5 May 2010  - Study Skills for Success - By Karen T Boyes

Far too many people study harder rather than smarter and end up burning out. Sitting and passing exams is supposed to get you ahead in life - not make you tense and a nervous wreck.

With simple and effective techniques you can massively increase your ability to pass exams. Here is a quick sample.

Use lots of colour... using colour in note taking and study will increase your ability to remember and recall information. It makes your notes more exciting to reread and learn. Use felt pens of different thicknesses, coloured pencils and crayons. Use your favourite colours, highlight key information and make notetaking fun. 

Talk about my information as much as possible... when you say information out loud, it is reinforced in the brain. Have you ever asked someone to remind you to do something? Do they usually need to remind you? Not usually. When you say something out loud it comes out of your month, back into the brain through your ears. Talk about the information you are learning to yourself, friends, family or even the dog! Just say it out loud. 

Study at my best thinking time... Are you a morning, afternoon or late night person? Study when you are most alert. If you prefer to stay up late at night, study at this time. One of the worst times to study is the one hour after school. Take time to refresh and relax before doing homework or study. 

Study the information I don't know... This may sound obvious and is a major key to successful study. Take out old test and exam papers and learn the information you got wrong. When you get your test marks back, celebrate if you have a pass mark. However it is the questions you got wrong that are the most important to learn. This is how you will improve. 

Study for 20 minutes and take a 5 minute break... having short study times increases the retention of information and avoids the brain ‘chunking out' or forgetting. During a five minute break, eat brain food, get some fresh air or do some quick exercise to keep the blood and oxygen flowing to the brain. Always leave your study environment during this five minute break to give the brain some variety and a change of focus. 

Frame important information... putting a frame around information makes the brain focus within the frame and can raise comprehension. This is such a simple strategy and works. If you are a doodler and often draw all over the page when listening or thinking, doodle frames around the edge of the page - it will increase your ability to recall and remember the information within the frame. 

Review my notes one day after learning them... reviewing or periodic revision of material is needed to reactivate the stored memories and prevent information being buried under other data. The more recent, regular and fun the review is the easier it will be to recall. Research shows if you go over your notes the next day, your recall can stay at up to ninety percent, however waiting three days before you re-visit your notes drops recall down to thirty percent. 

For more study tips please go to www.spectrumeducation.com and click on sign up to newsletter and select Student Study Tips. 

5 January 2010 - Making Mistakes And Learning From Them... - By Karen Boyes

Making mistakes is a great way to learn. Think about how a baby learns to walk. They pull themselves up, take that fantastic first step and... fall down. They pull themselves back up again and fall again. This learning process applies to all other tasks—reading, writing, maths, learning to ride a bike, roller skate or drive a car. 

There are many fantastic examples from history that show how mistakes and failures can lead to success. 

Did you know..? 

Michael Jordan failed to make his secondary school's basketball team'

Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper, because he lacked "good creative ideas" 

Einstein could not speak until be was four and did not learn to read until be was seven. 

Beethoven's music teacher told him he was ‘hopeless as a composer" 

High achievers are made not born. They make mistakes and learn from them. Babe Ruth, world famous baseball player holds the world record for number of home rums hit in his lifetime 714. He also holds the world record for number of strike-outs. 1330. He has struck out nearly twice as many times as he has hit home runs, and he's the most successful at both. 

When making a movie, a director will shoot as many ‘takes' as necessary to get the best shot. Each time the scene is not correct the director calls it a mis-take and asks the crew to do it again, giving them a correction. This is a major key to learning from mistakes. To recognise where you went wrong and correct it. A six year old once explained this to me as a maze. ‘When you come to a dead end, you go back and find out where you went wrong and take another path.' 

Fear of Failure: 

Many people are scared of failing and do not attempt new tasks and activities for fear of not getting it right. This is crazy. You can learn from making mistakes. Often people use excuses to stop they experiencing failure. Have you ever heard yourself (or people around you) saying something like this? 

