Category: Journal

2019 in review

I need to state that for me 2019 is a year I would probably prefer to forget.    It is not with any great ease that I say this however some of the events of 2019 have caused much stress, upset and difficulty.   On the other hand, and trying to take a positive from the year, myself and my family have progressed beyond the issues of the opening few months of the year and hopefully learned from them.   I hope that we are stronger for them but either way, they are now in the past and it is time to progress onwards.

So, looking back to my pledges as stated at the end of 2018 (You can read these here), what have I or have I not achieved.

Family

As mentioned above, as a family it was a very challenging year.   My hope had been to spend more time together and build more opportunities for memories, etc however this didn’t happen.   Time was spent however some of it building memories that would be better forgotten.   Sadly, I am not currently comfortable going into more detail on this topic but maybe some day in the future I will share more.

It is worth noting however that we did have our eldest down between Christmas and New Year which was very nice.   As he is now in his 20’s we don’t see him as often as we would like but he does have his own life to lead so it was very nice that he took time to travel down to us for a couple of days.

We did also have our 2nd annual holiday away which was very nice and something, for a large number of years, we lacked as a family.   It is now our hope that in 2020 we do something particularly special in terms of holidays and to avoid this becoming a wish/dream only we have actually went ahead and booked significantly in advance as opposed to our usual act of last minute bookings.

Exercise, Wellbeing and Reading

Finally completing Couch to 5K

On the exercise front I achieved my plan for completing couch to 5K, in fact I almost completed it twice, so I am very happy I managed to get into a constructive exercise habit.  I even ended up going for a run on both Christmas Eve and on Boxing Day which is something I didn’t foresee happening at the outset of the year.   For me this was significant progress as I have never really been a sporty or fitness person.  Sadly, following recent testing, it seems my blood pressure may be higher than it should be which means I clearly need to do more on the exercise front.

Again, I achieved my target of reading 12 books and a number of them I very much enjoyed and think they added to both my knowledge and understanding.   My library of books is starting to look quite impressive in my eyes at least.  The one issue I have had however is that my reading has not been constant enough throughout the year, instead being made up of a number of smaller sprints through books.  This is something I want to consider next year.

And feeling happier; That was an ambitious target.   Sadly, with everything that happened at the start of the year, various stresses throughout the year and my more recent concerns I am not sure I have achieved this.   And sadder still is the fact, if there was anything important to achieve this was probably it.   I suppose the challenge becomes asking what makes me happy and do I even know what makes me happy?   Not an easy question to answer.   And from my recent reading there is also the question of whether seeking to be “happier” is actually something I should be doing or whether I should be focusing more on taking all that I can from what I have.    Possibly a little too deep and meaningful a question for so early in the calendar year but maybe something for a future blog post.

Professional development

I think I have developed as a professional this year on several fronts albeit I haven’t done many Udemy or other courses and haven’t picked up many certificates.   What I have done however is read and explore topics, ask questions and challenge ideas and try to get more involved in communities discussing areas which I find of interest.   I have also attended and event presented at some excellent events.

Work

Development of an IT Strategy was a key focus of a lot of the year however as the school sought to clarify and launch a vision of its own, I decided that the IT strategy take a back burner.    Discussions on mobile devices were ongoing and some progress made including starting the trialing new devices.   We have also been made progress in relation to deploying One-drive and Microsoft Teams.    If I was trying to sum up the year, I would possibly use the word “momentum” as I fell a number of projects which had been slow burning for some time gathered pace and made reasonable progress in 2019.   Clearly in the year ahead this is something I need to build upon.

Overall

A year ago, I summed up my plans for the year with one word; Balance.    Sadly, I don’t think I achieved this as early in the year events threw things so far out of kilter that it most likely wasn’t until the middle of the year that I got close to achieving any balance.   From then it has simply been a fight to catch up.

As I said at the outset, 2019 is a year I would rather forget however to forget is to lose sight of the number of valuable, albeit at time painful, lessons learned.    I need to take as much as I can from 2019, one thing helped by my keeping of a journal through large parts of the year.    Maybe reflection will be something I need to spend significant time on in 2020.

And so with this it is on to 2020, with my plans for the year ahead to be shared shortly…

 

My decade in pictures

I am planning to write a reflection on the last decade however recently while sorting out some photo libraries the idea of sharing a photo log of my last decade came to me.  Now I note I dont have photos for everything which may have been worthy of inclusion but I think there is enough to make it worthwhile.    Have included only a caption for each photo and no other explanation.

2010:

Myself at other consultants at a UAE school
My first big conference presentation at GEF

2011:

UAE National Day, 2011

2013:

Birthday present to my wife
First trip to Kuwait
Presenting at a Conference in Kuwait
Getting involved with Teacher recruitment for UAE schools.

