The Do's and Don'ts of Supporting the Reluctant Teacher I want to talk about a mythical creature – the Reluctant Teacher. This teacher has no desire to try anything new – it either does not interest them, or they do not see how it can possibly improve the way they teach. Despite the whole school, and even the whole profession heading in a particular direction, the Reluctant Teacher does their bit in holding back the tide. After all, they know best. Eventually, though, the impossible happens, and they yield, cautiously embracing change. But how does this happen? Don’t pair up your “strong” teacher with your Reluctant Teacher. Do let teachers know that this is training – that is, they are allowed to try new things and fail, without any concerns of being judged. Don’t set up templates for your Reluctant Teacher. Do show them effective, simple and manageable reasons to use technology. Don’t encourage using technology just because it is available. Do avoid the glitz – show them function instead. Do show relevant examples – not generic ones.
SCHOPENHAUERS 38 STRATAGEMS, OR 38 WAYS TO WIN AN ARGUMENT Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), was a brilliant German philosopher. These 38 Stratagems are excerpts from "The Art of Controversy", first translated into English and published in 1896. Carry your opponent's proposition beyond its natural limits; exaggerate it. The more general your opponent's statement becomes, the more objections you can find against it. (abstracted from the book:Numerical Lists You Never Knew or Once Knew and Probably Forget, by: John Boswell and Dan Starer)
Seven Habits of Highly Creative People | Creativity at Work Seven Habits of Highly Creative People is an homage to Stephen Covey (Oct 24, 1932 – July 16, 2012) Creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, and then producing. Innovation is the production or implementation of an idea. 1. “In creating, the only hard thing’s to begin; A grass-blade’s no easier to make than an oak.” Creativity requires an absorbed mind, a relaxed state of focus and attention. 2. “We are what we think. We amplify what we think about most. 3. “Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart. It’s been said that at the age of 5, children ask 120 questions a day, at age 6 they ask only 60 questions a day, and at the age of 40, adults ask 4 questions a day. 4. “If you stuff yourself full of poems, essays, plays, stories, novels, films, comic strips, magazines, music, you automatically explode every morning like old faithful. Be curious and follow your nose. 5. 6. 7. Linda Naiman
So What? As the new school year approaches, many principals around the country will be implementing a new teacher evaluation instrument. As you visit teacher classrooms looking for specific indicators, I encourage you to ask the simple question, “So What?” These two words can cause you to go beyond the surface and get a deeper understanding of what is really taking place in any classroom. For instance: So what if you recently joined twitter! So what if you implemented Edmodo! So what if you give formative assessments! So what if you plan and prepare every lesson! So what if you give a number or letter (grade) to a student! So what if you listen and respond to active parents who have strong opinions on the issues that particularly affect their children! I could go on and on and on…. So… What could you add to this list?
25 Beautifully Illustrated Thought-Provoking Questions A question that makes you think is worth asking… At the cusp of a new day, week, month, or year, most of us take a little time to reflect on our lives by looking back over the past and ahead into the future. We ponder the successes, failures and standout events that are slowly scripting our life’s story. This process of self reflection helps us maintain a conscious awareness of where we’ve been and where we intend to go. It is pertinent to the organization and preservation of our dreams, goals and desires. If you would like to maximize the benefits of self reflection, our new sister site, Thought Questions, is for you. Remember, these questions have no right or wrong answers. Here’s a sample of 25 recent thought questions posted on the site: Thought Questions is updated daily. Title photo by: Oberazzi For all other photo credits please refer to ThoughtQuestions.com Related 6 Questions that Will Save Your Relationships May 21, 2014 In "Life" 20 Questions You Should Ask Yourself Every Sunday
John Cleese on the 5 Factors to Make Your Life More Creative by Maria Popova “Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.” Much has been said about how creativity works, its secrets, its origins, and what we can do to optimize ourselves for it. Space (“You can’t become playful, and therefore creative, if you’re under your usual pressures.”)Time (“It’s not enough to create space; you have to create your space for a specific period of time.”)Time (“Giving your mind as long as possible to come up with something original,” and learning to tolerate the discomfort of pondering time and indecision.)Confidence (“Nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.”)Humor (“The main evolutionary significance of humor is that it gets us from the closed mode to the open mode quicker than anything else.”) A few more quotable nuggets of insight excerpted below the video. Creativity is not a talent. We need to be in the open mode when pondering a problem — but! Thanks, Simon Donating = Loving Share on Tumblr
Thoughts on Will Richardson’s fine 19 Bold Ideas for Change in Education. Enjoy the short video above- it is very much worth the six minutes. It is the time of year when many are looking ahead to opening of the school year faculty and departmental meetings, so it is a good time to start sharing valuable short videos which can be used for inspiration and illumination at these meetings. This six minute video is a great candidate (and I intend to share a list soon); it is a very current (ISTE 2012) talk in which author and provocateur Will Richardson lays out his challenge to us: Bold Ideas for Change in Education. Consider the opportunities: ask educators in groups to identify their bold ideas first, and compare; ask them to watch and discuss which bold ideas make sense and how might they apply them, which don’t and why not, and what original ideas do they have. From Lisa Nielsen’s blog I’ve copied at bottom of this post the list of 19 bold ideas for easy reference. A few comments: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. b. c. From Lisa Nielsen’s blog, Will Richardson’s 19 Bold Ideas.