"Why should I study, I'm going to fail anyway" 

"That teacher doesn't like me. He'll fail me no matter what I do" 

"Why should I do anything my Mum wants? She thinks everything I do is wrong no matter what." 

"Of course I'm not good at Maths, my Mum wasn't" 

This negative self talk is not success talk. People who talk like this often sound tough and act as though they have everything under control. On the inside, their self confidence is usually really low. 

In Mark Victor Hansen's Book The One Minute Millionaire he discusses a SNAP technique for eliminating negative self talk. Simply put a rubber band around you wrist. Every time you catch yourself having a negative thought, simply snap the rubber band. Ouch! He suggests you wear the band for 30 days, 24 hours a day. Give it a go. It works. 

FEAR stands for False Expectations Appearing Real. It is when you think forward to a situation in your mind and see a negative outcome and bring this image back to the present and worry or get fearful about what might happen. It is a false expectation that you created in your head and then have made it seem real. 

Anthony Robbins says "The past does not equal the future." Just because you failed last year, yesterday, or two minutes ago does not mean you will fail today, tomorrow or on your next attempt. 

Fear Of Success

Sometimes people fear being successful. What will people think? What if my friends don't like or respect me anymore. It's called the Tall Poppy Syndrome and is very common in New Zealand and Australia. Americans do not have this syndrome. Here's an example of how it works... 

The American poppy grower goes out to his poppy fields one day and sees a single poppy standing one meter tall among all the other 30 cm poppies. The farmer is excited and rushes over to the poppy and thinks 'how can I get all my poppies to grow this tall?' The New Zealand poppy farmer goes out to his poppy fields one day and sees a single poppy standing one meter tall among all the other 30 cm poppies. The farmer rushes over to the poppy and taking a pair of scissors from his pocket cuts it down. Success is risky and it's also very exciting. 

Home Application: 

Encourage your child to learn from their mistakes. When your child gets a test paper back, invite them to celebrate the correct answers and go back to learn the questions they answered incorrectly. 

Share examples from your own life and people students may know or have heard of that have made mistakes, overcome obstacles and fear to be successful. 

Create an environment in your home where it is OK to make mistakes and celebrate new learning. 

Practice positive self talk and spend twice as much time praising your child rather than reprimanding. 

Rename mistakes to Mis -takes or learning experiences. 

Remind your child of how the learning process works - with small and often subtle improvements. Positive results are not always instant. 

Continue to believe in the ability of your child no matter how many times they have failed or been in trouble. 

Check out our website at www.spectrumeducation.com and shop online for books and educational resources. 

5 September 2009 - Design Your Life through Successful Goal Setting. By Karen Boyes

There are two choices you have about the future... let it happen or make it happen. Take a moment to reflect on what your life was like ten years ago. What were you doing? Where were you working or were you studying at College or Uni? Who did you spend time with? What was your personal life like? 

Could you have imagined back then that your life ten years in the future would have been like it is today? If you answered yes to this, chances are you had some goals, a plan or a vision for what your life would be like. Now imagine ten years from today. What will your life be like?

Setting goals and having a vision for the future are sensible if success is something you aim for. Not just New Year resolutions that are forgotten by the next month, but meaningful goals that give you a direction and a purpose. Nearly all the successful people, whether it be in sport, politics, career, family etc have had goals and/or a vision to make it happen. It rarely happens on its own if left to chance. 

There are seven simple steps to SMARTER goal setting. 

Your goals must be very SPECIFIC. If I set a goal that states "I want to be successful" it doesn't say at what. You get what you ask for in life. "Ask and you shall be given." How can you get what you want out of life if you don't tell anyone, especially if you are not even sure yourself? 

Your goals must be measurable. What would happen if you ran a marathon and there was no finish line? How would you know when you had completed the run? You would either stop short or keep going. If getting fit is a goal - how will you know when you are fit? Does it mean you can run to the letterbox and back without puffing or does it mean you have 15% body fat? How will you determine that you have completed the goal? Make your goals measurable so that you will know when you have achieved a goal and celebrate your success. 

