Making Mistakes And Learning From Them...

**Making Mistakes And Learning From Them...**

By Karen Boyes

Making mistakes is a great way to learn. Think about how a baby learns to walk. They pull themselves up, take that fantastic first step and... fall down. They pull themselves back up again and fall again. This learning process applies to all other tasks—reading, writing, maths, learning to ride a bike, roller skate or drive a car.




There are many fantastic examples from history that show how mistakes and failures can lead to success.




**Did you know..?**


Michael Jordan failed to make his secondary school’s basketball team’


Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper, because he lacked “good creative ideas”


Einstein could not speak until be was four and did not learn to read until be was seven.


Beethoven’s music teacher told him he was ‘hopeless as a composer”




High achievers are made not born. They make mistakes and learn from them. Babe Ruth, world famous baseball player holds the world record for number of home rums hit in his lifetime 714. He also holds the world record for number of strike-outs. 1330. He has struck out nearly twice as many times as he has hit home runs, and he’s the most successful at both.




When making a movie, a director will shoot as many ‘takes’ as necessary to get the best shot. Each time the scene is not correct the director calls it a mis-take and asks the crew to do it again, giving them a correction. This is a major key to learning from mistakes. To recognise where you went wrong and correct it. A six year old once explained this to me as a maze. ‘When you come to a dead end, you go back and find out where you went wrong and take another path.’




**Fear of Failure:**




Many people are scared of failing and do not attempt new tasks and activities for fear of not getting it right. This is crazy. You can learn from making mistakes. Often people use excuses to stop they experiencing failure. Have you ever heard yourself (or people around you) saying something like this?




“Why should I study, I’m going to fail anyway”


“That teacher doesn’t like me. He’ll fail me no matter what I do”


“Why should I do anything my Mum wants? She thinks everything I do is wrong no matter what.”


“Of course I’m not good at Maths, my Mum wasn’t”




This negative self talk is not success talk. People who talk like this often sound tough and act as though they have everything under control. On the inside, their self confidence is usually really low.




In Mark Victor Hansen's Book The One Minute Millionaire he discusses a SNAP technique for eliminating negative self talk. Simply put a rubber band around you wrist. Every time you catch yourself having a negative thought, simply snap the rubber band. Ouch! He suggests you wear the band for 30 days, 24 hours a day. Give it a go. It works.




FEAR stands for False Expectations Appearing Real. It is when you think forward to a situation in your mind and see a negative outcome and bring this image back to the present and worry or get fearful about what might happen. It is a false expectation that you created in your head and then have made it seem real.




Anthony Robbins says “The past does not equal the future.” Just because you failed last year, yesterday, or two minutes ago does not mean you will fail today, tomorrow or on your next attempt.




**Fear Of Success**




Sometimes people fear being successful. What will people think? What if my friends don’t like or respect me anymore. It’s called the Tall Poppy Syndrome and is very common in New Zealand and Australia. Americans do not have this syndrome. Here’s an example of how it works...




The American poppy grower goes out to his poppy fields one day and sees a single poppy standing one meter tall among all the other 30 cm poppies. The farmer is excited and rushes over to the poppy and thinks ’how can I get all my poppies to grow this tall?’
The New Zealand poppy farmer goes out to his poppy fields one day and sees a single poppy standing one meter tall among all the other 30 cm poppies. The farmer rushes over to the poppy and taking a pair of scissors from his pocket cuts it down.
Success is risky and it’s also very exciting.




**Home Application:**




* Encourage your child to learn from their mistakes. When your child gets a test paper back, invite them to celebrate the correct answers and go back to learn the questions they answered incorrectly.


* Share examples from your own life and people students may know or have heard of that have made mistakes, overcome obstacles and fear to be successful.


* Create an environment in your home where it is OK to make mistakes and celebrate new learning.


* Practice positive self talk and spend twice as much time praising your child rather than reprimanding.


* Rename mistakes to Mis –takes or learning experiences.


* Remind your child of how the learning process works – with small and often subtle improvements. Positive results are not always instant.


* Continue to believe in the ability of your child no matter how many times they have failed or been in trouble.




**Check out our website at [http://www.spectrumeducation.com www.spectrumeducation.com] and shop online for books and educational resources. **

Listening with Understanding and Empathy

**Listening with Understanding and Empathy**
By Karen Boyes


Listening is the beginning of understanding. Stephen Covey, in his book, 7 Habits For Highly Effective People, states “highly effective people spend an inordinate amount of time and energy listening.”


