July 30th, 2008 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Here is the link to the mp3 recording of the second Tuesday Conference Calls on education.
During the week Joan Berland and I have received many emails from people expressing their gratitude as well sharing their interests in what we are pioneering and telling about their own work. We have some very interesting calls in store!!! On this call Rod Sugden, who teaches a 3rd grade class in London talkes about his amazing results. Joan, Rod and I have been in regular contact with each other during the last 3-4 months. Rod has been using these models for about 3 months and has started to see some exciting results which he writes about in the email below, which I received yesterday. We have invited Rod to speak about these results on the call tomorrow. He was the first to introduce the “sitting still” meditation in his class and develop a rubric for it. So this next call will continue where we left off talking about the significance of “sitting still” meditation.
EMAIL FROM ROD
Hi Nick, I wanted to write to you and let you know my latest thoughts on using the rubrics and say another big thank you for all your hard and dedicated work in pursuing their manifestation in the classroom!
Firstly, in looking back over the 3 month period that I have used them, I would say that while about 2/3rds of the class have stayed at the same level, about 1/3rd of my class has moved up! This has had the overall effect of the whole class moving forwards. I’ve broken these improvements down into what I consider 3 significant areas: -
1. Listening
2. Focus
3. Motivation
Looking more closely at each one I’ve noticed:
1. Children’s listening has improved collectively and individually. The class can now go for longer periods of time listening attentively without becoming distracted. Individually, during class teaching, kids have more eye contact and better ‘body language’. That is, they are engaging with what is being taught without getting distracted. Also, children are listening to each other better. This happens in partner as well as class dialogue.
2. During individual or independent exercises children are more focused on the work at hand. They are more one pointed and independently engaged with the work set.
3. In terms of motivation: children are more quickly following instructions, there are more positive contributions to dialogue, greater quantity of work is being produced and tasks are being completed better. In all these areas my class, as a whole, has improved!
Another positive aspect of using the rubrics is that they add meaning and purpose to the learning environment. The models are all about being an awake individual who is making positive choices. Many children do find these qualities appealing and this motivates them to perform well in the classroom!
The other unique aspect of these models is that they can help to awaken children to a collective field or awareness that is bigger than their own. When this arises children experience for themselves a different way that they can be together, which is totally positive and creative. Thanks again, Nick. Best Wishes, Rod Sugden
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The next Tuesday Conference Call on Education will be Tuesday August 12
The dial in number is: 1-712-580-1100
Access Code: 811288 #
START: 9.00 pm Central European Summer Time (3.00 pm Eastern Daylight Time USA).
Time of European/American call in other time zones
12:00am — West Coast USA Time
2:00pm — Central USA Time
3:00pm — East Coast USA Time
8:00pm — UK Time
9:00pm — Continental Europe Time
10:00pm — Israeli Time
03:00am (Wednesday) — Western Australia Time
05.00am (Wednesday) — Eastern Australia Time