Set your goals so they are achievable. If you want to be an Olympic swimmer and you don't know how to swim, this goal may be too big. If you want to be a Mechanical Engineer and you are good at language and not so good at maths, you may want to reconsider your goal. 

A friend once set a goal to run a particular half marathon in 2 hours and 22 minutes. She wrote her goal down and displayed it so she could see it daily. This goal was an achievable goal for her - but not for me because I don't run! When she ran the half marathon the stop watch stopped at 2 hours and 22 minutes!

I asked my friend "What if you had set your goal for 2 hours and 18 minutes?" She replied that at the time this was not realistic, however it is now. The difference between achievable and realistic is that it is achievable for every student this year sitting exams to pass. What will be different is realistically are those students willing to do what it takes? Are they willing to study, ask questions if they are not sure, learn the information they got wrong, practice old exam papers, use colour and effective note taking. Are you willing to do what it takes to achieve your goals? 

It's also essential to put a date or time frame on your goals. When do you want to achieve this goal? A time frame creates urgency. If you say your goal is to complete all the marking on my desk, it doesn't say by when. If I say "My goal is to complete all the marking on my desk by the weekend" there is a bit more urgency to get on with it.

Goals are all the more powerful when they EXCITE you. When your goals are aligned with your personal vision or mission they are more likely to come to fruition. If you are not sure of your purpose, consider for a moment the answers to these questions? If you had 25 hours a day, what would you do with the extra hour? (You are not allowed to answer sleep! That will not aid in finding your mission.)

What three things would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? Think of 3 people who know you best, what would they say your strengths are? When was a time you were really excited, passionate about what you were doing? If you had $1 Million to give to a cause, which cause would you give to and how would you advise them to use it?

Find or design a vision or mission that is bigger than yourself and you will discover an energy and liveliness that you have never imagined.

The very last step to successful goal setting is to RECORD and REVIEW. Write your goals down and read them as often as possible or display your goals in a pictorial form by cutting out pictures and words from magazines and hang it somewhere you can see it each day. The impact of having a written set of goals is demonstrated by this study. A 1953 survey of the graduating class at Harvard University, revealed that only 3% of the class had a set of written goals. Twenty years later this 3% had obtained more wealth, happiness and success than the other 97% combined. 

Dreams don't come true magically. They usually become a reality slowly through experiences, encouragement from others, examples from people you know or personalities on TV or that you have read about. 

Once you know what your goals are, it is essential you plan the steps involved to complete them. If you are not sure of the steps involved, you could use the Planning Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) that NASA used to put a man on the moon. You start with the final outcome and work backwards asking "what happened just before that."

Reviewing your goals is also essential. Once you head on your journey towards your goal it is important that you reflect on the journey - are you continuing to head in the desired direction? Have you slipped off course? Once you start taking action, you may slip up on a step as all the steps are not the same height. If you do - learn from your mistakes and attempt it again.

A way to fast track your goals is to model successful people and find mentors. Successful people love helping others become successful. Just ask. 

Find people who have already succeeded at something you want to do. Find role models who have overcome obstacles. Read books about successful people. Watch documentaries about people who have achieved. Take a successful person out for lunch. 

The exciting part of goal setting is that you are in command of your future. It may not happen exactly as you expect, but what if it does? 

You only get one shot at this life - design it and live the life you dream of. 

Check out our website at www.spectrumeducation.com and shop online for books and educational resources. 

5 July 2009 - Gathering Data Through All Your Senses  - By Karen Boyes

In Art Costa's book Discovering & Exploring the Habits Of Mind he suggests intelligent people gather data for evaluation, problem solving and learning, using many of their senses - not just one. 

When faced with problems to solve, it is important to look at many options engaging your senses. This is illustrated well in Aron Ralston's book, Caught Between a Rock and A Hard Place, where Aron finds himself in a slot canyon with his arm jammed between the canyon wall and a rock. He evaluates his situation using all his senses and eventually amputates his own arm for survival. 

There are six main pathways for information to enter the brain - all sent by electrochemical signals to individual brain cells for storage and retrieval. These pathways are visual, auditory, tactile, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory. 

