“We produce confident learners when we praise students for the process they engage in, not when we tell them they are smart or talented.”  Carol Dweck, “Mindset”

So there we have it in a nutshell. A learning point for me. “How in my lessons will I value the process and promote quality learning that helps a pupil grow?”

My little helpers

THINGS HAVE NOT  been good. Changes at work and more importantly to my own personal health mean I have dropped the ball. However, like Lego when something drops to the floor and smashes into a million pieces, it can be seen as a chance to rebuild a bigger and better model. Right now I am staring down at a million tiny Lego bricks. Time to pick them up and build a new design. But first what will that design be….

Not many of my words today but an extract from a blog I was reading by Peter Bregman about workflow and multitasking.

“During the week I discovered six things:

First, it was delightful. I noticed this most dramatically when I was with my children. I shut my cell phone off and found myself much more deeply engaged and present with them. I never realized how significantly a short moment of checking my email disengaged me from the people and things right there in front of me. Don’t laugh, but I actually — for the first time in a while — noticed the beauty of leaves blowing in the wind.

Second, I made significant progress on challenging projects, the kind that — like writing or strategizing — require thought and persistence. The kind I usually try to distract myself from. I stayed with each project when it got hard, and experienced a number of breakthroughs.

Third, my stress dropped dramatically. Research shows that multitasking isn’t just inefficient, it’s stressful. And I found that to be true. It was a relief to do only one thing at a time. I felt liberated from the strain of keeping so many balls in the air at each moment. It felt reassuring to finish one thing before going to the next.

Fourth, I lost all patience for things I felt were not a good use of my time. An hour-long meeting seemed interminably long. A meandering pointless conversation was excruciating. II became laser-focused on getting things done. Since I wasn’t doing anything else, I got bored much more quickly. I had no tolerance for wasted time.

Fifth, I had tremendous patience for things I felt were useful and enjoyable. When I listened to my wife Eleanor, I was in no rush. When I was brainstorming about a difficult problem, I stuck with it. Nothing else was competing for my attention so I was able to settle into the one thing I was doing.

Sixth, there was no downside. I lost nothing by not multitasking. No projects were left unfinished. No one became frustrated with me for not answering a call or failing to return an email the second I received it.

That’s why it’s so surprising that multitasking is so hard to resist. If there’s no downside to stopping, why don’t we all just stop?”

Thanks Peter you have already saved me a great deal of time and stress.

CREATIVITY – Depending on your experience at school or your perspective as a teacher the relevance of this statement in todays world of education is up for debate. If we were to ask the pupils for thier opinions, I am sure they would reflect both. I know that I have used the argument about teaching towards the test and how it stifles creativity, therefore limiting creativity to Key Stage 3.

An illustration – this was recently driven home to me when I was recomended a blog from a teacher in Australia, in her about me section Miriam Tanti describes a funnel and a whiteboard marker to describe the squeeze on creativity and Big Thinking. This really struck a cord with me and in my new role as leader of Enquiry Based Learning is something I am keen to explore.

So Mrs Christie, I would like to say that there is a growing movement of thinking and learning that confine your observation firmly into the historical fiction books.

Yesterday I briefly bumped into a friend and colleague who I has inspired on more than one occasion. Today I watched Alastair Humphreys’s Do Lecture. Both made me reflect on the turbulence we often find ourselves in and how easy it is to ‘fail with honour’. Not to do things because they may fail. In his lecture Alastair talks about becoming flabby; physically, mentally and morally. On reflection I have succumbed to all of these to some extent. I have retired with honour from many projects, taking comfort in condolences of sympathetic friends.

I’m going to take on two of Alastair’s recommendations for now. Not because they will make me a better teacher but because they will prove to me that setting a goal and then taking tiny steps towards it can make big things happen.

Goal – To be able to do 100 press ups a day by the end of the summer break. This programme starts with just 2 press ups!

Goal – Take a photograph a day (no matter how boring you day is you have to go out of your way to find something interesting, something beautiful.

Enough rambling -> Check out the Do Lectures you may find something to inspire you.  Do!

This mind map was created in XMind <– Try it, I love it  http://www.xmind.net/

NOTE: I adapted this mindmap from one a found called 21st Century Pedagogy (sadly I have lost the reference, if anyone knows please, do tell.)

“A ship in a harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”

So as I settle into my new study / mancave it is important to remember that a learning space is as important as learning opportunities.

Reacting to reactions  – download the .pdf here under Creative Commons Licence

I am not sure of the context of this quote (something to add to my ever growing to-do list) but since reading it I have pondered a number of possible or probable meanings. It could be motivational; small steps, new beginnings and all that. It could concern chaos theory or the butterfly effect, where a small difference in the initial conditions  may produce large variations in the long term behaviors or outcomes. I was thinking of  Gwyneth Paltrow in Sliding Doors.

Maybe it is about human relationships and how we respond to each other, what we say and how we act. We can crush people with a word or an action even if that was not our intention. I remember seeing the look in the face of a year 7 when a declined to try something she had cooked during food technology, or when I did not value some homework that a student had poured their heart and soul into, because I was a little busy at the time. “Leave it on my desk and I will look forward to reading it later” was how I dismissed him, adding a “Well done” as they left the room. It didn’t matter, the damage was done.

So perhaps it is all about perspective. All things are a big deal to someone, and with this comes a responsibility.