No Such Thing as Attention
Hey hey hey,
My ongoing work with Pepsi continues to energize and excite me! Much love to my other #pepsifellows2022.
I was sitting in a meeting this week when I realized don't know what "attention" is. "There is no Such Thing as Attention," writes Britt Anderson, so I guess I'm not alone. In one hundred years I wonder if scientists who study human thought will be using drastically different categories to describe the mind. More discussion of this on twitter, here.
Research: I'm trying to wrap my head around math fact research, you can see my tweets here. Some of the leading folks here are Lynn Fuchs and Sarah Powell, who wrote "Intensive Intervention for Students with Mathematics Disabilities: Seven Principles of Effective Practice" and "A Framework for Remediating Number Combination Deficits."
Research, II: From the description of their "Pirate Math" intervention, this seems good: "The third activity is sorting word problems. Tutors read aloud flash cards; one word problem is printed on each card. The student listens to the problem, identifies the word-problem type, and places the card on a mat with four boxes labeled “Total,” “Difference,” “Change,” or “?.” Students do not solve problems. They simply sort the problems into problem type."
Research, III: Speaking of Sarah Powell, she was on Zach Groshell's podcast to talk about "7 Myths that Undermine Math Teaching." I loved hearing Sarah talk, though I found myself disagreeing on a few points. (Mindset is I think not a myth; I think bad timed tests might contribute to math anxiety.)
Research, IV: Speaking of research, it's so nice when a research project is shared with teachers in a reasonably accessible way. Jenna Laib told me about this fraction thing and I've been using it a bit with my 4th Graders. Crisp explanations of what they tried to do, easy links to the resources they made, links to the original publications for weird obsessives, what more could you ask for?
Music: "How does it feel, to be an expert in a dying field?" ask The Beths, my new favorite band from New Zealand. Their album "Expert in a Dying Field" is out today, here is the single, I'm so upset at myself for missing my chance to see them live this summer. Alas!
Books: Someone told me to read Robert Caro's "Working," and it's a bit of an introduction to the Robert Caro extended universe, with stories about how he interviewed Robert Moses or moved to Texas to better learn what life was like for women in Lyndon Johnson's world before he helped bring electricity to the district. (It was brutal and backbreaking.) I finally bought a copy of "The Power Broker." Let's do this!
Photographs: "The Sharron and Oren Steinfedlt Photography Collection contains over 2000 photographs depicting Jewish family and community life in the Upper Midwest from the 1880s to the present." Here for instance is a snapshot of the First Annual Butcher's Picnic. Let me know if you find something interesting!
Music, II: "Chills the body, but not the soul." I'm sort of obsessed with Pete Seeger's hand gestures in this video, but this is the version of "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" you want to hear. I don't care if it's sappy.
Hey hey hey,
Michael