I was once responsible for an academic department tasked with providing services for fast, deep, and often emotional learners (my personal working def. of "gifted"). One of my specific duties was coaching our academic team, which met every afternoon in the room across the hall from my office. After practice, it was customary that several students would linger in the room while I worked across the hall. They studied, helped each other with homework, prepared for tests, watched the news (a quick knowledge of current events was often invaluable in our competitions), and played chess.
I was most surprised, therefore, when one day from across the hall I heard a crashing sound, two chairs squeak as their inhabitants quickly left them, and one of my best team-members shout, "YOU'RE NOT HELPING ME IMPROVE!" in a menacing tone of voice.
Out of Character
Now, this was most surprising to me for two reasons. First, I had cultivated an intentionally emotionally balanced team. My personal theories of education include approaches to cultivating emotional management to improve academic success rather than to work against it. So, for my students to be screaming at each other and throwing things around the room, well, that had never happened before. The other reason was that this was one of my most evenly keeled students. A real rock under pressure, with an ice-cool temperament.
What Happened
By the time I crossed the hall, things apparently had calmed down as quickly as they had flared up, and the two students involved were talking to each other, one with a still adrenaline-filled voice and the other with a more-or-less laissez faire one. Hearing them talking to each other rather than throwing things, I lingered outside the door, and eavesdropped.
T: "You're not trying to beat me. You're not even playing! I know you're better than this, and when you don't play me at your best, you're wasting my time. You're not helping me improve."
V: "But you're going to beat me anyway. We both know you're better than me, why should I waste my time trying to beat you when I know you're going to win?"
T: "Then why bother playing at all? Why waste your time with the game?"
V: "Because this is what we happen to be doing right now. You like to play chess, and as your friend, I'm not going to try to talk you out of that."
What I Think About What Happened
There are many reasons to play chess. T was playing to be challenged, to test tactics and strategy, to improve. V was playing as a social activity, a way to simply spend time with a friend in an activity and location they both enjoyed. Their misunderstanding of each others' assumptions and actions (funny how that can happen between close friends and...even...life partners!), however, led to an emotional confrontation and neither of them getting what they wanted from the experience.
Based on this experience, I made some changes at our very next team practice. I did not refer to the chess incident, but I did make it clear that there would be times I expected everyone on the team to be focused and performing at their very best, to practice and study as if we were in the middle of a state-championship round, or preparing for a high stakes standardized test. There would be other times when the emotional intensity would be different, where my expectations would be towards the light-hearted and simply having fun end of that spectrum. And I promised them that I would make more of an effort to be explicit with them at the beginning of practices, and during them, which frame of mind was appropriate for the activity we'd be pursuing. And, I asked them to be more consciously aware of their own positions, and to allow themselves to find the fun and enjoyment in the more intense moments, and the opportunity to improve and be focused, even in the fun and social moments.
In the 10 years before I arrived at that school, the academic team had made it to one varsity state-championship final round. In the four years following the "Chess Game," we won 5 state championships in both jv and varsity divisions.
Bragging? Well, yes, but there's more to it than that...
It's no secret 'round these parts that emotional experience is a big research interest of mine in education. The chess game is one reason why. I suspect that T and V were in different emotional places at the beginning of that game, and certainly at the end of it. I also suspect that creating a shared and mutually understood emotional space for our team practices as a consequence led to our improvement as a team, and contributed to our success in competition.
I also suspect that if we had not won those tournaments, we would have improved as well. We learned how to be more aware of ourselves and each other, how to work better together as a result of that awareness, to better tolerate mistakes (our own and our teammates'), and better encourage good risk taking in the pursuit of improvement. And, importantly, how to communicate those values and practices to new team members to ensure its continued growth and improvement.
Kula Krew/BPI
Thanks to Kula and NCrissieB, and many other active Krew Members, the Morning Feature has become, in my experience, unique in the Kosiverse. The tuna/salmon cans, Meta-Mondays, hugs, Top of the Mornings, Coffee Spew Awards™, encouraging words, excellent recipes, high-quality writing, thoughtful comments, thought-provoking comments, guest faculty, generally gentle temperament, and...squirrels, all combine to become something unique, indeed.