It is estimated that we spend 55% of our time listening yet it is one of the least taught skills in school. Some psychologists believe to empathise with and understand a person’s point of view is one of the highest forms of intelligent behaviour. Good listeners put aside their own thoughts to listen to the ideas of others and try to understand what other people are saying. They are often regarded as respectful, focused, tuned in, caring and attentive. They are not rehearsing what they want to say next, day dreaming or thinking of the advice they are going to give.


A common listening sequence is to pause, paraphrase and probe. Pausing means using ‘wait time’ after asking questions and giving people time to respond. It means allowing processing time, rather than excepting an answer straight away.
Paraphrasing lets others know that you are listening, that you understand or are trying to understand them and that you care. Probing is asking clarifying questions to help to gain a deeper insight or to refine understanding, terminology and interpretations.


Glenn Capelli gives a fabulous definition of empathy. He says “you don’t have to agree with the score, just understand how they got to that score.” You may not see eye to eye with a person, you just need to understand where they are coming from and why they think the way they do. It does not mean you have to agree with them. Voltaire said “I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Showing empathy is being able to assume someone’s position and is about overcoming egocentrism. Again to do this you must be able to suspend your own thoughts and ideas. Someone who is demonstrating empathy would be able to paraphrase accurately, ask clarifying questions, build on ideas and give relevant examples.


Being able to listen with understanding and empathy requires the ability to set you own thoughts, prejudices and values aside and to devote mental energy to attending and listening to the person. You may see a person leaning forward, nodding their head and making appropriate eye contact. Art Costa quote a child whom stated “ you would only see one pair of lips move at a time.” A great example of excellent listening.


As a teacher you may hear yourself saying, “before you give you opinion Jack, please paraphrase what you heard Jean say.” Another phrase you might use is “if you were (x) what would you do?” Modeling good listening is also important. Take time to listen to students, so you can understand them and they can feel what being really listened to is like.


Books that may be useful to introduce this concept of listening with understanding and empathy include;


Rainbow Fish by M Pfister.


The True Story Of The Three Pigs by Jon Scieszka


Charlottes Webb by EB White


The Animal Farm by George Orwell


The Diary Of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich




A quote to conclude... “Nature gave us one tongue and two ears, so we could listen twice as much as speak.”




**References: **


Art Costa and Bena Kallick: Discovering & Exploring the Habits Of Mind


Karen Boyes: Creating An Effective Learning Environment




**Check out our website at [http://www.spectrumeducation.com www.spectrumeducation.com] and shop online for books and educational resources. **

Design Your Life through Successful Goal Setting

Design Your Life through Successful Goal Setting.
By Karen Boyes

There are two choices you have about the future... let it happen or make it happen. Take a moment to reflect on what your life was like ten years ago. What were you doing? Where were you working or were you studying at College or Uni? Who did you spend time with? What was your personal life like?

Could you have imagined back then that your life ten years in the future would have been like it is today? If you answered yes to this, chances are you had some goals, a plan or a vision for what your life would be like. Now imagine ten years from today. What will your life be like?

Setting goals and having a vision for the future are sensible if success is something you aim for. Not just New Year resolutions that are forgotten by the next month, but meaningful goals that give you a direction and a purpose. Nearly all the successful people, whether it be in sport, politics, career, family etc have had goals and/or a vision to make it happen. It rarely happens on its own if left to chance.

There are seven simple steps to **SMARTER** goal setting.

Your goals must be very **SPECIFIC.** If I set a goal that states “I want to be successful” it doesn’t say at what. You get what you ask for in life. “Ask and you shall be given.”
How can you get what you want out of life if you don’t tell anyone, especially if you are not even sure yourself?

Your goals must be measurable. What would happen if you ran a marathon and there was no finish line? How would you know when you had completed the run? You would either stop short or keep going. If getting fit is a goal – how will you know when you are fit? Does it mean you can run to the letterbox and back without puffing or does it mean you have 15% body fat? How will you determine that you have completed the goal?
Make your goals **measurable** so that you will know when you have achieved a goal and celebrate your success.

Set your goals so they are achievable. If you want to be an Olympic swimmer and you don’t know how to swim, this goal may be too big. If you want to be a Mechanical Engineer and you are good at language and not so good at maths, you may want to reconsider your goal.

