Spreading the word near UC Davis.
Note the ‘mentor-based education’ business cards.
The week of August 3rd, Academic Impact partnered with Ancil Hoffman Golf Course to provide a four day athletic and academic camp for youth golfers. Four young student-athletes enjoyed golf training in the morning, lunch, and writing development in the afternoon. Brent Pottenger, Brian Geremia, and David Campos of Academic Impact facilitated the four day writing workshop in a small, conversational setting. Each student produced a five paragraph essay on, you guessed it—golf! Topics covered included: introductory paragraphs, body paragraphs, conclusions, thesis statements, topic sentences, and elements of punctuation.
Many thanks to Ancil Hoffman for coordinating this experience. The golf course, set on acres of nature preserve, provides an ideal location for focused learning.
An interactive graphic from the New York Times.
High School Valedictorian Christian Monslave discusses the importance of self-esteem and self-confidence, expressing that too many students miss out on these aspects of development in schools.
Good work to all—there are lots of talented students out there.
Teachers are encouraged to be on the lookout for teachable moments, the narrow gaps of time when students are particularly primed for learning. In a classroom with 20+ students, these moments are highly unpredictable, and it takes a perceptive and talented teacher to identify them and capitalize on the opportunities.
One benefit of mentor-based learning is that a mentor is more capable of creating teachable moments, rather than waiting for them to appear out of thin air. When a mentor is highly perceptive to a student’s interests and learning style, teachable moments can be constructed quite effectively. Increasing the number of teachable moments increases the opportunities for learning. Even so, it is important for teachers and mentors not to force these moments. Teachable moments must be organic, or carefully constructed to appear organic. An inauthentic creation will not work.
We don’t have any genetic clones, but we do have some awesome tutors!
Thanks to Funny Times.
by Brian Geremia
Sir Ken Robinson is a noted education and creativity scholar; his brilliant 2006 TED Talk “Do Schools Kill Creativity” is foundational viewing for those interested in transforming educational practice. Robinson’s work focuses on helping individuals find their passion. He stresses that all people are tremendously creative and possess incredible capacity to accomplish amazing things. He points out, though, that this potential is rarely realized because of narrowly focused, linear education systems that have been created cross-culturally. Systems that invariably favor academic intelligence over equally valuable sub-sets of intelligence: linguistic, musical, mathematical, spatial, kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intra-personal.
In his wonderful book, The Element, Robinson spends considerable time highlighting the importance of mentors in breaking this mold and finding a personal passion. In short, he acknowledges mentorship as an essential component of human development. He writes that mentors can “turn a light on a new world or fan the flames of interest into genuine passion.” He also deems the work of mentors as “exalted work.”
We agree.
Mentors are talented, often self-realized, individuals who recognize unique ways to connect with others. They are able to focus on a specific aspect of an individual’s development, then easily bridge to another. Most importantly, mentors are able to bridge the gap between focused learning (biology, baseball, dancing) and broad personal development. They help individuals improve academically (A+), athleticly (1st Place), and artistically (1st Prize), but also help them improve instrospectively (inner peace). They encourage mentees to internally catalogue their experiences and continuously construct meaning. These evolving constructions ultimately lead to acute self awareness that guides them toward their passion and gives them the gall to follow it.
by Brian Geremia
Mentorship abounds.
Business executives mentor junior associates; elder siblings mentor younger ones; experienced teachers mentor student-teachers; and veteran athletes mentor rookies.
It is curious, then, why mentorship has not entered the educational conversation as a worthwhile pedagogy. Yes, some teachers do their best to mentor students (many don’t, though), and standout teachers open their doors after school, moderate clubs, and attend school events. These are the teachers student’s remember; they invite them to graduation parties, write them thank you letters, reference them in college entrance essays, and strive to be like them.
Unfortunately, standout teachers are just that—standouts. They are not the norm and cannot be manufactured regardless how rigorous and structured the teacher credentialing processes is. Most students will be lucky to encounter even one standout teacher throughout their education; even fewer will be lucky enough to develop a meaningful relationship with one.
This is unfortunate.
Thankfully, Academic Impact (Ai) provides opportunities for these engaging relationships to develop through its academic mentorship. In addition to helping students excel academically, Ai’s mentors inquire about extra-curricular activities, encourage hard work, wish students luck on important endeavors, and congratulate meaningful accomplishments. They treat their student holistically, embracing the student’s nuanced interests and preferred learning methods. When addressed as a person who brings valid knowledge and perspective to any given situation, rather than a mere student, real education and transformation occur.
Thus, Academic Impact sees mentorship as the basis of educational practice.
by Brian Geremia
Fifth graders have a difficult time understanding factors.
It is not their fault; the mathematic definition provides little assistance to a ten year old: one of two or more numbers, algebraic expressions, or the like, that when multiplied together produce a given product.
I prefer to use a more general definition as a primer, discuss non-math examples, then gradually work into math vernacular. This definition works well: one of the elements contributing to a particular result or situation.
