Steve Peha is a North Carolina-based education consultant, and he’s come up with a way to address teacher quality that could be called “The Ichiro Suzuki model”—after the Seattle Mariners outfielder who eschews home run hitting for making contact, getting on base, and scoring runs. Inspired by the solid, future Hall of Famer, Peha offers for consideration the following tenet: focus on the average teachers.
According to William Sanders, the founder of the controversial value-added teacher assessment metric, the top 20 percent of teachers is three times more effective than they bottom 20 percent. Peha suggests commending the top quintile and allowing the bottom to exit the profession via attrition in order to improve the middle 60 percent of teachers.
He suggests improving average teachers by exposing them to more efficient teaching techniques, such as teaching the alphabet from sound rather than name, doing away with the five-paragraph essay in favor of more expository writing (which is also a back door method to teaching reading comprehension), and teaching multiplication and division via mathematical triads, like “3-8-24.”
Peha writes:
Let’s work on little switches that get big results. Let’s focus on getting three million average teachers to exchange ten bad practices for ten good ones.
This may seem trivial, perhaps even meaningless, but it’s earth-shattering in its implications:
Pick the right 10 practices, implement the right 10 solutions, and average teachers would get above average results.
As more teachers began to share these practices, we would benefit from something I call “instructional economies of scale” where kids who encountered a practice in a previous situation would learn it even faster in a new situation. As a result, average kids might perform at even better than above average levels over time.
In addition to being more efficient and far less rancorous than the current fire-happy climate of school administration, Peha may have stumbled onto a solution that reformers and unions could both get behind.
Via The Washington Post‘s Answer Sheet blog; Photo (cc) via Flickr user kieloch.
People with Alzheimer’s disease and their families often require support. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, one in nine people aged 65 and older has the disease. Nearly 12 million Americans also provide unpaid care to those with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. With that in mind, a tech company is hoping to help through a simple pair of glasses.
CrossSense, a British technology company, has developed AI-driven smart glasses designed for people experiencing cognitive decline. Using a camera built into the frame, the glasses can identify and label objects directly in the lenses. They also feature an AI assistant, dubbed “Wispy,” which can gently ask questions, provide reminders, and adapt to a user’s needs.
The purpose of these lenses is to help people with cognitive disabilities live more independently. The AI helps those with Alzheimer’s disease remember steps in a sequence and labels the items they are looking at. This can give patients a sense of confidence while also easing the burden on those who care for them.
The creators spent more than a decade developing prototypes of the glasses. They trained the AI on everyday activities such as household chores and preparing basic meals. The glasses are designed to work with a patient’s prescription and hearing aids, allowing the AI to learn more about the user’s surroundings. Over time, this can help identify unusual discrepancies for the wearer.
According to CrossSense’s website, the glasses will check in with the user about items on their schedule, such as appointments and medications. They can also help users remember the names and appearances of people they frequently interact with. The glasses can keep track of conversations users have had, along with items they’ve interacted with throughout the day. The built-in battery allows the glasses to operate for an hour, but a portable power bank can extend use throughout the day.
Initial results look promising
The technology is still being thoroughly tested to ensure safety and quality, but it has already made an impression. CrossSense’s glasses were awarded the Longitude Prize on Dementia from the Alzheimer’s Society and Innovate UK. The prize included £1 million to help fund research and production of the glasses. CrossSense hopes to make the glasses available to the public by 2027.
For the few patients with Alzheimer’s disease who have tested these smart glasses, the support the gadget provides has been game-changing.
“For people with the condition like mine who’ve got cognitive impairment, it’s just an amazing thing,” Carole Greig, an Alzheimer’s patient and smart glasses tester, told The Guardian. “How fantastic that we can be given some more independence, that we’re going to be able to cope on our own and not be a burden. And not only that, it’s not just [not] being a burden, it’s enjoying your life.”
A neurologist weighs in
Dr. Rab Nawaz, a board-certified neurologist in the United Kingdom, spoke to GOOD about the smart glasses and their potential uses.
“The most promising use is real-time cueing,” he said. “In early-stage dementia, people often struggle not just with memory, but with sequencing, word-finding, visual-spatial processing, and carrying out familiar multistep tasks.”
He added, “A tool like these glasses could help by labeling objects, prompting the next step in an activity, and reducing the panic that comes when someone knows what they want to do but cannot bridge the gap in the moment.”
However, Nawaz is hesitant to see this technology as an end-all, be-all solution.
Here are five simple activities to engage your parent living with dementia to help jog their memory, bring some joy and be engaged with them. #homecare#dementia#boston#caregiving#alzheimers
“My biggest concern is overpromising,” he said. “These glasses are exciting, but they are not a treatment for Alzheimer’s and they will not work equally well for every patient, especially as dementia becomes more advanced or if someone has paranoia, hallucinations, poor vision, major hearing impairment, or trouble tolerating wearable devices.”
With continued testing over time, there will hopefully be further advances in both technology and medicine to support patients with Alzheimer’s disease now and in the future.
