Friday Mindset #154

Happy Friday fellow travellers.

OK, half term’s in sight. We can do this. Just got to firm it as the students around here say. (Firmin’ it, Sir ie. just getting my head down and getting through, is that a regional thing or are all the cool kids using it?)

Anyway. The plan is to firm it.

Right, so, our IT’s been playing up and lots of you have emailed to say you can’t access last week and the week before’s stuff so before we get started with this issue, here are those links again. (Hopefully this time working, email us if not!)

The Working in Sprints powerpoint from two weeks ago:

And Martin’s video exploring be goals and do goals from last week:

Plus we’ve gone back over older newsletters and started fixing the links there too. You should be able to access old issues and watch Cal Newport talking about PISA scores. You should be able to get the Jade Bowler video about Odyssey Planning and the handout that goes with it. We’re fixing things, slowly but surely. Apologies!

OK, all done. Let’s jump in.

Something we're reading...

Audrey Watters has been writing about technology in education for fifteen years at her blog, Hack Education. She’s thoughtful but forthright, and filthy too. A fun combination. We were directed towards this piece recently, and loved it.

Watters despairs at Trump’s education policies, then outlines her newsletter’s mission statement thus: “Each week, I gather lots of links to stories – news, essays, what have you – that shed light on what's happening in education/technology. Then, in this Friday newsletter, I try to sum things up, identify key trends, point to provocations others have written.”

But this issue’s different. She’s furious, and it shows. Usual business is suspended. “Instead,” she says, “I'm going to link to 12 of the best books that I've read so far this year and encourage you all to get off the Internet and read a book. Read it in paperback or hardcover. Read a digital version. Listen to it read out loud to you by the author or by a voice actor. I do not care. But read a book. This is the literacy initiative we need right now: actually f*****g reading.”

This isn’t one for the classroom, folks. Watters drops f-bombs like they’re going out of fashion. But she’s full of righteous fury and we were fascinated by the list of recommended books too.

(Seems unnecessary to say but we’re gonna anyway - Watters’ views and opinions are just that: Watters’ views and opinions. Personally, we love hearing from people we agree with, and we love hearing from people we don’t. Like anyone else, feel free to agree or disagree with Watters’ position on these or any other issues.)

Portal Talk...

We mentioned it last week, but a quick reminder, we’ve been shortlisted for a BESA school award. Yes!

So listen - we thought we’d take this opportunity to go right back to basics.

If you read this newsletter each week, but don’t really know what the VESPA psychometric questionnaire is, or what this portal stuff is all about… well, consider this four-minute summary your crash course!

Over to Tony…

Something to try...

We’ve got another powerpoint for you this week.

It’s about learned helplessness - the mistaken belief we have no power to change a situation, even when opportunities present themselves. Just like you surely have, we’ve come across students who experience study problems… and have the solutions right there in front of them. It’s just they seem incapable of seeing them, or enacting them until they’re nudged into taking the first steps.

The powerpoint contains two terrific audio clips from a Radio 4 discussion show about dropping out of university (hyperlinks provided). There’s a level of passivity and learned helplessness in the stories that’s really sad. Students can listen, and speculate about what actions they might have taken in those situations.

We’ve found they’re good at generating solutions for other people’s problems… and that they’re then a little more open when moving on to their own study challenges.

Enjoy - and remember, as ever, you might need to download the resource in order to watch the vid and listen to the clips…

Our latest offer...

Steve, Tony and Martin are actually in the same country together this summer. Not something that happens very often, so we thought we’d celebrate with a training day.

On Monday 14th July, we thought we might book a venue and catering in Central Manchester (venue tbc) near the train stations, and have a day’s training, running roughly 9:30-3:30pm.

We’d keep it small, cover things like: (i) new VESPA activities, (ii) effective coaching (iii) building independent learning (iv) building aspiration, (v) effective evidence-based revision…

…basically anything you wanted - you could email in and let us know, and we’d design the day around you. It’d cost something, because we have to hire a place and put on some catering, but it’d be a decent price, nothing your CPD budget-holder would blanch at.

But will we have enough interest? If you could do us a favour and let us know by adding a quick vote?

No obligation of course - we’re just testing the water. And if you want to get in touch and suggest content, we’re standing by at [email protected].

And that’s about it for this week. Next week, our half-term break begins, and all our newsletter stats tell us no-one reads our stuff the Friday before the hols - no-one can be even bothered opening the email 😂 …and we don’t blame you. So we’ll be rolling down the shutters here, and coming back on Friday 6th June.

See you then!

All the best to you and yours,

Martin, Steve and Tony

One last thing…

This newsletter is the 100% hand-typed output of three real people.

We toggle every AI co-pilot setting to ‘off’, do everything ourselves, and say no to every eager advertiser of mushroom tea or CBD gummies. But every now and again, to cover the cost of books and postage, we’ll ask if you wouldn’t mind buying us a coffee. If you’re enjoying our work or finding anything useful, why not sling us a hot drink.

Cheers,