I like to simplify this further, asking students: What are the factors that go into making a salad? This provides the perfect opportunity to indirectly discuss nutrition, an important aspect of educational enrichment. Students answer this quickly—two are seen below:
Student 1
Ranch (dressing, of course)
Lettuce
Tomato
Cheese
Student 2
Lettuce
Ranch
Croutons
These responses are telling. They reflect a culturally limited vision of nutrition, where salad with mayonnaise, sour cream, and bread is considered healthy, and a limited sense of creativity. Salad is one of the most dynamic food creations, yet only 5 items are mentioned by these students. I wouldn’t expect to hear accents like avocado, feta, or capers, but more simple ones would do just fine: apples, sunflower seeds, or even bacon bits! At least Student #2 recognizes that lettuce is a more important factor than Ranch is.
When tackling math with young students, you must pick your battles, so the nutrition lesson gets tabled and we focus on factors. We do a few more non-number examples. What are the factors of playing baseball? What are the factors in riding a bike? Thankfully, when I finally ask, “What are the factors of 24?”, they find the strength to reply: 1, 24, 2, 12, 3, 8, 4, and 6. Phew!
The concept of factors is important; it is one of the few mathematical tenets that flows freely from discipline to discipline, and carries weight when considering a mathematical or life equation. What are the factors that create a healthy relationship? What are the factors that make me successful at work? What factors contribute to my personal health and well-being?
As Brent Pottenger highlights in Academic Impact’s Nutrition Philosophy, there are many nutritional factors that play a part in effective academic and personal development. Here is a brief recap of these factors:
For more information on nutrition and education, read Academic Impact’s full Nutrition Philosophy below.
by Brent Pottenger, MHA
You are what you eat.
It’s a fact.
Just ask some middle- or high-school students what they are made of (I do it regularly), and, their responses will likely be congruent: atoms!
The fact that our bodies are built from atoms, molecules, and other subatomic components does not lead to a strictly materialistic perspective; but, what it does suggest is clear: we are what we eat and drink, on some foundational level. What we choose to consume in our diets—our nutrition—plays an extremely important role in building and shaping our minds and bodies. The basic building blocks that comprise our physiological structures do not materialize magically; instead, our bodies extract, retain, and modify them from the foods that we eat and the beverages that we drink.
For instance, a soda contains excessive amounts of high-fructose corn-syrup (a harmful sweetener), so if I drink a soda, then my body has to figure out how to produce vibrant tissues, organs, and other things like skin cells from this ineffective, toxic fuel source. If I drink sodas regularly, the chances increase exponentially that my body will fail while trying to fuel my physiology and day-to-day activities using such a poor nutrition source.
In light of this reality, Academic Impact feels that healthy nutritional choices empower students to perform academically and achieve their educational and life goals. When students eat right, their minds feel right, and they perform well in and out of the classroom as a result. Conversely, when students eat and drink poorly, their minds and bodies lag and grow tired, resulting in decreased productivity and energy and inhibited development and growth.
With this said, then, what should people eat? Well, for many years, mainstream health has communicated the value and importance of following the Food Pyramid and its associated low-fat, high-carbohydrate paradigm. What if, however, this model were wrong? It turns out that it is. Unfortunately, diabetes, obesity, and chronic illnesses abound in our modern societies because people consume diets that differ greatly from those that our ancestors ate. On a larger time-scale, our metabolisms evolved over millions of years in environments that are nothing like the ones that we inhabit today. Consequently, our physiologies are well-adapted to consuming pre-agricultural, hunter-gatherer type paleolithic foods—we did, after all, lead lives in vastly different ways for most of human history. What types of foods and drinks are these? Nuts. Berries (and other fruits). Meats. Fats. I repeat: Yes, fats (Omega-3’s, to be exact)! Vegetables. Roots. Water (and other non-sugary, non-artificially-sweetened beverages, such as tea). Stated another way, avoid bad carbohydrates like the plague; do not consume (or strongly limit consumption of) breads, pastas, corn-syrup, sugars (except from fruits), chips, crackers, tortillas, rice, etc. And, to top it all off, it may be wise to incorporate ‘healthy bacteria’ into this nutrition schedule to counteract the anti-bacterial culture that modern society has embraced. Antibiotic-resistance challenges modern medicine tremendously, but eating foods with healthy bacteria goes a long way toward preventing antibiotic-resistant infections, improving immune system strength, and supporting general health conditions. What foods contain these nutritious organisms? Fermented foods. Foods like yogurt, kombucha, unpasteurized cheese, and probiotic supplements are some of the items that can provide our bodies with the bacteria we need to operate properly and protect us from infectious agents and disease.
Of course, this is just a simple primer, a background prelude, to an important piece of human development. If you wish to learn more, please explore the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation Web site online at www.ppnf.org
To good health!
Read more of Brent’s thoughts on healthcare, human development, and ancestral fitness on his blog, Healthcare Epistemocrat, or contact him directly: brent@academicimpact.net.
This teacher is having an impact.
I think Sir Ken Robinson (video below) would agree.
