The Anatomy Of A Thank You Note – Krrb’s Guide To Expressing Gratitude With Style ~ Krrb Blog First off, if you can get your hands on a kid who is just learning to write and then convince said kid to write (or make a good go at writing) "Thanks" on a piece of paper that you can put into an envelope and send, you are golden. Your job is done. Who is not going to be touched by a child's early attempts at writing? Nothing says thank you like a note written by a 4 year old. But for those who don’t have the monk-like patience it takes to elicit the above pictured type of work from a pre-schooler, there is hope. You too, can produce thank you notes that would make your grandparents proud and that would bring a smile to even the most jaded of faces. I mean, if the leader of the free world has the time to write thank you notes by hand, I don't want to hear anything from the rest of us about not being able to "get around to it." Looks simple, right? The Occasion OK so here’s the first big issue to tackle: When do I need to write a thank you note? The Stationery A Postcard A Note Card 1. 2. 3.
Ten Virtues for the Modern Age The Virtues Project comes as a response to the wave of discussion and feedback that followed the publication of my book, Religion for Atheists, and a growing sense that being virtuous has become a strange and depressing notion, while wickedness and evil bask in a peculiar kind of glamour. My ultimate aim for the project is that it ignites a vital conversation around moral character to increase public interest in becoming more virtuous and connected as a society. In the modern world, the idea of trying to be a ‘good person’ conjures up all sorts of negative associations: of piety, solemnity, bloodlessness and sexual renunciation, as if goodness were something one would try to embrace only when other more difficult but more fulfilling avenues had been exhausted. Throughout history, societies have been interested in fostering virtues, in training us to be more virtuous, but we're one of the first generations to have zero public interest in this. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Various Knowledge Sharing Formats for Your Team Collaborative Learning Years ago, I asked a friend why he chose a company to work at. He answered, “When I was an intern there, the CTO recommends articles to read and encourages us to have brownbag lunch (sharing session) once a week.”. That time, I was transformed into a firm believer in the power of personal development activities. It is such a blessing that Dekoruma shares similar vision and support this kind of learning culture. That’s why Dekoruma Engineering Team has our sharing session once a week. #1 — Internal Talk One (or more) team member shares a topic to others. #2 — Lecture-from-neighbours Along with new knowledge we get, knowing what other divisions are doing increases our empathy towards them. #3 — Focus Group Discussion This is my favorite! Instead of splitting the team in random, Moderator could split based on participants’ background and expertise so they can relate well with the topic being discussed. Captain Obvious. OK. Other ideas Our team never try this, but these are my wishlist:
Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Tips on How to Write a Great Story By Maria Popova The year of reading more and writing better is well underway with writing advice the likes of David Ogilvy’s 10 no-bullshit tips, Henry Miller’s 11 commandments, Jack Kerouac’s 30 beliefs and techniques, John Steinbeck’s 6 pointers, and various invaluable insight from other great writers. Now comes Kurt Vonnegut (November 11, 1922–April 11, 2007) — anarchist, Second Life dweller, imaginary interviewer of the dead, sad soul — with eight tips on how to write a good short story, narrated by the author himself. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.Start as close to the end as possible.Be a Sadist.
Money <em>can</em> buy happiness… if you spend it on other people | Not Exactly Rocket Science “This planet has – or rather had – a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.” – Douglas Adams In this pithy paragraph, the sorely missed Douglas Adams sums up a puzzling paradox of modern life – we often link happiness to money and the spending of it, even though both proverbs and psychological surveys suggest that the two are unrelated. Across and within countries, income has an incredibly weak effect on happiness once people have enough to secure basic needs and standards of living. I can’t get no… satisfcation But a new study reveals that money can indeed buy happiness… if it’s spent on others. Finally, Dunn tested this theory through an experiment. Hey big spender There is a silver lining then.
8 Things Everybody Ought to Know About Concentrating “Music helps me concentrate,” Mike said to me glancing briefly over his shoulder. Mike was in his room writing a paper for his U.S. History class. On his desk next to his computer sat crunched Red Bulls, empty Gatorade bottles, some extra pocket change and scattered pieces of paper. In the pocket of his sweat pants rested a blaring iPod with a chord that dangled near the floor, almost touching against his Adidas sandals. On his computer sat even more stray objects than his surrounding environment. Mike made a shift about every thirty seconds between all of the above. Do you know a person like this? The Science Behind Concentration In the above account, Mike’s obviously stuck in a routine that many of us may have found ourselves in, yet in the moment we feel it’s almost an impossible routine to get out of. When we constantly multitask to get things done, we’re not multitasking, we’re rapidly shifting our attention. Phase 1: Blood Rush Alert Phase 2: Find and Execute Phase 3: Disengagement
Öğretmenlerin değişimine yol açan mesleki gelişim eğitimleri : Beşi Bir Yerde Yaz dönemi öncesi, sırası ve sonrasında, öğretmenlere yönelik seminerler, hizmet içi eğitimler ya da mesleki gelişim programları hazırlanır. Öğretmen olarak bazısına katılmanız zorunludur. Bazısına para ödeyerek katılırsınız. Bazısının havalı isminden ya da eğitimcinin karizmasından etkilenirsiniz. Peki katıldığınız eğitimler gerçekten etkili mi? Etkiliyse neye etkili? Kuramsal modeller, mesleki gelişim programlarının etkili olduğunu, öğretmene kattığıyla ölçer. Bu çıktılardan birinde ya da birkaçında değişime yol açan mesleki gelişim eğitimleri, etkili mesleki gelişim eğitimleridir. Seminer dönemleri, mesleki gelişim için fırsatlardır. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Son 20 senedir bu özellikler üzerine araştırmalar yapılıp, hangisinin en önemli olduğu incelenmiştir. Evet, eğitimlerin alan bilgisine odaklanması en etkili özelliktir. Tabii ki mesleki gelişim eğitimlerinde “beşi bir yerde” bulmak zor! Mesleki gelişimin bu beş özelliği öğretmenlere ne anlatıyor? Kaynakça 1.
