Month: December 2015

An article by Richard James Rogers, author of The Quick Guide to Classroom Management: 45 Secrets That All High School Teachers Need to Know

Every year I find myself writing out a big wish list of things I’d really like to change about myself, believing that the New Year will bring new outcomes, new successes and a new me.

What I’ve now learned is how the system and tradition of New Year’s Resolutions is completely flawed at it’s core, and only serves to disappoint those who fall for its false promises (but only when approached in an unfocussed, unstructured way).

I’m writing this article to show you how I have overcome this yearly ‘personal defeat’ ritual, how I’ve seen through the deception and how you can make your resolutions really work for you.

The Stats

• According to Forbes, only 8% of people achieve their New Year’s Resolutions
• A University of Scranton. Journal of Clinical Psychology report found that only 46% of people who make New Year’s Resolutions carry them through past the first six months of the new year.

 

 

How to put things right

Step 1: Call them NEW YEAR’S ACTIONS: The word ‘resolutions’ doesn’t really emphasise the effort needed to undertake your new decisions. Make a list, with the title ‘New Year’s Actions’.

Step 2: Make SPECIFIC  statements about the actions you will undertake in the new year (see this table for examples):

Step 3: Schedule your New Year’s Actions by creating RITUALS: Your new year’s actions will only work if they are scheduled efficiently (e.g. By writing them down in your diary, or scheduling them in your electronic calendar). That way, when you devise and look at your plan for the day (each day) you’ll be able to see the exact actions you need to take to work towards your end goals.

Step 4: Record your progress somehow. You’ll never know if you’re on the right track unless you have a record of the actions you’ve taken each day. A method I use for this is:

1. Write down the actions I wish to take for that day in my diary (e.g. Drink a pot of green tea. Go for a morning jog. Leave the house at 06.30)
2. Tick all of the actions I actually did/achieved that day
3. Work out a precentage score
4. Be happy with what I’ve achieved
5. Aim to raise my score by only one percentage point the next day

Step 5: Take at least one day off per week. If you don’t take at least some time off, you’ll get bored, tired and resentful of your new routines. Friday is often a good day to chill and wake up a little later and go out in the evening to let your hair down and reward yourself.

 

I would like to recommend a great and famous book by Anthony Robbins: Awaken the Giant Within. Whilst I haven’t used material from this book in this article, my ideas have been influenced by Anthony’s philosophy on taking massive action, embedding rituals into your life, raising your standards and making believable and achievable goals.

All images used in this article have no attribution.

 

Kindle Download (Free on 24th and 25th December)

My book, ‘The Quick Guide to Classroom Management’, will be free to download globally from the Kindle store on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (24th and 25th December). If you don’t have a Kindle device then don’t worry. Just download the free kindle app to your smartphone and you can then download my book for free too. Merry Christmas and happy reading!

 

Goodreads Giveaway

5 paperback copies of my book ‘The Quick Guide to Classroom Management’, are up for grabs in a Goodreads giveaway. Click on the link below to enter. Deadline: Christmas day.

 

Marking student work can become an enormous task, especially when you’re new to teaching and aren’t used to it yet. Here are my top tips for becoming an efficient marker:

1. Come in to school early, and leave late: If you leave all of your marking at school you’ll find that you’ll save yourself a lot of back pain, you’ll avoid losing student work and you’ll probably be a more efficient marker. Assign yourself a mrking target each day and use your early mornings and time after school to get it done. That way, your weekends are yours to enjoy.
2. Use peer assessment as often as you can: Make sure that students are provided with the exact answers they need for their questions, and get them to mark each other’s work. Always doible-check the stduent yourself too thoough, as students can pick up misconceptions when peer-assessing. In my book (The Quick Guide to Classroom Management), I outline in detail how you can use Google forms for peer-assessing (which builds technology into the process too)
3. Do you really need to assign so much homework?: If you’re not taking the time to sit with your students to provide high quality feedback, then is that homework assignment you’ve set really that useful?  Think carefully about the quantity of marking you are creating for yourself, and whether or not this is a effective way to enhance the learning of your students.

For more tips on marking and assessment, there are a good number of books on this issue on Amazon.