A snap reaction in a heated moment can be difficult to control. Sometimes an unexpected experience brings out the best in us—or, all too often, the worst. The Mindset Mentor Podcast, hosted by personal coach Rob Dial, explains how cultivating a healthy mindset can help you stay calm and composed when life “bumps” into you.
Using a story of an ancient monk teaching his students about enlightenment, Dial highlights that whatever we carry within ourselves rises to the surface when life gets hard. Beginning the day with a healthy mindset matters.
A monk teaches his students about enlightenment. He asks them to imagine holding a cup of coffee when someone bumps into them, causing it to spill. When he asks why the coffee spilled, the students quickly reply that it was because someone bumped into them.
The monk responds, “You spilled the coffee because that’s what was in your cup. Had there been water in the cup, you would have spilled water. Had there been tea in the cup, then you would have spilled tea.”
Dial goes on to explain the impactful meaning behind the monk’s simple philosophy:
“When life shakes you, which it will, whatever you carry inside of you will spill out. So if you’re carrying anger, or fear, or hatred, or jealousy, then that is what is going to spill out of you in those moments. But, if you’re carrying love and kindness and compassion and empathy, then that is what is going to spill out you.”
If this is the challenge we face each day, the real question becomes: how do we prepare ourselves for what life might throw our way? Dial suggests the answer lies in an intentional pause. “Each morning,” he says, “it’s important for you to stop and close your eyes and ask yourself, ‘What am I carrying inside of me today?’”
That small act of self-awareness can shape everything that follows. If we choose to bring despair, judgment, and negativity, those emotions will most likely surface when things don’t go as planned. But if we choose to center ourselves in kindness and compassion, we’re far more likely to respond with those qualities instead.
The advantages of morning preparation and a healthy mindset
Significant time and research have gone into understanding the benefits of a morning routine. These practices help build a kind of “spiritual armor” that prepares us to face the day with confidence. Simple habits like getting sunlight, drinking water, moving our bodies, and practicing mindfulness can boost energy and improve mood.
A 2024 study found that morning activities like loving-kindness meditation can positively affect people’s mental health. Individuals with a regular practice tend to be more positive, mindful, and compassionate. The length or specific details of the practice have little effect on outcomes when compared with one another.
Another 2024 study found that framing problems in a positive way helps people recover faster from stress. Staying motivated during difficult situations and feeling more emotionally stable are skills that can be built through mindset. The simple fact is that study after study demonstrates that positive thinking directly supports mental health during difficult periods in life.
Dial offers a simple concept: what we carry within ourselves influences how we respond to life’s challenges. The students say it’s because they were bumped. The monk explains it’s what’s in the cup. The real preparation for the day isn’t just what we do, it’s what we choose to carry. “What am I carrying today?”
You can watch this short video on starting a morning meditation practice:
As time flies, relationships can naturally change and fade. Often, you mean to send a text or make a call, only to look up and realize it’s been two years since you last communicated with that person. So how do you reconnect without making it weird?
Sara Sutton, the founder of FlexJobs and a networking expert, shared a simple, 10-word message that can help create reconnections: “You crossed my mind, and I wanted to say hi.”
Sutton believes this straightforward message works whether you’re trying to reconnect with a colleague for professional reasons or rekindle a faded friendship.
The message may seem too simple for some, but that’s the point. It’s simply a statement of fact: you’re thinking of the person. Offering a simple “hello” also acknowledges them without adding pressure to respond.
An invitation, not an interruption
People typically feel good when they know they’re being thought of, and this message offers a way to express that without making things awkward. It also avoids any sense of manipulation or pressure to respond. It puts the ball in their court to say thanks, reply and re-engage, or simply let it lie. In any case, you’ll likely get a sense of whether the person genuinely wants to reconnect.
It can still feel awkward to reconnect with someone, even if the “You crossed my mind, and I wanted to say hi” message works. Plus, not every relationship is equal. Your connection with this person may have ended with unresolved conflict or lingering feelings.
Other ways to reconnect
Fortunately, there are other approaches if you want to rekindle a friendship. If it’s been a while since you last spoke, you might start by sending a friend request and a message on social media. You could also share a photo of the two of you and say, “Came across this and wanted to say hey,” or something similar. If you have a shared interest, such as having been teammates in college, you might reference a recent article about the team you both played for.
With former colleagues, you may not have their personal contact information or feel comfortable using it after such a long time. Experts suggest using LinkedIn for initial contact, since that’s the platform’s purpose. Alternatively, sending a festive email during the holiday season with a quick reminder of who you are (“Happy holidays from your former cubicle mate at [Company]”) can help break the ice.
Whatever method you choose, it’s best to make it easy for the other person to respond quickly, if they choose to. Make no mistake: initiating a reconnection can still feel awkward. But it’s likely the other person hasn’t reached out for similar reasons. At worst, they’ll feel good knowing you thought of them and move on. At best, they’ll thank you for taking the first step to reconnect.
