Learning & Teaching Reflections

I recently posted The Best (and Worst) Education News of 2011, and thought I’d take a stab at some prognostication for 2012.

I think I batted close to 50% in last year’s predictions — that can’t be that much worse than those made by professional pundits.

Feel free to add your own predictions in the comments section — and don’t hesitate to include “wishful thinking!”

Here are my Education-Related Predictions For 2012:

1. Proponents of what is typically called “school reform” — expansion of charter schools and teacher merit pay, primarily evaluating teachers by student test scores, erosion of seniority rights — will emphasize expanding their agenda through three major avenues: Teach For America will use their new $50 million grant from the federal government to enter multiple new districts, KIPP Charter Schools will do the same with their new $25.5 million grant from The Walton Family Foundation, and, in California at least, charter operators will build on their recent push to have county Boards of Education’s approve charter applications over school district objections.

2. Notwithstanding recent court decisions in New York City, efforts to publish teacher ratings by test scores in local newspapers will “peter out.” Newspapers will shy away from publicizing this misleading data after seeing the backlash received by The Los Angeles Times after they pioneered this ethically questionable practice. In addition, since more districts are unfortunately including student test scores in teacher evaluations, the practice of making “job reviews” public will becoming increasingly questionable legally.

3. There will be a surge of interest in the concept of Social Emotional Learning (SEL), the idea of explicitly helping students learn about and develop character traits like self-control and perseverance. Unfortunately, that interest will be combined with a strong desire to test and grade, and much of its potential effectiveness will be lost.

4. Here in California, Governor Brown and his allies will be successful in convincing proponents of other tax initiatives to focus on supporting his ballot drive. His plan to increase taxes would result in billions more for schools, and will pass handily. That success will inspire similar efforts in other states during following years.

5. As the 2012 President election nears, and the polls show a Romney/Obama contest as a nail-biter, the Obama Administration will offer a “fall surprise” to teachers by offering states waivers to No Child Left Behind requirements that don’t have the “poison pills” of rules and costs that their present waiver hold. The tactic will work, and larger numbers of educators will actively campaign for the President in the election’s final months.

6. The awful and inaccurate teacher evaluations in New York, Tennessee and Florida will force states to go much more slowly in implementing ones that include student test scores as a sizable percentage of the ranking. Unfortunately, the momentum for these types of evaluations will only be slowed, not stopped.

7. At the same time the momentum for awful teacher evaluations is slowed, there will be a renewed interest in using Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) as an evaluation and professional development strategy. Districts that expand the use of this process, which treats educators as professionals, will find increasing success for students, their families, and educators alike.

8. Michelle Rhee will continue her decline in public credibility and relevance. Her work with some of the most conservative, and anti-teacher, Republicans has made her a contagion among many Democrats. And, as her Republican allies falter in their own success and popularity across the country, she is incredibly trying to build a base here in California — unsuccessfully.

9. Strategies to use technology as a transformative tool in education will take a backseat as for-profit online learning charlatans and the Khan Academy take up the tech money and the media space.

10. As I did last year, I’m borrowing this last one from Bill Ivey, a colleague in the Teacher Leaders Network. He predicts that “Each and every school day will bring tens of thousands of reasons to celebrate in schools across the country.” That sure sounds good to me…

Please share your reactions, and your own predictions!

Also, check out predictions from these other bloggers:

How Teachers Will Rock the News in 2012 by Barnett Berry

Ten Edu-Stories We’ll Be Reading in 2012 by Rick Hess

I’d like to prepare a “The Best…” list for beginning iPad users — educator and non-educator alike.

What are your suggestions for apps and guides for newbies? I will, of course, credit you for suggestions in the post I write.

Image by Atli Harðarson (license).

Share || “New Year’s eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights”
Hamilton Wright Mabie

The year is coming to an end. Just two days to go. But before we head into 2012 I want to share four questions that you can use so that you don’t lose your way next year.

Have a happy, awesome and meaningful New Year!

Is this useful?

This is a good way to for example weed out thought habits that may not be so useful. Your mind may for instance fool you into believing that it’s the right thing to go around being angry at someone because, well, you’re right. Or that it’s right to dwell on a problem because you had such bad luck or was singled out.

Both thought patterns are quite seductive because they can fool you into believing that you are doing the “right” or “normal” thing. But are dwelling on such thoughts useful to you? Probably not. That will just create suffering in your life, waste your time and do little to solve a practical situation. By asking if something is useful you can stop yourself while heading down a negative path and turn around towards the light again.