A friend once set a goal to run a particular half marathon in 2 hours and 22 minutes. She wrote her goal down and displayed it so she could see it daily. This goal was an **achievable** goal for her - but not for me because I don’t run!
When she ran the half marathon the stop watch stopped at 2 hours and 22 minutes!

I asked my friend “What if you had set your goal for 2 hours and 18 minutes?” She replied that at the time this was not **realistic**, however it is now. The difference between achievable and realistic is that it is achievable for every student this year sitting exams to pass. What will be different is realistically are those students willing to do what it takes? Are they willing to study, ask questions if they are not sure, learn the information they got wrong, practice old exam papers, use colour and effective note taking. Are you willing to do what it takes to achieve your goals?

It’s also essential to put a date or **time frame** on your goals. When do you want to achieve this goal? A time frame creates urgency. If you say your goal is to complete all the marking on my desk, it doesn’t say by when. If I say “My goal is to complete all the marking on my desk by the weekend” there is a bit more urgency to get on with it.


Goals are all the more powerful when they **EXCITE** you. When your goals are aligned with your personal vision or mission they are more likely to come to fruition. If you are not sure of your purpose, consider for a moment the answers to these questions? If you had 25 hours a day, what would you do with the extra hour? (You are not allowed to answer sleep! That will not aid in finding your mission.)

What three things would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?
Think of 3 people who know you best, what would they say your strengths are?
When was a time you were really excited, passionate about what you were doing? If you had $1 Million to give to a cause, which cause would you give to and how would you advise them to use it?

Find or design a vision or mission that is bigger than yourself and you will discover an energy and liveliness that you have never imagined.

The very last step to successful goal setting is to **RECORD **and **REVIEW**. Write your goals down and read them as often as possible or display your goals in a pictorial form by cutting out pictures and words from magazines and hang it somewhere you can see it each day.
The impact of having a written set of goals is demonstrated by this study. A 1953 survey of the graduating class at Harvard University, revealed that only 3% of the class had a set of written goals. Twenty years later this 3% had obtained more wealth, happiness and success than the other 97% combined.

Dreams don’t come true magically. They usually become a reality slowly through experiences, encouragement from others, examples from people you know or personalities on TV or that you have read about.

Once you know what your goals are, it is essential you plan the steps involved to complete them. If you are not sure of the steps involved, you could use the Planning Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) that NASA used to put a man on the moon. You start with the final outcome and work backwards asking “what happened just before that.”

Reviewing your goals is also essential. Once you head on your journey towards your goal it is important that you reflect on the journey – are you continuing to head in the desired direction? Have you slipped off course?
Once you start taking action, you may slip up on a step as all the steps are not the same height. If you do - learn from your mistakes and attempt it again.

A way to fast track your goals is to model successful people and find mentors. Successful people love helping others become successful. Just ask.

Find people who have already succeeded at something you want to do. Find role models who have overcome obstacles. Read books about successful people. Watch documentaries about people who have achieved. Take a successful person out for lunch.

The exciting part of goal setting is that you are in command of your future. It may not happen exactly as you expect, but what if it does?

You only get one shot at this life – design it and live the life you dream of.

**Check out our website at [http://www.spectrumeducation.com www.spectrumeducation.com] and shop online for books and educational resources. **

Gathering Data Through All Your Senses

**Gathering Data Through All Your Senses **
By Karen Boyes




In Art Costa’s book Discovering & Exploring the Habits Of Mind he suggests intelligent people gather data for evaluation, problem solving and learning, using many of their senses – not just one.




When faced with problems to solve, it is important to look at many options engaging your senses. This is illustrated well in Aron Ralston’s book, Caught Between a Rock and A Hard Place, where Aron finds himself in a slot canyon with his arm jammed between the canyon wall and a rock. He evaluates his situation using all his senses and eventually amputates his own arm for survival.




There are six main pathways for information to enter the brain – all sent by electrochemical signals to individual brain cells for storage and retrieval. These pathways are visual, auditory, tactile, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory.




How do these senses work?


Over ninety percent of sensory input coming into the brain is through the eyes. The sense of touch is from the largest sensory organ, the skin. Hearing is the only sense fully developed at birth so while this sense cannot be improved, the ability to listen can be. Smell, the olfactory sense, is the only sense not filtered by the brain. Smell goes directly from your nose cavity to the emotional centre of the brain, releasing chemicals and endorphins into the body causing an emotional or physical response.
Humans have four taste receptors, sweet, salty, sour and bitter.




