Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell explains what outliers are on his website Gladwell dot com. His audiobook, read by him (bonus) was full of interesting stories to demonstrate why people experience success and how it is not so random or bizarre, but a natural result of practise, their cultural heritage and the times they were born into. He draws on examples from almost every field you could think of. I couldn’t help but be interested in it… even when he was talking about sporting successes.
He is convincing. He tells his stories well and I am reminded that if I practise something for 10 000 hours, I will be an expert. I have recently downloaded ‘The Tipping Point’ and am looking forward to listening to that during the holidays. His writing facinates and engages me and I find my self thinking how obvious what he says is, and I’m glad he has investigated it enough to prove it.
My favourite quote for my students “Repetition leads to discovery” by Buckminster Fuller remains current. I have been amused at how many year 12 students that I taught in year 7 remind me of it still with a smile on their faces as though they have discovered the truth of it for themselves. I’m not sure if I have for myself though and that could be why I keep learning about it.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Sacred Contracts by Caroline Myss
I love the confident tone of Caroline Myss when she speaks about the invisible. ‘Sacred Contracts’ is about the agreements we made before we came to planet earth. It’s about purpose and is in no way the flakey or soft stuff that I’ve read so many times before. I enjoyed it. I learnt more about archetypes. I have a lot more to learn.
Caroline’s site has a ‘ Gallery of Archetypes’ that I intend to explore. I love listening to the audiobooks, yet they lack the appendices that ‘real’ books have. I’m glad I found the online reference, it makes up for it. There are 70 archetypes listed so I hope I will be able to find the 12 that are working in me if I put the time into it. Archetypes are ancient patterns basically and have both light and dark forms. I’m quite facinated with the idea right now.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Massage was Great
Great with a capital G! I have not been so impressed or rejuvenated by a massage for a long time. I haven’t had many this last year though to be honest. I waited until today to sing the praises though because I was waiting to see if I pulled up sore. It’s not always a bad thing to feel a bit tender the next day, but I don’t want to be crippled. I just feel great. I think after my second week of exercising that I’m finally starting to feel good in my body again.
I have to thank my daughter for referring this woman to me. She has been telling me for years to go to her, and I guess when she first told me I had been seeing Lynda for ages and was really satisfied with her. After trying a few other people who were just ok, I was reminded when I bought Asha a gift voucher for Christmas. Here it is March and I’ve finally got around to acting on that intention:-)
I’ve been listening to Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” whilst I’ve been exercising. It is just as gripping as “Blink” was. Each night when Darin gets home from work I tell him another thing I’ve heard. He won’t need to read those books. Did you know it takes 10 000 hours to be an expert at something? I have been trying to think if there is anything useful I’ve done for that amount of time other than sleep and breathe.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Stuck in the Slow Lane
Every time we go to the airport we are too early and have time to kill. This time we left a little later and got caught up in traffic. It was stressful! I take my hat off to people who travel in the city. I nearly stacked into the back of a car that seemed to suddenly stop today, though in truth I was engrossed in conversation and wasn’t paying full attention. We made it in time.
I dropped him off in the departures lane this time rather than parking and going in with him. I hate that walk back from the gate with the tears, it’s awkward, especially for him! I was much better dropping him off in the car and driving on. There were still a couple of tears but it was well and truly over by the time I got to Bolte Bridge and I managed to wait till he was out of the car.
It was a great drive home. I love driving alone. It’s a great space for reflection. I felt really grateful today for so many things in my life.
Tonight’s online webinar thingy for my uni course was good and it put me at ease in a lot of ways. I am excited now about the skills I will have to develop and pleased the ‘lecturer’ although he prefers ‘catalyst’ as a term for what he does, shares my general philosophy about learning. I felt quite self conscious about speaking with the microphone and chose to turn it off rather than hear my voice in that space.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Pruning
After attending the Cybersafe training day on Thursday I have pruned my facebook of all current students. I was reluctant to do that because I felt that I was a responsible user of social networking, but the implications and lack of control over what others post, creates vulnerabilities for teachers. I like to be socially inclusive. If a person I know requests to be my friend, I would need to have a clear reason for saying no. It’s easier to have no current students than to make judgement calls.
Greg Gebhart the facilitator is very knowledgeable and I highly recommend his site IT Vision for educators. I have completed a few IT courses with Greg over the past few years. He is a great resource to teachers having been a teacher and possessing a practical and grounded view of how to work with IT in schools.
I have also pruned my twitter account on the same basis. I’ve rid my feed of all the people I don’t read or aren’t really interested in as well as students. I don’t read my twitter feed that often though to be honest so I’ve created groups. The great thing about having different groups is that if I only check it once a week or so, I don’t miss as many posts in the areas I’ve created because the fewer amount of people makes it easier to catch up. Does that make sense?
