Brain Manure

FBI - Expedition to the Brain

2010-10-20T18:53:00.001-07:00

I have many theories, but here is my latest...about the FBI (Fabulous Brain Injured).

Based upon my May 2007 Brain-Injury and 15 years of teaching high school, I wonder how many of my students may have received some level of brain injury that may have made them behave differently. I wonder how many may have had a significant head trauma, but were not treated in a hospital. I also wonder how many may have gone to the hospital after a head trauma, but traumatic brain injuries were not identified.

Years ago, as a football coach who was also an emergency medical technician, I participated in a workshop that members of our rescue squad conducted for local high school and junior high football coaches. The workshop was about how to manage and inspect football players for signs of concussion. I remember one comment that I laughed about back then, but now makes me mad to think about.

A high school football coach said,"I figure if they don't get their bell rung, they are not playing hard enough."

I was presenting at the time and I mildly, sarcastically laughed with the other coaches. Now, I am embarrassed/frustrated that I allowed the situation of concussions to be joked about. Now, I have a strong desire to help all coaches and players understand that the brain is a fragile limb. A limb that if damaged, can be far, far worse than a broken bone.

FBI (Fabulous Brain Injured) people need to step up, and share the challenges of potential traumatic brain injuries with young people and adults.

John F. Kennedy challenged the United States to take an Expedition to the Moon. Today, FBI should challenge the United States to take an Expedition to the Brain.

Expedition to the Moon: Sputnik launched our Expedition to the Moon. Scientists discovered much new technology from our Expedition to the Moon.

Expedition to the Brain: The wave of baby-boomers are rapidly approaching retirement, and some analysts predict that we will encounter a 'boom' of people who will suffer with dementia and Alzheimer as they age. Thirty years ago, traumatic brain injury was not well understood. Advancements in science, wars, and traumatic brain injuries has allowed man to dramatically improve the understanding of the human brain.

FBI members need to encourage an all-out Expedition to the Brain. It will cost much, but the potential return-on-investment priceless. Unless technologies change, money and riches cannot be transported to heaven.

2009-07-06T08:07:00.000-07:00

Wasted Donuts & Ag Teacher Math

A comment at the 2009 Ag Ed Conference spurred the following thoughts.
Comment: "Our school has probably wasted lots of donuts at meetings which did not have a clear purpose."

Using my ag teacher math skills, I did some figurin'.

370 schools times 6 meetings per year times $5 for donuts at each meeting = $11,100 potentially wasted dollars.

Some (not all) of us need to utilize our advisory committees much better...BY GIVING THEM A PURPOSE.

Programs of Study and 3rd Party Assessment are not new concepts. (For eons, DHIA has served as a 3rd Party for dairy producers. If a dairy cow if polite and friendly but is a low producer, she probably gets culled.)

CTE needs to CULL the practice of having advisory committee meetings "merely to meet the law". Utilize Programs of Study and 3rd Party Assessment to give Advisory Committee members a PURPOSE and USE thier input. (Remember: Advisory committee members are NOT the educational experts, they are the industry experts.)

Thinking In & Out of the Box

2009-06-17T17:08:00.000-07:00

For house cats, thinking out-of-the-box, is bad and may get them kicked out of the house. For humans that live in the house, thinking out-of-the-box, may generate wealth which may allow them to buy a bigger house, to which which they move their in-the-box thinking cats. Humans that think in-the-box may be stuck living in a small,boring house with cats that think in-the-box.

When everyone else was doing what they were told to do, "build computers." Bill Gates was like Curious George, thinking out-of-the-box, to develop software for the computers that the robotic humans were building. If only Bill had listened to what others told him to do. Then he could be average and would not have to be bothered by the hassles of being the richest person in the world. Thinking out-of-the-box has its burdens, like being the richest man in the world.

The United States economy has thrived because our FREEDOM-based society has allowed CREATIVITY and INNOVATION to thrive, and generate wealth. People who are NOT free to be creative or innovative, are sometimes forced to memorize and regurgitate, allowing Americans to buy their inexpensively manufactured products.

Oppressive nations tell their students, "Do what we tell you to do. Do NOT ask questions."

In the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, we should strive to say the opposite, "Ask questions. Be creative. Do NOT do what we tell you to do, WITHOUT questioning us first."

Be a house cat or be a human, you decide.