The more you can engage and develop each of these senses, the greater to opportunity for learning to occur. Dr Vernon Magnesen affirms this with his statement; We remember 20% of what we read, 30% of what we hear, 40% of what is seen, 50% of what is said and 60% of what is done. He continues to say, “If you see, hear, say and do, the brain will remember 90%.”




Art Costa states “to know a wine, you must drink it; to know a role, you must act it; to understand a game, you must play it; to achieve a goal, you must be able to envisioned it. An ancient Chinese proverb says, “To know and not to do, is still not to know.” When planning your lessons, engage as many senses as possible. Encourage students to use other senses, rather than the most obvious ones. When the senses and dull and sluggish, thinking will also be dull and sluggish. Many studies show arts and music have a huge impact on improved mental functioning. Through the arts and music develops strong vocabulary; patterns, texture, colours, shapes, rhythms, tone, tempo, which in turn affects the ability for higher order thinking.


**Developing the senses...**


* Improve visual literacy by using pictures, video clips and photographs. Show the image and then remove it from sight and ask questions about it.


* Write instructions of the board for visual reference.


* Discuss what life would be like without sight, hearing, taste etc.


* Invite students to listen to a track of music and hear particular instruments


* Explain a task to a friend without demonstrating


* Use a ‘feely bag’ activity to touch and describe objects such as sandpaper, soap, chalk, steel, silk etc.


*Invite students to move to the rhythms of a piece of music.


* Act out or dance a poems or prose


* Provide students with different fragrances to smell such as cloves, cinnamon, eucalyptus, lemon, perfume etc.


* Teach students to smell with small sniffs and their mouth open for a different sensation


* Incorporate the senses into story writing and telling


* Blind fold your students and put different tastes on their tongues: sugar, salt, lemon juice and vinegar. Cleanse their palate between tastes with water or plain crackers.


* When problem solving, encourage students to visualise


* Build models


* Enrich language by using multiple senses: a waterfall of ideas, loud music slapping my ears.


* Provide a tactile environment with a ‘hands on’ approach


* Give students a choice in which mode they present ideas


* Ask questions to evoke different senses: What would it look like? How might that sound? What smells would you associate with this situation?


* Use real examples or analogies to enhance the learning


* Add more physical participation into your lessons. For example, saying the times-tables while bouncing a ball on the wall.


* Go on field trips


* Encourage students to draw visual representations of an experience




There are many books that can be used to introduce the idea of using all your senses. These include:


The Blind Men & the Elephant – Robert McCloskey


Little Read Riding Hood


There’s a Nightmare in my Cupboard – Mercer Mayer


Charlotte’s Web – EB White


James & The Giant Peach – Roald Dahl


Anne Frank – The diary of a young girl






Student love finding out how there brain works. Where the different senses are located in the brain and ways to maximise this learning potential. Frank Smith has been quoted to say, “If children find learning difficult, it could well be that there is something the matter with the way we are asking them to learn, rather than something the matter with their innate capacity for learning.”




References:


Discovering & Exploring the Habits Of Mind - Art Costa and Bena Kallick:


Creating An Effective Learning Environment - Karen Boyes:


Caught Between a Rock and A Hard Place - Aron Ralston


Teaching with The Arts In Mind - Eric Jenson


Study Smart - Karen Boyes


Boys Education & Homework - Ian Lillico




**Check out our website at [http://www.spectrumeducation.com www.spectrumeducation.com] and shop online for books and educational resources. **

Food for the Brain

**Food for the Brain**
By Karen Boyes




Children's blood sugar level cycles about every 45 minutes. In adults, it’s every 90 minutes and in teenagers, about every 60 minutes. When their blood sugar levels are low, learning is difficult. Keeping your and their blood sugar levels up is important. However, what students eat is important. There are good foods for your brain and memory, and there are some not so good foods.




**What is brain food?**


To begin with, one the best food groups for your brain is protein. The best sources of protein are unsalted nuts, chicken and fish. Fish, for many years, has been called brain food. Fish contains essential oils and amino acids that your brain uses directly. I’m not talking about the processed “fish and chips” fish, or takeaway chicken, but fresh good quality fish and chicken.