What is the most important thing I can do right now?

If you are lost in what to do next in your day, week or life, ask yourself this question. The answer might not always be what you want to hear because the most important thing is often one of the harder things you want to do too. But it can help you to check your priorities and stop you from getting lost in busy work and instead start tackling the really big stuff.

Am I keeping things extremely simple?

It’s very easy to start to overcomplicating things to, for example, find excuses for not doing something or simply because is a regular thought habit of yours.

Overcomplicating things can bring anything to halt. Or make it much harder to get something done.

So I like to ask myself this question a lot. By questioning how I am going about things or how I am planning to go about things with a project or a situation I can declutter my plans and thoughts. And this makes the process of working towards and reaching my goal a whole lot simpler.

I may not always find an extremely simple solution or path towards what I want. But I can pretty much always make things simpler and easier by asking myself this question.

Is there anyone on the planet having it worse than me right now?

When I am stuck on focusing on the negatives, when I feel like a victim and like things are going against me I ask myself this question.

The answer may not result in positive thoughts, but it can sure snap you of a somewhat childish “poor, poor me…” attitude pretty quickly. I understand that I have much to be grateful for in my life.

This question changes my perspective from a narrow, self-centred one into a much wider one. It helps me to lighten up about my situation. After I have changed my perspective I usually ask another question like:

What is the hidden opportunity within this situation?

That follow-up question is very helpful to keep your focus on how to solve a problem or get something good out a current situation. Rather than asking yourself “why?” over and over and thereby focusing on the negatives and making yourself feel worse and worse.

If you found this article helpful, then please share it with someone else by using the buttons below. Thank you! =)

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Want to learn much more about living a simpler, happier and less stressful life where you dare to follow and achieve your dreams in 2012? Then have a look at my four premium courses and guides:

The Self-Esteem Course - Stop feeling lousy about yourself and start living a life of self-happiness where you live up to your potential and dare to follow your dreams today.
Simplicity - My monthly membership course on how to simplify six of the most important areas in your life.
The Art of Relaxed Productivity - How I tripled my own productivity and effectiveness and decreased stress greatly.
The Power of Positivity - How to become a more mindful, motivated, action-taking optimist.

Copyright 2006-2011 Henrik Edberg.

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I have a huge backlog of resources that I’ve been planning to post about in this blog but, just because of time constraints, have not gotten around to doing so. Instead of letting that backlog grow bigger, I regularly grab a few and list them here with a minimal description. It forces me to look through these older links, and help me organize them for my own use. I hope others will find them helpful, too. These are resources that I didn’t include in my “Best Tweets” feature because I had planned to post about them, or because I didn’t even get around to sending a tweet sharing them.
Generally, I publish a post in this series once a week, but sometimes I post one twice in a week.

Here is Another Special Edition Of “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”:

Debt By Degrees is a short New Yorker column that describes the economic advantages of having a college degree. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Showing Students Why They Should Continue Their Academic Career.

Research Desk: Just How Good Have College Grads Got It? comes from The Washington Post. I’m adding it to the same “academic career” The Best list.

Blood Ties: A Photographer Captures Gang Culture In Her Family is a photo gallery from TIME. I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About Street Gangs.

Bob Marley’s daughter has just published a children’s book and created this new music video of one of her father’s songs. I’m adding it to The Best Websites For Learning About Bob Marley.

Kids Health For Kids has lots of health-related resources that are accessible to English Language Learners. I’m adding it to The Best Health Sites For English Language Learners.

How to make fantastic screencasts using Screenr is a tutorial from Jason Renshaw. I’m adding it to The Best Tools For Making Screencasts.

Error Correction Preferences in Written Work of Higher Secondary Students: an Evaluation is a good summary of some ESL/EFL/ELL research. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On ESL/EFL/ELL Error Correction.

Taking great travel pictures is from The BBC. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning Beginning Photography Tips.

Magic in Education! has nice tutorials on Web 2.0 applications. I’m adding it to The Best Places To Learn Web 2.0 Basics.

Choose Your Own Adventure Videos: Tutorial looks very helpful (thanks to Richard Byrne for the tip). I’m adding it to The Best Places To Read & Write “Choose Your Own Adventure” Stories.

Kozzi has thousands of royalty-free images that can be used for anything — at no charge — without even having to give them attribution. You have sign-up for the site, but registration is free.

