Over the holiday break, I participated in an online conference Ditch Summit http://ditchsummit.com/. They provide a new practical presentation each day for 9 days. I did not participate in them all, but the ones I did participate in were well done, and had nice takeaways Pooja Agarwal’s “ How to Make Learning Really Stick for Your Students” was my favorite.
I also got (sort of) caught up on one of my favorite podcasts –Ted Radio Hour. I made a connection between a podcast episode “Simply Happy” https://www.npr.org/2014/02/14/267188672/are-we-happier-when-we-stay-in-the-moment and Agarwal’s advice on learning.
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| “Dog retrieving a ball” by Ian D. Keating is licensed under CC BY 2.0 |
Agarwal says, “The reality is that students that struggle to learn something will have more long-term learning… Retrieval practice is more challenging but has greater long-term benefits. Therefore, as teachers, we need to help students understand this reality and be ok with the idea that challenging our students is actually good for them.” She advises students be challenged to retrieve, not just review information. She likes flashcards and flashcard programs but does not like the “I already know this” feature on flashcards as she feels students might overestimate their knowledge. She mentions exit and entrance tickets, sketchnoting after note-taking and spiraling the curriculum. The struggle and the focus to retrieve information lead to learning that sticks. She says we should consider methods of getting knowledge out of students’ heads as much as we do getting it into their heads.
In the Simply Happy podcast. Matthew Killingsworth presented data that indicated strongly that staying in the moment was a way to happiness. His app “Track your Happiness” https://www.trackyourhappiness.org ( which I would never use as it seems like I would be giving TMI) has given his organization lots of data on what makes people happy. One finding – when people’s minds wandered, they were less happy. Staying focused and on task- even, it appears, an unpleasant task- produced more happiness than getting off focus.
I see connections between these two presentations. It is good for our brain to be challenged and expected to retrieve information. At least for me, to retrieve information successfully, I need to be focused on the retrieval. This can be challenging for me. But if I stay focused on my task, even if it is challenging, I probably will be happier in that moment. This seems like a win/win for me! We can learn, remember, be challenged, and be happy.