Fab40 foibles

Instant solution to be more efficient

 

As you probably know if a) you have met me, b) you’ve taken a look at this blog ( and especially the gaps between posts) I don’t have oodles of free time when I lay around, peeling grapes, thinking “ what can I do now?”

 

I also suffer from an organization syndrome known as “rush about like a headless chicken, shouting at spouse and offspring trying to find what I’ve just put down”. A long title for a syndrome I grant you, so we’ll just call it “faff” for short.

 

Anyway, I have come across a simple, cheap, easy to achieve way of adding hours to my day and increasing my concentration fivefold.

 

Want to know what?

 

Do you? Do you?

 

OK, here it is.

 

Ready?

 

*drumroll*

 

NO FACEBOOK ‘TIL 4

 

Even at weekends, no going there until 4pm.

 

I still have enough time to spend spying on friends and pretending to have a really fun, glam lifestyle, but now I find myself with lots of extra minutes hidden all through my day.

 

So now I have time to write posts like this.

Do we still need teachers?

 

 

Today I attended a fantastic conference organised  by Geneva International school (the oldest in the world if you're interested).

 

It was great, the coffee and lunch were lovely too.

 

 I was especially interested in the speech  by this guy, Sugata Mitra. he described his "hole in the wall" experiment where he placed a couple of computers in an Indian slum.

 

He discovered that, left to their own devices, children learnt both computer skills and the necessary English in order to use the computer. 

 

Acording to Sugata the secret is to get the kids to work in groups, and especially, for the teacher to go away.

 

An interesting idea to bring up in front of two hundred odd teachers,  but I for one can definitely see his point.

 

His other great idea was The Granny cloud, a project where people in England (I don't think you really have to be a granny) give up one hour a week to teach and support kids in schools around the world, using skype.

 

It's strange to find a talk that would effectively put me out of a  job, so motivating, but I did.

 

I do feel education could be doing so much more, so differently for our kids. Do we really need so much rote learning when the answers a click away?

 

I especially feel our methods of testing knowledge are outdated, when in a job ( apart from at an interview perhaps) do you need to spew out random facts in the same way as a formal exam?

 

The conference also dealt with another question, should we be educating our children so they can find  a job? If so, what should we be teaching them? And if not, then why are we teaching them?

 

Or are teachers just glorified babysitters, and is school just somewhere safe to park the kids during the day?

 

What do you think we should be teaching our children, and how?

 

 

 

 

Related articles

10 talks from inspiring teachers

STEM Summit Interview: Sugata Mitra

...and Hello 2013

Fabbook Awards 2012

Fighting my Amazon Addiction

 

(source)

I’ve always been fond of reading and I think coming to France at a formative age (19) and being denied access to Waterstone’s  (it  had an apostrophe when I used to go) has damaged me psychologically.

Those wilderness years, grabbing any English paperback I could get my hands on, even inviting friends to stay knowing they would bring the goodies, has left me emotionally scarred.

When Amazon appeared I jumped on it like a druggie on meths, I would like to blame my kindle on this habit but that wouldn’t be fair, even before I would spend evenings trailing through lists of new releases and best sellers. The minute anything interested me – running, blogging, breathing, I would leap in and buy a couple of books on the subject.

The kindle has fed this addiction though, a daily check on the lightening deal, plus a recommendation, a follow up by a favourite author, something mentioned by a friend or in the papers and I now find myself buying books daily.

Obviously you have realized quicker than I did, I don’t have time to  read all these books, in fact even if I stopped working and sleeping there wouldn’t physically be enough hours in the day to  read them all.

And it’s starting to take its toll on my bank account, in fact I’m expecting a personal thank you letter from Jeff Bezos for my participation in his retirement fund.

Having stumbled across Carl Honoré and the Slow movement the other day, I managed to resist buying his book and haven’t taken my compter away on holiday (this was written before we left, I’m not cheating, honest).

I also decided a non-internet fortnight would be what I needed to break this addiction, and I’m aiming for a month without Amazon.

 

Now when I think about Amazon, this will spring to mind instead;

(source)

 

 

12 Reasons why pets are good for you

1. Pet owners have less stress related illnesses – surprising when you see my reaction to finding the chewed remains of my new winter boots but that’s statistics for you.

 

 

2. Dog owners have less cholesterol problems.

 

 

3. You are less likely to suffer from diabetes if you have a pet.

 

 

4. Pet owners are six times more likely to recover from a heart attack, and they have a lower heartbeat, apart from when their dog dashes after a herd of deer, Fenton style.

 

 

5. Walking a dog can lose you up to six kilos a year; add on all the dog steals from the table and your talking serious weight loss.