Life or Death Problem-Solving

2009-03-02T11:11:00.000-08:00

(Contextual Learning Lost - part 2)

Barb Lemmer recently told me a story about her favorite student field trip. Each year she takes students to the swine farm at the local community college, as students enter the farrowing-facility the veterinarian hands each student a baby-pig. The each hold the pig as they tour the facility and listen to his presentation. Before they leave, they are asked to place the pigs back with their MOTHERS...put them with the wrong mother and they may be killed. Because students do not remember which crates their pigs came from, they begin to FREAK out because they don't want their new porcine buddies to die. The stress and emotion caused students to perform their own critical problem-solving to determine where to put each piglet. (Thanks goodness for ear ID. We were not wanting to make kids think they were pets, but these are very teachable-moments.)

Sort of like the real-world, the final answer to the pig-placement problem has real-world and potentially deadly results. Contextual learning does help students to implement and utilize problem-solving skills.

Contextual Learning is NOT about requiring students to memorize and regurgitate lots of information. Contextual Learning is about teaching students in a real-world situation that has significant, real-world improtance. Because nearly 100% of high school students eat food, agricultural education is a perfect format to provide contextual learning.

Soft Skills are ultimately more improtant than Technical Skills.

Landscaping: My students used to love getting outside each spring to conduct landscaping projects. Most importantly, it instilled pride in their accomplishments when adults praised them and thanked them for their work. Students learned that QUALITY of work is very important.

Tractor Restoration: Out of the blue, we would sometimes have old-timers that wanted a few ag students to restore his old tractor. The few times this happened, I would have the old-timer come in and talk to the designated students so they could develop a personal relationship. Once students got to know the person they were restoring the tractor for, they would police the project so no other students touched it.

Golf Course Retaining Wall = $2100.00; Restored B John Deere = $800.00; Contextual Learning provides real-world development of technical skills and soft-skills = PRICELESS.

CTE educators need to fight to ensure that contextual learning does not disappear. English, science and math skills ONLY matter if used on-the-job.

Building Freedom

2009-02-14T09:30:00.000-08:00

An event to implement the old cliche...

"You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

"Building Freedom" (Youtube video link)

Building Freedom is an initiative by the Central City FFA (Iowa). This project was developed with Bret Himes to share information with Iraq and help aid in thje rebuilding process by sending them agricultural supplies.

Why?

Stimulate the U.S. and world economy by purchasing, collecting and shipping items to help Iraqi and Afghanistan farmers...via the U.S. military.
Most importantly, protect U.S. citizens by making friends out of our enemies.
Honey not vinegar

How?

Challenge every FFA member to donate the equivalent value of one or more cans of pop. (Or soda, here in Iowa, we say pop not soda or coke.)

Improve you personal health by drinking a few less pops
Improve the world's health by Building Freedom

For more information, contact, Rob Pangburg, Central City FFA Advisor at:

rpangburn@central-city.k12.ia.us

2009-02-05T18:15:00.000-08:00

SAE and the Ford Pinto (analogy, I live by analogies)

Caution: Teachers under age 40, may not understand some of my analogies.

Fuel efficient sub-concept cars are trendy and a solid marketing concept (i.e., Smart Fortwo), but Ford is re-claiming the Fiesta name, not the Pinto name. Possibly because of the Pinto's reputation for exploding during rear impact.

(Dodge has started using the Challenger name again, but Ford has continually avoided renewing the Edsel.)

Based upon the statements of a majority of current college students...one thought...is it time to abandon the "SAE" name while retaining and re-packaging this solid concept under a new name? A new moniker that de-emphasizes the A.

Would it be easier to establish a new name for a revised concept, rather than try to change everyone's thinking of the old name? (Heck, I am old enough to remember when SAE was SOE. The concept has been re-packaged before, and it survived.)

National FFA data: The number of Ag Ed students with an SAE has decreased significantly in the last 20 years.

It may be easier to create a new name and revised concept, than to bring new life to a name that seems to have worn out its welcome.

A newly engineered and re-designed Pinto may still be thought of, by some (not all), as an exploding car.

We probably need to re-design SAE before it hits the bottom of its downward spiral.

2009-02-05T11:13:00.000-08:00

S vs. A vs. E...the ongoing dilemma of SAE

Iowa Degree time of year, the ongoing debate about SAE continues. However, calls/questions are at a lower level than previous years.

I taught a sophomore-level AgEDS class at ISU this morning, and I spent the entire period gathering the ideas/perspectives of our future teachers.