I've stepped on a few toes here myself, though. As with any human endeavor there are still moments when assumptions may be misconstrued. When a point may be misinterpreted. When a perceived slight may have been slightly misperceived. I know, because I've successfully done each of these. I just wanted to share my gratitude for having found an online community that is largely self-correcting, strives for improvement, that gives its completely open membership room and time to pursue it, and that shares common values of mutual support, compassion, liberal-progressiveness, action-oriented political awareness, and growth.
If we can take those values with us out into our offline world(s), just imagine what we can accomplish.
And, if those were your toes, sorry! I didn't mean it! I often communicate better with smiles, head-nods, eye-rolls, shoulder-tilts, pats-on-the-back, actual pokes-in-ribs, and occasionally random hand gestures. In their absence, I do my best. I do promise, however, to keep trying to do better. And, through your honest feedback,
THANK YOU FOR HELPING ME IMPROVE!
11-dimensional chess: a demonstration
NCrissieB has referred to Derren Brown in previous MFs, and I used to show many of his videos in my AP Psych classes. For a demonstration of true 11-dimensional chess in action, when you have a spare 10 minutes, check thisout.
TWLTW
- Jon Stewart called Newt Gingrich out on his fact-debased emotional messaging on Feb. 9th.
[If you click on the link, forward to the 3:30 mark for this section, though the entire interview is quality stuff if you have the time.]
They were discussing Miranda rights and textile bombers (shoe, underwear, etc...):
NG: "Putting the rights of terrorists legally ahead of figuring out how to save Americans' lives is seen by most Americans to be a fairly radical redefinition."
JS: "That's a very emotional way to put it. But, wouldn't it, wouldn't you consider..."
NG: "...That's part of my job, to reach out to the emotions of the American people." [emphasis from Gingrich, as if sarcastic]
JS: "I understand. No, I think that's wise, and don't let reality get in the way. I'm kidding, stay with me, stay with me."
JS: "By every indication, reading this guy his rights..."
NG: "...Did you think it would have been good to bring 5 terrorists to New York City to try them in the city they tried to destroy?"
JS: "Honestly, and I, and I say this with all due respect. I lived through it. I live blocks from there. I would love to see them be tried in the neighborhood. I, I want him, I would like him to do it, I'll tell you the thing that upsets me more, is the fact that we haven't rebuilt the area. that upsets me more, and I would be happy, and I would be proud of New Yorkers' ability to handle whatever inconvenience it is to show off our resilience and our lack of fear in the face of these idiots. I would be delighted."
I mentioned above the importance of nonverbal communication in conveying meaning, and this clip is an eye-opening example. Stewart goes from looking down and away from Newt, and nervously touching his sleeve, to staring him straight in the face and pointing at him, directly at his chest. It's quite a transformation in about 30 seconds' time.
- The biochemical, anthocyanin, that gives the flesh of the blood orange its namesake hue is the same chemical that puts red in raspberries.
- PEZ candies were originally an Austrian mint designed in 1927 as an alternative to smoking cigarettes. Named after three letters in the German word for pepperment, pfefferminz, the company added fruit flavors in 1952 when it introduced the product to the American market. The distinctive pull-the-head-back case was originally designed to resemble cigarette lighters of the time.
- Sodium polyacrylate is the chemical substance in disposable diapers that absorbs...liquid. It can absorb up to 300 times its own weight in water and can be purchased in garden supply centers for...incontinent plants?
- Andrew Lloyd Webber composed an arrangement for the Tetris theme song that once charted in the British top ten.
- I had heard that the banjo was originally an African (gourd) instrument, modified by slaves in Appalachia using local materials to become the banjo we know today. (“The fact is,” Pete Seeger told Hugh Hefner in a 1960 interview, “until 1830 no white man would ever even think about playing a banjo.”) I've recently discovered the music of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, who met in 2005 at the firstBlack Banjo Gathering. They are modern musicians who have dedicated themselves to studying and keeping alive the string-band style of the post-war (Civil, that is) era as writtenand performedby Americans of African descent. If you like Bluegrass and American roots music, or Blu Cantrell, and haven't heard of them yet, they may well be worth checking out. In any case, please enjoy these free samples with your complimentary comments!:
And, their take on a more modern song by Blu Cantrell:
What Did You Learn This Week?