More on proximal learning and constructivist theory...No yawning!

So I've taken the time to read up on this a bit more, thank you wikipedia.

Here are some new terms that I have learned:
metacognition-awareness of one's cognitive processes and use of this knowledge to self-regulate one's cognitive processes or knowing how you know stuff or knowing how you learn stuff

zone of proximal development or in academic circles, ZDP- Lev Vygotsky came up with this as an argument against standardized testing He thought that learners should be tested on how they solved problems not on what they knew. The zone of proximal development is the area of knowledge that is just beyond the learners stage of development or level of mastery. It is the difference between actual developmental level and potential developmental level. He thought that material should be introduced ahead of a developmental stage because it would rouse a set of skills as they were maturing and help them to fully develop. OK, I can get on board with that.

Constuctivist theory- good old Piaget thought that knowledge was not so much acquired as it was constructed by assimilating knew information into an existing framework. It is a way to describe how humans learn not a prescription.

Social constructivism is a way to apply constructivist theories to learning.

I also found some abstracts of different studies about zones of proximal development and proximal learning applied to study skills and I noticed some recurring themes:

People will learn things more quickly and more thoroughly if it is their own idea to learn it in the first place.

Learning should be a collaborative process between people with different levels of mastery.

Knowledge is part of a whole and shouldn't necessarily be split up into different topics.

Hmmm,could there be a school set up that actually encourages this type of learning?

A link

http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn

This guy is a developmental psychologist and what he has to say is pretty interesting. For me, he's preaching to the choir!

so busy

The egghead has been so busy. Weekends in the country, trips to the lake, laundry. The laundry never ends. Never ever ever.

anyhoo, let's talk about proximal learning.

Proximal learning is the idea that someone who knows a little bit more than you can teach you something better than someone who knows a lot more than you do. Or it may be that kids pick stuff up from all sorts of sources and learn thru some sort of freaky osmosis. Ok Ok I'll look it up.

(imagine a pause here, a long one because Stephen Colbert is doing something with a breast pump so I need to hit rewind on Tivo)

Oh my was I off base. So proximal learning means that learning is not linear. Here's a quote.

Vygotsky introduced the social aspect of learning into constructivism. He defined the "zone of proximal learning," according to which students solve problems beyond their actual developmental level (but within their level of potential development) under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers. It means challenge them but in a reasonable way. I think. Note to self, look stuff up before i start the post. Not during. I know I caould go back and edit and no one would be the wiser but that seems like cheating.

My whole point for bringing this up was that Amelia's friend is reading very well and was helping Amelia to read a book this weekend. Now Amelia wants reading lessons everyday and is working through some Dr. Seuss books. Des wants to read more because Amelia is. I guess this doesn't have anything to do with proximal learning after all. Or does it? Is there a bigger egghead out there who can explain this to me? What proximal learning is, not the monkey see,monkey do approach to children learning how to read.

More to-do's

Visit my brother in japan with Des and Amela-I'm going to give this a surprisingly high 85% chance of completion. All the stars seem to be in alignment:we have a free place to stay,I have a ton of frequent flier miles so airfare will be reduced, Ray is being very supportive. We just need passports and Finn has to be going to sleep at night without nursing. Piece of cake!

Write a novel 4-7% I like to write, no I love to write but I have never had the discipline to do it regularly. I think I also get bogged down with the idea that it has to be great. I also have serious time constraints right now. My friend got me to sign up for NaNoWriMo last year but I couldn't keep up. Grandma Moses started painting when she was, well, a grandma so I'll give myself time on this one.

Organize my craft closet and a finished room in my basement. Oh lord, this should be 100% but it has become such a huge job that I'm overwhelmed. I actually looked to see if one of those organization shows needs volunteers. I have no desire to be on TV. I just want them to come and do the work for me!

My to-do list

Here are some ideas that I have and the chance(in percentage form) that they will be accomplished:

Start a newsletter for the families of HVSS, actually an idea that another mom and I discussed:
likely hood of me seeing it through-14% likely hood with other parent involved 40-60%

organizing a conference for the parents of sudbury students from all over:
making a list of topics that I think would be interesting 98%
actually organizing a conference around it 2-3%

Chartering a bus and organizing a trip to the bronx zoo this summer:
if I make the phone call to inquire about the bus in the next three days and it's not too expensive-98%
if I don't make the initial call in the next three days :1%

It's a facebook miracle!

Once upon a time, in high school, I was really close friends with this girl. Best friends. We went to different schools but we hung out every weekend and we were in this methodist youth group together and it was great.

