Friday Mindset #177

Happy Friday!

OK, we have a free training session coming up. We’ve been doing a fair bit of work recently with disengaged students who are two or more grades from where they want to be, and are mired in despondency and inertia. It’s a tough gig… but we think we’ve got something that’s making a difference, and we’d like to share it.

We’ll be trying to keep numbers small, so get in quickly! The details:

DATE: Monday February 9th, at 3:45pm for 45 minutes.

TOPIC: Effective Pre-Exam Intervention

If you’d like to come along, email [email protected], and we’ll send you the Zoom link. Of course you’ll get the all-important powerpoint too.

OK! Onto this week’s stuff.

We’ve not banged on about resolutions at all this year. We’ve been keeping our powder dry having been inspired by Austin Kleon. “February’s a better month for resolutions than January,” Kleon argues in a piece called ‘A Clean Four Weeks’…

…and the notion got us thinking. Could we set a Four Week February Resolution?

Let’s dive in…

Something we're reading...

Scott Young writes well here about strategies to help you read one book per week.

So how about we all share the same February Resolution - to read four books by March 1st. If you’re short on ideas, we’re going to suggest your four-book curriculum right here. But first, Young’s quick and simple guide to reading more:

Now your suggestions. We’ve kept them all relatively short, and we’ve chosen stuff we’ve read and loved…

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

…but what do we know? Read four books you’re excited to get your teeth into. And spread the word among your students too!

Bonus: Adam Mastroianni (a regular here) argues, in another beautifully constructed essay, that the death of reading has actually been exaggerated…

Something to try...

We read a lot about AI, regularly, and keep up to date with what’s going on.

And what really gets us mad is the “it’s coming for our jobs and no-one’s safe” white-collar-blood-bath narrative we hear so often. It’s ill-informed guesswork and it’s bad for students. No wonder nouveau nihilism is on the rise.

So in this week’s powerpoint, we’re taking you through a fascinating AI-related study.

A group of computer programmers - often cited as the first profession that will be entirely culled - are tasked with using AI to help complete a series of regular work jobs. You’ll be amazed at what happens…

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