I’m adding it to The Best Online Sources For Images.

I use movie clips in a number of ways to help my students develop language skills, and have previously written an extensive related list — The Best Movie Scenes To Use For English-Language Development.

Some of the videos on that list — though not all — have since been removed from YouTube, and I thought it would be useful to readers and to me to provide some updated additions:

10 Best Car Chases in Movie History comes from Popular Mechanics.

Greatest Movie Car Chases comes from Rotten Tomatoes.

10 Best Car Chase Scenes is from Best Oti.

10 Best Hollywood Movie Car Chases! is from What Culture!

20 Greatest Movie Car Chases is from Chris On Cars.

I love using Pink Panther scenes. Here are links to two of my favorites.

The blog Film English has lot of great clips and ideas on how to use them in class.

An interesting piece in the Huffington Post titled The Education Reform Paradox and the Extinction of Higher Level Thinking Skills led me to another article in The Week, which included this section:

While IQ scores are indisputably on the rise, American creativity levels are bottoming out. Analysis of the results of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking suggests that the creative abilities of American children have been spiraling downward for almost 20 years. The Torrance tests analyze young children’s ability to come up with original ideas and put them into practice. Kyung Hee Kim, an assistant professor at the College of William & Mary School of Education, found that scores on Torrance tests taken by children up to 6th grade between 1968 and 2008 showed a steady decline after 1990.

That’s a serious issue at a time when creative thinking is among the most desperately needed skills in the American workplace. A recent study found that 85 percent of employers concerned with hiring creative people say they can’t find the right applicants. Kim blamed America’s standards-obsessed schools for creating an environment in which creative thinking was not nurtured. “Creative students cannot breathe, they are suffocated in school,” she said. “Then they become underachievers.

That passage gave me an idea.

I went to the Google Ngram Viewer (see The Best Posts To Help Understand Google’s New “Books Ngram Viewer”) and compared “standardized tests” with “creative thinking” to see how often they had been mentioned.

Here’s what it came up with:

The Ngram Viewer is obviously not a precise scientific tool, but it is interesting to see that it seems to reflects a somewhat similar comparison over the past 25 years….

Every month I make a short list highlighting my choices of the best resources I shared through (and learned from) Twitter, but didn’t necessarily include them in posts here on my blog. Now and then, in order to make it a bit easier for me, I may try to break it up into mid-month and end-of-month lists (and sometimes I’m a bit late).

I’ve already shared in earlier posts several new resources I found on Twitter — and where I gave credit to those from whom I learned about them. Those are not included again in this post.

If you don’t use Twitter, you can also check-out all of my “tweets” on Twitter profile page or subscribe to their RSS feed.

This month, I’m trying the embed feature the “new” Twitter offers. We’ll see how it looks…

Here are my picks for December’s Best Tweets (not listed in any order):

Graphic Organizers & Relationships, funny comic bit.ly/vdwBLB

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 27, 2011

I think this is an excellent New Yorker piece on mortgage crisis, Living by Default nyr.kr/sfT3K4

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 26, 2011

Pretty neat interactive on Galileobit.ly/tTlNwD

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 27, 2011

“#occupychristmas
Throughout much of history, the holiday was a celebration of rebellion against authority” Salon bit.ly/uo2WAr

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 25, 2011

RT @nancyflanagan: Worst. Christmas Tree. Ever. bit.ly/tr53lo Stand back, Charlie Brown.

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 24, 2011

“Dream Act students live in limbo” Sacramento Beebit.ly/uiOVST

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 26, 2011

RT @shighley: 3 reasons for numbered listsDoug Johnson’s Blue Skunk Blog bit.ly/rWZHjG

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 23, 2011

“Robert Geller was a teacher to the end.” NY TImesnyti.ms/w1SJiu

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 23, 2011

“‘Trampling Out the Vintage,’ by Frank Bardacke looks like it’s THE book on Cesar Chavez bit.ly/szqucu

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 23, 2011

RT @sbeleznay: Social media in the 16th Century: How Luther went viralecon.st/v71yOH

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 21, 2011

RT @DanielPink: Neil deGrasse Tyson Lists 7 Books Every Intelligent Person on Earth Should Readbit.ly/uBQ4QX via @galleycat

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 20, 2011

RT @TPM: Wis Dems announce over half a million signatures to recall Walker. tpm.ly/s33Edf ^@erickleefeld