I have also discovered a whole branch of my family on facebook this week. I think social networking is great. I love staying in touch with people who live all over the place. Although I generally have no time for reality TV, a family member is on ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ (vote Nick!), so I’ve been keeping up with his progress.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Cybersmart
Tomorrow I am going to a Cyberbullying course. We had a speaker talk to our year 7s and 10s yesterday and there was not much he spoke of that I wasn’t aware of. I have been attending these kinds of talks for a few years now. I want to keep up to date to keep kids as informed and safe as possible.
Many of the teachers were amazed though. It’s great the whole staff is getting exposed to this information now. The Cybersmart website has a handy red button to report any offensive online behaviour and a counselling hotline.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Study
I got my letter today to say I got into the course I applied for last year. I’m doing an ICT Education course at Charles Sturt by distance ed. I have an envelope full of forms to fill out. I feel a bit reluctant about it to be honest. I haven’t found universities to be the best places to learn, but I haven’t done any formal studies since the 90′s so I’m keeping an open mind about it. It may have changed. I’ll let you know:-) I hope it will assist me to be a better teacher in IT, instead of learning from my students all the time.
I went to the senior campus today to get a bit organised but it didn’t work. There weren’t many people about and I just don’t really know enough about the place to be able to do much. I got a map though so I should be able to find my way to my classes.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Counting Down
Yep, it’s less than a week until my birthday. I have revived my childhood habit of counting down the days. Well I’ve been doing it most of my life to be honest but I’ve just not been putting it out there (never had the internet then!). I know most people are counting down to Christmas, but those of us with birthdays in December will put off doing that until after our birthday if they are anything like me! I have refused to put up our Christmas tree until after my birthday, and then when my daughter came along on the 10th of December I wanted to wait until after that as well, so as not to mix up the celebrations. Darin’s is on the 27th, so that leaves a very slender gap for Christmas festivities, but hey, birthdays are important too!
I’ve been thinking about what being 43 has meant to me. Massive change is what comes to mind. Unexpected outcomes is another way I could describe this year. I expected I would be heading off to the UK to travel the world when Tom left home, yet before he moved on, I was creating for myself a reason to stay. It has all turned out differently than I thought. There have been changes to my home life, personal life and work life. I am happy with the changes and as unexpected as they all were, I couldn’t have planned them better than if I had a magic wand.
Much of what has occurred in my life this year I have kept to myself. Today I was talking to students about keeping their private life private. I hope I set an example of doing that because to be honest, I am concerned about the lack of privacy young people are demonstrating today. I read a lot of things online that aren’t considered thought. I love the internet and the opportunities to share things of value, but I worry about the lack of thought that appears to go into some electronic communications. I don’t blame the tools, I want to educate young people about the potential consequences.
I’ve learnt a lot this year about what is important to me. Parenting has been my primary role for nearly 20 years. When Tom left home this year things changed. Letting go is not all bad. It’s amazing how each year you look back and although it seems to have flown by at some level (although this year hasn’t had that feel to be honest), you still have seen a lot of change in your world.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Next Year
I am going to the senior campus of our school next year. I have known about it for a little while now and have been thinking about it. I am nervous for sure. I have reassured countless year 9s over the years about going to the ‘big’ school. This year I can actually share their anticipation. It is a mixture of excitement and apprehension.
I have loved working where I am. The community has been a solid part of my life. The people I work with are like a family to me. I see them every day. They have shared my joys and pains over these years. I have friends and helpful people surrounding me. Rhonda is there. I know who I can rely on. I know where all the resources are, I know the shortcuts. I have been teaching pretty much the same subjects for the past 8 years. I’ve had leadership positions in both curriculum and pastoral care roles, so I have explored what I can I guess. It’s very comfortable. It’s probably been too easy the past couple of years and I have perhaps become a bit complacent. I have felt my frustrations compounding and feel I have trapped myself in a bit of a negative spiral at times. I intend for this to be a fresh start to my thinking about work.
I look forward to learning more. There is a cool new library where I am going. There are some people I admire from a distance and it will be an opportunity to learn more from them. I know plenty of the people there, just not as well as I know those who are here. I look forward to teaching new levels in my favourite subjects. I have taught many of the students who will be there and I look forward to reconnecting with them. I expect this will give me a new lease on my professional life…. and I am due for it.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Teachers and Social Networking
In QLD teachers have been banned from contacting students on social networking sites. This bothers me. There are so many things I see as wrong about this stance. Students can run into trouble online. There are no adults in their lives giving them any feedback about the publishing they do online. I have attended a number of talks on cybersafety and cyberbullying. I read numerous blogs about education and using social networking software for educational purposes. This just reeks of people who don’t know what they are talking about wanting to control something they have limited understanding of.
I think inappropriate behaviour is not acceptable anywhere, banning useful tools is not going to stamp out inappropriate behaviour. Teachers have the potential to set an example online as they are expected to at school.
Michael Carr-Gregg at one of those talks last year said the internet was like the Wild West where the children were there with no adult supervision. These restrictions placed on teachers could discourage teachers from the learning and participation they need to effectively guide students. A fellow staff member attended a cybersafety course recently and told me they were advised not to talk about online participation if they had no experience of it. Students would see right through it. Makes sense doesn’t it?
Popularity: 6% [?]
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