August 2016 – Happy Schools

Brain Food – Part 1

August 25, 2016

We are the architects and builders of our own brains. For millennia, however, we were oblivious to our enormous creative capabilities. We had no idea that our brains were changing in response to our actions and attitudes, every day of our lives. We unconsciously and randomly shaped our brains and our latter years because we believed we had an immutable brain that was at the mercy of our genes. Nothing could be further from the truth. The human brain is continually altering its structure, cell number, circuitry and chemistry as a direct result of everything we do, experience, think and believe. This is called “neuroplasticity” and comes from two words: neuron or nerve cell and plastic, meaning malleable or able…

When Teaching gets Tough

August 18, 2016

Stevef

Resilience

Working in schools can be tough and seems to be getting even more challenging. Each year things seem to get tougher! Changes in the curriculum, increased accountability, demanding or absent parents, poor student behaviour, changes in society, tightening budgets and a push to do more with less all contribute to increased pressure in schools. We work with people every day and people are unpredictable. Many of the great staff who work in schools express their frustration that working in schools is tougher than it used to be. I’d argue that working in schools is tough and has always been tough. Have there always been so many stressed out staff? Research undertaken for my Masters back in 1995 highlighted high levels…

Can Optimism Change Reality

August 11, 2016

Stevef

Engagement

Educators have long been aware of self-fulfilling prophecies. Recent research on brain activity from Dr Tali Sharot’s book ‘The Optimism Bias’, clearly illustrates why our expectations of our students are so important. The problem with pessimistic expectations, such as those of the clinically depressed, is that they have the power to alter the future; negative expectations shape outcomes in a negative way. How do expectations change reality? To answer this question my colleague, cognitive neuroscientist Sara Bengtsson, devised an experiment in which she manipulated positive and negative expectations of students while their brains were scanned and tested their performance on cognitive tasks. To induce expectations of success, she primed college students with words such as smart, intelligent and clever just…

The Toxic Staffroom

August 4, 2016

Stevef

Teamwork

What I am about to discuss here occurs in many staffrooms that I have worked in. You have been at work a few hours and it is time to head to the staffroom for lunch. Let us say that it is Monday morning and everyone wishes it was Friday. I have been here a few times! You sit down with a group of fellow teachers and discuss your weekend, usually on a positive note and then the conversation turns to work. Is it a positive conversation? Not usually. The staffroom in my experience is usually an opportunity for people to complain about their problems, whether this is home or work related. Have you been involved in this type of conversation?…