Just arrived back from a great dinner with some wonderful friends. And fantastic to meet up with Julia (pronounced: Ulia) who we met in Mexico at the start of 07, and is staying in Brisbane for a few months.
Anyway, we had a talk with Tom, who is 19, and one of the smarter people I’ve ever met. He tells me about a concept that is sweeping through the uni student world at the moment. Known as Wiki Warriors.
Do any of you remember the 6 degrees of separation stuff, and the game that used to be played in pubs? For whatever reason (and I’m still to ascertain why), it featured the actor Kevin Spacey.
The idea was that you had to determine the shortest number of connections between you, and Kevin Spacey. Eg your uncle met a politician from New Zealand, and that politician travelled to the US and met the US president, and the president once met Spacey. Thus, 4 degrees of separation between you and Spacey.
Side note: I once met a brilliant teacher who was only 3 degrees separated from Elvis Presley. And he could prove it. So beat that!
Anyway, Wiki Warriors. You are given a topic eg The Reformation, and then given another topic eg lunar craters; and you have to use any and all hyperlinks in the wikis, to track from the first to the last topic in the shortest number of jumps. Neat.
Here are a few for you. See how quickly you can move from one to the other with these:
* The ‘Golden Ratio’ to ‘Pluto’
* ‘Chinese Civil War’ to ‘nanometers’
* ‘French colonization of the Americas’ to ‘proteins’
Good luck. If nothing else, it’s a wonderful exercise for stimulating your synaptic impulsing.
The theory of 'The First Five Minutes'
I’m becoming more and more convinced about the worth of The First Five Minutes with almost anything I do. It’s one of my many theories on life. For me, the first five minutes invariably sets the precedent for the rest of the interaction.
I find that if I make the effort to offer my best effort in that initial time, two things occur:
1. I’m more focused within myself, and tend to create a more optimistic energy for the task. Basically, I’m ready to give it everything; and
2. Whoever I’m with gets caught up in that same energy, and (usually) is more attuned with me.
How important is this when it comes to teaching?? I once read that teenagers form 90% of their opinion of a lesson in the first 90 seconds. Harsh?? I don’t think so. Expectations are created very quickly, and can take a long time to turn around.
If you think that 90 seconds is too short, then have a look at some of Malcolm Gladwell’s writings. Especially a book called Blink. He conjectures that it often takes only two seconds to develop a reasoned opinion on the worth of a teacher or experience. Whew. Not much margin for error.
In other words, if you want to give a good lesson, plan that introduction. In fact, if you don’t have time to plan the rest of the lesson in great detail, make sure that you sort out that first few seconds. Make it interesting. Be dramatic. Use some unusual toy. Launch into an entertaining narrative.
Now take this a little further. Is it possible that you could establish the quality of your day, simply by making an effort to feel inspired in those first few minutes after waking up? This probably isn’t going to be easy if you’re the proverbial non-morning person. Still, taking that into account, why not do some / all of the following:
* Very consciously choose to visualise some of the great things that you’re going to do that day. Run a brain video, and see the experiences taking place in real-life speed. There’s a lot of merit to this. In high-level sport, they talk of the mental rehearsals that are so necessary prior to a winning performance. So why not have a mental rehearsal of your day?
* Revise on all of your best features / strengths. Get over your humility. Think them through, and even write them down. Sounds like too much trouble? Then it’s probably even more likely that you need to do this.
* Meditate. Simply play some quiet music, and focus on your breathing. A wise old man once conjectured that he had so much to do that day, that he needed to go and meditate for another half an hour. When we feel focused and relaxed, we’re much more capable of coping with whatever the day throws at us
* Take full control of your thinking. Bludgeon it if you have to. Choose to focus on some inspiring thoughts. If you can’t, then it’s likely that one of two things is occurring ie you’re caught up in unhelpful patterns of thinking that have developed over a period of time; and / or, you may even be clinically depressed. If it’s the latter, please please please seek some professional support.
* Find some special quote or short narrative that has always inspired you. Sit down and read it religiously every morning. It’s astonishing how much difference it can make to your mood to consistently revisit some special words.
This approach to the start of your day truly is critical. If you’re a teacher, I want to see you becoming inspired about your day. For two reasons:
1. You’ll enjoy it more fully; and
2. The students are more likely to benefit from your skills.
The first Five Minutes. Just apply it once today, and see if it works for you.