Frontier Charter Principal Notes

Emotions and the Mind

2008-05-28T11:00:00.001-07:00

...From the Southwest Educational Laboratory

Educators may find the most useful information in research that focuses less on the physical and biochemical structure of the brain and more on the mind-a complex mix of thoughts, perceptions, feelings, and reasoning. Studies that explore the effects of attitudes and emotions on learning indicate that stress and constant fear, at any age, can circumvent the brain's normal circuits. A person's physical and emotional well-being are closely linked to the ability to think and to learn effectively. Emotionally stressful home or school environments are counterproductive to students' attempts to learn. While schools cannot control all the influences that impinge on a young person's sense of safety and well-being, classrooms and schools that build an atmosphere of trust and intellectual safety will enhance learning. Letting students talk about their feelings can help them build skills in listening to their classmates' comments. Finding ways to vent emotions productively can help students deal with inevitable instances of anger, fear, hurt, and tension in daily life.

Gifted Kids Left Behind

2007-12-20T16:51:00.000-08:00

They are bored -- so much so that they may not pay attention in class or will act out in frustration.

Read more

One Harvard Man's View: Values and Career Choice

2007-08-03T13:24:00.000-07:00

Many parents are "clueless" about how to help their students explore and evaluate the hundreds of career possibilities available. This article is designed 1) to help school counselors motivate parent involvement by highlighting changes in the global workplace that have significantly raised the stakes for our youth and 2) to provide some of the tools to empower parents to motivate and support their children in the career exploration/planning process.

1. Fact: Career choice is one of life's most important decisions.

2. Fact: Choosing a career that matches your interest, skills and values significantly increases your chances for success and happiness.

3. Fact: Free resources are readily available to help students make informed choices.

4. Fact: Most students/parents DO NOT use these resources.

Communicating the Need

Many parents unknowingly assume that the schools will take care of career planning. Unfortunately, according to the U.S. Department of Education NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) Report, the ratio of guidance counselors to students in public high schools is 1 to 284 in the U.S. Another NCES Report indicated that career planning is the high school guidance counselors' fourth priority behind 1) helping students schedule classes, 2) preparation for college and standardized tests (SAT, ACT) and 3) dealing with student behavior issues and personal development. Finally, students are not required to utilize most guidance counselor services (including career planning), so many avoid this area.

Without parent involvement, some students will postpone career exploration indefinitely. Many students will enter college without direction, declare a major (if required) and simply go through the motions. Significant time and financial resources will be wasted. Parents will become frustrated. Students will feel increased anxiety as the need to find a job approaches. Some students will drop out, many will switch majors several times in frustration and others will graduate with degrees that the student has no desire to market. Who has the most influence in the first quartile of life? Where can the student learn the value of career planning? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 57% of the 18-24 yr. olds in the U.S. live at home with their parents. If parents take action, this waste of human talent and resources is avoidable. The sooner the better. Growing competition in the workplace makes pro-active career planning even more critical.

Explain the Urgency: The World Has Changed

Workplace competition has increased dramatically, global barriers have fallen and the social safety net is disappearing. Virtually free, real-time, global communication has made it cost-effective to use employees in India to support U.S. customers' product support inquiries. Outsourcing of everything from production to product design to accounting services has made job transfer between the U.S., Eastern Europe and Asia (China, India, Vietnam) common. The Internet provides consumers with the information (and power) to demand the best products at the lowest prices, where and when they want them. This consumer power has increased competition throughout the entire supply chain: Retailer => Manufacturer => Suppliers => Employees. Only the best (companies and employees) survive!

At the same time that workplace competition is becoming more intense, the social safety net is disappearing. More and more, employees are "on their own" for income and healthcare in their retirement. Social Security is questionable and our children are likely to live longer than past generations, thereby increasing their "retirement nest egg requirement". Helping students choose a career that match their interest, skills and values significantly increases their chances for financial success, personal fulfillment and happiness.

Empower Parents With Effective Tools

Parents need tools to motivate and to assist their child. School counselors can provide parents with real-life analogies or examples to which students can relate. For example, ask a student to think about all the time he or she has spent in school (K-12). For a student, this seems like "forever". Next, ask he or she to multiply that amount of time by six and explain that this is the amount of time they will spend in their occupation. Remind the student that in school they take math, history, English, science, social studies, etc. An occupation is like one subject. Think about getting up every day for the next 40 years and going to work for 8, 10 or 12 hours per day taking "one subject". It better be a subject that he or she enjoys.

