As an instructor of writing classes for freshman university students, 9 Clues: The Ward I have found that when we write about topics that interest us, we are less prone to procrastinate and to experience writers block. Teaching a cl[censored] that is a degree requirement rather than a chosen elective sometimes results in a situation where student are--shall we say--a little less than Drawn: Trail Of Shadows Collector's Edition enthusiastic. So, I try to create assignments that students might find interesting. One such assignment is a "Then and Now" compare/contrast essay where students divide their lives in half and compare key issues, such as spirituality, sexuality, identity, education, siblings, friends, career goals, music, art, politics, etc. How did they feel about these things at age 10? Age 20? Do they feel the same way or have they changed?
When I first explain the task, students will often ask questions about essay structure and length, and investigate the issues that are important to them. Some resist altogether. All of this is expected. However, what I did not expect were the students who said that they could not remember anything from that period in past lives. I probed by asking about their friends, sports, school, vacations, etc, and gradually some were able to revive some memories, but they still struggled. This puzzled me, for this Pre-payment Of Home Mortgages: To Be Or Not To Be? was more than the normal resistance to assignments. This was genuinely a blank time for them.
At first, I silently blamed the video games, television, and the internet as the source that numbed their minds. But that was too easy. The real answer is always more complicated. So over the next five years, I gave the students a questionnaire at Reaxxion the beginning of the semester that asked them a series of questions: I asked them about the things that they did when they were kids. The series included sports, schools, teachers, reading, art, music, nature, church, family, friends, vacations, Skeleton Pirates parents, television, games, internet, etc. Each year I collected the data Why Buying Painkillers from No Prescription Pharmacy Is Dangerous and charted the results, How Digital Book Printing Works connecting their answers to trends: the students who could easily access their childhood memories and those who could not. At this point, I must insert that I am no psychologist; I am a teacher who cares about students, and my study did not intend to incorporate a vast body of research into the influences on our ability to retain information and the vagaries of memory. Mine was a simple-yet enlightening-study that revealed much about my students-and teachers.
I expected that I would discover that the students who spent their time playing video games and watching television would be the ones whose lives were a blur. This Surface: The Soaring City was not the case. Too easy. But what I did discover was that there are 4 essential ingredients in a life experience that enable us to recall it. The more ingredients, the more likely we are able to retrieve the memory. Here they are:
1. The activity is self-created, using our imagination and creativity. These are the games of hide and seek and pretend. These are the sports pla[censored] in vacant Jane's Hotel lots rather than astro-turf. They are the ones that belong to us because we were essential in their creation.
2. The activity is shared. If we are hiding; someone has to find us. If we throw a ball, someone has to catch it. If we write, someone has to read it.
3. The activity is intermittent, not routine. It's the time when things went unexpectedly right or wrong. It was not scheduled, but a spur of the moment; it Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove Collector's Edition was unique. This is the time when you lost your fishing pole to the biggest fish you will never get to see. It was the family vacation camping, it was the basketball pick-up game, it was the spontaneous music jam; it was the time you won or lost.
4. The activity is outdoors. Weather is ever-shifting. Seasons change. Your entire body is engaged: the elements are constantly pressing on you, cold, hot, windy, clear, the change of light. It is not controlled by a thermostat; it is unpredictable.
After several years, gradually I was able to see the patterns, and while I cannot revive students memories for them-there is no rewind button here-- I can learn from this and become a better teacher for True Fear: Forsaken Souls Collector's Edition it. I have learned that the classroom should incorporate these 4 elements, 72 Hours - Can You Survive? too: The learning process should be surprising, unpredictable, unique, shared, and self-created; whenever possible, it should extend Riddles Of Fate: Memento Mori Collector's Edition past the four fluorescent walls. And as teachers, we should practice what we preach, and fill our lives with the same bounty of life memories that we wish for our students, with a Delicious: Emily's Home Sweet Home Collector's Edition sense of adventure and possibilities, BlackBerry series: Enhanced with ergonomic features rich with recollection.