Senior year was very difficult for me. My grandmother had passed away and I was living with my grandfather and sort of running the house. Plus school pressures and some other family stuff. I was a mess. At the same time, I actually started to make friends with the people from my school(everyone thought I was a big time nerd-which I was but there are many facets to the egghead-and didn't know that I was running off to Manhattan and getting into all sorts of mischief).
Some of my new friends did not like my old friend and when we had a very minor argument I chose to blow it out of proportion and basically dropped her.

It was really wrong of me and it was so out of character, not something I was in the habit of doing before or since. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life but my mistreatment and lack of loyalty towards my friend is something I really regret.

So fast forward 20 years and a mutual friend hooked us up againon where else, facebook. I was able to apologize, she was able to forgive, we have had some wonderful email exchanges and are making plans to get together. Even though i had forgiven myself I still feel fortunate that I had a chance to make amends to her. It was really nice.

My first read along (RAL)

I'm on this thing called Ravelry, it's social networking for the busy fiber artist. As I believe I may have said before, I mostly go on to talk about Battlestar Galactica but today I saw a new group was started for a read along for Democracy in America by that 19th century dreamboat Alexis de Tocqueville. So get ready for lots and lots of posts about this book.

Of course, I'm not exactly sure how a read along works. My guess is my friend will post a comment explaining it to me in 5,4,3,2,1....

Odds and ends

Amelia burst into tears as I was making dinner saying she didn't want to be a girl because a boy at camp was making fun of the girl's bathroom. Des confirmed that this boy is quite mean and went so far as to characterize him as "Captain of the Meanies". That made Amelia laugh and all was well.

Amelia was talking about Cady's prowess at Duck,Duck,Goose "Yo, Cady can run fast. The 5 year old in her circle couldn't catch her." It is very odd to hear your child say "Yo."

We saw Wall-E tonight. I asked the kids what they thought the movie was about "Well, the people couldn't live on earth anymore because WALL-E made too much garbage. And they were fat." When I asked Cady what her favorite part was she said "I'm keeping that a secret." When I asked her if she understood the movie she said "No but I like candy."

Don't laugh!

so I just I had a bad dream that I was on Facebook and my profile was way off but I couldn't get my keyboard off Caps Lock when I tried to change it. And there was something weird about my friends list too.

Look, school is out so come back in sept. for my trenchant insights about the Sudbury model. Stay tuned for the next installment of my crazy facebook adventures.

Tomorrow: Things I Have Confessed to People I Haven't Even Thought About in 20 Years Much Less Seen

Camp

The kids started camp today and two of their friends from school are in the same group with them. Cady also started camp and was not pleased so I hung out with her for a little bit. At one point I look over and see the four big kids sitting at a picnic table looking miserable. I said "what's going on guys, can't you find anything to do?"

They said "No, this camp is boring!"
I said "Well, at sudbury you guys don't have a problem entertaining yourself"
Desmond's friend said "Anytime we want to do something they say no!"

I guess they kept wandering into the little kids section to play and were being constantly shooed away.

WhenI picked them up though everything was fine. It was just so funny to see them all sitting still after watching them careen around Sudbury for a year.

Happy Birthday America!

My kids woke me up this morning by serenading me with a combo of Happy Birthday America and a version of God Bless America sung to a tune similar to the Farmer in The Dell.

and they just sang the words God Bless America over and over.

Hooray for democracy!! Even if at first it was extended only to white landowners. It was a good start.

Chant along now : USA! USA! USA! USA!

Enjoy the fourth. Don't blow your hand off or shoot your eye out with illegal fireworks. Barbecue everything. Even breakfast.

Be happy. Be free.

Did I forget about Sudbury?

Of course not! But the kids aren't in school so I've had other thoughts on my mind. We got a packet today including staff bios. that was pretty interesting. I knew they were sending them out, I just didn't realize that they had been written by the staff themselves. Mostly everyone confirmed their commitment to the school's philosophy plus a couple of interesting tidbits about where they grew up,likes and dislikes,etc.

It reminded me that I have to do my tuition worksheet. HVSS has a sliding scale tuition. Sudbury Valley School does not. Someone at the assembly who had been there said that they(people at SVS) think everyone should be responsible for their own tuition and called a sliding scale "social engineering". I guess I can see what they're saying, having the same price for everyone is more democratic except that democracy is not about money. We don't have a poll tax anymore. It doesn't cost anybody anything to vote so one could think of tuition as a poll tax of sorts, it's the price you pay to become part of the Sudbury community. I think tuition there is 6000 a year(I don't know if they give sibling discounts) which would make it twice as expensive for a family making 30,000 a year vs. a family making 60,000. That's not social engineering of a different sort?

If it wasn't for the sliding scale, and more importantly, the sibling discount, I don't know if I could send my kids to the school. The sibling discount is phenomenal. First child pays 100%,Second 50% and any kids after that 25%.