Many tools are available on-line to support education and career planning. The cost and quality varies significantly. Some are difficult to find and/or use. More parents will engage in the process if the tools are readily available, quick to access and of high quality at little or no cost. For this reason, http://www.collegecareerlifeplanning.org/ was created. This non-commercial site provides access to hundreds of the best, free tools on the web including such well known sources as the Occupational Outlook Handbook, Career One Stop, CollegeBoard, Princeton Review, O*Net, etc. It also includes original content and provides creative ideas for motivating parents and students. This web site focuses heavily on motivation because, if parents and students are not motivated, the content is irrelevant.

Remember the first three facts… and change the fourth one!

1. Fact: Career choice is one of life's most important decisions.

2. Fact: Choosing a career that matches your interest, skills and values significantly increases your chances for success and happiness.

3. Fact: Free resources are readily available to help students make informed choices.

4. Fact: Most students/parents DO NOT use these resources.

Bob Fisher has an MBA from Harvard and currently teaches in the College of Business at the Universityof South Florida St. Petersburg. During his 25-year business career, he managed a business with $500 million in revenue and over 1000 employees in Europe, Asia and the Americas. He interviews students for admission to Harvard University. Bob assists middle schools, high schools, colleges and parent organizations with career planning programs. All assistance/support is provided pro bono. He can be reached at (727) 278-8946 or rsfisherjr@aol.com.

NCLB, State Mandated Assessments, and Homeschooling

2007-07-19T00:48:00.000-07:00

Homeschool 2.0 authors give their perspective on state mandated assessments.

State Standards And Homeshooling

2007-07-17T22:10:00.000-07:00

Visit Homeschool 2.o to see how one experienced homeschool parent individualizes education using state standards.

Learning Modalities and Self-Assessments

2007-07-06T23:37:00.000-07:00

With the popularity of assessments to determine modality preferences, it has become increasingly more common to provide students with self-assessment tools to quickly identify their “learning style”.

I see two problems with this popular approach:
1. The tools do not test students within each modality
2. Self-assessment findings indicate that participants answered the inventory using general memories and beliefs rather than specific examples of learning in different modalities

Tools that test auditory modalities using visual written inventories are inherently biased. We have found that one of the best assessments to test modality is the Swassing-Barbe Modality Index (SBMI). SBMI engages the examinees in an auditory fashion to determine auditory proficiencies, tactile exams to determine the kinesthetic modality, and visual tests to provide for visual tendencies. They combine the three exams to determine the overall index.

In February of 2006 the Journal of Educational Psychology (v98 n1 p238-246) published a report that hypothesized that there was little connection between learning style preference and memory performance on tests. The study revealed no correlation between the two. However, with a closer look it was discovered the findings indicated that participants answered the inventory using general memories and beliefs rather than specific examples of learning in different modalities.

I would agree that it most cases it is very difficult to affect achievement by merely changing the modality of delivery. Modality assessments effectively address how one scans and detects information. How children are “wired” to learn goes much deeper than scanning and detecting information. If the end measure is cognitive achievement, then complete comprehensive learning profiles must be understood and administered. How should cognitive processing and organizing, cognitive ability, emotions, and motivation impact delivery models? Scanning and detecting information is only a beginning. Further, if exams have embedded modality bias it doesn’t make much sense to use those exams to study whether differentiating instruction by modality affects cognitive operations.

The Learning Profile

2007-07-05T14:00:00.000-07:00

Frontier’s niche in the public school community is that we offer to assess every child’s unique patterns of learning through the Frontier Learning Profile. The Frontier Learning Profile consists of a series of assessments based on the most up-to-date brain research that helps parents understand how their child learns. A learning profile is a map or picture of an individual’s unique patterns of noticing and taking in information, processing and organizing it and operation within the three domains of the mind; the cognitive or intellectual, the emotional, and the volitional or will (values).

