You Can't Coach That

Saturday, May 19, 2007

As human beings we are constantly learning things. I love the process of learning and I am always trying to understand this process to make me a better learner and a better teacher.

Here are some of the things I have learned this week:

• Leo Chiang taught me that coffee can assist in the process of recovery from exercise. I’ve got the coffee thing happening very well, now for the exercise
• RT taught me that in California in the US it is possible to vote without being a US citizen and that it is illegal to be asked for proof of identity when voting
• Dan taught me that having an extensive blogroll can have a negative impact on your google page rank
• Michael Dell uses Ubuntu Linux on his personal laptop
• I learned about the proposed spending on education in the Federal Budget, I don’t like what I learned

What did you learn this week?

“You can’t coach that”

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Today, 25 April, is ANZAC day. We pause to remember those who have given their lives in all wars.

“Lest We Forget”

Friday, April 13, 2007

I have been doing some reading lately on the brain and its development, especially how the brain changes in childhood and adolescence as part of the learning process. It is quite fascinating and I will be writing my thoughts later when I understand this area a little better.

What I do understand now is that my brain works a little differently to that of many people. I often see this as somewhat of a curse but perhaps I should be thinking of the positives - something to work on. 

Let me offer the following by way of example. I was marking exam papers yesterday at home alone. The family was out so I had the place to myself. The marking was not going particularly well and I recalled something I had read regarding the benefits of playing classical music when studying or doing similar activities. The study in question compared playing classical music while studying to playing rock music and found considerable benefits with respect to brain function and cognition when classical music was played in the background. Additionally, when rock music was played at similar levels brain function and cognition were negatively affected.

Naturally, having reflected on this I decided to conduct my own small clinical trial. While I do not as a rule listen to classical music (in fact I was recently informed by a music teacher that what
I loosely call classical music is often more accurately called something else) I do have some in my collection and played some at a background type volume. I also spent some time organising my work area in preparation for more marking and think that I successfully prepared myself to allow the soft music from the other room to have its positive impact.

You may have guessed by now, if of course you are still reading, that my experiment was not a success. The music had exactly the opposite effect that I was hoping for. I became edgy, restless and found it difficulty to concentrate. I made errors in the papers I marked and had to remark them. My solution? Guns ‘N Roses. The Use Your Illusion II Album to be precise and the volume turned up. I found this to be more conducive to concentration and I got back into the swing of things with the work I had to get done.

Now of course this is the sort of music I am more likely to listen to on a regular basis and therefore it could be argued that this familiarity was what put me in the right frame of mind to work. My unnamed study (I really should keep a record of the things I read) suggests that this shouldn’t matter. The people studied also listened to music they like and were familiar with and still performed better with the classical music.

Have you ever tried meditation or so called relaxation techniques? The sort of thing I am thinking about goes something like this.

You are walking in a field of wild flowers carrying a heavy backpack. You come to the middle of the field and find a helium balloon. You tie the backpack containing all your burdens and worries onto the balloon and let it fly away ..........

This sort of activity is designed to be relaxing and help ease stress and anxiety. For most people it has some positive impact and at worst just doesn’t work and they feel no different. Not so for me. Meditation and visualisation relaxation techniques make me feel worse. In fact just writing about it has put my pulse rate up a couple of BPM.

So what? Well nothing really but it does help me to think about the way I think. We are all different and have to acknowledge this and find what works best for us. I just hope I find something soon.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

After a serious post yesterday and a semi-serious one earlier this evening time for a bit of flippancy.

My new band is called “My Friend Merle”. For some reason this small phrase has captivated me, has some sort of weird hold over me. So much so that I can only think that it makes the perfect name for a rock band.

Only one problem - no musical talent whatsoever. Never mind, back to dreaming.

“You can’t coach that”