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 22, 2011

The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science bit.ly/suyX96

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 19, 2011

“10 Years of Assessing Students With Scientific Exactitude” NY TImesnyti.ms/tGIBE9

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 19, 2011

RT @kikybot: BBC News – Food firms ‘market to children online’ bbc.in/rLpOxW

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 18, 2011

RT @educationweek: Blog: California to Offer ‘Seal of Biliteracy’ to High School Graduates bit.ly/tteKlw #ELLs

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 22, 2011

RT @criener: This is actually good, from college humor RT @DaveMosher: History of Earth, as retold on… Facebook? bit.ly/s8UtnR

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 13, 2011

RT @alexanderrusso: The famous yellow school crossing sign was invented in 1971 NYTimes.com ow.ly/7VcFx

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 10, 2011

The Eye On Education blog also regularly lists their favorite tweets.

Just for fun — from NPR via Open Culture:

Another good Dilbert comic:

I’m adding it to The Best Resources On “Instructional Coaching.”

Obviously, photos can be great educational tools with English Language Learners and with any students (see The Best Ways To Use Photos In Lessons). I post about many photo galleries, also called slideshows. To do it in a little more organized way, though, I recently began this weekly feature called “Photo Galleries Of The Week.” This post is a “round-up” of online slideshows I’m adding to various “The Best…” lists:

New seven wonders of nature is from CNN and New 7 Wonders of Nature finalists is from The News in Australia. These slideshows highlight the results of a vote by The New 7 Wonders of Nature Foundation to identify…the new 7 wonders of nature. You can see the 28 preliminary finalists here. I’m adding them to The Best Sites For Learning About Various “Seven Wonders”.

IUCN red list 2011 – in pictures is from The Guardian and highlights endangered species. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For World Biodiversity Day (& Endangered Species Day).

World’s weird and wonderful sights is a fun slideshow from The News in Australia.

The Middle Ages in colour is an impressive slideshow from The BBC.

Top 10 Strange Objects Sent into Space is a slideshow from TIME. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Planets & Space.

Image by vonSchnauzer (license).

Share || “May you have warmth in your igloo, oil in your lamp, and peace in your heart!”
Eskimo proverb

The holidays are upon us.

A time of needed relaxation and more time with the people closest to us.

A time of stress and worries. A time of not all the joy you may have hoped for or been promised by upbeat advertising and movies.

It can be a time of mixed feelings.

So in this guide I would like to share a handful of powerful and timeless tips that can help you to make these holidays a more joyful and peaceful time.

Slow down.

“For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.”
Lily Tomlin

First, slow down. Even if it may feel silly and if you have to force it a bit. Slow down your body, move and walk slowly.

Breathe slower and more deeply with your belly (and focus on doing just that for two minutes and see what happens).

Slow down your eating (this will not only help you to relax, it will also help you to not eat too much during the holidays since it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to register that you are full.)

Slow it all down and pay attention to what you are doing. Be here now and focus on doing just one thing at a time. By slowing down, by being here now, by not having your focus split between many things you, your body and your mind start to relax.

Appreciate the little things instead of focusing on perfection.

“Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon.”
Winnie the Pooh

Daily happiness is to a large part about appreciating the small things. If you just allow yourself to be happy when accomplishing a big goal or when everything lines up just perfectly for moment then you are making life harder than it needs to be.

Instead, focus on appreciating things that you may take for granted.

Take two minutes and find things in your life you can appreciate now. If you want a few suggestions, here are a few of the things that I like to appreciate around the holidays:

• All the tasty food.
• My health.
• My family and friends.
• This blog and the opportunity to explore and write about what I want.
• You, the reader.
• Myself and the fine things about me.

The funny thing is that if you just start appreciating something you can very quickly start jumping around with your attention and appreciate just about anything around you.

You may start with the food you are eating right now. Then move your attention to the phone and appreciate that you can contact anyone and be contacted by anyone you would like. You might then move your attention outside, through the window and see the wonderful wintery sunshine and then the kids having fun in the snow. And so on.

Give a bit of joy to someone else.

“Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

This may sound like an empty cliché but it surely works. One of the best ways to become happier is simply to make others happier.

When you make someone else happy you can sense, see, feel and hear it. And that happy feeling flows back to you. And then, if you like, you can appreciate what you did by thinking something like: Wow, I really made him/her happy!

And since the Law of Reciprocity is strong there is another upside. People will feel like giving back to you. Or like paying it forward to someone else. And so the two (or more) of you keep building an upward spiral of for example positivity, of helping out, of cheering up and of lending a listening ear and support.

