Active Learning

I was recently told that I’ll be teaching just in the sixth form next year and not any of my adult classes. I’ve enjoyed teaching the Access course and my evening classes. But I’m taking this as an opportunity to rethink teaching and learning strategies, chase out the old and make a fresh start. I think the younger kids are a lot less tolerant of 40 minute talks where they are expected to take notes, even if they are encouraged to ask questions. The challenge is to develop a greater active learning approach – with a much greater variety of activities than just group discussions and feedback that I do. It is very easy to fall into one way of doing things. I think changing things around like this could be a good way to save me from this rut. So I’ve been trawling Amazon - as you can see from the links - for activities and ideas about teaching today I want to get to work redesigning my teaching with as many new ideas as I can. Also it’s an opportunity to really go to town with PowerPoint. But again I want new ideas: I don’t want to just by transfer my notes from handouts to screen but to go beyond bullet-points.

Technorati Tags: teaching, active learning, PowerPoint

The Good Samaritan

Today, Nettes and I were teaching Sunday School. We were looking at the story of the Good Samaritan. Rather than taking the angle about helping people, we focussed on prejudice. An important point of the story is that a Samaritan helped a Jew when Jews were prejudiced against Samaritans. Jesus was showing that loving your ‘neighbour’ doesn’t mean just loving those whom you are close to. It also means loving those who are different from you. So rather than judging someone because they belong to a different group, we should help them.

This may involve changing our attitudes towards that group of people. It starts with changing how we think, but it also means changing what we say and what we do, despite how we feel – a good lesson in itself. Last night, we had been looking at this video about how one teacher taught her class about prejudice. But in our class we simply role played how we can act differently to people. Finally, we draw pictures of different sorts of people – different races, people from different countries, old people, young people, disabled people – on a piece of paper with the verse ‘love your neighbour’ on it as a way of celebrating diversity.

Technorati Tags: prejudice, diversity

Unhealthy Temptations

Looking through the newspapers I’m stuck by the fact that there are many temptations in the world. Illegal drugs lead to more crime. Anti-depressants as a quick fix can be addictive. Morning-after-pills are availably cheaply for teenaged girls. Affordable loans can just get us further into debt. It doesn’t really matter where you live this wasteland of temptation just seems everywhere. Is there no relief from it? Then there is our own anger, arrogance, pride and selfishness to content with...

One headline that stuck a deep chord in me said that the obesity epidemic is a 'bigger threat than terrorism'! The time has come for me to do something about this one: to eat more healthily and get more exercise. I’m going to take a ‘health walk’ once a week. And I’ve picked up some literature on looking after your heart. So I am looking at what I need to cut down on. It appears that saturated fat is a big one. I did order a book from Amazon on getting fit but it’s been delayed - drat it! Nevertheless I’m persevering with this health drive. After a few weeks of buckling down I trust that I’ll have a healthier lifestyle.

Technorati Tags: health, obesity

New Clothes?

I keep thinking that I should really get some new clothes. Probably the most important quality about my clothes is that they must be comfortable. I do try to be smart – especially for college – but I rarely wear very formal clothes. Casual clothes are much more practical for the times I’m looking after Callie. I have one pair of trousers that I keep almost exclusively for college. But one of the reasons I don’t ware them around Callie is because they have zips on the pockets that she might catch herself on. I’ve never been one to search out designer labels. I think that sometime I should get something like a Trinny & Susannah makeover book for men. But really I’m not one for trying to look trendy I just want to be true to myself – not anti-conformist or anything I hope – just my own look, which must be said is fairly ordinary. I heard somewhere that’s the latest trend anyway! I think it is important to look after myself but what’s on the inside is more important to me that superficial looks. I just hope that somehow my good qualities make their way to the surface.

Chaos and Complexity

I was just browsing through amazon and found this book. In psychology there are a number of approaches or perspectives. The most recent one that I was aware of was the postmodern approach where the many, sometimes contradictory viewpoints are celebrated. Now here comes a new perspective that been influenced by ideas in physics that describe how systems have degrees of complexity and chaos. Mathematicians trying to explain the movement of particles came up with this idea. Some order is necessary for structures to exist but too much order means that these structures do not change and so cannot emerge as new structures. A certain amount of chaos means that new structures are produced that maybe better than the old ones. Now this idea is being applied to social systems: whole societies and smaller groups of people. So it fits in with social sciences such as sociology and social psychology. But now psychologists are seeing that these ideas can be applied to the structures in our thinking and behaviour too. It also appears to have some interesting therapeutic applications that have been investigated.