EVERY child has exciting potential to learn but no two children learn alike. It is one of the most marvelous opportunities in life, to discover the unique worldview of each child. Too seldom do educators/parents really listen to children. Through intelligent AWARENESS, observing, listening and testing we can learn much about the potential ability and achievement levels of children. Through listening and observing children functioning in different situations we can identify the level on which students are functioning and begin to understand the uniqueness of each individual. As their current patterns are understood we can help the students become aware of these and facilitate their growth. In this way we will be better able to help our children become all they can be.

Learning profiles are offered to Frontier Charter School students as an additional tool for parents to use to best home school their student.

Why Emotional Intelligence Matters

2007-07-05T01:14:00.000-07:00

In a new book, two psychologists explain how to understand, and to improve, your emotional intelligence `score.'

Bradberry says more than half a million people have taken the EQ test so far
Maximilian Franz / AP-The Daily Record

By Martha Brant
Newsweek
Updated: 7:10 a.m. AKT June 14, 2005

June 14 - Building on the success of Daniel Goleman's 1997 best seller, "Emotional Intelligence," psychologists Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves designed a test that assesses the four pillars of EQ: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. “Emotional Intelligence Appraisal” was published in 2003, and the creators say more than 500,000 people have taken the assessment so far. The pair has used it to teach Fortune 500 companies, governments and even a few royal families how to fix management dysfunction. Now they are making their findings—and the test itself—available to anyone in their new book, “The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book: Everything You Need to Know to Put Your EQ to Work.” When they say quick, they mean it. The test only takes about seven minutes, and the book is a fast read with compelling anecdotes and good context in which to understand—and improve—your score. Bradberry recently spoke with NEWSWEEK’s Martha Brant.

NEWSWEEK: How much can people really change their EQ?
Travis Bradberry: Well, there was an interesting study done at Case Western Reserve [University]. They took M.B.A. students through emotional-intelligence training—not a usual part of M.B.A. training. They tracked students over many years. Even many years after graduating from the program some participants had raised their scores 40 percent. They had trained their brains. Practice doesn’t make perfect but practice makes things habitual.

How much is someone’s EQ determined by biology?
Anything dealing with psychology has a biological component and an environmental component. Here’s one extreme example: individuals with autism have poor emotional reasoning because the cells in the brain’s limbic system are shrunken and underdeveloped.

So does biology explain why women generally score higher than men on EQ tests?
Environment matters a lot. Women score 12 points higher on relationship management. That’s huge. Women are socialized to be nurturers. Men probably have a similar capability but are not taught to do it. That’s why men and women score the same on self-awareness. So despite all the talk on Dr. Phil about men not understanding emotions, they do understand them, but they are not expected to do anything with them.

Unlike IQ, which is a fixed number, EQ is malleable. So why put a number on it at all?
People want it. The only way to get people to do anything is by showing them exactly where they are—especially if they are going to work on their EQ.

That brings up a very interesting fact in your book: CEOs as a group have very low EQ scores. So are people more successful if they don’t play well with others?
The first time I saw that data in a bar chart, I got that kind of tingly emotional reaction. Since then I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about it. Within each profession, the best performers have the highest EQs. Even the best CEOs have the highest EQs. But CEOs are often promoted for being good financial managers, not good people managers.

Do you think that will change?
The demand right now for emotional intelligence in business is huge. They will just get better executives by making high EQ more of the norm.

Is that what you’d like to accomplish with this book?
When EQ first became popular, we hoped it would become more than a fad. We think it’s fundamental to how people think. I hope this book will give people a vehicle to think about things they don’t usually think about.

Is that what you mean when you write about “leaning into your discomfort?”
Self-awareness is the No. 1 skill for improving your EQ. There are things that we aren’t aware of for a reason; they are things that make us uncomfortable, and we don’t want to change so we don’t think about them. It’s like making yourself go to the gym. You have to do that thing you don’t want to do. For example, I need to be a more social husband. When my wife tells me an event is optional and I really want to stay home, I go because I know it’s a place where I’m not naturally a good husband.

You also write about how EQ can help people recover from illness. How?
It’s not that emotional intelligence cures breast cancer, but stress does affect your health. There is a simple biological reason: when you get stressed out, your immune system shuts down. People get stressed out about their emotions. They feel bad. But people who have emotional mastery, when something extreme happens in their life, they are OK with it.

© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.