of making mistakes and feeling insecure is one that makes me a better parent. I don't know everything but I can try. It makes me more human and it's easier to reach out to others in understanding, when it's not only about what I know, but that I relate to feelings. That's why I welcome feeling insecure.

So I'm learning.

doctor Ants

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Sun, 18 May 2008 19:47:00 +0000

My children are sure there exist doctor Ants. Why? Because they observed an ant carrying a dead ant on their back holding it with the front limbs. And because they need a doctor of course when they get injured. Having said this at dinner, they went outside and watched if they could discover another doctor Ant.

White and blue

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:21:00 +0000

White seagulls carress the blue sky while I sit here watching from my window. I've just had a lesson earlier online. It was huge fun. Students from all over the world, the world is one for one hour.

Museum and canal

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:50:00 +0000

This Sunday was the last opportunity to go to a museum with the children. The sky was a perfect blue, the kind you rarely see in the Netherlands. Usually there's a cloud somewhere, encouraging some painter. But since may 4, 2008 a cloudless sky changes this 'may vacation' into a great vacation. We worked in the garden most of the time. We have an olive tree, figs, apple, wine… but today we went to HOORN with the bus. We rode for free because the bus employees are on a strike. The museum was pleasant because no one else thought of going to a museum with this weather. The children did a puzzle search and were in deep concentration. Until the smallest of us wanted ice-cream. Luckily the museum faced a canal. We could eat our ice-cream sitting on a gently rocking boat terrace under the shade of a parasol. Not a bad idea after all.

Blue

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:44:00 +0000

What makes the sky blue?
Is it the Tyndall effect or the Rayleigh scattering or are these merely descriptions of the mechanism shown?

facebook writing

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:34:00 +0000

I've sent a mail to someone at facebook that I want to share here:

Hi, I'm a mom living in the Netherlands and recently created a group/platform who say education can improve to be more motivating.
In Dutch:
http://www.zinvolonderwijsnederland.nl/
I also write in English at
http://schmiodile.blogspot.com
There are examples of education that is cooperative (Freinet started this last century and this influenced education already but not enough), democratic and makes use of creativity. One of the keys of Freinet education is that children get to express thoughts freely and to share their thoughts. This faced opposition one century ago but is widely accepted now in many countries around the world.
Children expression is considered a healthy regular development method.
I watched a DVD about the Freinet movement just yesterday, but I didn't encounter a translation yet. It's in French...
this is a pitty because it shows directly in practice how fresh and participating children can be at school. Active and happy learners, what parent or educator doesn't want this for their child?

L’école buissonière

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:18:00 +0000

Célestin Freinet was a schoolteacher in France in between the first and second world war. He was a school reformer who had a notion of education that many of us today take for granted. Before the second world war the ideas did spread rapidly among educators, but were not accepted by many authorities. Especially he recognized the need of children to express themselves at school. He was an avant garde, this means he had novel ideas that would get picked up later by a large portion of the population, but were not yet considered 'normal'. Indeed today his ideas have found their way into normal education. Many schools have a school paper. Free expression is considered a basic need for children in many societies.

What if there are inspiring new ideas now that will change education in the future? Can I recognize them?

A little bit of brainstorming:

Conceptual teaching, technical education that starts at kindergarten, different educational trajectories, internet education, world education, psychological education, moral leadership education, auditive lessons, visual internet lessons, kinesthetic Wii school, musical learning, sand and clay learning, multitasking or monotasking working style practicum, …

What methods will we share with each other? What discoveries will change the way we work with children and how can we make the world better? What should we stop doing and why or for whom? Changing schools changes society.

One conclusion I've reached in past years is that education can change aggressive children in happy children, but unfortunately it can also work the other way round. We need education that fits children. How can we educate children better?

L'école buissonière means the bush school and refers to the habit of Freinet of going out to the fields with the children and teaching them on the way of discovery.

Now how to get creativity

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:51:00 +0000

In this you tube, Pythagore and maths.

save creativity, change education

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:11:00 +0000

What do you think? Is it important to rethink education to adopt a new conception of education that favorises creativity?

Improve your singing ele-mentally

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:40:00 +0000

This element song is a multitask to refresh your knowledge of elements, improve English diction and enjoy singing at the same time. What to think about this? Is learning the lyrics same as thinking? Is learning a list of names thinking? Why do we need to have basic knowledge.
How can you use this song in your life?

Now if everything would be just chemical, why sing?
Makes me think of Poincaré's essay; a complex structure doesn't happen at random. Makes me think love, as a result of chemicals if a higher hierarchy of love would require a higher hierarchy of chemicals?

(a quiet laugh here, caused by a complex of chemicals that didn't randomly organize but come to think of it you can read in my chemicals that it was an ironical laugh)

Imagin multiplication

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:20:00 +0000

This technique of multiplication is not only visual, it's also a way to puzzle out the relationship between numbers and spatial relationships.

an example of Vygotskian learning

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:52:00 +0000

How can you teach your child a foreign language? In this english speaking video a father teaches his japanese son to speak spanish.

autism awareness and acceptation

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:51:00 +0000

What movements do I accept? I think of myself as a tolerant curious person. How do I react when someone next to me flaps his arms? I think based on past experience I would be surprised but accepting it. For raising autism awareness this well observed view of someone with autism on the behaviour.

dvd's about (deep) learning

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:56:00 +0000

Yesterday I found myself searching for DVD's about Piaget and Freinet, educational thinkers. I'm sure there are other interesting dvd's to be found on educational thinkers, e.g. Feuerstein. If you know any I would appreciate any information.
The dvd's from Piaget cost more than I budgetted (250 $) but contain original classroom material of his method. I'm going to think very long if I really need it. From Freinet I found a dvd called "l'école buissonnière" about Freinet in a dramatized commedy. The dvd also contains extra documentary material. I'm waiting for the dvd to reach me by mail. It will be an extra opportunity to teach the children French, ethics and history.

Freinet's method has characteristics in common with unschooling - a recent educational development that makes me curious. Both methods have in common that there is room for deep learning as opposed to superficial learning. For more understanding, this article may provide more ellaboration on the concepts of deep learning versus superficial learning. I wonder if I can observe deep learning in the dvd's of Piaget? I expect so because of his emphasis on thinking.

what's a high need anyway

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:33:00 +0000

Is internet fulfilling our highest needs or not? For me my highest needs are still fulfilled by books and articles. This is because books can ellaborate for pages on one subject. And I really enjoy that.
However, for expression of thoughts and finding the books I want to read, I have been using internet -also for finding subjects, issues, blogentries, articles, forums.

televisions and scaffolds

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:16:00 +0000

In an exerpt from Kameenui and Simmons (1999) the purpose of a scaffold is to make sure a student "gets it" or masters the first learning step in order to achieve some independence in learning.
The purpose of a scaffold is then to remove it.
Somehow televisions aren't scaffolds; I find it hard to remove mine. On teachervision, a list for evaluating scaffolds is provided. Maybe some teaching methods make more dependent than others and are somehow more like my television.

puzzle creation

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:43:00 +0000

Do you want to make your own wordsearch puzzle? It may be just for fun or to surprise someone or educational.
Or create your own amazing mazes.
Or start a business with making cardboard puzzles.