Sorry for such an intellectual post. But I just get excited about things like this!

Technorati Tags: psychology, chaos theory

Miracles Today

I’ve got a sore throat now. Callie’s not feeling well this afternoon either. I was just thinking about my comment last week about Callie making a ‘miraculous’ recovery just before her train journey. It’s just something we tend to say but it probably undervalues the word. There are some interesting discussions of ‘divine healings’ especially with respect to AIDS at the BBC’s Africa blog. The misguided practice of telling people they are healed without any medical verification has lead to much criticism of such miracles such as this article in the Guardian. Yet there does clearly look like things are happening in Africa. As a psychologist I can see that a positive mental attitude can be beneficial for people with AIDS, yet as a Christian I do believe that God heals today. A few weeks ago Richard Dawkins was on Channel 4 questioning Christianity because pilgrims were healed at Lourdes in The Root of All Evil. It’s a pity this couldn’t be balanced with more on these healings of AIDS in Africa. Still in the meantime we have our sore throats to deal with. But talking about God healing AIDS puts it into perspective; doesn’t it?

Technorati Tag: AIDS

Flickr

This week Nettes and Callie have been staying with a friend in Kent. On Sunday night Callie was really sick. It seems a long time since she’s been sick like that. I suppose babies are still building up their immune system so Callie was sick quite a few times in her first year. She slept a lot of Monday while I was at college but she wasn’t sick again. I feared that she wouldn’t be well enough to travel on Wednesday. But by then she’d made a miraculous recovery.

All this means that I had the day off on Wednesday, as I was my day to look after Callie, but she was travelling with her mum on the train. So I’ve been using the time to play with flickr – a new photo-sharing site that I’ve found. If you scroll down you can see some of the pictures that I’ve loaded onto flickr at the right of the blog. If you click on anyone of them you’ll be taken to my flickr page and you can start exploring my photos as well as others from around the world.

Anyway, I better get on with the housework. See you soon Nettes.

Technorati Tag: flickr

Minority Influence

This week I was looking at minority influence in one of my classes. We were discussing how an idea or opinion that at one time is only held by a few can many effect people and may even become a mainstream idea. For instance, this week door-to-door paper recycling facilities have appeared alongside our normal rubbish collections. It doesn’t seem long ago that environmental concerns like this were very fringy. The same could be said for buying fair trade or organic produce. Minority influence has real applications in many areas including my Christian faith.

The most important key to having that influence is consistency: across the minority, in the individual over time and between what we say and do. People may disagree with the minority only to agree later forgetting where the idea came from. But interestingly minorities’ influence is impaired if they appear too inflexible. Encouragingly a snowball effect can sometimes be seen – as the idea gains momentum more and more people are convinced. I think a good illustration of this is the film Twelve Angry Men where a jury is convinced one by one to turn to the view of the one juror who initially votes innocent.

Listen-Talk

A few months ago Nettes and I took part in a communication workshop for couples. We used a method called Listen-Talk to discuss topics such as stress point, a life-change, a difference between us and an aspect that we appreciate in each other. At the end it was suggested that it would be a good idea to repeat this experience on a regular basis. The other night we finally got round to doing some Listen-Talks again. It was great.

A Listen-Talk involves each of us expressing how we feel about something. The trick is that we must listen carefully and not interrupt our partner. We then have to feedback what they have said while they listen to the feedback and correct any misunderstandings and add anything that has been missed. We then feed that back, and so on – until the fist person feels that they have been heard. It’s also a good idea to hold something like a cushion to designate whose feelings are being discussed.

Listen-Talk is very simple method that is a really good resource for our marriage. We just want to keep doing it.

What is my Vocation?

A book that’s very precious to me is Richard Hallow’s Full Time Father. When Callie was born I was in a very fortunate situation of being able to choose how many hours I could teach at college being on a part time contract with the option of overtime – I just cut back on the overtime. If it wasn’t for this book I could easily think of only my paid employment as my proper job. Yes, teaching psychology is a vocation for me but then so is being a dad to Callie and also a husband to Nettes.

