The STRENGTHSPATH Educator: May 2013

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Sugata Mitra's New School System Idea Wins 1 Million Dollar TED Prize

A professor of educational technology recently won the $1m TED Prize for his innovative approach to education. Sugata Mitra's schools let kids use computers to organize their own learning with retired, mostly female, schoolteachers (the "grannies") beaming in via Skype to answer their questions.

To learn more, here is an article in Wired Magazine.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

"Breakaway" - Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things

This terrific video short was produced and distributed by Farmers Insurance. It's worth watching several times. Your second time through, pay attention to the lyrics from the song "Breakaway", performed by Kelly Clarkson. It was written by Avril Lavigne, Bridget Benenate and Mathew Gerrard.

Perfect!

Thoughts

"I'm a lousy guitar player and an even lousier piano player. Had I not got Edge close by who was an extraordinarily gifted complex musician, I would be hopeless. Had I not got Larry and Adam, these melodies would not be grounded. But it's still very difficult for me to have to rely. Your weakness, the blessing of your weakness is it forces you into friendships."

~Bono, U2 Lead Singer

"Picasso is weak on Einstein's theory of relativity, and Einstein is weak on impressionist painting. I can assure you they did not become successful people in their fields by trying to counter-balance their weakness."
~Bernard Haldane, Pioneer in Career Planning

"Success is achieved by the development of strengths, not by the elimination of weaknesses. Name any successful person. Does this person have weaknesses? You bet!"
~Marilyn Vos Savant, Guiness Book Highest IQ Scorer (228)

"I've learned to draw and read a little bit, but I'm really still a very one-sided person and I don't know a great deal. I have limited intelligence and I use it in a particular direction."
~Richard Feynman, Nuclear Scientist, Nobel Prize Winner

"You were probably steered benignly away from things at school when you were a kid - things you liked - on the grounds that you would never get a job doing that: 'Don't do music, you're not going to be a musician. Don't do art, you won't be an artist.' Benign advice - now, profoundly mistaken."

~Sir Ken Robinson

"What children need most are families and schools that demonstrate unconditional belief in their strengths."
~Jennifer Fox, Author, Your Childs Strengths

“We are not all alike, there are diversities of natures among us which are adapted to different occupations… We must infer that all things are produced more plentifully and easily and of better quality when one man does one thing which natural to him and does it at the right time, and leaves other things.”

~Plato’s Republic Quoting Socrates, B Jowett, Translation, Agora Publications, Original Work Published in 1873

"There isn't an education system on the planet that teaches dance everyday to children the way we teach them mathematics. Why?"

~Sir Ken Robinson

"Neuroscience tells us that it's not that the child is broken, but rather that our teaching approach may be inappropriate, given the needs of the child. Neuroscience can provide clues as to why certain forms of learning can be difficult for some people and not for others. Armed with this knowledge, there are many things teachers can do to help students learn more effectively."

~Neuroscience In The Classroom

Pages

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Sugata Mitra's New School System Idea Wins 1 Million Dollar TED Prize

Sunday, May 12, 2013

How To Graduate From College With A Job You Love - Jullien Gordon

Sunday, May 5, 2013

"Breakaway" - Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things