September 2018 – Happy Schools

Is Sleeplessness Killing Your Productivity- Part 1

September 27, 2018

Does this sound familiar? Worries and negative thoughts enter your head at night and become magnified. You check the time. 2.59am. You tell yourself ‘Go back to sleep’. Your neck, back and shoulders ache and you can’t get comfortable. The stress builds! Pretty soon the mind starts racing and worries from your day merge with anxiety about not being able to sleep. ‘How will I cope tomorrow if I can’t sleep?’ You check the time again. 3.33am! The cycle continues. A lack of sleep can alter your mood, motivation, alertness and ability to make decisions, which often leads to more stress and anxiety, then more broken sleep – and so on, in a seemingly endless cycle. The reason stress keeps…

How Can the Pareto Principle Help?

September 20, 2018

Stevef

Efficiency

Working in schools, there is always a lot to be done and never enough time. Time is a valuable commodity. The Pareto Principle can be helpful in ensuring we utilise our time well. Whilst you might not have heard of it as the Pareto Principle, the 80 / 20 rule, as it is more commonly known can help us get more done. First identified by Italian mathematician Vilfredo Pareto in 1906, the Pareto Principle was used to describe the unequal distribution of wealth. Pareto observed that twenty percent of the people had eighty percent of the wealth. In the late 1940s, quality guru, Dr. Joseph M. Juran, attributed the 80/20 Rule to Pareto, calling it Pareto’s Principle. The 80/20 Rule…

Encourage Persistence Through Meaningful Struggle

September 13, 2018

Stevef

Engagement

The well documented research by Stamford University on the ability of four year olds to delay their gratification is commonly referred to as the Marshmallow Test. The children were given the choice of immediately eating a marshmallow or if they could wait and resist the temptation to eat the marshmallow, they would be rewarded with a second marshmallow. Of the 600 children tested, only 200 children were able to delay their gratification and therefore receive the reward. Stamford reported a high correlation between this ability and future success. This importance of persistence, focusing on a task and “doing the work” is not likely to be a surprise to most educators. This is consistent with the key messages in Dr Carol…

R U OK?

September 6, 2018

Stevef

Resilience

R U OK? Day is a national day of action dedicated to encouraging all Australians to ask family, friends and colleagues ‘Are you OK?‘ The day is held on the second Thursday of September (13 September in 2018). R U OK? Day is designed to target the whole population, to help all people understand the role they can play in supporting those grappling with a problem, big or small. Most people don’t openly share their feelings, particularly if they are struggling. The best thing we can all do is regularly talk to the people we care about. Schools are often the hub of a community. As well as touching base with our colleagues, staff in schools often have a connection with members…