Focus on what is most valuable.

“You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.”
Eric Hoffer

“Joy is not in things; it is in us.”
Benjamin Franklin

Instead of focusing on a lot of things focus on what is most important and valuable to you.

If you still have Christmas gifts to buy then instead of giving away a lot of expensive stuff it may be better to give one thing that the person you are giving it to will truly appreciate.

Or maybe you could skip giving a physical thing altogether. And instead give away an experience that will become a special day and cherished memory for him or her or for the two of you.

However you choose to go about things over the holidays make it your choices as best you can and not a bunch of shoulds that mostly make you feel deflated.

Take a break.

“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.”
Ovid

Working nonstop can sour your mood and stress anyone out. Slow down but also remember to take breaks. Take 20 minutes or half an hour to just rest.

Take a walk in the crisp and cold winter landscape. Escape via music, a book you got for Christmas or by watching classic holiday movies/TV.

Do something that snaps you out of the working, shopping and preparing mindset, even if it is just for while. That short change in scenery and change of mental headspace may be all you need to feel revitalized again.

Just accept how you feel right now.

“We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.”
Carl Jung

Maybe you try some of the tips above. And they still cannot help you to shake that negativity, worries or stress you are carrying around. I would then suggest that you just accept that the feeling is there. Tell yourself: this is how I feel right now and I accept it.

This sounds counterintuitive and like you are giving up. However by accepting how you feel instead of resisting it you reduce the emotional energy that you are feeding into this conflict or problem. It then tends to lose speed like a car that runs out of fuel.

Sometimes the problem or conflict will then become so weak that it just moves out of your mind. At other times it may need you to take some action.

And by accepting what is you have now freed up energy and your attention so that your mind can become more open and constructive once again. And you can take focused action towards a solution.

If you found this article helpful, then please share it with someone else by using the buttons below. Thank you! =)

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Want to learn much more about living a simpler, happier and less stressful life where you dare to follow and achieve your dreams in 2012? Then have a look at my four premium courses and guides:

The Self-Esteem Course - Stop feeling lousy about yourself and start living a life of self-happiness where you live up to your potential and dare to follow your dreams today.
Simplicity - My monthly membership course on how to simplify six of the most important areas in your life.
The Art of Relaxed Productivity - How I tripled my own productivity and effectiveness and decreased stress greatly.
The Power of Positivity - How to become a more mindful, motivated, action-taking optimist.

Copyright 2006-2011 Henrik Edberg.

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Last December I asked the readers of the Positivity Blog and my newsletter what they wanted to learn about and improve in their lives in 2011. The 1300+ answers poured in and they have been a very valuable guide to help me create both the free content and the premium content this year.

So today I would like to do that again and ask you two questions.

If you are interested in having an effect on both the free articles/newsletters and the premium guides and courses during next year then click the link below to answer two simple questions.

I will go through the results during the holidays and use what you have told me to make the articles, newsletters and products even more helpful in 2012.

Click here to go to the survey

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Want to learn much more about living a simpler, happier and less stressful life where you dare to follow and achieve your dreams in 2012? Then have a look at my four premium courses and guides:

The Self-Esteem Course - Stop feeling lousy about yourself and start living a life of self-happiness where you live up to your potential and dare to follow your dreams today.
Simplicity - My monthly membership course on how to simplify six of the most important areas in your life.
The Art of Relaxed Productivity - How I tripled my own productivity and effectiveness and decreased stress greatly.
The Power of Positivity - How to become a more mindful, motivated, action-taking optimist.

Copyright 2006-2011 Henrik Edberg.

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Image by mugley (license).

Share || “No matter where you go – there you are”
Confucius

At the heart of what I like to call relaxed productivity there some destructive things you want to avoid.

One of them is the grey zone. It is a twilight zone of the mind.

The grey zone is basically when you are thinking and worrying about work when you are at home. Or when you are thinking about your home life and challenges there when you are at work.

Not a very uncommon habit. But why do you want to avoid it?

Three powerful reasons why I try to stay away from it as best as I can are:

• You become less effective. When you are stuck in thinking about your home life or your private life in some way or form at work then you are not fully focused. You are distracted and that impacts how well you can do you your work.
• You become less motivated and energetic. Being stuck in the grey zone sucks a lot of extra emotional and mental energy. It adds a lot of stress. And all of this often causes you to feel fatigued and your motivation to do something well or to explore new opportunities tends to sink like a rock.
• You might wind up with relationship troubles. One the most important things in any kind of relationship is to truly be there when you are there. To not still be at work in your mind when you are having dinner with your partner, playing a game with your child or hanging out with friends. Being somewhere else is one of those things that do not only annoy the people you are with but also can erode relationships.

