RefinED Friends,

Jay Giedd, Jean Decety, Lauren Howard.  Do these names ring a bell?  Perhaps, perhaps not.  Regardless, they know your brain.  They're in your heads.

I'm a professed neuroscience geek.  Over the last few years, I've become increasingly fascinated by studies involving Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and concentrated research connecting social emotional learning and childhood brain development.  Technology now allows scientists to map active regions of the brain as i...
Continue reading ...

RefinED Friends,

I sit here, foot propped in the air, after a minor surgical procedure performed on Christmas Eve.  All this forced couch time gives me ample opportunity to build my reading list.  I'll keep today's blog post short and sweet. Here are some books I'll devour over the next few weeks.  

1.  Focus:  The Hidden Driver of Excellence  Daniel Goleman   (already devoured, and highly recommend it!)

2.  Boys Adrift:  The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Unde...
Continue reading ...

RefinED Friends,

It's human nature.  We gravitate toward what we love; we avoid what we loathe.  So why expect any different from our students?  With that in mind, let's discuss a common practice--class jobs.

When I began teaching, I followed the model I'd observed in my field experiences.  The teacher took each student's name, developed classroom job titles, and assigned each student a job.  This rotated on a regular basis.  But as time went on, I noticed human nature creeping in.  I spent eac...
Continue reading ...

RefinED Friends,

It was years ago. 

The basement was dark, the music loud.  I’d been led there, blindfolded, by an active member and told to wait.  I stood there, sensing other voices in the distance.  He told me, “Hold your arms straight out in front of you.”  I did. 

They became weighted with what could only be a tire.  “Don’t let it fall,” he said.  I didn’t. 

“Now, recite the Creed,” he demanded.  And so, from pure memorization, I did so.  The words me...

Continue reading ...

RefinED Friends,

In their influential 1999 book, First, Break All the Rules, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman sifted through 25 years of Gallup Organization data from organizational interviews covering the workplace gamut.  Their goal--to identify critical questions "truly measuring the core of a strong workplace (27)."  Their answer--twelve questions that, if answered positively by employees, would indicate that the environment is a great place to work.  

When I read this back in my second y...
Continue reading ...

RefinED Friends,

In 1852, Cardinal John Henry Newman delivered a series of lectures entitled "The Idea of a University", emphasizing how University environments are designed to mold student minds, not simply dispense knowledge.  Within his lectures, he spent time discussing his definition of a gentleman.  As I reread this portion today, a phrase struck me:

He (the gentleman) has his eyes on all his company; he is tender towards the bashful, gentle towards the distant, and merciful towards the a...

Continue reading ...

RefinED Friends,

I remember finding it stuffed in a cabinet among some rarely used curricular materials when I moved into the classroom during my first year of teaching fifth grade.  A simple, cardboard box marked with the word "Questions?" in bold, black print. Turns out, this box was meant for collecting those delicate questions that often pop into fifth grade brains when participating in the annual human growth and development talk.  It got me thinking--if we're inviting questions about a s...
Continue reading ...

Friends:

A popular Greek myth is that of Theseus and the Minotaur.  As the story goes, King Minos of Crete, after an attack on Athens, was asked by the Athenian king for a truce.  In return for peace in Athens, every nine years the Athenian king would send seven Athenian boys and seven Athenian girls to Crete as food for The Minotaur in its labyrinth.

Now before you click the "New Tab" button on your browser, wondering all the while why RefinED Character chose its first blog post to feature chi...
Continue reading ...