Live at the Learning and the Brain Conference, Thursday morning

[Connie Weber]

Ooooooo, totally geeked. This morning's keynotes, here at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco:

Sam Goldstein: Hardwired to Connect: Creating Classrooms that Nurture Social Minds

"Dr. Sam Goldstein will cover our current understanding of the importance of socialization and its relationship to learning, normal adjustment and transition into adulthood, and touch on issues related to resilience genetics, stress and learning."

John Medina: Brain Rules: Principles for Surviving and Thriving in School

"John Medina, author of Brain Rules, an affiliate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and Director the the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research at Seattle Pacific University, will explore how the intersection of exercise, memory, sleep, and stress might influence the way we teach our children."

And that's just the morning.... Oh, how fun. I have my colored pens, a notebook, the nice big fat book of readings that go with the program (filled with blogging ideas for Fireside). Sitting in the most comfortable chair in an elegant ballroom with high ceilings and giant chandeliers... Life is good!

[Connie Weber]

Hi Ellen and All,

I wish we could all meet up at one of these brain conferences! (www.edupr.com) It's so state-of-the-art: the latest research (real science!), excellent speakers, vastly relevant topics. The next one is in Washington DC, May 7-9. The topic then: The Creative Brain: Using Brain Research on Creativity and the Arts to Improve Learning. Now, doesn't that make you drool?! Anyone in the Washington DC area should seriously consider going. I'm considering going to that one, too.

I heard a story today that I loved. Maybe you've heard it before, "A Man Goes Fishing." The speaker, Sam Goldstein, put up a picture on the big screen of an indigenous man in a boat on a river. This is the story: The man started to fish when a boy comes by in the current--he's drowning. The man saves him, gets him in the boat and starts paddling to shore. Another boy comes by, also drowning. The man gets him in the boat as well. Oh--another! It looks like a disaster has happened. The man looks upriver and sees many children, all drowning. He has more room in the boat, but doesn't stop.

Why? "We have no time. We must paddle to shore, go upriver and find out who's throwing children in the river and make them stop."

[Ellen Pham]

I wish I was there too, Connie!