The Friday Mindset - Issue #38

Happy Friday!

For us, this week is always one of the toughest in the year. It's like the word 'beleaguered' was invented solely to describe teachers in mid-January. The wheels always seem to come off about now; kids wanting to quit, friendship groups falling out and requiring mediation, a student indiscretion on social media, a parent complaining, a lesson that went pear-shaped. If that's been your week - don't worry, you are not alone!

Let's take a moment, decompress and look forward to easier times...

Something to try...

We've been looking at motivating students for upcoming tests, exams and challenges by asking them to try and write down their 'why'. Why is it they're working hard? What positive outcomes might they expect as a result, and are they magnetic and compelling? What's the point of all this effort?

If you'd like to give this short activity a go, a good place to start, we've found, is this brief powerpoint. It's just a few slides, but it'll get you up and running. It begins with a clip of Dr Alex George talking about how hard it was to stay motivated and study during his medicine degree - but how he re-energised his efforts by reminding himself of his 'why.'

Then there are some examples of others expressing their why - each stolen from students we've taught, and who've managed to stay positive and motivated as a result of a compelling reason for studying. Then the students have a go at a free-writing exercise as they try and express their own why.

Here it is. Enjoy!

A short powerpoint

Something we're (re)reading...

The Decisions Book, by Krogerus and Tschappeler, has been one of those books we've carried around with us for years now. It's a good one for dipping into, and great for helping illustrate a theory, approach or problem - hence it always being in our bag.

It's subtitle - fifty models for strategic thinking - says it all; what you get is a brief prose description of a thinking model (some are familiar; the pareto principle or the forgetting curve, others were totally new to us) plus, crucially, a labelled illustration of it. There's a roughly equal balance of pictures and words, and it's helped us explain ideas clearly in meetings, support students and reassess our own perspectives. The picture below gives you an example of what we mean; this is a model describing the 'personal potential trap'; the situation that develops when we are overpraised for our potential at a young age:

There's plenty to get your teeth into throughout. The activity Five Roads from The GCSE Mindset was adapted from this book, for example. Well worth checking out:

Buy The Decision Book: Fifty Models for Strategic Thinking (The Tschappeler and Krogerus Collection)

Our latest offer:

Steve will be running a tour of the VESPA portal, which will include a demo of how to use the different features and some strategies that can be used in preparation for Summer exams. This free 30 minute session will take place on Wednesday 26th January at 15:40 with a Q&A at the end too.

If you’re interested, give us an email at the usual address ([email protected]), and we’ll send you a Zoom link.

And that's it from us this week. Blue Monday is behind us! The days are getting longer and Spring is on the way! All the best for the weekend, and we'll be back next Friday.

Steve and Martin

p.s. One final thing: our training slots are now full until after Easter, but if there’s anything we can help out with in the summer term - staff training, student or parent sessions - just get in touch.