Now, how do you go about replacing this habit with something better?

I recommend keeping the reasons above in mind as much as you can during your day. Being conscious about how this habit can damage your life is a good first step towards smarter habits.

A few more things that work well for me are:

1. Take a break every hour.

If you are never free from work for example, if you are never switching things up then your mind will naturally think about work, work, work all day long.

So to break the habit of being in the grey zone it is essential to first fully focus on work. And then to fully focus on relaxing and rejuvenating your mind and body. By focusing 100% on both work and rest each day it becomes easier to fully switch between these modes.

So I usually work for about 45 minutes. Then I take a 15 minute break and I do something totally different. I may take a short walk, eat a small snack, watch half an episode of the Simpsons or just lie down on the couch and read a book.

One thing that has worked well for me is to use a kitchen timer – or the timer on your cell phone – to make sure your work period or your rest period does not become too long.

2. No work after 7 o’clock in the evening.

When you work from home it is easy to start working too much or whenever you feel like it. This can however add stress, get you stuck in the grey zone or just make you spin in circles and get very little of importance done.

So I have set a limit and I do no work after 7 o’clock in the evening. This allows me to wind down after a day of work so that I can sleep well and spend my time with friends or my girlfriend and truly be there with them.

3. No work on weekends.

This is another way of dividing up your work zone and your relaxation or home zone. To be able to fully focus during the weeks and do your best you need slightly longer periods of rest and rejuvenation. Let your weekend be that time.

So if you can, shut off your cell phone.

I work online quite a bit during the weekdays, so during the weekends I often take at least one day when I do not go online at all. And during almost all weekends nowadays I do not check email or do other regular checks online. This certainly makes it easier to not think about work on weekends.

4. Have other important things to do.

By not working after a specific time in your day, by not working on weekends you will have more time when you are truly there with your family and friends. This will also, for example, help you to not feel guilty about not spending enough quality time with them and give you more time and energy to do awesome stuff together and to work on challenges or issues you and the other person(s) might be having.

And so by doing things this way you are also less likely to get stuck in the grey zone at work and think about something that is happening in your family or with a friend.

By setting the limits described above it becomes easier to do the mental switch between fully focused work, fully focused family/friend time and fully focused rest time.

By having important stuff in your life besides work like a hobby, a sport, the people around you and various adventures you can have together it also becomes easier to not get stuck in thinking about what you need to do tomorrow or on Monday at work.

Instead you can fully be where you are right now and recharge yourself. And that makes a big difference in the quality of your life both in the long- and short-term.

If you found this article helpful, then please share it with someone else by using the buttons below. Thank you! =)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Want to learn much more about living a simpler, happier and less stressful life where you dare to follow and achieve your dreams in 2012? Then have a look at my four premium courses and guides:

The Self-Esteem Course - Stop feeling lousy about yourself and start living a life of self-happiness where you live up to your potential and dare to follow your dreams today.
Simplicity - My monthly membership course on how to simplify six of the most important areas in your life.
The Art of Relaxed Productivity - How I tripled my own productivity and effectiveness and decreased stress greatly.
The Power of Positivity - How to become a more mindful, motivated, action-taking optimist.

Copyright 2006-2011 Henrik Edberg.

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Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About Pearl Harbor:

TIME just published a slideshow on Pearl Harbor.

The New York Times Learning Network has a useful lesson plan.

The Los Angeles Times has a Pearl Harbor slideshow.

Here are a few recent good posts related to education policy issues:

Making Sense of International Test Competition is by Walt Gardner at Education Week. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Getting Some Perspective On International Test Comparison Demagoguery.

When The Legend Becomes Fact, Print The Fact Sheet is from The Shanker Blog. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The “Value-Added” Approach Towards Teacher Evaluation.

Variable pay-for-performance is a folly is a very interesting analysis from economists. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning Why Teacher Merit Pay Is A Bad Idea.

Objectively Speaking is an intriguing post about why it might be a bad idea for teachers to write lesson objectives on the board for students to see.

Hey, Researchers and Policymakers: Pay Attention to the Questions Teachers Ask is by Larry Cuban. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Understanding How To Interpret Education Research.