 

 

 6. Pet owners are less likely to suffer from clinical depression, unless they eat your new winter boots that is.

 

 

7. A cat’s purring gives out low frequency waves, equivalent to those used in physiotherapy to treat tendonitis, which is handy if you suffer from tendontinis.

 

 

8. Stroking a pet releases endorphins – the pleasure hormone, and serotonin which encourages sleep, it also makes your hand smell funny.

 

 

9. Pet owners are less likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s.

 

 

10. Pet owners are less likely to suffer from insomnia, the noise of a cat licking its own genitals a couple of inches away from your head may stop you sleeping though.

 

 

 

 

11. Children who grow up with pets are less likely to suffer from allergies or asthma, or friends as the dog will eat all their shoes and footballs.

 

 

12. They are a great excuse for leaving dinner parties early, before all the fun starts.

 

 

The best reason for having a pet, however, is that no matter how much of a bitch you are, they will love you always, with all of their heart. They will regularly leave little presents (poo, dead mice, etc…) to prove this to you.

 

P.S. While we're away the pets are in excellent hands, bbut I can't reply to your comments, so please be patient!

Why it's right to write

 

(photo by Nuttakit)

 

If you’re reading this there’s a fair chance that you blog yourself, in which case I’m preaching to the converted and you can go off & do something more efficient with your time if you  wish. If you don’t then I’d like to tell you about tonight’s subject, writing, because that’s what I’m doing now. I’m not making claims about the quality of the writing, but if you’re reading, then I’ve written. If you don’t write, then do so now, well in a minute, when you’ve finished reading this.

 Get off the internet, open a blank page and write for ten minutes or 500 words, which ever  takes less time. Write about anything, what you did today, what you need to do tomorrow, why you’re pissed off with the neighbour and your dilemma about whether to stay or go. Then stop for 5 minutes and think about how you feel afterwards, good innit?

I was reminded about this today by offspring #2. He worries a lot about things, things that are very important for him, things, that try as I might, after half an hour of going round in circles, drive me up the wall. I know offering solutions isn’t the answer, I’ve asked  the useful questions, we’ve drawn the problem, sung it, danced it, mimed it, eaten, slept and lived the bloody stuff until I lose the plot & yell, which is not the answer either, I know that.

So yesterday I presented him with” my own secret private diary”. Being him, he wanted me to sit with him and dictate, or at least spell out correctly all the difficult words, but I’ve explained that it won’t be that private if I do and as long as he understands what he’s written ( & even if he doesn’t really) it’s for him to write in, to help him think about and understand how he’s feeling without mummy banging her head off the wall. After asking how to spell “worst day in the world” he stomped upstairs and left me alone at the table in an “eye of the cyclone” silence, not that I was complaining. He came down for dinner much happier and life moved on.

Today was taken up with the usual, but after story time he told me where the secret hiding place of the secret private diary was so I could pass it to him, and he’s upstairs doing his thing, while I’m here doing mine.

In case you’re wondering, no I won’t look in it, I know from my own past diarys that it’s probably full “ I hate mummy coz she’s mean and prefers X, Y and sibling to me”. Mine were full of that and worse, but if you can’t vent yourself in your private secret not to be shared diary, then where can you?

Anyway, that’s my ten minutes and word count up, I feel lovely thank you, good night.

 

I'm worried I don't worry enough

 

(photo- David Castillo Dominici)

Should I worry more? I never stay awake at night thinking things over, I never wake before dawn and can’t go back to sleep for fear we can’t pay the bills or that my children will fail their respective school years. Global warming, international recession, redundancy, my husband leaving me, all these things are awful but I don’t worry about them.

Even when I knew for a fact that my car wouldn’t start the next morning, it didn’t stop me sleeping, and now I’ve got a scrummy, shiny new one that is no longer an issue.

I do occasionally wonder if… but then I just roll over and “do a Scarlett” as it was always referred to at home.

Saying that I’ll be glad when the speeding fine finally arrives so a )I can stop saving and b) I don’t have to dash to the letter box before my husband every day.

Is this normal? What do you worry most about? What can I do to worry more?

 

 

We're all polyglot of course

Another fab 40 psychology experiment celebrating its fortieth birthday this year is the Mehrabian et al. one on non-verbal communication. I won’t bore you on the details of two tests involving listening to a voice/seeing photos conveying neutrality/dislike etc. If you want to be bored you can check it out yourself at wikipedia's page on Mehrabian

However you are probably familiar with the conclusions and the impact they have had on NLP (neurolinguistic programming), management and communication techniques and body language theories. The conclusions were the following:

Communication was firstly made up of body language (55%), followed by voice tone (38%), and last with only 7% was the actual words spoken.