Their random comments are hard to quantify as data, but following comments were common themes:

Supervised

Supervised is important, critical
implies over-seeing the program or project, collaborating with the student to help the student learn
does not imply SAE visit only - supervision can be provided in ways other than an on-site visit; could be conducted in school or at the end of a class
providing input and/recommendation to help the student improve is important

Agricultural

too hard to define, almost impossible to classify careers that are agricultural vs. careers that are not agricultural
in the big scheme of transferrable skills, the A is less important than the S or the E

Experience

contextual learning / learning in the context of real-world careers
communication skills are transferrable to many, many careers
help students build upon what they learn in an agricultural education course, even if they cannot find an approved "agricultural" job

S a E (rather than SAE)

From an educational standpoint the "a" is far less critical than the "S" or the "E"
we should not be turning away kids or discouraging kids because of the little "a"
almost any skill is tranferrable to agriculture or vice versa

S & E do not imply that this learning must be conducted outside of the classroom. Thinking that all SAEs must be conducted outside of the school or outside of the classroom is un-realistic for some students. The goal is learning, no matter where it happens. Teach all students, anyway that is feasible.

I told the following story to the AgEDS students:

I used to select a 'weekly' manager in my aquaculture class. During class, they did the same things as the other students, but I would have them present a 3-5 minute overview of the aquaculture system from their perspective as a manager. Because the internet was a brand-new technology, they loved searching for aquaculture information in their attempt of provide managerial input. (I never had them keep SAE record books for this, but wish I had.) The majority of these students were not FFA members, and were not in any of my other Ag Ed courses.

In summary, the Ag Ed students in AGEDS said:

SAE should continue to be a requirement for FFA membership, but decreasing the emphasis on the "a"...SaE...would allow ALL Ag Ed students to have an SAE.

? Cash register at McDonalds ? They said, this absolutely should be considered an SAE, because of the valuable communication skills students can learn. The S & E are far more important in the big scheme of life than the lower-case "a". They are in an agriculture course and are already learning far more about agriculture than other students.

Does not seem to make sense to punish some "agriculture" students because their SAEs are not "agricultural-enough".

If the student's chapter advisor rules the SaE as "agricultural", it should be accepted as "agricultural" by teachers who do not know the student or the project/program.

SAE should be thought of as SaE

An SaE may not provide the size and scope needed to adequately compete for an FFA award, but it should be considered as acceptable as an SAE. ( A degree is NOT an award.)

Adapt or Perish

2009-01-07T06:18:00.000-08:00

Somehow, Ag Ed/FFA must anticipate future changes that will impact schools and students...BEFORE...we are forced to make quick, radical changes in Ag Ed/FFA.

Team AgEd needs to decide how we can best accomodate the interests and needs of DIGITAL NATIVES. (I assume most high school students have never even heard of an Apple IIe...the old cutting-edge technology which trounced the Atari.)

Computer Analogy
Apple IIe adapted, and the Apple image is still strong via the iPod.
Atari did not adapt...whatever happened to the Atari company?

FFA may need to adapt its activities to remain the "Apple" of students' eyes...not the "Atari" of their eyes.

It is not your father's FFA anymore...

2008-11-21T07:07:00.000-08:00

Diversity of Iowa's student population is projected to increase. In general, the % of minority students in Iowa schools is projected to grow; therefore minority enrollments in Ag Ed will also (hopefully) grow. Ag Ed needs to embrace diversity, because increased diversity is the "future" of agriculture. White, male students are no-longer the only members of Ag Ed/FFA.

"Tradition" is good. "Traditionalism" is bad.

Do the things that we have "always done" positively impact the members of our ever evolving demographics? Do we emphasize "memorization" too much? Are our career development events truly emphasizing career development?

Some agribusinesses (ie., Monsanto) believe that a diverse group of employees positively impacts their bottomline. Many companies believe that diversity postively impacts their ability to compete in a globl economy.

Iowa Ag Ed/FFA needs to embrace practices that will help students succeed in a global economy.

No "i" in TEAM

2008-10-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

No "i" in TEAM

The old cliche proves to be true; there is no "i" in the word "team".) I would "like" to say that the email (below) is the first I have every received, but I have received many emails/phone calls/comments like this since July of 2000. My challenge has been to decide “how to protect the identity” of teacher’s that raise these concerns, while relaying the “overall message” to all teachers.

I would greatly appreciate any advice you can provide me. I know what “assuming” means…but I “assume” a number of teachers will think…just comments from another whining teacher. But, I can think of many successful instructors that had similar concerns during their first couple years of teaching.

As TEAM AG ED, we MUST work together to promote and save the profession. Unlike diamonds, Ag Ed graduates are rare, and should be “polished” to help them shine. The timing is critical, while the world economy is weak, the Iowa agriculture economy is strong; and the demands for students interested in careers in agriculture is high.

--- received 7:40 am, Oct. 18, 2008 ---

Good Morning Dale,

I really don't have a good way to start this email off, but after weeks of thinking about it I have come to the decision that you need to know as to “why” I didn't attend the Iowa Ag teachers conference , and my views as to why we don't see ALL teachers staying in the field of Ag Ed.