I’m slowly, but surely, posting end-of-the-year “The Best…” lists. As always, in order for resources to make this list, they need to be available free-of-charge and be accessible to English Language Learners. It’s possible that some of them were available prior to this year, but they are new to me in 2011.

You might also be interested in:

The Best Social Studies Sites Of 2011 — So Far

The Best Social Studies Websites — 2010

The Best Social Studies Websites — 2009

The Best Social Studies Websites — 2008

The Best Social Studies Websites — 2007

Here are my choices for The Best Social Studies Sites Of 2011:

Number eighteen

ViewChange.Org has some pretty amazing short videos from around the world. This is how it describes itself: Using the power of video to tell stories about real people and progress in global development. Believe me, that doesn’t even begin to tell you what’s there.

Number seventeen:

As most readers know, three years ago I put my entire United States History curriculum online.

I’m teaching it again this year — one class to Intermediate English Language Learners and the other to Beginning ELL’s, and am developing an updated version of the curriculum. This online version is more for the Intermediates, but there will be some materials accessible to Beginners, too.  You’re welcome to use it, including the uploaded resources there. I’d just ask that you credit the source and not charge others for it.

Number sixteen:

How Many Really? is a BBC interactive that shows you how many people were affected by or participated in major historical events, and then you can compare other numbers with them.

Number fifteen:

“1001 Wonders” is a neat site sharing panoramic photos from United Nations’ World Heritage Sites around the world.

Number fourteen:

A History of Poverty is an animated world map showing where poverty (and prosperity) have been most present over the past two hundred years. You can narrow it down by continent or county, too. It’s from the Christian Aid charity.

Number thirteen:

Google has created a gallery where you can visit historic areas around the world using its Street View feature.

Number twelve:

“Democracy Kids” is a nice series of interactives designed to teach young people about how the United States government operates. It provides audio support for the text, which makes it particularly accessible to English Language Learners. It’s sponsored by several respected civic organizations, including the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Number eleven:

Newspaper Map shows you the front pages of newspapers from around the world, displayed on a Google Map. If it just stopped at that, it wouldn’t be much different from the well-known Newseum display of the same thing. But it doesn’t stop there. Unlike the Newseum, Newspaper Map lets you click on the front page to gain access to the entire newspaper. And, even better, with one quick click, you can choose the language you want the paper translated into. It’s very simple and easy to access.

Number ten:

Mapping America: Every City, Every Block is an amazing interactive from The New York Times that displays U.S. Census data from…everywhere. The New York Times Learning Network also has a simple lesson plan related to it. Connecting the Dots: Interpreting U.S. Census Data is a New York Times Learning Network lesson.

Number nine:

Public Opinion and the Occupy Movement is a fascinating interactive infographic from The New York Times.

Number eight:

How Many Slaves Work For You? is an interactive that helps you determine how many slaves were involved in the products you use.

Number seven:

As regular readers know, I write a lot about using online learning games with students. In fact, if you go to my page listing all 800 “The Best…” lists you’ll see many under “Games.” But Canadian secondary Social Studies teacher Mike Farley has gone far beyond my sharing of games. He writes a blog where he lists the links to fifteen excellent Social Studies-related games. That’s nice, but you can find those links in my “The Best…” lists. But what Mike also shares in his blog are student hand-outs for all those games. I don’t think you’ll find these kinds of resources anywhere else on the Web, and they’re a gold mine! Even if you don’t want to use some of them, they are excellent models that can be easily modified. Go check them out, and I think Mike has earned a big thank you from all of us for creating those materials and sharing them with the rest of us.

Number six:

Products Of Slavery is an impressive online visualization of products throughout the world created through using child or forced labor.

Number five:

This year, Pearson has, among other things, published a new U.S. History textbook and a new text on Ancient Civilizations. Big deal, right? Well, I don’t really care about the paperbound versions, but they has made the book’s online companion sites freely available. They both have some nice interactives.

Go to the sites and then click on each chapter. There are good interactives for each one:

American: History of our Nation

Ancient Civilizations

Number four:

I’ve previously highlighted Glencoe’s online videos for social studies, but have now discovered that offer many more free resources to support all their social studies textbooks. They’re useful even if you don’t use their books, though, and they’re freely available. You can start off at their main Social Studies site or at their main site for all their textbooks. From there, it’s easy to navigate to their U.S. History, World History and Geography books. They all have links to videos, “in-motion animations” like this one, interactive maps like this (I especially like these maps because they offer audio support for the text), and different games (I especially like their categorization activities).

