Tag Archives: students

Hey Sunshine

One of my favourite nicknames to give someone is Sunshine. I call both of my daughters Sunshine at different times, and it makes me happy to call them that.

Occasionally I nickname a kid at school Sunshine. It’s usually someone who visits the office regularly and leaves the office staff smiling. Walking in with a happy disposition and leaving a little happiness behind when they go.

One of these kids, who graduated a couple years ago, just connected with me on LinkedIn. Sure she was an amazing student, Valedictorian and Spirit of Inquiry winner (more prestigious in our school than Valedictorian), but that’s not what I remember about her. What I remember is the delightful way she and a friend came to the office daily to spread a little sunshine.

Who spreads sunshine in your life? And are you someone who spreads sunshine?

The best questions

There is a cliche saying that, ‘There is no such thing as a dumb question.” Tell that to a teacher who has just started an engaging discussion in a class and a kid undermines the flow of the conversation with a dumb, often unrelated question. The reality is that questions have innate and even measurable value and there is depth and quality to good question asking.

Think about how important good questioning is in the new world of AI. We need not look far on social media these days to find a post about how to generate intelligent prompts… intelligent questions, well posed, and designed to give you back optimum responses. Design the right question and you increase the chances of an ideal answer.

What’s the best way to promote good questioning in schools? How do we teach ‘Asking good questions?’

At Inquiry Hub we have students design their own inquiries. They take a course developed around the students figuring out what their inquiry question is, then answering it. And they don’t do this once, they do this several times over the year for their first two years, then in Grade 11 they design a full year course.

All the while, students are asking questions, then seeking answers. It’s the practice of asking the questions and not just seeking the answers that makes this process special. They aren’t just asking questions Google or AI can produce answers to. They are not answering a question the teacher asked. They are forming the questions and thus the direction of the learning.

You don’t start asking better and better questions just by answering other people’s questions. You don’t ask better and better questions without practicing forming the questions yourself. Students need to be designing the questions. Because if they are only in charge of answering them, there will be tools and upcoming technologies that will find the same or better answers, faster. The future innovators of the world will be better at writing the best questions, not just answering them.

Mindset Not Wet

I spent last night camping with a few teachers and students. A larger group of us spent a beautiful sunny day at the lake, and then a smaller group spent the night in a campground, a 5km hike from the lake. (Camping gear was delivered by car to make the trek easier after a full day at the beach.)

After bedtime it started to rain. At 3am the rain was so hard everyone woke up. I didn’t realize that a couple tents got flooded and the students moved under the shelter that was at the camp site. This morning the rain continued and really didn’t stop all day. We had planned a 9km hike, but shortened it because of the weather.

We played up the change a little because we knew some students didn’t want to hike at all in the rain. That mindset can be ‘adjusted’ a bit by making the task shorter. My PE teacher wanted to be ‘bad cop’ telling everyone that we were going on the long hike, and I could be the ‘good cop’ that shortened it, although I originally suggested the other way around.

It’s amazing noting how the difference in attitudes and mindsets framed the overall enjoyment of students on this very wet hike. We had a student leading the way and pushing the pace, despite not being someone that hikes much, and we had the ‘Eeyore’ student who continually wanted to know how much longer, and decided it would be a bad trip before the hike started.

Our mindset matters so much. We enjoy or suffer the day we have partially by the circumstances of the day, but mostly from the mindset that we set for the day. So no matter the weather, do your best to ensure your mindset isn’t wet.

Atomic Habits Lesson 10 – Moving From 2 Minutes to Mastery

“You do no rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.”

Goals require motivation, systems keep your habits on track… pushing you towards your goals, while relying on less motivation.

Atomic Habits Lesson 10 – Moving From 2 Minutes to Mastery

Well that concludes my 10 Lessons based on James Clear’s Atomic Habits. I highly encourage you to read the book. There are details I had to edit, like the importance of being 1% better, that James demonstrates clearly and entertainingly in the book.

I’m so glad to finally finish this for our students. I started talking about it a couple school years ago when I listened to Atomic Habits for the second time, taking notes on my whiteboard… Planning these 10 lessons along the way.

Then last year I spent about a 10 hour day laying out the updated whiteboard and recording myself sharing the 10 lessons. And I’ve spent much of my spare time over the past 2 and a half weeks doing video editing.

Our students in our school have more free time than most high schools get. And, from Grade 9 to Grade 12, we really see a progression in our students abilities to get (good) work done quickly and effectively. We see them heading to university and we know they won’t be dropping out because they couldn’t manage the workload.

I hope that my 10 lessons will help at least one of them take a smoother and more effective journey down that path.

Atomic Habits Lesson 9 – Find Your Tribe

A Shared identity is your identity, and your tribe can work together to build good habits.

Atomic Habits Lesson 9 – Find Your Tribe

“You are the average of the 5 people you associate with most.” Quote via Tim Ferriss.

Atomic Habits Lesson 7 – Rewards and Mistakes

Lesson 7, ‘Rewards and Mistakes’, examines two ideas. First, what are  positive versus negative rewards? And then, what do you do when you make a mistake?

Atomic Habits Lesson 7 – Rewards and Mistakes

Most people fall out of good habits after a mistake because they don’t have a plan…

If ‘oops’, then what?

 

Atomic Habits Lesson 6 – Make it Rewarding

We are about to pass the half-way point of these 10 lessons. I hope that you are finding them useful.

Lesson 6 examines how identity habits are much easier than motivation. If I believe that I am someone who regularly or always does something, that’s a lot easier than motivating myself, and trying to convince myself, that I should do that same thing.

Atomic Habits Lesson 6 – Make it Rewarding

 

 

Atomic Habits Lesson 5 – Make Habits Automatic

Lesson 5 is about reducing friction and habit stacking. How do you decrease or eliminate things that make your habits hard to get started, and how do you stack your habits so that they become an automatic process once you get started?

Atomic Habits Lesson 5 – Make Habits Automatic

This is the first ‘Storytime’ in the series, where I share a personal story. I share my fitness routine to exemplify how I use this lesson to my full advantage. My morning routine is automatic, and so I only have to initiate one habit and then the entire habit stack just gets done.

Atomic Habits Lesson 4 – Place Based Routines

Lesson 4 looks at designing and priming the location where you do your habits, so that the environment works for you.

Atomic Habits Lesson 4 – Place Based Routines

Reduce friction and distractions, do your 2 minute planning, and then get to it!