Takeaway food looks quick and easy and even tastes good. On February 23rd 2002 I purchased a burger from a well known burger restaurant. I left it on a plate in my office. Four years later, this hamburger looks the same as the day I purchased it. The bread, cheese and meat hasn’t gone mouldy. There are so many chemicals in it making it look good and taste good, and it doesn’t have nutritional value for the brain and learning. Do this experiment in the classroom with your students - they will be amazed.




Another food group that is good for your brain is fruit and vegetables. Essentially, what your brain needs from fruit and vegetables is vitamin B and vitamin C. If you’re not getting enough vitamins B or C, you may find it a little harder to remember things. In fact, research shows that when elderly people supplemented their diets with vitamins B and C, their memory recall went up 100%.




There is one other food that is absolutely fantastic for the brain, and you can eat as much of this as you like — popcorn. Popcorn is a complex carbohydrate giving you lots of energy without the sugar rush. It is best eaten plain and unsalted. Many teachers through NZ have popcorn machines in their classrooms, allowing students to eat throughout the day. Teachers and students are finding it easier to concentrate, comprehension is going up and behaviour challenges are lessening.




**What should my students avoid? **




Sugar creates an addiction cycle in your body that makes the brain work overtime. When you eat something sweet, your body starts to pump adrenaline and you feel good - the sugar high. However, while your body is using the sugar, your pancreas produces insulin to bring your body back into balance. This makes you feel worse than you did before eating the sugar. Then you think you need something else sweet to eat, and suddenly you’ve set up an addiction cycle. It’s particularly detrimental for students around exam time and when they are studying because the brain focuses on the need for more sugar, rather than devoting energy to memory and learning.




Caffeine is found in tea, coffee, coke, pepsi and other manufactured drinks, cigarettes and chocolate. Smart drinks also have contain caffeine. Dr Batmanghelid, in his book “Your Bodies Many Cries For Water” states “It’s an elementary but catastrophic mistake to think caffeine drinks are a substitute for water.” He continues to say” It’s true they contain water, but they also contain dehydration agents and use the water they are dissolved in as well as the reserves from the body.” Caffeine is a diuretic and this means each cup or glass of caffeine that you drink dehydrates your body of up to three glasses of water. You may have a cup of coffee and then feel quite thirsty. You have another cup of coffee, become even more thirsty and have another cup of coffee.


Approximately 70% of our bodies are made up of water and over 80% of our brains are water. Not enough water can lead to dehydration which causes headaches, lack of concentration and focus and tiredness. Drinking at least six to eight glasses of water a day is important for health and success. Younger children should consume about 4 glasses of water a day. Allow students to rehydrate between classes. They do not need to be sucking on a drink bottle continuously in class. However at any time of stress the body also dehydrates. Have you ever stood up in front of a group to speak and your month suddenly goes dry? According to Dr Batmanghelid, the ‘dry mouth’ signal is the last outward sigh of extreme dehydration. Dr Carla Hannaford suggests under any stress the body needs two to three times the normal daily amount of water.




**What can I do in my Classroom?**




Many teachers are beginning to allow their students to eat during class. You may like to give parents a list of appropriate foods. Talk to you students about the positive role of nutrition and how it affects their performance, thinking and reaction times.




Too much time between eating can cause a loss of concentration and decrease alertness. This obviously has implications for skipping meals, especially breakfast and students who eat early before school and have nothing again until 10.30am.




Many schools are changing their bell times to allow students to eat regularly. In primary schools morning tea has been renamed ‘brain food break’ instead of ‘playtime’ with the emphasis on students refuelling for the next session. In general Primary schools bell times look like this...




9-10 Class


10-10.15 Brain food break


10.15 -11.15 Class


11.15 -11.30 Brain food break


11.30-12.30 Class


12.30 -1.15 Lunch


1.15 - 3pm Class




A shortened lunch time in most schools has been welcome as most of the behaviour challenges happen in the last 15 mins. Cutting this out has resulted in fewer playground incidences.




Many Secondary Schools have also shifted their bell times to avoid the after lunch tired or hyperactive students syndrome. Schools have two classes in the morning, then morning tea, two classes before lunch and only one class after lunch. Teachers have reported students being more focused and less likely to cut the afternoon class.




