How Does Learning Happen?

When I was in seventh grade I witnessed something that somewhat shocked me. I was walking down the hallway and a teacher was talking with a sixth grader about how to spell the word"cat." I had been reading since kindergarten, believe, and was reading biographies by second grade. It mystified me that this boy who I played football with after school could not spell cat.

My senior year in high school the dean of students, Mr. Griffith, whom I'd had in Civics in ninth grade and History in eleventh, asked if I would be willing to tutor a tenth grade student who was failing his math class. I was taking Calculus in the honors prograrn and it would be arranged for me to meet with this student during study hall. I can't recall if it was once a week or more than that, though I do remember that up till then he had failed every test or quiz since the beginning of the year.

When we met after the third week he was genuinely surprised to have gotten a D on a math test, his first passing grade. The following week he got a C. I was surprised at how quickly he was improving.

The next week, though, he didn't show up. For whatever the reason, we stopped meeting. Occasionally I've wondered if there were something going on in his home life. He seemed smart enough to "get it" with a little personalized attention, but I never found out what happened.

Several years later, a friend whose career involved teaching math recommended a book called The Seven Laws of Teaching. by John Milton Gregory. iPublished in 1884, t's not a new book with the latest research, success stories and modern anecdotes. Rather, it's a straightforward presentation of seven common sense principles of teaching which have stood the test of time.

In simple terms here's the essence of the book: know your subject, engage attention, speak in words the student understands, connect new ideas to things already understood, guide discovery, require expression, and reinforce through use. Gregory’s key insight is that teaching works best when it aligns with how people naturally learn.

Another memory comes to mind about public school and learning. My next door neighbor, Kenny K, was failing all his classes in fourth grade and the school wanted to hold him back. His mother went to the school and insisted that this was not the solution to his failing grades. I don't know if testing was done or if she was simply persuasive, but instead of being held back, he was placed in sixth grade, skipping fifth grade altogether. 

What happened? Kenny became an A student. He was no longer bored to tears by the pace of the class. 

When we homeschooled our children for a few years we worked hard to find the right curriculum and the right pace. We saw they had a hunger to learn that we called "learning rage." The time to throw logs on a fire is when the fire is hot.

How does learning happen? It isn't magic.

Learning happens when experience meets attention and gets reinforced over time. It isn’t a single event but a process—taking in new information, connecting it to what we already know, practicing it, and then using it in real situations.

Whether you are a teacher or leader of any kind, you will find the principles in Gregory's book to be helpful. Here are the "laws" as Gregory presents them.

1. The Law of the Teacher

The teacher must know the lesson thoroughly. You cannot teach what you do not understand.

2. The Law of the Learner

The learner must attend with interest. Without attention, there is no real learning.

3. The Law of the Language

The teacher and learner must use a common language—clear, understandable terms.

4. The Law of the Lesson

The new lesson must be connected to what the learner already knows.

5. The Law of the Teaching Process

Teaching is not telling—it is guiding the learner to think and discover.

6. The Law of the Learning Process

The learner must restate or express the idea in their own words to truly grasp it.

7. The Law of Review and Application

Knowledge must be reviewed, reinforced, and applied to become lasting.

Related Link
Writing Exercises: How to Teach Writing and Prepare Your Favorite Students for College, Life and Everything Else

Readng and the Power of an Educated Mind

When I went to Italy last year, I learned how it came about that Florence became such a center of power and influence during the Renaissance period. They valued literacy; they valued books. They had one street there nicknamed Booksellers Row or something like that. The people there valued and collected ancient manuscripts on science, medicine, philosophy, history, architecture and religion. They were avid readers and book lovers. 

Another fact I learned that really stood out was that the literacy rate in Florence was twice that of other towns in Italy. The fruit of this treasure trove of learning can be seen today in the architecture, the arts, and places like the Galileo museum

* * * 

Yesterday I saw a headline about the wisdom of our country's Founding Fathers and it brought brought to mind an anecdote about books and learning. A few years back, in a biography of James Madison the author noted how London at that time had its own Bookseller's Row. The most influential book publisher in England during the later 1700s. The author noted that this major bookseller's most avid buyers were all from the American colonies. More than half of their customers were from the Colonies in North America.

Bottom Line: Do you read? A love of reading is an integral feature of an educated mind. Do you want your children to amplify their influence in the future? Instill in them a love of reading.