This is incredible, why haven’t we realized it before? This means that we can understand 93% of what someone, anyone, is saying simply through how they’re sitting and the sound of their voice. Fantastic, that means I can understand nearly everything anyone says to me in Mandarin, Slovak, Hindi, the list is endless, and obviously I’m fluent in sign language without even realizing it.

It just goes to show that, as usual, dad is right. When speaking with foreign types it’s just a question of raising your voice and then they’ll understand you.

 

 

Why Blogging is good for you

 

 

Various studies (Bennebaker & Beall (1986), Smyth & Pennebaker (1999) amongst others if you’re interested) have shown that regular writing has beneficial effects on physical and psychological health, as well as improving our immune system.

 

It appears that writing down your feelings and emotions helps you process them and come to terms with events in your life. Leopore & Smyth (2002) also found that those who wrote about emotional or stressful events experienced a decrease in PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

 

Apparently learning to write well can help us to speak and think more effectively, that’ll be something for me to look forward to, effective thinking is not something I’m particularly famous for. It can also improve thought organisation, although that would suggest some organisation was present in the first place, along with clarity of the mind, again not one of the first thing that come to mind when describing myself.

 

Writing calms anxiety, - this I have found true, along with this blog I have developed the habit of writing a diary before going to bed, and it really does feel as if I leave all my worries on the page, like talking it all over with a friend.

 

Blogging also encourages curiosity, and learning new things is certainly good for you, well, for me at any rate. I love the feeling when my brain sizzles as if it’s full of perrrier as I try to get my head around a new concept, learning keeps us young, although it’s probably not very good for wrinkles.

 

It is a social activity, while my dad is convinced that anyone you haven’t met face to face doesn't really exist, that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy reading someone else’s blog, sharing ideas, and keeping your fingers crossed in empathy for them if they are going through a tough time. Their advice is just as valid as your neighbour’s or school gate friend.

 

So, as blogging is the cure to the common cold, the secret of happiness, and may even solve the global financial crisis, it would be selfish not to carry on, wouldn’t it?

 

 

You will be happier with new boobs

I thought that would get your attention, now for the explanation...

 ...Studies show that even those who have experienced the big lottery win, after a few months of euphoria (and champagne) end up just as happy as they were before, that’s assuming they’ve not lost it all on the stock exchange.

This theory, known as adaption was introduced by Brickman and Campbell in 1971, and we see it over and over again in our lives. Remember how you felt when you got your pay rise? Your house redecorated? Your new car? New phone? Etc. Does it still bring you the same pleasure today? Of course not, and I’m willing to bet that it started to pale even before the first dint on the bumper or the kids threw spaghetti all over your wallpaper.

It would seem that there are surprisingly few areas where adaptation doesn’t occur. Acquiring a disability or life changing illness is one of them, but surprisingly one that has more effect is noise level, although people don’t actually anticipate an increase in noise having a lasting effect, they assume they will get used to it, as with the overhead aircraft from the nearby airport that keep our guests awake. However it would seem that those questioned over a year after the opening of a nearby noisy road were becoming more pessimistic.

Even more unexpected, reports show a long lasting increase in life satisfaction and a decrease in psychiatric problems amongst women who have had breast surgery, unless they’ve had French implants put in I should imagine, I know  I wouldn’t see the bright side if mine exploded.

 

 

What’s your favourite habit?

I’m lucky- I have two favourite habits, one I can do every day, and one I can do on my days off, which I’m pleased to say means all this week.

The first is reading to my children every night. I’m not trying to be all yummy; those of you who know me will agree that this is pretty far down the list of adjectives to describe me. We started, well, restarted this habit in September, aged 12 and 9 my kids are both perfectly capable of reading by themselves and we’d grown out of story time.

Then 9 wanted me to help him read Harry Potter, Just too many words and pages for him to get into, of course 12 didn’t want to miss out on the action and now we are half way through the second book. The lovely thing about our book choice is that we should be sorted until they leave home.

There’s something very decadent about reading to someone who doesn’t need it, in Victorian England of course it would be usual to have father dear read from some uplifting and suitable tome as we looked on, boys playing chess, girls sewing etc.

My second habit is, for me, total luxury. Now, as I’ve said, the children are older, I don’t have to get up with them. In fact, on most mornings I wake up hours before they do, and when I get the chance I just love to lie in bed and read for an hour or so ( with the cuppa my wonderful H brings me) before getting up. Before I come across as totally slovenly (higher up in the adjectives list I agree,) I'd like to point out that I usually wake up about 6.30, 7 is a lovely lay-in. This is a lovely time of day, not too tired to concentrate, the house not yet awake, even the sound of the odd car going past just signals some poor so off to work, while I wallow and sip and dream.

So what's your favourite habit? And if you haven't got one, why not?