Tag Archives: thinking

Can’t you make it more interesting? To me it’s like I’ve heard it all before.

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Yesterday I spent quite a while making a new infogram about what Year 12 students must do over the Term 1 holidays. Before I publish these types of things I always seek my daughter’s opinion on the points  – she being in Year 12 – I find it is very important that she thinks it is worthwhile putting it ‘out there’. Well last night I got a response that I was not expecting – you can read it in the post heading…

I must admit, I was offended. I did try to explain how important it was but to no avail, so I just shut down and watched some mindless TV prior to one of my favourites on a Wednesday night – I love “The Good Wife” – are you shocked?

parmiggiano sauceAnyhow, back to the point, I can be easily distracted, and am especially good at procrastinating with work although this tends to be an advantage for my family as I mostly procrastinate and avoid ‘work’ by cooking. BTW I have already prepared a Calabrian parmiggiano sauce for tonight’s dinner!

Fight it – back to topic at hand. So now after I’ve had a chance to think I’d like to propose 7 ‘interesting’ points that I hope will inspire Year 12s and in fact any student to ponder during the term break.

You’re tired. Tired of early wake ups, tired of trudging your way to school, tired of attending and listening to blablablabla lots of work to do, blablabla here’s the homework, blablabla SAC coming up next week, blablabla in preparation for SACs you need to … blablabla. Tired of coming home to do more work, prepare study notes, watch this video, read that text, complete these exercises, study, study, study. Am I warm? Okay then, why not take a break? Yes I know, your teachers have said that you need to do at least 10 hours of work over the holidays – and for Year 12s that’s for EACH subject! So that means 50 hours of homework /study, over 10 days, not counting the weekends, that’s 5 hours a day on average. So let’s break that down:

  1. 10 days = 240 hours (not counting 3 weekends x 2 days in each = 6 days, 144 hours free).
  2. 24 hours in a day minus 5 hours of homework / study = 19 hours free
  3. 19 hours free, let’s say, 10 hours sleep = 9 hours per day free
  4. 9 hours a day for 10 days = 90 hours free
  5. 90 hours over 10 days to work, travel, socialise or just lounge around, finally…
  6. 144 hours (weekends) minus 40 hours (per day) average sleep time (or less cause you are too busy raging) + 90 hours (week days) over two weeks = 194 hours free over the term break – and yes it does include lunch at Nonna’s house on Easter Sunday BUT the Easter Monday public holiday makes up for it, so no complaints!
  7. If we do the calculations for time over the last term, that is 10 weeks of school (50 days, actually less due to staggered start times, and a public holiday or two) but essentially 50 days x 24 hours = 1200 hrs. School’s in for 7 hours (8:30am-3:30pm) a day for 50 days = 350 hours, Year 12s should be doing at least 3 hours of homework / study a night, 3 x 50 = 150 hours. Calculating an average of 8 hours sleep per night over 50 days = 400 hours. That means 1200 minus 350, minus 150, minus 400 = 300 hours free, not including weekends over the 50 weeks. So you only had 300 hours during weekdays over 50 weeks of the term BUT you get 194 hours free over two weeks during term break. Get the picture?

Okay, was that a bit more interesting, something you haven’t heard before?

Good! Now … let me spell out your 6 MUST DOs for the holidays…that is… if you WANT to do well in VCE / HSC at the end of the year. If not, well enjoy your holidays but don’t blame the system if you don’t achieve your best, whatever that might be + effort = satisfaction. Dreams + No / little effort = Disappointment. I’ll let you choose…

Here’s the infogram I prepared yesterday
6Mustdosovertheholidays title=
easel.ly

You can’t teach what you don’t know

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NeurotransmitterWelcome 🙂

Let’s learn a few things about the Logic of English

Did you know…?