Ag Teachers Conference: I went to the conference with an open mind and was excited to meet everyone. To my shock, with the exception of maybe 2 teachers, NO ONE would help me…when I asked questions. (Nothing like getting the cold shoulder.) The same story goes for other events such as state fair. I would love to get my chapter active in judging events etc., but when I call, email or try to get a hold of other advisor's to find out how to prepare for these events or ask questions no one is willing to help.
It seems to me the purpose of teaching agriculture is to help the students learn, and along with that they might win some events, but too many teachers care too much about “winning”, and will not help.

So after that experience I decided to attend another Professional development conference that would help me to meet the needs of my students, and make me feel better about myself.

The purpose of this email is to let you know how a new person feels when they come to this state to teach; not to point fingers at anyone. You just needed to know that it is a daily struggle to keep teaching in the great state of Iowa when neighboring states treat there teachers in a more respectable way.

- signed – new Ag Teacher

Winning vs. Learning

2008-09-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

"A rising tide, raises ALL boats."
I fear that I have given the opinion, to some people, that winning is bad. If so, I never meant that and have never believed that. If that were true, I would have been a hypocrit for encouraging my students to "win" (a decade or two ago). For STUDENTS to have a desire to win is good; and it is also good for ag teachers to have a desire to win, if they don't win at the expense of other students. Ultimately, the desire to win is a valuable human-nature attitude; that we use to help students learn more than they could in the normal school-day schedule.
Unfortunately, I have heard too many stories about a very small number of ag teachers who view winning as a 'personal' goal, obtained through their students. PUBLIC EDUCATION is based upon sharing knowledge with ALL students.
I hope that Iowa Ag Ed can treat CDEs as the wonderful authentic-assessment opportunity that they are. "A rising tide", implies the performance of ALL students will improve. Ag Ed/FFA can only "raise the tide" by teachers openly sharing ideas with each other to increase the achievement of ALL students.

Everyone Plays in FFA

2008-08-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

As too often happens in sports, the emphasis is solely on "winning". At my 6th grade son's soccer game tonight, several kids played very, very little. Even though the kids on the opposing team were substituted in and out like clockwork. Of course, and unfortunately, my son's team won because the coaches focused solely on winning...rather than letting every kid play, grow, and improve...the coaches just wanted to win.

In FFA, I have always felt that "picking the team before we practice" is the beauty of FFA. With over 600 FFA programs, there is an almost unlimited opportunity to be "first string" in something. Too often, kids that show up to practice every night rarely play on game night.

ALL kids want to be successful at something. I hope that all FFA advisors work to find something in which every kid can be a a "starter". With over 600 FFA programs, no student that wants to be involved should have to sit on the bench.

In the right context, hard, challenging, rigorous work can be FUN. Used properly, FFA is the tool that makes the Ag Ed classroom fun. (ie., FFA is the dangling carrot that tricks rabbits into learning more)

Engage Them, Don't Enrage Them

2008-08-20T18:35:00.000-07:00

"Engage Them, Don't Enrage Them" (CDEs and Cell-Phones)

I heard the above quote from a speaker, last fall, that spoke how almost all high school students have cell phones, and almost all schools have rules against the possession and/or use of cell phones.

Ironically, our oldest son received a detention a couple of years ago when my wife accidentally called his cell phone to remind him to pick up his brother from the elementary building. Unfortunately, she thought school got out at 3:12 PM, but she called a couple of minutes before he got out of class. Though he did not answer his phone, he received a detention because his cell phone rang, in his pocket. As parents that work away from the home, and in different towns, we rely on cell phones to communicate with our kids.

Quite honestly, cell phones with stored phone numbers are very powerful communication tools. I have also thought that we should incorporate a cell-phone component in our FFA CDEs. Think of a very challenging question, then have the students whip out their cell-phones and solve the question by calling anyone. The student with the largest list of contacts would probably win. This is what happens in the real world, if you don't know the solution to a problem, you find someone to help you solve the problem.

CTE - Cool, Tough, Education

2008-08-19T15:01:00.000-07:00

Career and Technical Education is a philosophy that emphasizes contextual learning.

Agricultural Education is NOT just about teaching agriculture, but about teaching students in the context of agriculture.

I cringe everytime I hear an ag teacher say,

"I teach ag, not math."
"I teach ag, I am not the reading teacher."

The "core" concepts of reading, math, and science are utilized in careers. Agricultural Educators need to prepare students for careers in the Agriculture Industry, even if that means emphasizing the importance of reading and solving problems on-the-job.