I'm starting with the man in the mirror (Michael Jackson)

Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash

Lesson 2: Accept your mistakes. 

Somewhere in the lead up to the plans I devised for our second PBL day, there was some crucial information that I glossed over. Then, on the day, I had to be in three places at once and things turned to curdly custard. Fast.

Like getting stuck in quicksand: the more I struggled to get out, I deeper I dove. 

Lesson 6: Sometimes you just need to focus

So, what did I do? Closed my eyes and focused. Breathed. Accepted my mistakes. Built a bridge.

In the end, other staff rallied around, and older students came up trumps and a lot of positive learning was the winner on the day.

Who knows what's good or bad?

P.S. If you, my young padowan, want the other 10 lessons - go and have a squiz at this list).

Welcome to your life (Tears For Fears)

How does the brain work?

How does YOUR brain work?

How does the brain learn?

How does YOUR brain learn?

What is self-awareness?

What are YOUR learning tools?

Brains from Thunderbirds!

As part of a study skills workshop, I am posing these questions to a class of Year 10 girls at my school today.

To help them answer, I am using four key resources:

• Mark Treadwell's prezis; 
• Star Wars (Yoda instructing Luke Skywalker); 
• John Hattie's meta-research; 
• A TED presentation by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore.

That's it. It's all I need.

Believe it!

Stages rearranging love (ZZ Top)

1 Claire Amos
I enjoy reading Claire's blog - Learning Leading Change. Her latest post had me laughing out loud!

2 Write That Essay
While I'm recommending blogs - this is one to watch (I love the style - it's loose and chatty and bold - 'Genre-based writing methods don't work' - yessir).

3 Same but different
Nice medium.com 3 minute read on same/different dichotomy.

4 Loyalty
Star Wars in the classroom hosted this awesome analysis of how loyalty is a theme in Star Wars.

5 Hero

Speaking of Star Wars - here's a cool video on the hero's journey.

Finding [it] was the will of the force (Qui-Gon Jinn)

Call me Rogue 120.

I recently discovered Star Wars in the classroom http://www.starwarsintheclassroom.com/index.asp and it's an awesome place!

In keeping with all that is excellent about the Star Wars universe, this site (curated by some dedicated educationalists) provides a great meeting place for people like me.

Who exactly are 'people like me'? 
Those who love Star Wars and can see how to use connections from Star Wars in their teaching.

The site is not just a fans convention (we are self styled as Rogues - my profile name is Rogue 120), but a great place where teachers share classroom resources that they use to supplement their lessons from Star Wars.

If all that sounds a tad geeky well - so what. Imagination is more important than information - remember!

As well as a plethora of static images, my classroom walls contain Star Wars posters and a number of quotes from the movies (yes - it's true, I love both trilogies and I'll be bursting to see The Force Awakens in 2015) 

My all time three favs: Your focus determines your reality, there's always a bigger fish (both Q-G J) and Do or do not, there is no try (Yoda).

Those are three great messages: Focus! Be humble! Carpe diem!

Not geeky at all! 

May the force be with you, always!