Online Writers and Twitter Users: Do You Pay Attention To Your Analytics?

LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY

As the saying goes, "Life is for learning." They also say "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."

That second statement is bunk. If you embrace the concept of lifelong learning, you'll continuously be looking for new tricks to learn. It becomes your nature.

I've been paying attention to my blogger stats since I started blogging in 2007. Before that I noted my website stats. Having had a career in advertising, I was continuously paying attention to statistics pertaining to lead generation, conversion rates, and the cost of acquiring a new customer.

Maybe that was all fun to me because I like numbers and was always good at math while growing up. Or maybe it was fun because I grew up being a bit competitive and I liked winning. This evolved to what I hope is a healthier motivation to achieve for achievement sake and not to beat anyone.  I don't feel a need to be the best, only to be better than I was.

ALL THIS TO SAY that I learned something new today. 

I've been on Twitter since 2008 when I learned that large numbers of journalists used Twitter for a variety of reasons, including finding breaking news. It's a great way to stay in tune with what is happening on the national and global scenes. And to catch a sense of where others are at on issues, etc. But it's also a great way to share your own stories, articles, ideas and interests. Especially if you're a writer.

What I discovered today is that just as I have access to extensive stats pertaining to my blog (including where my readers are from, what kinds of devices they access the blog from, etc.) there is also a "back room" on Twitter for every Twitter user's analytics. I never knew this.

So, what did I see when I peeked behind the curtain?

Napping on the couch my son's dog Noodles also sleeping.

The Top Interest among my followers is Dogs. 
How interesting because I seldom write about dogs, though there are clues from time to time that I am a dog person.

The Top Language is English.
No surprise there.

Top Lifestyle Type is Online Buyers.
This is strange on one level. I'm still a big advocate for Buy Local, but I get it, I suppose. Maybe.

When it comes to Consumer Behavior, my followers tend to buy Premium Brands. Hmmm.

Mobile Footprint.
Verizon. There was a tie in this category with AT&T. I myself use Verizon as my mobile carrier, though I can't imagine this having a bearing on my Twitter stats.

Then Twitter does a break-out on the Interests into a more detailed set of graphs, and this becomes surprising because I write so much about writing and art that you would think those interests would dominate. Instead, the list of interests most shared with followers is as follows:
Dogs. Weather. Music festivals & concerts. Technology, Education News and general info, Government, Commentary, Tech News, Politics.

At this point I realize that although I Tweet what I blog about each day, I also re-Tweet stories and hit the "Like" button a lot. This means that I've been telegraphing my other interests even when I do not write about them on my blog.

Very interesting.

At the top of your analytics page you can see how many times you've Tweeted in the past 28 days, how many impressions were made, how many profile visits occurred (up 64% this month), how many mentions, and how many followers you now have compared to a month ago.

STILL MORE DATA
If you want to go deeper, you may. My TOP TWEET this month, based on Impressions was a Tweet about my interview with Medium writer/ publisher Nicole Akers. 
You can also find your Top Mention and Top Follower, as well as Top Media Tweet for each and every month going back as far as you want to go. My Top Media Tweet for November was about my interview with author Paul Thomas Chamberlin, author of The Cold War's Killing Fields.

* * * *

Well, it's time to break off here and start my day. Twitter has been an interesting experience and is my favorite social media platform besides blogging. It's easy, and has an international reach that is significant. Facebook feels more like a necessary evil. It's useful for staying in touch with your local tribe, and friends at a distance, but it's become a clutterer space where the platform seems keep pushing things at you and you have to swat them aside all the time.

In recent years Quora and Medium became platforms I enjoyed more. Each seems to be a home for writers. Anyone who is writing I consider to be part of my extended family. Are you a writer? Write on!

* * * *
This blog post was stimulated by an article at Social Media Today titled How to Get More Twitter Followers (Without Spending a Dime)

Learning How To Write About Art

"Having an opinion is part of your social contract with readers."
--Gilda Williams

* * * *

Kathy McTavish, Quantum experience

Early this month the Ambient Intelligence Arts Writing Cohort held its third meeting in the DAI boardroom, with panelists for December being Tim White, Jennifer Webb and Ann Markusen. Homework included reading another chapter from Gilda Williams' How To Write About Contemporary Art.

