Want to learn the kind of presence and activities described here? Join us for a residential retreat! Monster Baby: Live! June 9-14, Mere Point, ME Or subscribe to the new Monster Baby podcast by clicking here! The fall of 2014 marked the first Labor Day in twelve years that I hadn’t been gearing up to teach in a high school [more…]
5 Easy Ways to Introduce Mindfulness into Your Classroom
You may have heard that mindfulness practice—learning to pay curious and kind attention to the present moment—brings a wide-ranging host of benefits to the classroom or workplace setting. Greater focus, improved self-awareness and collaboration, reduced anxiety and hostility: the evidence-based, scientifically-demonstrated list goes on. Thankfully, you need not polish your pedagogy or meditate in a [more…]
Under Pressure (The Wisdom of Mistakes Follow-Up Interview)
Shortly after the previous post, The Wisdom of Mistakes, appeared in the Northfield Mount Hermon School alumni magazine, a trio of students in the Video as Visual Art class asked if they could interview me for further reflections. I gladly obliged and felt even more thankful after hearing the sophistication of their questions—them boys made [more…]
The Wisdom of Mistakes
If you want to succeed, embrace failure. A year ago, I would have expected such paradoxical advice to come from a Taoist monk or a Jedi master. Now, after a sabbatical year away from school, I find myself touting that same refrain as I explore questions about teaching and learning. How do I encourage the [more…]
A Positive-Minded Primer on Punishment and Reinforcement–with a Buddhist Twist (Part 2 of 2)
[This is the second half of a two-part post. Part 1 can be found here.] Negative Reinforcement (R-) makes a wanted behavior more likely by taking away or reducing something the learner does not enjoy. It “eliminates an aversive,” as they say in the field. In this sense, it’s a kind of relief from unpleasantness. [more…]
Kohn of Uncertainty: Raising Questions About How to Raise Kids (or Why Positive Reinforcement Might Not Be All It’s Cracked Up to Be)
I’ve just started reading Alfie Kohn’s Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason and I can already tell it will stir my pot. Kohn has no love for positive reinforcement. Quite the opposite, he considers it both dangerous and destructive. Given my investment in the topic and my eagerness to examine [more…]
Chicken Sexers, Plane Spotters, and the Elegance of TAGteaching
Neuroscientist David Eagleman’s Incognito mentions two fascinating stories of unexpected learning. Both attest to the mysterious powers of the human brain—and encourage a radical reexamination of how we teach and train. Eagleman explains how many in the poultry industry of the 1930’s turned to the Japanese for a technique for training chicken sexers, workers who [more…]
The Bay School Model of Mindfulness
Every so often a sweet little synchronicity opens doors of exploration. Just this past week, one such moment led me to a small school intertwining themes of mindfulness and mindset, right here in San Francisco. After another fine improv show at Bay Area Theatersports (BATS) last Sunday, I complimented Katherine Riley, one of the performers, [more…]
The Transformative Failure Bow (Part 2 of 2)
The previous post discussed the history and varied application of The Failure Bow, a well-loved improvisational theater technique for returning to the present moment after a seeming mistake. This post, Part 2, explains recent body chemical research that shows how and why the Bow works—and argues for its wider application for creating and spreading confidence, [more…]
First Idea: Forego or Follow?
I heard several provocative guidelines for excellent design when our Applied Improvisation group toured Stanford’s graduate Institute of Design (d-School). One principle stood in particular contrast with a foundational tenet of improvisational theater. Now, a day later, I still find myself trying to make sense of the tension: should we follow a ‘first idea’ or [more…]