21 Writing Prompts for Setting a Scene in Your Novel When you’re writing (or rewriting) a scene, do you ever get the feeling you just don’t have enough to say? Sure, there’s the action–but what about all the extra bits meant to flesh out your story? While I don’t encourage overwriting for the sake of word count, meaningful details can help you establish setting and atmosphere. Last week, I sat down with John Banville’s Booker Prize winning novel, The Sea–a book that features prose I admire–and took careful notes about how the author managed to effectively set certain scenes. Here’s just one of its many beautiful passages : I would not swim again, after that day. From this passage, I know the narrator is remembering something unpleasant from his past, and the imagery foreshadows what happens later in the story. Based on my reading, the following are 21 writing prompts for creating depth in your prose: Where does the scene take place? What other prompts can you share to help us set the scene?
To predict what will make you happy, ask a stranger rather than guessing yourself | Not Exactly Rocket Science Want to know how much you’d enjoy an experience? You’re better off asking someone who has been through it, even if they’re a complete stranger, than to find out information for yourself. This advice comes from Daniel Gilbert from Harvard University, who espoused it in his superb book Stumbling on Happiness. Now, he has found new support for the idea by studying speed-daters and people receiving feedback from their peers. In the first study, he found that female students were better able to predict how much they would enjoy a speed-date if they listened to the experiences of strangers than if they make their own assessments based on available information. This interesting result masks a second one of equal importance – people don’t believe that this works. Time and again, psychological studies have found that we overestimate how happy we will be after winning a prize, starting a new relationship or taking revenge against those who have wronged us. Photo by Laughlin, found on Flickr
The Ten Most Revealing Psych Experiments Psychology is the study of the human mind and mental processes in relation to human behaviors - human nature. Due to its subject matter, psychology is not considered a 'hard' science, even though psychologists do experiment and publish their findings in respected journals. Some of the experiments psychologists have conducted over the years reveal things about the way we humans think and behave that we might not want to embrace, but which can at least help keep us humble. 1. The Robbers Cave Experiment is a classic social psychology experiment conducted with two groups of 11-year old boys at a state park in Oklahoma, and demonstrates just how easily an exclusive group identity is adopted and how quickly the group can degenerate into prejudice and antagonism toward outsiders. Researcher Muzafer Sherif actually conducted a series of 3 experiments. 2. This infamous experiment to plumb the depths of evil in human hearts ended up affecting its lead researcher as much as its subjects. 3. 4.
50 Alternatives To Lecturing by TeachThought Staff As teachers, when we lecture, we have the best of intentions. We have a concept we want the class to understand, so we stand and explain it to them. We give them background. Offer details. Anticipate and pre-empt common misconceptions. So explaining things isn’t ‘bad,’ so how about beginning with some clarification. Everyone loves a story, and unless you’re awful, your students probably like you and want to hear from you. Or in a ‘flipped classroom’ setting where the ‘lecture’ is designed to be consumed at the student’s own pace (using viewing strategies, for example). Or when students have mastered a core set of understandings, and are ready–in unison–to hear something from an honest-to-goodness expert who only has an hour to unload what he/she knows. All students are similarly motivated All students have mastered certain ‘listening strategies’ All students have a similar background knowledge The List of Alternatives To Lectures For Teachers So then, the list. 1. 2.
13 ways to create compelling characters 1. Make the character exceptional at something. Give your character a trait or skill that makes him or her admirable in some way. It doesn’t have to be anything over-the-top. Maybe she’s an office manager…who is an amazing cook. As soon as that character is really good at something, the reader perks up. 2. This is so effective that screenwriters often use a “save the cat” scene (and the better the screenwriter, the subtler the scene) near the beginning of the screenplay to make the audience like and identify with the character. As soon as you show the character genuinely caring about the world, the reader starts to care. 3. Hands-down, one of the best pieces of writing advice I’ve ever received in my life. 4. I’m not talking about dialect or verbal tics or anything gimmicky. 5. Your characters might exist for the sake of the story…but you need to create the illusion that they don’t. But what the reader sees should be the tip of the iceberg that suggests the bulk below the water. 6. 7. 8.