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Simplify Your Life Through Routines- part 2

In Part 1 we shared the first 5 tips to survive the craziness at the end of the year and avoid feeling overwhelmed with work, deadlines and personal responsibilities. The key to managing these demands and simplifying your life is to establish routines. Here in Part 2 are tips 6 to 10 to help you create routines that can simplify your life and make your workday more efficient. 6. USE THE TWO-MINUTE RULE The two-minute rule, from David Allen’s, “Getting Things Done”, suggests that if a task takes less than two minutes, do it immediately. This keeps minor tasks from piling up and cluttering your to-do list, allowing you to stay organised and maintain momentum throughout the day. 7. SIMPLIFY…

Simplify Your Life Through Routines- part 1

In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with work, deadlines and personal responsibilities, especially at this time of the year. The key to managing these demands and simplifying your life lies in establishing routines. When you structure your day with effective habits, you reduce decision fatigue, save time and ultimately get more done. Here are the first five of ten simple tips to help you create routines that can simplify your life and make your workday more efficient. 1. START YOUR DAY WITH A MORNING ROUTINE A solid morning routine sets a positive tone for the rest of your day. Wake up at the same time daily, hydrate and spend a few minutes doing something calming like stretching…

Technology is NOT a substitute for teaching (Part 2)

July 25, 2024

In part 1 last week, I described an activity utilising technology to present student research. Producing the movie took much longer than doing the research. Whilst the additional learning is beneficial, the problem here is two-fold. First, the actual subject-relevant learning portion of the assignment (research and writing) took up a tiny fraction of her time. The additional learning (how to use the video-making software) may be valuable as a future workplace skill but the actual process of making the movie was really ‘busy work’. Once you’ve edited images to match one 5-second audio segment, you don’t learn anything more by editing the remaining 59 segments! It was an utterly ineffective use of potentially valuable study time. Second, the point…

Technology is NOT a substitute for teaching (Part 1)                                         

July 18, 2024

Infusing education with technology is a wonderful idea. Classrooms with access to the internet and mobile devices have marvellous opportunities to make learning relevant to 21st Century students. Technology offers new ways to enable and encourage self-learning, engage students with content and build capability in vital workplace skills. However, as with every other educational strategy or tool, technology is only effective when embedded in a well thought out learning experience and specifically applied to support learning outcomes. Unfortunately, the rush to incorporate technology into our schools and classrooms       (eg BYOD) has in some cases served to undermine fundamentally sound teaching and learning strategies. The overwhelming notion seems to be that, if we incorporate a computer, mobile phone or iPad somewhere…

Cut Them Some Slack

We rarely know what is going on in other people’s lives. Whilst we might be frustrated by the behaviour of our students (and at times by our colleagues or boss) we rarely know all of the information about what is going on in their lives. We don’t necessarily know about health issues, financial pressures or other challenges they, or their family, are currently facing. We don’t necessarily know when they have had a sleepless night or an argument before coming to school. Many of our students also have additional demands placed on them.  Many students are coping with health issues in their families, living with chronic sickness, surviving the death of a loved one, the break-up of a family, helping…

Relationships Are Important in Managing Student Behaviour

April 11, 2024

I’ve often heard the statement ‘students don’t learn from people they don’t like!’ In ‘Kids These Days’, author and psychologist Jody Carrington says, “Kids won’t learn from people who they think don’t like them.” This statement resonates with me and is consistent with behaviour management guru Bill Rogers’ position that the best teachers are warm-demanding. They have that balance where they have the warmth to relate to students but are also demanding and have  clear expectations of their students. Teachers who are too warm and want to be every students BFF are unlikely to be respected. However, teachers who are too strict and gruff (They follow the “Don’t smile until Easter” philosophy), are unlikely to engage students. The sweet spot…

Decide Like A General

April 4, 2024

In the ever-evolving landscape of education, where challenges can often feel like battlefronts, the wisdom of military strategy can offer valuable insights. Just as generals must navigate complex terrain, staff in schools must navigate the intricacies of molding young minds and managing educational environments. Here are some key principles borrowed from the world of generals to help guide decision-making in schools: Vision and Mission Like generals, educators must have a clear vision and mission. What are the overarching goals of the school? What values do you want to instill in your students? By defining these objectives, every decision can be aligned with the broader purpose of education. Situational Awareness Generals excel at understanding the battlefield and educators must similarly grasp…

Attitude Adjustment Hour- Part 2

July 20, 2023

In part 1, I wrote about the importance of reflecting on our attitude and adjusting it,      if necessary, through an Attitude Adjustment Hour. I challenged you to get some feedback from your partner or children about the attitude you display when you get home each day. I’d suggest it might be a good exercise to have a few attitude adjustment moments each day.  Perhaps on the way to school, become conscious of what you are thinking about work and your day.  Do you have a positive or negative attitude? Are you feeling enthusiastic or bored? Consider what sort of attitude or thinking you could choose instead? Perhaps at lunchtime, spend a few minutes listening to yourself and the quality of…

Attitude Adjustment Hour- Part 1

July 13, 2023

Most of us would be familiar with the term ‘Happy Hour’ (also known in some places as ‘attitude adjustment hour’) used by many hotels to promote their half price drinks between 5pm ish and 6pm ish.  How awful that we link alcohol with attitude adjustment but the concept of attitude adjustment is great. ‘Attitude’ is defined in the dictionary ‘posture of the body; settled behaviour as showing opinion’.  The thesaurus uses these words – ‘stance, type, kind, pattern, frame of mind, mood’. It seems to me that attitude refers to the way we perceive things in life; what we filter all our information through; the ‘glasses’ through which we look at the world; the way we taint, colour or tint…

Is It Time to Declutter?

Over the years, I, like many teachers, have collected a lot of “stuff”. I’m not sure if it is because budgets are tight and we are frugal or we always think we might be able to reuse that resource again “someday” but many teachers are loathe to throw things away. I recently culled a drawer in my filing cabinet and threw away spirit duplicator masters that I had saved from my beginning teacher days. (If you don’t know what a spirit duplicator is  – google it!) This hoarding can contribute to cluttered classrooms. The environment in which we work can have a significant impact on our productivity, efficiency and overall well-being. This is especially true in the case of classrooms,…

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