60 Small Ways to Improve Your Life in the Next 100 Days - StumbleUpon Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to make drastic changes in order to notice an improvement in the quality of your life. At the same time, you don’t need to wait a long time in order to see the measurable results that come from taking positive action. All you have to do is take small steps, and take them consistently, for a period of 100 days. Below you’ll find 60 small ways to improve all areas of your life in the next 100 days. Home 1. Day 1: Declutter MagazinesDay 2: Declutter DVD’sDay 3: Declutter booksDay 4: Declutter kitchen appliances 2. If you take it out, put it back.If you open it, close it.If you throw it down, pick it up.If you take it off, hang it up. 3. A burnt light bulb that needs to be changed.A button that’s missing on your favorite shirt.The fact that every time you open your top kitchen cabinet all of the plastic food containers fall out. Happiness 4. 5. 6. How many times do you beat yourself up during the day? 7. Learning/Personal Development 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.
Why conviction drives innovation more than creativity By Doreen Lorenzo, president, frog FORTUNE -- In business circles, "creativity" has become a buzzword to describe a desired trait among employees. It's widely believed that having creative thinkers on staff will boost overall team levels of innovation. Yes, creativity can lead to a surplus of original ideas. Look at the most-admired business leaders today. Consider how Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos asked the graduating class at Princeton University during his 2010 commencement speech there, "Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?" But it's not just company founders and CEOs or Ivy League grads that can benefit from having a strong sense of conviction. Conviction is the powerful force that Google (GOOG) channels with its 20% policy, which requires Googlers to devote one-fifth of their time in the office pursuing a project that they are personally interested in and therefore passionate about.
ARTICLES: 21 Solution-Focused Techniques © 2011, Coert Visser Several informal surveys have given an impression of the relative popularity of different solution-focused techniques. The following 21 techniques seem to belong to the most well-known and popular solution-focused techniques: scaling questions, the past success question, the preferred future question, the platform question, the exception seeking question, reframing, indirect compliments, the miracle question, summarizing in the words of the client, the what-is-better question, normalizing, the usefulness question, the observation question, the perspective change question, the coping question, the continuation question, the prediction suggestion, leapfrogging, and mutualizing. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. What keeps you going under such difficult circumstances? 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.
Feeling Stuck? 100 Ways to Change Your Life Wise Bread Picks You've got 20 minutes to change your life in 100 ways. Go. This is the premise of an exercise I tried once, when I was feeling stuck in life. After trying (forcefully) to understand what was going on, reading self-help books, filling out aptitude tests, and working with business and life coaches, I was given a suggestion that became a catalyst for some pretty big personal changes. Here is how you can change your life in 20 minutes, step by step: Clear all distractions. Something happens after about 10 or 15 minutes if you employ the exercise to its full potential. Ding! Leave the list alone for a day. The point of this exercise is not to create a giant and outlandish "to-do" list that never gets ticked off. Personally, after feeling stuck and making out my list, I identified a few ways to make positive changes in my life at the time; I joined Toastmasters because an item I wrote down was to become a public speaker.
Real Innovation: What It Really Is, and How to Really Do It (Really) Page 3 of 3 Here are the questions, and some examples of how they’ve been used for the greatest innovations in history… Benjamin Franklin looked at the American Colonies in a different way from everyone else, and as a result what he saw was a fledgling America, rather than a bunch of Englishmen struggling with their parent country. When the naturally occurring phenomenon of fire was used in a number of new ways, it became a source of heat and light, a powerful weapon, and a way to cook food–radically changing the world in the process. When the ancient Sumerians moved language from the verbal to the written context, they greatly amplified its power and importance, because now language could transcend time and space. Thomas Edison was one of many inventors working on the light bulb, but he set himself apart by turning electric light into a true innovation through its connection to the electrical grid. Louis Braille changed both the design and the performance of written language.
10 Things in School That Should Be Obsolete Flickr: Corey Leopold By Greg Stack So much about how and where kids learn has changed over the years, but the physical structure of schools has not. Looking around most school facilities — even those that aren’t old and crumbling — it’s obvious that so much of it is obsolete today, and yet still in wide use. 1. At Northern Beaches Christian School students learn everywhere. 2. 3. 4. 5. Corridors at Machias Elementary are used for informal learning 6. 7. 8. Learner Centered Classroom at Riverview Elementary School. 9. 10. Greg Stack is an architect for NAC Architecture and specializes in developing best practices for the planning and design of educational environments.