- The Friday Mindset
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- Friday Mindset #171
Happy Friday!
Massive moment last week folks. Massive. Moment. We sent the newsletter out… and nobody unsubscribed. Not one person in nearly six thousand. Usually, the three hours it takes to put this together result in at least one person throwing themselves from the bus, often into oncoming traffic. Not last week though. Not last week.
OK, fingers on the unsubscribe button - here comes the stuff we thought might be useful to share this week!
Let’s dive in…
Something we're reading...
Dr Dominic Ng is a neuroscientist at Edinburgh University, and writes simply and persuasively in this piece about the tendency of the human brain to react emotionally - rather than practically or pragmatically - to challenge.
He discusses the kind of pushback we see students battle with all the time; ego protection and procrastination, and gives lots of clear examples that kids will immediately recognise. Then he suggests solutions. Very familiar solutions.
Our Ten Minute Rule, from The A Level Mindset, becomes the Two Minute Rule - a reflection perhaps on the erosion of attention since 2015, when we developed our version! 😂 Two minutes is too short, but he makes his point well. Our Mission and Medal, from The GCSE Mindset, becomes Reward Yourself. Our Inner Storytelling, from The A Level Mindset, becomes Pretend to be Someone You’re Not. And our Learner’s Manifesto from The Student Mindset becomes Be a Beginner.
In other words, a VESPA-endorsed article through-and-through. And of course, a good QTR (that’s Quick Tutorial Read). Enjoy!
And something for school and college leaders to study - we’ve enjoyed this two-pager on the characteristics of the best schools in Teach Secondary, trailing Mark and Zoe Enser’s new book. Zoom in!
Something to try...
In The VESPA Handbook, there’s an activity we love called Catching Clarity. In it, we provide a system for ensuring students never fall behind, let complex concepts defeat them, or misunderstandings multiply.
Recently, a school asked Martin to record an introduction to successful study for their students, and Catching Clarity was one of the activities he chose. What you’re getting here are two things - the slides that Martin used, and a video of him delivering the slides.
Hopefully, this should be all you need to deliver it yourself should you wish…
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