Friday Mindset #90

Happy Friday!

The last of the kids have drifted off in the direction of the park, seeking sufficient shade to watch live-streams of mindless vandalism. The site team, sweat-patches on their polo shirts, are sweeping up ice cream wrappers and complaining about how football’s all about money these days, and the teaching staff, weary with heat and seeking a chilly brace of lager-tops, have gone to a dodgy boozer that refers to its twenty-square feet of weed-infested concrete as a ‘garden’.

Which leaves us, still here, taking ten minutes to decompress and think about how next year, we’re going to do things just that little bit better.

OK, let’s dive in!

Something to try...

We first visited Loughborough College to do some staff training in 2018. Since then, the work staff have put into student support has been hugely impressive, and their newly acquired ‘outstanding’ is richly deserved. We’ve been back twice in the last year to deliver training and support, and we’ve been so impressed with the dedication of staff. The expectations and support they give for developing independent learners is impressive. We took this photo is one of their classrooms last time we were there:

It’s of course gratifying to see the college developing resources like this based on examples we shared during our training sessions. Resources like this are so good at demystifying the process of independent learning. (We’re sometimes sent versions schools and colleges have developed after a visit and they’re pretty much always better than ours!)

We’re running staff training sessions loosely called ‘Building Independent Learners’ and they’re going well - let us know if you’re interested in developing resources like the one above in your context.

Something we're reading...

This is a great article on thinking. We mean really great, with lots of hyperlinked goodies to follow too. It takes as its starting point a famous speech given by former Yale Professor of English William Deresiewicz, called Solitude and Leadership, in which he extols the virtues of single-task thinking, rather than the multi-tasking pseudo-busyness of modern knowledge work.

We hadn’t seen it before this week, but it reminded us of Martin’s video about protecting an hour a week for thinking time.

Students might (might) really enjoy digging into this and reflecting on their own levels of thinking…

Portal Talk…

AI in Education - Part Two

As the hype around AI takes hold, I decided I’d explore the impact it is likely to have in education. Last week I gave you loads, this week’s the leftovers. Here’s part two of our discoveries…

The Educause Horizon Report profiles the key trends and emerging technologies and practices shaping the future of higher education. The report is a fascinating read, and envisions a number of scenarios and implications for the future, based on the perspectives and expertise of a global panel of leaders from across the higher education landscape.

Check it out here:

And one more thing - it’s a great time to subscribe to the VESPA Portal (see below), before the rush in September! If you would like a free demo please use my booking link below to arrange a convenient time.

Our latest offer...

One more for this month’s discount offer, and then we promise we’ll stop spamming you about it! We’re offering a discount on our online materials if purchased in June. That’s right, friends, if you use the code VAJUNE23 at checkout, you’ll get a 20% discount on any of our online materials - that’s questionnaires or resources.

Decent stuff, eh?

Right, we’re done. Get yourself out of here, that lager top won’t drink itself.

All the best to you and yours,

Martin, Steve and Tony