**Check out our website at [http://www.spectrumeducation.com www.spectrumeducation.com] and shop online for books and educational resources. **

Flexibility in Thinking

**Flexibility in Thinking**


Roger von Oech says in the book, ‘A Whack On The Side Of The Head’, “By the time the average person finishes High School he or she will have taken over 2600 tests, quizzes and exams. The right ‘answer’ approach becomes deeply ingrained in our thinking. This may be fine for some mathematical problems, where there is in fact only one answer. The difficulty is that most of life isn’t that way. Life is ambiguous; there are many right answers - all depending on what you are looking for. But if you think there is only one answer, then you’ll stop looking as soon as you find one.” The need to teach flexibility in thinking is becoming increasingly important for the future and success.
In fact Charles Darwin said “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”


Thinking flexibly is the ability to consider alternative points of view. This involves using many different problem solving strategies and being able to deal with several sources of information at one time. People who are developing flexibility in thinking will often paraphrase other people’s points of view and consider them. It is being able to come up with an alternative answer. Thinking flexibly involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things a different way.


Some people have difficulty in considering alternative points of view. Their way is the only way. Not everything is black and white - there is also a rainbow in between. People who struggle with flexible thinking may use words and phrases such as “my mind is made up” or “I’ll do it my way.” Flexible thinkers use such words as “however”, “ on the other hand” or “if you look at it this way.”




Edward De Bono has simply hundreds of great techniques to enhance flexible thinking. Here are some of my favourites. .


**PMI stands for Plus, Minus and Interesting.** Provide students with a situation or statement and ask them. “What are the plus factors then all the minuses. Then what are all the interesting ideas to come out of this. .


**CAF stands for Consider All Factors.** It is important for students to understand all the factors before attempting to solve challenges. Teach students to look from another person’s perspective and how they may view the facts. .


**C & S means Consequences and Sequel.** De Bono suggests that most people do not consider all the consequences of an action unless they are encouraged to do so. .


Probably the most famous of De Bono’s thinking tools is his **Six Thinking Hats.** Students put on a different coloured hat for different kinds of thinking processes. .


The **White Hat** is for neutral facts, figures and information. What questions do I need to ask and what other information do I need? .


**Red Hat** is for feelings. How do I feel about this right now? What is my intuition or hunch about this topic? .


**Blue Hat;** Thinking about thinking. How did I get to that answer? What have we done so far and what's next? .


**Yellow Hat;** Is for all the good points? Why is this worth doing? How will it help us? Why will it work? .


**Green Hat;** is for creativity and different or new ideas. What other suggestions can we make? What are some other ways to solve this problem? .


**Black Hat;** what are the bad points? What caution do we need to take? Will it work? What are the weaknesses of this idea? .


Gordon Dryden and Dr Jeannette Vos in their book ‘The Learning Revolution’ say these simple lateral thinking ideas work in virtually any situation because they seem to show the logical links between sequential and creative thinking, therefore using both the left and right hemisphere of the brain, in turn making thinking and learning easier. Five year olds through to multi-national corporate companies can use these simple tools with amazing results.








**References**
Learning Revolution: Gordon Dryden and Dr Jeanette Vos.


The Co-operative Think Tank I & II: James Bellanca.


Six Thinking Hats Book 1-4: Edward de Bono.


Habits Of Mind – 4 Book Series, Art Costa & Bena Kallick.


Creating An Effective Learning Environment, Karen Boyes.




**Check out our website at [http://www.spectrumeducation.com www.spectrumeducation.com] and shop online for books and educational resources. **

Failing Forward Fast

**Failing Forward Fast**
By Karen Boyes


Humans have an inborn disposition to explore and
experiment and therefore learn. We are designed
to derive meaning from experience and to learn by
trial and error. It is important to let children
learn from experience rather than stop them
because of our adult fears.


On Monday 6th Feb 2006 the DominionPost newspaper
headline read “Parents ‘at fault’ for teen
suicides”. Wellington coroner, Garry Evans
suggests that teenagers are resorting to suicide
because of an over protective society and parents
that have shielded then from life’s problems.
Evans states, “If children are never allowed to
fail, how will they learn to pick themselves up
and walk on when they do fall?”. Evans asks the
question, “Are our attempts to protect our
children and young people against life’s failures
and traumatic events having a counter-productive
effect in that they are not being inoculated
against failure by exposure?”


