El Salvador Days 1-4

The first four days were spent at Playa Cangrejera in La Libertad, El Salvador.  We rented a property with two houses, right on the beach.  The property also had a pool.  It was absolutely beautiful...it looked like paradise.

During those 4 days, most of Alfredo's family came to visit...his mom and all of his siblings as well as many of his cousins and their families.  I met my nieces and nephews and my mother-in-law and sisters and brothers-in-law.  It was so beautiful and relaxing there...with hammocks and good food and the most amazing views.  It was also a little bit overwhelming to meet so many people and to not be very good at holding conversations with them.  Even in English, big groups of people I don't know well can overwhelm me and so it felt a bit overwhelming to meet everyone and try to communicate with them.  I probably didn't try as hard as I could have and I felt a bit frustrated and mad at myself for that.

The neighborhood around the beach house had chickens roaming the street (typical in most of El Salvador it seems) and cows and horses along the side of the road.

There are so many coconut trees and Alfredo and Gabby loved drinking the cocos.

I learned that (despite the fact that El Salvador is north of the equator) they consider this "winter" because it is their rainy season.  I tried to argue with them about it at first, but there was no convincing them that it is summer despite being the rainy season.

One night there was a HUGE storm.  Thunder and lightning and pouring rain.  It was intense.  A bit scary, honestly.  The waves at the beach were already big and intense.  And the storm was strong.  None of us slept well while the storm raged, but in the morning everything was fine.

Noemi had hung a welcome sign for us and purchased a delicious cake.

The water in the ocean and the pool was warm.  We spent many hours swimming in the pool.

There were gorgeous sunrises (never actually saw them but Alfredo did and took photos) and sunsets.

I tried several new fruits and foods.   There was an almendra (almond) tree at the property and so Alfredo had me take a bite of the fruit that surrounds the almond.    I didn't like it, but it was interesting to taste it.  I ate arrayan which is a sour fruit.  They made it into a sorbet and the sorbet was delicious.  I ate mamones which look a lot like grapes, but they are very soft and have less flavor.  I also tried paterna which has a green outer peel.  And maranon japones which are red and taste like an unripe plum.  

At the beach house, there were bats.  And one night there were a bunch of fireflies.  There were lizards and frogs (pretty good sized frogs).  There was also the sweetest dog named Oso, and the girls were so sad to leave Oso when it was time to go.

I learned that they go to school nearly year round.  They get two weeks off during the rainy season (summertime...which they call winter)...and they get the whole month of December off.  But they go the rest of the year.  However, they only go for 4 hours a day.  At most schools some students go from 7-11 and others go from 1-5 with one 10 minute break.

 

Remember Genova Memorize

 I'm reading Remember by Lisa Genova.  It's really interesting.  It's all about the science behind how we remember things.  I'm not finished with it...only about 1/4 of the way through it...but it's interesting and has had some useful information.

Here are the things that have stood out to me so far:

1.  To create a memory, 4 things have to happen:  First, your brain encodes or captures a sight, sounds, smell, emotion or meaning and paid attention to this stimuli.   Second, your brain consolidates the collection of stimuli into a single pattern of connections.  Third, your brain stores this in a neural pathway.  Fourth, your brain retrieves and allows you to recall this experience or knowledge.  If any of these steps are missed, a memory isn't created.  (And a great deal of what we do each day does not go through all of these steps.)

2. Memory isn't stored in one specific place in your brain.  They exist in pathways created when that specific combination of sights, sounds, smells, emotions, etc. occurred and in the locations where those stimuli were captured.

3.  This seems like a no brainer, but to create a memory, we have to be paying attention.  Often when we think we have forgotten something, we didn't actually create a memory because we weren't paying attention.  (This is why we may lose our keys or fail to remember where we parked in the shopping center or not be able to remember someone's name shortly after being introduced to them...we weren't paying attention so a memory wasn't formed.)  In order to pay attention, we need to limit or eliminate distractions and also recognize that a specific detail is important.  Genova points out that even though we have seen thousands of pennies, most of us have not paid close attention to every detail of the penny and can't with complete accuracy recall all of the details of the penny.  In an experiment, only 1 out of 85 undergraduates could draw the Apple logo perfectly from memory.  

4.  Chunking information helps you keep it in your working memory (short term memory) better than a long string of unrelated information.  It's easier to remember short words for a minute than long words.

5.  There's a whole chapter on how muscle memory works.  It is created differently and retrieved differently than our memories of past experiences.

6.  Repetition helps us develop memory, but quizzing yourself is even more important.  So if you're trying to memorize your multiplication facts, repeating "3 x 8 is 24, 3 x 8 is 24, 3 x 8 is 24" will be helpful.  But asking yourself, "What is 3 x 8?"  Genova explains a study in which people were given pairs of Swahili and English words.  The students were split into 4 groups with slightly different study techniques.  Two of the groups incorporated quizzing themselves as part of their study, and two of the groups didn't incorporate any self quizzing.  Those who quizzed themselves retained 80 % of the word pairs a week later, but those who didn't only recalled about 35%.

I'm going to talk to my kids about this.  But I also plan to incorporate this into how I teach next year.  I plan, especially with multiplication, to incorporate regular self-testing into our week.

LESSONS LEARNED:  

*If something is important to me, make sure I'm paying attention and repeat the information to myself.

*Incorporate self-testing/quizzing into my teaching and also into my efforts to memorize information.

Jane Saved Dad

 My dad just shared this story:

When I was a child, perhaps 8 years old, my family went on a California vacation.  Disneyland, San Diego Zoo, Knott's Berry Farm and the ocean.

I was standing about waist deep in the water, when a large wave hit me and knocked me down.  The undertow began to wash me out to sea.  My older sister, Jane, grabbed me from behind with her hands in my arm pits and held on until the wave faded.

That was very likely the first time, but not the last time, that my hero sister Jane saved my life.

Lessons Learned:  

Be cautious in the ocean...learn to recognize the dangers.  

Having someone who cares about you nearby can save you from many kinds of troubles, temptations, and heartaches.