  • English words DO NOT end in i, u, v or j

That’s why ‘boy’ is spelt b-oy and not as the sound suggests b-oi

  • C softens to an ‘s’ sound after e, i and y, otherwise we say ‘k’

think about it in terms of the word ‘circus’

  • a, e, o, u usually say their names at the end of syllables 

think paper, pa  – per

we use double letters to shorten sounds in syllables, for example, sound out pepper, pep – per, otherwise we would pronounce it ‘peper’ pe – per

  • one of the most misspelt words is ‘miscellaneous’

now let’s think about it as we apply the rules above;

mis  cel  la  ne  ous

mis (all good) cel (why is it an ‘s’ sound? because of the ‘e’) la (a says its name at the end of a syllable) ne (e also says its name at the end of a syllable) ous (ou is a phonogram, both letters together make this sound). Does that make more sense now?

Cool, right?

Want to know more?

Watch this Logic of English video

Do we teach this to our students? Could we? Would it make a difference to our understanding and development of reading and writing and would it improve spelling? Let me know what you think, click below and leave a reply.

Thanks for reading 🙂

Are the hats really old hat?

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sixhatsI’ve now spent way too many days thinking about this – I guess in hindsight, now that I begin to write this article, I should’ve used the hats – just came to me then!

WHITE: Edward de Bono first published his book on the Six Thinking Hats way back in 1985. When he first designed them de Bono had no idea how widespread and rapid the phenomenon would be. De Bono is credited with coining the phrase ‘lateral thinking’.

There are a number of bloggers having a great old time debating the issue of the validity of the hats. There are also bloggers who support them. These articles are very entertaining – in fact they kept me up half the night reading them, along with the barrage of comments they received from others.

RED: I feel that these hats have had quite a pounding from people over the years. Seems to me that we always feel the need to correct, make it better or dismiss it right away based on other’s experience. We tend not to nut it out properly and if it doesn’t work the first time well it’s not worth it. Actually I think after all this that I much prefer the way I use the hats –
regardless of how they were intended. I know! Imagine being different. At first when I realised that it wasn’t exactly how de Bono intended them to be used I thought, hey they are a tool that I could use my way to enhance the learning of my students and by the way – I’ve also used them with adults AND will continue to use them for my own selfish reasons. There I’ve said it!

I agree with  bt0558‘s  comment; “I have no problem with any teacher choosing not to use a technique/strategy as they aren’t convinced, however to suggest that there is no value in a technique and that a technique is silly is to cast doubt on their judgement and their professionalism in my view.”

YELLOW:The hats have certainly enhanced my students’ thinking  – yes there would probably have been some other strategy that would have done the same but we use the hats and they work. One of the rules I have using the hats is that when under the hat, regardless of what colour, you have total immunity in what you say and think. It is an opportunity for the student or adult to express what it is they wish to say whilst under a hat – and no you don’t have to wear it!!!. I find it most useful to use the hats as a way to evaluate a class, a theory, a professional learning experience. My youngest daughter used them to complete a book review many years ago. It was such an interesting approach; she was so excited about the process and eventual learning that came from it that I have always remembered it. 

BLACK: This is the most essential hat in that t keeps everyone on their toes. This is where the devils’ advocate resides and they are the ones who keep everyone else honest.

GREEN: As I commented earlier – I tend to use the hats in a number of different ways. I have an old fashioned laminated version of six different hats that I like to have on me for all classes and professional development sessions. I put them on the floor and have participants move to the hat under which they would like to comment. Each then gets an opportunity to speak without interruption on the topic or activity at hand. It’s a really good process as almost everyone will speak even the shy ones because they have immunity! I once ran a PD session with teachers who sat in groups around six tables. Each table had a different coloured hat and participants could only respond/think/discuss using the hat on their particular table. In other words, those on the yellow hat table could only respond positively, those on the white could only offer facts etc…etc.. I’ll tell you it was quite a difficult task.

RED: How I do feel now that I have had a chance to air my view on the hats? I feel great! The question is…how do you feel about the hats? Does it matter that they have been around a while? Have you used them successfully? Share your experiences with us. Have you had any not so successful experiences? These reflections are just as valid and assist us in reviewing and revising. Feel free to share these too!

BLUE: I have always maintained that if a strategy works for you then use it. Keep in mind that some strategies work in some class but not in others so be prepared to review and revise so as to fit in with your groups’ needs. 

doing-it-wrong“Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why. Then do it.”― Robert A. Heinlein