Celia Lashlie, leader of the “Good Man” project,
agrees that children are being raised with a
‘lack of resilience’. She continues to say,
“Everything is being done for them. They are
delivered to school and picked up from school.
The greater the income of the parents, the
greater the level of doing it for the
kids.”


Embracing experiences, errors and mistakes is
essential in your classroom for maximising
learning opportunities. Glenn Capelli suggests
that good learners look back in order to look
forward with new and deeper wisdom.


Many organizations, classrooms, families and
individuals view making mistakes as ‘bad’ and
create an environment of shame regarding errors.
This tends to suffocate thinking and learning,
and sometimes leads to attitudes of
perfectionism. Instead, celebrate the errors and
mistakes you and your students make, don’t hide
them. This provides students with opportunities
to learn. Capelli recommends teaching students to
“fail forward fast”. This means make mistakes,
learn from them and move forward quickly.


Have discussions with your students about people
such as Edison inventing the light bulb, or
sports teams and heroes that have reflected and
improved. Hamish Carter, NZ’s tri-athlete, is a
great example of someone who has done this. With
great hopes he performed well below average at
the year 2000 Olympics, coming back to win a gold
medal four years later!


Teachers are often too busy trying to get through
content and miss out the reflection that truly
allows learning to occur.
Focusing on learning from experience leads to better
retention and faster, more effective learning.
Providing reflection time, enables learners to
consolidate understanding skills and attitudes,
and allows application of new knowledge.


Another way to encourage students to learn from
experience is to provide constant feedback. The
brain thrives on feedback and in fact needs it
needs for survival.


Eric Jensen advises, for optimal learning,
receiving feedback every thirty minutes or less
is paramount. He suggests there are many forms of
feedback, however feedback coming from the
teacher is the most inefficient. Jensen advocates
using pre-established criteria such as checklists
and rubrics so students can self assess. Other
ideas include using partners and classmates, or
whole group feedback. A concept I have found very
useful is ‘Dipsticking’. It is immediate feedback
to teachers and students with hand signals or
flash cards. Simply ask students to put thumbs up
or down to indicate their level of understanding.
However you do it, the more often the feedback,
the better; the more immediate the feedback, the
better; and the greater the specificity of the
feedback, the better.


Art Costa is an advocate of using mindful
language in the classroom. It is another way to
encourage students to learn and think for
themselves. For example, instead of saying, “You
need to start each sentence with a capital and
end with a full stop.” You might say, “This
sentence would be complete with two additions.
Can you figure out what they are?” The second
suggestion provides students with an opportunity
to reflect and learn, rather than being told.
When disciplining Costa suggests instead of
saying “Stop Running!”, rephrase it as a thinking
and learning opportunity. “Why do you think we
have rules about always walking in the
corridors?” Make your contact with every student
meaningful and let them do the thinking and
learning – not you.


Here are a few ways to help students learn from
their mistakes & experiences...


* Provide an environment where mistakes are
celebrated


* Rename mistakes to ‘learning
experiences’


* Use mindful language to encourage thinking and
learning


* Talk to students about responsible risk
taking


* Provide feedback as often as possible


* Ask students to retell observations and
procedures in small groups.


* Encourage students to write about a similar
experiences and learning


* Mime or role play learning (or things you have
learnt)


* Pictorially represent learning with symbols and
key words


* Write stories or poetry about a learning
experience


* Transfer school learning to real life
situations


* Use ’Dipsticking’ as an immediate feedback
system




Whatever you do in your classroom, let children
learn from their own experiences no matter how
small or insignificant it may seem. It begins a
pattern of reflective behaviour, which is an
indicator to success. Teach students to become
responsible risk takers and give new activities a
go, then reflect and improve. The more practice
students have the better they will become at
learning from their mistakes and errors. If you
teach them strategies to do this they are more
likely to have a successful life in all
areas.


**References:**
The Thinking Learning Classroom – Glenn Capelli
& Sean Brealey 2000 Western
Australia
How People Learn: Brain,
Mind, Experience and School. National Research
Council 2000 USA
Brain Based Learning
Eric Jensen 1996 USA
Creating An
Effective Learning Environment Karen Boyes 2001
NZ
Habits Of Mind – Activating &
Engaging Art Costa and Bena Kallick 2000
USA




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website at [http://www.spectrumeducation.com
www.spectrumeducation.com] and shop online for
books and educational resources. **