I love teaching psychology and I love being a father. I also think that in today’s world it is much more common to have a number of careers in a lifetime. For instance, I worked as a computer programmer at one time and I may do something different in the future. Perhaps I should think of my vocation as everything that I do including every part of my life, my faith and my interests, everything. Or maybe even just in being the person I am, living out what I believe in the many different roles that I play in life.

Psychology of Initiation

I was just looking at classroom activities on conformity. One of them outlines the behaviour of gang members. The suggestion is that one of the explanations for high levels of conformity could be to do with initiation ceremonies. For instance to join one Latino gang in LA you need to be beaten up by three other members for 13 seconds! Similarly aggressive initiation ceremonies from a Royal Marine commando base have been in the news not long ago. A bit like the behaviour you might see in the film Jarhead.

On a more positive note, I was interested to see Dr Hilary from GMTV recently talking about overcoming depression to life coach Lyn Blades. One tip was to initiate yourself into a new happier life by ‘baptising’ yourself in some big body of water. Rather than being an issue of conformity this could just be a private commitment but it was also said that surrounding yourself with happy people was a good idea too. So perhaps there are some parallels here. Whether it’s initiation into a gang or into a happy life the rite of initiation as well as others around you appear important in starting the adventure.

Hospitality

I’m not really into New Year’s resolutions as such. But I do think it is good sometimes to take stock of where we are and to set goals for ourselves. A new year is as good a time as any. One thing that we would like to do more of this year is being hospitable. I think all we mean by this is make a bit more of an effort to invite people round for meals. We haven’t really got the space to invite people to stay. I think it would be good to take chatting to people that step further and start to open up our home. Why not find out a bit more about people, learn from them and perhaps even be an influence on them? We’ll probably start with our own circle of friends, such as the church, but we don’t want to stop there. Nettes and Callie regularly go to a group works both as a playgroup and also a support and information group for people new to the area especially for refugees and asylum seekers. I think this would be a good area to expand our friendships into by way of our hospitality.

Twelve Days of Christmas

Welcome to all those who followed the link in our newsletter. We wish you all a stress free Christmas. The Carol Service went well. Nettes did all the organising and leading and I did the PowerPoint and a short gospel message on peace. We also had a little art display on images of Christmas for people over the buffet that followed.

Now Christmas is starting at home. Decorations are going up: Our tree this year is a Jesse Tree, elements of which have been going up throughout advent. We’ve covered our Christmas card holders in brown paper with large versions of this year’s Christmas stamps. And oh yes, we’ve got some beads to hang up soon and we mustn’t forget the flowers.

Over our twelve days of Christmas we’ve got a little present for Callie to open each day, including a book on Saint Nicolas. We’ve got meals planned out for each of the days with responsibilities equally shared between me and Nettes. Our special meal for Christmas Eve will be a Thai Green Veggie Curry. Having just watched ‘What’s in Your Christmas Dinner’ on Channel Four we have great sympathy vegetarian diet although we are not veggie ourselves.

Christmas Peace to you all. Keep in touch.

Pray for the Hostages

Nothing has been heard of the four hostages held by the Iraqi group the Swords of Righteousness since the deadline for their execution passed on Saturday. The four men Norman Kember, Tom Fox, James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden were working Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq when they were captured. By all accounts they were working for peace not spying as they are accused of by the Iraqi group. CPT is a group of Quakers, Brethren, Menonite and other Christian groups that supports non-violence and so has always opposed the war.

Tom Fox, anticipating being kidnapped said not to pay ransom for his return. He also said to reject the use of violence in trying to win his freedom and not to speak ill his abductors, but instead to try to understand the motives of their actions. We don’t know if they are still alive or not. But if they had been executed then I would have thought that a video of this would have been released by now. I hope they are trying to find a way to release them without losing face and can think of one quickly.

In the meantime all we can do is pray.

Christmas Stress Pills

This present idea made me laugh.

After working so hard at college recently I’m now hit by the preparations for Christmas. I would prefer to avoid all this fuss about Christmas but the problem is if I don't put effort into the planning and organising soon enough then I'll end up with things that I'm not happy with.