Number three:

“If It Were My Home” is a neat interactive that compares the standard of living in the United States to any other country of your choice. The site also has some other neat features.

Number two:

The Daily What: News For Schools In Scotland provides very well-written and accessible articles about world-wide events, and, in addition, provides interactives (such as quizzes) for each one (look for the red question mark on the right column to find the interactives). The articles have both shorter and longer versions available. The site has a lot of other features, but those are only accessible to Scottish teachers and students.

Number one:

SAS Curriculum Pathways has a huge amount of interactives in all subjects. In many of them, students complete the activity online, and then send their work electronically to their teacher (it can also be printed out).  And it’s free.

The teacher signs-up and is give a log-in name for all the students in a school. It doesn’t appear that students need their own individual log-in because they have to type in their name before beginning any activity. Let me tell you, that will make using this site immeasurably easy — students won’t have to remember — or forget — individual passwords!

Since I’m teaching US History this year, I mainly focused on those sites, and they looked pretty good and accessible to ELL’s with audio support for the text. The site, though, has resources for all subjects.

In my review of the US History sites, they all appeared engaging, though primarily geared to lower-levels of thinking, primarily comprehension and recall. But since I use the Web generally as a reinforcement tool, that works fine for me.

Feedback is welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at the 800 other “The Best…” lists and consider subscribing to this blog for free.

The New York Times published an opinion piece a couple of weeks ago titled Sorry, Strivers: Talent Matters by two professors. In it, they attempt to dismiss the claim popularized by Malcolm Gladwell that you can reach an extremely high level of skill in just about anything after practicing at it for 10,000 hours. The professors claim that innate intellectual ability and working memory capacity is a key determiner of success.

A number of other researchers have since pointed out that the column’s authors dramatically overstate what their evidence shows. In fact, 45% of improvement was attributed to deliberate practice and only 7% to working memory capacity.

I’ve used the 10,000 hour finding effectively as one way to help students see that it can be possible for them to achieve their hopes and dreams.

A lot of my students have plenty of reasons already why they might not accomplish their goals. Perhaps professors should double-check their figures before coming-up with even more….

Several Classroom Management Suggestions — Part One is my new Education Week Teacher post.

It’s the first of a three-part series where educators share the best classroom management advice they have to offer. Feel free to share your own there, too!

As regular readers, I’m a fan of Carol Dweck’s work, notwithstanding my critique of her recent New York Times op ed on willpower.

I was recently watching a video of a group discussing Professor Dweck’s book, with her participating via Skype. I was struck by one comment she made, saying “we should celebrate mistakes.”

So, today I began to experiment with a lesson on doing just that. I’m going to refine it a lot more, and I think my colleagues might try it out in a number of different classes and make it even better. Here’s what I’m doing — I’m all ears if you have some ideas. My final version will be adaptable to all levels of students — mainstream and ESL:

Today, I began to very briefly talk about how we learn from our mistakes and, if we aren’t making any, then we’re not taking enough risks. I asked my ESL Beginners to write down what they felt were two common mistakes they made in learning English. They were all pretty broad — pronunciation, remembering new words, etc. They then shared what they wrote in groups of three.

Tomorrow, I’ll ask them to review what they wrote, and then try to remember specific times when they made mistakes in those more general categories. Then, I’ll ask them to write what they learned from each of those experiences. I’ll give the example of “I said ‘bottle’ the wrong way and people couldn’t understand me. My friend helped me learn the correct way to say it.” Students will then share what they wrote in small groups.

Later tomorrow, I’ll create an inductive data set (read more about inductive data sets here) listing each specific example and what they learned from it separately.

On Wednesday, students will need to cut each item out and paste them on a sheet in categories (I’ll probably just use the common general problems they wrote today for the categories they’ll use). I’ll use the typical “moves” of an inductive data set (see the earlier link for information about those, or see my books).

Thursday, they will review the content of each category, think about them, and add new examples they can think of — including mistakes they made and what they learned from each one. Students will share them in groups, and I hope students will see what a vast amount of knowledge they have learned from making mistakes.

Friday, each student will get a Post-It. I’ll ask them to pick one mistake they listed and what they wrote they learned, have them share in the Friday groups where we review weekly homework, and paste them on a “Mistake Wall.” We’ll make this a regular weekly event.

What do you think?