With Christmas in the air, and the assorted activities that accompany the season, it was a challenge carving out a time to meet that didn't compete with other commitments. We began the meeting with another writing exercise in the gallery, this time scratching out notes related to the current show in the Morrison Gallery featuring paintings by Paul LaJeunesse & sculptures by the Lake Superior Wood Turners. We were asked to make notes related to the following: Who are you writing for? What do people want to know? And what more do they want to know?

What follows are miscellaneous notes from my observations in the gallery and the discussions that followed.

MY NOTES from the Gallery
Surprising variety of objects
Polished, raw, functional, beautiful, delicate, practical
Cream colored walls
Woodwork that enhances the natural beauty of the "created"
Human imprint upon the Natural

Questions:
How is it achieved (these various effects)
What is its purpose?
Where do the pieces go when they leave here?
How did they arrive here? 
What tools were used?

* * * *

Karen Nease, from her As Above, So Below series.

The discussion which followed showed that in nearly every case observations were seldom identical. Our various life experiences and backgrounds result in varying approaches and different sets of questions. Judy Budreau's notes were made as if writing a letter to her granddaughter. She mentioned that we were in the Depot and the weather outside was cold. Karen Nease wrote about the exhibition as a whole, giving it a different kind of context. Interim DAI director Christina Woods observed from an Anishinaabi framework, citing fractals, connections and divides. Anne Moore was curious about how the artists themselves felt about the manner in which the show was curated?

* * * *

Frank Holmes, oil on canvas

The next topic on the table circled around interviewing artists. Ann Markusen, a social scientist who acknowledges that she has no background in making art, shared a few insights about interviewing artists. She stated that she uses a template as the foundation of the interview and builds from there by taking time. She spoke of the creator/audience divide and has observed that people see art but most don't meet the artists themselves. She also noted that most artists don't understand the consequences of what happens after their work is sold.

The subsequent dialogue included these observations:
Tim White: "I've always thought closings more valuable than openings."
Jennifer Webb: ...made the intriguing comment that "Art museums (are) associated with rich white people."
TW: Stated that in writing about art he "aims to give readers an entry point" into the work.
Ann M: Who are the gatekeepers? (They are) often looking out for the interests of the rich. Who decides what is great?

ASIDE, or rather, inside my head: At this point my mind went back to a Brown Bag Lunch discussion about the role of art in society, led by John Heino during our Red Interactive show as part of the Phantom Galleries -- Superior in 2001. Who decides what is and is not art?

TW: Here's what I saw. Is that relevant?
JW: "I don't like talking about art by itself and don't like museums." She said that she was "interested in the historical moment. Context and Intention."

ASIDE, or rather, inside my head: Stop the presses. This is yet another statement worth a deeper dive. More exploration. But it passes and we move into more territories.

CW: Writing for Native Report Christina Woods writes about Anishinaabi artists. "Know your audience. Get as much time as possible with the audience. Humanize the person being interviewed."
JW: Artspeak turns people off.
Kathy made a comment about "radical event makers."
Another divide is between what happens in the institutions and what's happening street level.

* * * *

Ed Newman, "Don's Girl -- Glowing, eXtruded"

IN THE AFTERMATH of the meeting I felt a measure of "out-of-sorts-ness" with regard to the discussion that had taken place. I wondered if we tried to hard to keep to an agenda instead of allowing the discussion topics raised lead us deeper. The dialogue felt unfocused while simultaneously remaining one inch deep and excessively wide.

Or maybe the problem was generated by my unmanaged expectations. Being surrounded by so many smart people, most smarter than I on these matters, I looked forward to asking questions, debating issues, exploring territories and topics that there's seldom real opportunity for at the workplace water cooler.

In the end the experience brought to mind Parkinson's rule about the "coefficient of inefficiency" in groups where the number of members is too large.

In expressing my frustration with another member of the group I received this reply:
"Your blog may not have a center because there really wasn’t one. So what if you wrote a conversation between the two points of view and see what happens?" Intriguing. Maybe someday.

This thought led to a question as regards which two points of view on which topic? There were so many raised with two or more points of view. Personally, I love art museums. It would have been great to have a pause button so that one topic alone could be explored in more detail. I'm planning to visit the Tweed this afternoon and am hard-pressed to understand what the downside of such museums might be.

Maybe we'll have to save that one for another space in time.

BONUS TRACK: Read Tim White's Selective Focus at PerfectDuluthDay.

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Engage it.