Stephen Ritz: A teacher growing green in the South Bronx

A whirlwind of energy and ideas, Stephen Ritz is a teacher in New York's tough South Bronx, where he and his kids grow lush gardens for food, greenery -- and jobs. Just try to keep up with this New York treasure as he spins through the many, many ways there are to grow hope in a neighborhood many have written off, or in your own. (Filmed at TEDxManhattan)

Comments

Passion and Learning

Learning with Passion and Enthusiasm releases dopamine, which means it works better and is more fun Learning happens inside our brain when new information connects with existing memory. When we are excited or enthusiastic our brain happens to do that much better. In a famous experiment American psychologist, Hans Breiter put cocaine addicts into an MRI. The effect of the drug excited the addicts and the researcher saw a lot of activity in what’s called the Nucleus Accumbent. German scientists did the same experiment with young men and pictures of Porsche cars, which caused the same area to light up. When they did it with pictures of a Daihatsu.. it didn’t. What’s going on here? As soon as we expect something nice to happen, the brain releases it's happiness chemicals dopamine and endorphin as well as other neurotransmitters. While dopamine and endorphin delight us, the other neurotransmitters send information from A to B. This connects new information from outside the brain with ...

Growth Mindset

There are two types of mindsets we can cultivate. One that embraces problems as opportunities to learn, and one that avoids them, often out of fear to fail. People that avoid conflicts can be described as having a fixed mindset. Those who see problems as interesting challenges have a growth mindset. Sometimes we like to switch from one to the other.

Unschooling: Why Parents Remove Their Kids from School

A growing number of parents believe in unschooling — the process of learning through life, outside classrooms. Similar to homeschooling it usually happens at home or within the community. But while homeschooling usually follows a formal curriculum, unschooling doesn’t. So how does it work, and why do parents advocate for it?

EduCenter

Search This Blog