Omar

What neuroscience tells us about teaching early years | Tes

So your advice to EYFS teachers is to slow down, exaggerate and repeat? Yes, don’t feel this pressure to always be doing something new. Lots of people still have this idea of stimulating the young brain - that the more stimulation we give to a child, the faster their brain will develop. Every day has to be different, and they want parents to see that when they’re picking their children up or via the photos they post on the school app. In fact, from a neuroscientist’s perspective, the more we understand about how brains learn, the more we understand that less content repeated more times equals better learning. So rather than feeling a lot of pressure to do something new every day, teachers should appreciate that what children need is to be doing exactly the same thing, preferably with exactly the same language and exactly the same learning resources, at exactly the same time each day.

Playing beyond my level today. Which I guess is good but I keep making mistakes. Which I get is good but it’s not the best feeling.

First day back at school. A week of meetings, getting ready and trying to feel excitement and not worry about the year ahead. Remembering the things that I think in this situation after being outside of it for 6 weeks or so. But also happy to see colleagues again.

1 min as hard as possible. 3 minutes rest. 10 times. Horrible. Disgusting. Difficult. Effective.

I think it’s that I keep telling myself that I actually do use Instagram to keep in touch with a few friends I wouldn’t otherwise and that, sometimes, some of the things I see are informative. I just wish I could only see the useful stuff.

I occasionally play majiang with colleagues. I know the basics of the game and am able to play, but there’s so much more going on that I’m not aware of. My colleagues are able to play and chat while I just do one! Still, gotta be good for the brain.

I underestimated how hilly the run around the compound is. I was planning to do 5km but stopped (gave up) at 3.4km which was 3 loops. It’s already 30 degrees too (86F) in my defense. Plan for next time is to go slower…

📺 Widow’s Bay (Apple TV+) - I don’t normally do scary but this has enough comedy that I’ve stuck through it. L and I are nothing really enjoying it. 📖 Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff. I am currently scrolling IG too much… BUT one of the book recommendations was this. Interested to see how it goes. 🎵Psyence Fiction - UNKLE. 1998! Still great.

If your answer is more than an hour a day, you’re in Track 3 and you’ll be focusing on choosing books that are hard enough for your intellectual level as well as improving your ability to sit and focus.

I like this idea, particularly as a means to think about my focus. One of the bonus challenges is to watch a film without a second screen…

let’s do a ‘couch to 5k’ for reading - by Naomi Alderman

Ultimately, this study makes explicit something many teachers likely already sense. Experienced teachers differ from novices, but not primarily because they know more. They differ mainly in how they look at what is happening in the classroom, and in what they do next.

Source

“To be happy at home is the end of all human endeavor. The sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal, or two friends talking over a pint of beer, or a person alone reading a book that interests them; and all economics, politics, laws, armies, and institutions, are only valuable in so far as they prolong and multiply such scenes.” C.S. Lewis

Source: Mere Christianity (edited lightly for clarity)

Via 3-2-1: On reducing fear, what matters most, and how life responds to us - James Clear

On Giving Teachers Enough Time

Today’s Unjammed episode is built around a simple-if-implausible idea: what happens when teachers are given enough time to do their work. It’s not just about having enough time to complete all the items off the to-do list, either. (Though that does matter!) More importantly, it’s about what it means for teachers to step into a classroom as their best selves—a win for teachers, yes, but more importantly a win for students.

I feel this one, in my bones. There’s the to do list, but there’s also the deeper worker (spending time thinking, looking after myself, etc etc) and there just ain’t enough time for both.

Day 2 going to the gym in the morning. I think I need to move faster or get up earlier. Got home around 6:40. Which I think doesn’t leave me enough time.

First time having a go at going to the gym at 5am. Getting up and there was fine but need to work on a routine for it I think.

A colleague added the tones for me…

Managed to get Genius on Spelling Bee today and yet still were words I missed. It’s becoming my favourite NYTimes game.