I managed to buy books from Amazon today, just in time. It wouldn't have mattered that much because this year we are celebrating twelve days of Christmas. So our daughter will be opening presents over the whole holidays.

I should be able to cope with stress better than some people, as last night I was teaching stress management to one of my evening classes. It's all to do with changing how you look at the world and learning techniques to tackle those things that cause you stress rather than just treating the symptoms.

I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel as I get on with all the preparations. So I won't actually need any of these Christmas Stress Pills. Seriously, if you are thinking of buying any presents a really good place to look is www.greatgifts.org.

A Busy Week

I did three days at college this week. Three full days starting around 9 or 10 and leaving just after 9 at night. I was pretty whacked for doing much else like housework or fun things with my family. I was going to do some more college work today but I just couldn’t get my head together. I listened to the radio at little. I surfed on the internet a little.

I just came across this quote from Andrew Marr who stepped down as the BBC’s political editor in the summer only to take on lots of other jobs Sunday AM on the telly and Start the Week on radio:

“I don’t think stress is a bad thing. We’re too scared of it. I think urban life is about packing a lot in. I’m very much of the view – perhaps it’s to do with getting older – that you’re not around for very long on this planet, and to feel that you’d had more than enough time half-asleep in the garden is not how I want to go.”

I think I can see where’s he’s coming from. But after my busy week I’m quite glad of a chance to laze around.

Adbusters

I found this sight two or three weeks ago when I was looking for things on Remembrance Day . The link with terrorism is interesting again. I think this site has some really insightful comments on our culture although it is very American. I think it is well worth exploring more.

Adbusters now talking about ‘Buy Nothing Day’ that is a part of the Buy Nothing Christmas campaign. It looks like a campaign to boycott shops on November 25^th in protest of the materialism of Christmas. I have a lot of sympathy with this campaign.

It just amazes me that Christmas items were in the shops alongside Halloween stuff. There is so much about Christmas that sickens me. For most of us it’s just a time when we must shop and then ‘enjoy ourselves’ in a way that our culture tells us to.

Materialism. Yuk!

Remember Remember

My wife Nettes and I went to see this play the other night at a local church. We were very impressed by this, the latest production from the Riding Lights Theatre Company. It tells the story of the gunpowder plot from the viewpoint of one of the conspirators. The main story is interspersed with more contemporary scenes of terrorism from both the IRA and Islamic fundamentalism. It didn’t take that long to get used to the minimalist set design and costumes and the fact that some actors played more than one part. I was soon caught up in the story. I found the portrayal of religious persecution particularly powerful. The image of the worshippers leaping up at the slightest sound is one that will stick with me. I also liked the development of the hero’s character – from someone reluctant to talk of his faith through someone who took action to finally someone who was repentant. It is interesting that the fact that the gunpowder plot took place 400 years ago is still recalled in our national celebrations. But the parallels drawn with the war on terrorism and the recent London bombing is even more chilling.

Eating Disorders

We in the West consume many times as much as those in the rest of the world. Obesity is rife in our culture. Yet there are other eating disorders that are also peculiar to our culture: anorexia – self starvation - and bulimia – binge eating followed by vomiting. This week I've been preparing some notes on this for college. Here is a taste of the sort of thing we will be discussing:

2-3% of young girls lack peace about their eating. About 90-95% of anorexics and bulimics are female and more than 90% of most severe cases of anorexia start in teenaged years. Bulimia tends to start a little later than anorexia. In the UK it is thought that about 1% of school girls and female students suffer from anorexia and between 1-2% with bulimia. Cases of eating disorders have increased steadily from 50s until 90s when they levelled out. Bulimia has now overtaken anorexia. But for the troubled anorexic or bulimic there is hope and comfort to those who seek help through psychotherapy. Though psychoanalysis may give some insight to those with eating disorders, greater hope is offered today by cognitive-behaviour therapy which can be used in conjunction with medication.

Spiders

I've just been painting and colouring with my two year old daughter today. The theme has been one of her favourite creatures... spiders. I found out while we were paiting that she's very good at singing all the words to 'Incy Wincy Spider'.

We were doing handprints and this one was the one that most looked like a spider. They are my hands by the way!

What do you think?