Mike Scaddan - Making Magic Memories

The last time I saw Mike Scaddan speak was when I was a 'baby' teacher.  The local Principals' Association organised for Mike to come and speak to the teachers in our district, and I thought he was magic.  So I was excited to see that Mike was one of the breakout presenters at ULearn12.

Breakout #3:

Teachers are magic.

There is something I don't know that I am supposed to know. I don't know what it is I don't know and yet am supposed to know, and I feel I look stupid if I seem both not to know it and not know what it is I don't know. Therefore, I pretend I know it.

   

This is nerve-racking since I don't know what I must pretend to know. Therefore I pretend to know everything.

 

 

I feel you know what I'm supposed to know but you can't tell me what it is because you don't know

that I don't know what it is.

 

 

You may know what I don't know, but not that I don't know it, and I can't tell you. So you will have to tell me

 

 everything.

 

   

R. D. Laing

There are three reasons to question:

• want to know
• someone else has the same question and is waiting for someone to ask it
• good for the presenter, so they know what you want to know

Everything is memory

Without reviews, memories are misshapen or destroyed.
As a result, learning has to start from new foundations everyday.

Sensory input:
Experience & environment
Repetition or strong emotion
Sense and meaning

Senses will be activated by an experience and it will go through filters.  If it gets through immediate memory, gets through working memory, gets through emotional & repetition and sense and meaning, then you have it - a memory.

The order we learn from birth:

• Olfactory  -  smell
• Gustatory -  taste
• Kinaesthetic  - movement  (especially the male - they need to fiddle, touch, move do.  The male right side brain is 15% bigger than the left side of the brain - it is the movement side of the brain;  the female left side brain is 15% bigger than the right side of the brain - this is the language centre of the brain).
• Tactile - touch
• Visual  -  for girls about 6, boys about 8
• Auditory  -  happens about puberty

Memory - strongest to weakest:

• Emotional  -  aisles in your memory
• Procedural - Body language e.g. to ride a bike, to type.
• Episodic  -  what happened in order
• Conditioned Reflex  -  if I said cup, you'd say saucer
• Semantic - content without context  (last by a long way)

Locational memory - kids doing maths on the mat, then they go back to desks with worksheets and become less accurate.

Kids who forget what you said - say:  where were you when I said it?  Get them to go to that location.... hopefully they will then remember.  -  the auditory kid.

Boys have to have rules, who is in charge, will they be applied fairly - then how can they break them?

Repetition is so important - talk about it, do it, explain it, show it - each time repeating the same content.

Everybodies brain is different.  A child's brain is different to a adult's brain, a teenager's brain in different again, an elderly person's brain is different again.

Boys are born with 50% of the hearing of girls.  They don't hear all the tones that females use, don't read the faces of the girls.  Boys need it straight and direct.

Multiple Intelligences is output.

How would you structure reviews?

• Lego reviews:  each child answers a question, gets a piece of lego; each group uses their lego to build a tower.  Good for factual review or key words.  One team member with teacher at a time.  Upbeat music good.
• March reviews:  put the skills to a march-repeat song.  Mollenburg March (the bread ad).  One tune, one review - or else it get mashed up.
• Interviews:  in partners they interview each other about the lession.
• Old McDonald review
• Visual reviews:  Smartboard, graphic organisers, pictures, mindmaps.
• Kinaesthetic reviews:  moving along a line from one end to another to state if you agree or disagree with a statement.  Frisbee throw: catch and answer - dial a friend if struggling.  Knots in a string for identifying things in order and then telling a friend what each knot was.  What grabbed you:  alligator clip on finger, add alligator clips for the other things that grabbed you.  Dice: six things to talk about on board.  Child rolls the dice and they talk about the thing of the number they roll.
• If you didn't do a review, why bother teaching the lesson?

Fish clap!!  This is so cool!!!  With a partner, stretch your arms towards each other and gently press together.  Now 'clap' your hand against your partner's arm.

If I lift the bar children will grow.

Three things that I will take away from this session are:

• More physical movement
• Using the reviews
• Repetition