What are you waiting for, Superman?

Who hasn’t done their homework and taken the time to see this film? If you havn’t, pledge to see the movie, it will change the way your view our system and more importantly, make you want to do something about changing it.

Edutainment to boost early reading skills: WordWorld, where words come ALIVE

We here at PLL just discovered a show on PBS called Word World. I know, send me for a late slip on this one. For those of you who have not yet discovered this wonderful show on PBS, let us enlighten you. The creatives use animation to teach preschoolers how to read. They literally use letters to make the shape of characters and objects throughout the show, animating words that come to life. Well we do not need a study to tell us how quickly kids can pick up the concept of literacy using these methods. We can only imagine how much fun the artists behind this show must have storyboarding each episode. Here are some videos to give you a taste, enjoy your weekend! Check your local listings and support public broadcasting.

Breakthrough Learning in the Digital Age

We took some time off for summer break but we are back. To all you teachers and education policy professionals, if these recessionary times have you unable to attend conferences to better yourself, here is a set of youtube videos (almost 6 hours) from a conference on “Breakthrough Learning in the Digital Age” hosted at the Google HQ. The list of speakers is the cream of the crop and leaders of thought in the space and will inevitably spark internal discussions on the surrounding subjects.
Keynote Address by Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children’s Zone

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

Session 4

Closing remarks

Here is the agenda in case you would like to skip through for specific info. Enjoy!

Raising a 21st century citizen

Chris Lehmann is the founding principal of the Science Leadership Academy (SLA) a Philadelphia high school opened in September 2006 fundamentally asking the pertinent questions

“How do we learn?”
“What can we create?”
“What does it mean to lead?”

The SLA is built on the notion that inquiry is the very first step in the process of learning. Developed in partnership with The Franklin Institute and its commitment to inquiry-based science, the SLA will provide a rigorous, college-preparatory curriculum with a focus on science, technology, mathematics and entrepreneurship. Students at the SLA will learn in a project-based environment where the core values of inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation and reflection are emphasized in all classes.

Chris is a leader in the field of integrating technology into the classroom and contends that technology in education needs to be a transformative tool, not merely additive. He is also a really passionate speaker who happens to fit a ton of information in a short amount of time, here is his speech from the TEDxNYED

“The illiterate from the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn” -Alvin Toffler

Pharrell on being a ‘kidult’ pt 2

Pharrell reveals more details on his side project ‘Kidult‘ talking about how there is a void of real information for the youth demographic. This 120 second interview is facilitated by friendswelove

“When I was in school, I hated being talked down to, I felt like I should be talked up to” an expression true to every kid(ult)…

Rapper Jim Jones puts on his teachers cap in Brooklyn, NY classroom

Public Service Announcement: Stay in School!

Seeing as its Friday, we here at Pop Lock and Learn decided to keep it kinda light. Enjoy your weekend!

A second opinion on learning disorders

TED brings us another intriguing speaker. Dr Aditi Shankardass is pioneering the use of technology to give children with developmental disorders their most accurate diagnosis. Dr Shankardass specializes in a groundbreaking EEG technology, developed by Harvard University. This technology records and analyses the EEG (brain electrical activity) in real time, allowing them to watch the child’s brain as it performs various functions, detect even the slightest abnormalities in these functions, and provide a more accurate clinical diagnosis than ever before.

Feeling right about being wrong

Everyone can remember a time when their teacher passed back an exam or term paper so full of red ink that we quickly flipped it over so the kid sitting behind us did not see how clueless we were. Being wrong makes one lose their confidence and can even instill negative feelings in on a rudimentary level. Consider the above scenario with a mindset of embracing our wrongs and actually learning from our mistakes. Looking through that paper and analyzing where and why we had erred instead of being embarrassed would actually result in learning more and bettering ourselves. This is the fundamental difference between ego driven close mindedness and a productive life long learner.

The long shadow of temperament

In the cognitive neurosciences, temperament is a multilayered concept. It is often defined as a person’s characteristic way of responding emotionally and behaviorally to external events. These responses are fairly fixed, innate, and observable soon after birth and may have genetic components. Personality is defined as not being so immutable. It is shaped primarily by the parental and cultural factors into which a child is born and raised.

Personality is influenced by temperament, the same way a house is influenced by its foundation. Many researchers believe temperament provides the emotional and behavioral building blocks on which adult personalities are constructed.