How do these senses work? 

Over ninety percent of sensory input coming into the brain is through the eyes. The sense of touch is from the largest sensory organ, the skin. Hearing is the only sense fully developed at birth so while this sense cannot be improved, the ability to listen can be. Smell, the olfactory sense, is the only sense not filtered by the brain. Smell goes directly from your nose cavity to the emotional centre of the brain, releasing chemicals and endorphins into the body causing an emotional or physical response. Humans have four taste receptors, sweet, salty, sour and bitter. 

The more you can engage and develop each of these senses, the greater to opportunity for learning to occur. Dr Vernon Magnesen affirms this with his statement; We remember 20% of what we read, 30% of what we hear, 40% of what is seen, 50% of what is said and 60% of what is done. He continues to say, "If you see, hear, say and do, the brain will remember 90%."

Art Costa states "to know a wine, you must drink it; to know a role, you must act it; to understand a game, you must play it; to achieve a goal, you must be able to envisioned it. An ancient Chinese proverb says, "To know and not to do, is still not to know." When planning your lessons, engage as many senses as possible. Encourage students to use other senses, rather than the most obvious ones. When the senses and dull and sluggish, thinking will also be dull and sluggish. Many studies show arts and music have a huge impact on improved mental functioning. Through the arts and music develops strong vocabulary; patterns, texture, colours, shapes, rhythms, tone, tempo, which in turn affects the ability for higher order thinking. 

Developing the senses...

Improve visual literacy by using pictures, video clips and photographs. Show the image and then remove it from sight and ask questions about it. 

Write instructions of the board for visual reference. 

Discuss what life would be like without sight, hearing, taste etc. 

Invite students to listen to a track of music and hear particular instruments

Explain a task to a friend without demonstrating

Use a ‘feely bag' activity to touch and describe objects such as sandpaper, soap, chalk, steel, silk etc. 

Invite students to move to the rhythms of a piece of music. 

Act out or dance a poems or prose

Provide students with different fragrances to smell such as cloves, cinnamon, eucalyptus, lemon, perfume etc. 

Teach students to smell with small sniffs and their mouth open for a different sensation

Incorporate the senses into story writing and telling

Blind fold your students and put different tastes on their tongues: sugar, salt, lemon juice and vinegar. Cleanse their palate between tastes with water or plain crackers. 

When problem solving, encourage students to visualise 

Build models 

Enrich language by using multiple senses: a waterfall of ideas, loud music slapping my ears. 

Provide a tactile environment with a ‘hands on' approach

Give students a choice in which mode they present ideas

Ask questions to evoke different senses: What would it look like? How might that sound? What smells would you associate with this situation? 

Use real examples or analogies to enhance the learning

Add more physical participation into your lessons. For example, saying the times-tables while bouncing a ball on the wall. 

Go on field trips

Encourage students to draw visual representations of an experience

There are many books that can be used to introduce the idea of using all your senses. These include: 

The Blind Men & the Elephant - Robert McCloskey

Little Read Riding Hood

There's a Nightmare in my Cupboard - Mercer Mayer

Charlotte's Web - EB White

James & The Giant Peach - Roald Dahl

Anne Frank - The diary of a young girl

Student love finding out how there brain works. Where the different senses are located in the brain and ways to maximise this learning potential. Frank Smith has been quoted to say, "If children find learning difficult, it could well be that there is something the matter with the way we are asking them to learn, rather than something the matter with their innate capacity for learning." 

References: 

Discovering & Exploring the Habits Of Mind - Art Costa and Bena Kallick: 

Creating An Effective Learning Environment - Karen Boyes: 

Caught Between a Rock and A Hard Place - Aron Ralston

Teaching with The Arts In Mind - Eric Jenson 

Study Smart - Karen Boyes

Boys Education & Homework - Ian Lillico

5 May 2009 - Food for the Brain - By Karen Boyes

Interesting Reading related web sites....

www.roalddahl.com

Interesting word / comprehension web site....

www.freerice.com 

FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Program. Our partner is the Berkman Center