2014:

New Year 2014 and a Bond theme
My sons broken arm and 4 surgeries

2015:

2015 New Year Go Karting
Last days in Abu Dhabi
First days in Somerset
The Tor in the distance

2016:

Santa and some Christmas elves

2017:

A new home

2018:

The views on my first attempts at Couch to 5K

2019:

Finally completing Couch to 5K
Microsoft Bootcamp

 

 

 

Keep running

I was reflecting on August 2018 and I came across my post on my efforts to complete Couch to 5k.    It is now a year further on and around one month ago I finally reached my target and completed the Couch to 5k programme, running my 5k distance in slightly longer than the 30mins allocated.    I must admit I was very happy to achieve this having spent a number of years trying.   It required a certain amount of motivation and resilience to keep going even when I was finding it difficult but I managed to sustain the effort and reach my goal.    Since then however I have had a family holiday plus an injured foot and therefore I haven’t continued my practice of running as I had intended to do.     In fact, I think I have only run twice since completing the programme.

As the start of the new academic year is on the horizon and as the winter weather and dark mornings will set in soon, I think it is important that I restart my running in the coming days, to try and get as much out of it as possible before the weather puts me of.   I think this will also help with a bit of the new year blues which I feel have crept in over the last week or so.   It may be that my sudden stopping of going for a morning run may have contributed to some of the malaise I am currently feeling.

My hope is that I can once again develop a regular habit of going for a run starting with trying to get two runs in before the end of this week.

 

 

5 a day; A possible framework

I have enjoyed following Teacher5aday on twitter for a while now and have also got involved with some of the activities such as teacher5adaysketch however it has only been recently I have reflected on what “5 a day” means for me and what it might mean for teachers, those working in education but also for those in other high pressure and challenging jobs.

Firstly I think it is important to be clear on my views of what “5 a day” might mean.    I am looking at 5 things I believe are important to do or include within the average day.   That doesn’t mean all 5 have to happen every day;  life isn’t simple enough to make this a reality.    It is more about looking across the wider period of time, maybe a month or a term, and considering if these 5 things are regularly appearing, if something is too prominent or if something is being missed.    It is about seeking balance and not about creating a simple checklist to tick off each day.   I note that quite often where checklists are involved completing items from the checklist becomes the aim, rather than the checklist simply being an assistive tool to help with organisation of your task.   We need to keep focused on the actual aim, seeking balance in this case so a checklist can just end up detracting from what you are really trying to achieve; so no checklists please.

So my five things:

Fun or relaxation

Am going to start with the need for a little bit of fun or relaxation as in our busy lives this is often the thing that we miss out.   We often prioritise other tasks over having fun and therefore leave ourselves insufficient time to relax or enjoy ourselves, but it is important.   Think about something you enjoy doing or find relaxing such as reading, which works for me, or watching TV or playing with the kids and make sure you are doing it regularly.

Challenge

It is easy to get in a rut and to simple repeat the same tasks and activities week in week out based on habit.    The issue with this is that it leads to boredom and a lack of fulfilment.    Challenge is a key part to life and I therefore think it is important to regularly step outside our comfort zone whether this in learning something new, taking on a project, getting involved with a community group or whatever else you find challenging. There needs to be something that stretches you to go further in your life, and it should be something which you are doing regularly.   For me this is often learning something new, a project or trying to improve my fitness, which leads nicely into my next point.

Physical / Health

It is very easy as we spend more time at our computers and using technology to forget about the physical health side of life.  For those who have followed my posts you will be well aware of my difficulties in this area as I am not the most sporty person you will find.   That said I recognise that mind and body work together, so if I am healthy and fit I am likely to perform better in other areas.    As such it is important to make sure that you engage in regular exercise in a way that suits you whether this may be home exercising, a gym, walking the dog or, as is the case for me, engaging in CouchTo5K.   The main thing is to simply get active.

Purpose

It is all well and good to do things, engaging in exercise, or taking on a new work project or relaxing in the garden reading a book but in all we do we need to ensure we have purpose.    Why are you doing what you are doing?  Where are you hoping to go with things in the future?   The things that you end up doing have to purposeful so for me my physical efforts are about improving my fitness to balance out the time I spend at a computer or in meetings, and to hopefully be a healthier person.   In work I hope to support my school in the use of technology as an enabler, enabling students, teachers and support staff to excel in all they do.

Mindfulness / reflection

I list this last not because it is the last thing to deal with but because I think it has an overarching role to play.   I recently heard Sir Anthony Seldon refer to the need to stop and reflect and this is my final point.   We need to provide ourselves with the opportunity and permission to stop and reflect.  To consider how we feel, our worries and our ambitions; we need to be conscious of ourselves and be mindful.   We also need to stop and look back on our past, our environment, friends, successes and failures, and what we can learn from them.     Only by setting time aside to be mindful and to reflect can we ensure, as Sir Anthony suggested, that we are the best we can be.    This, however, is the one area I find the most difficult and one that I need to continue to work on.

Conclusion

Over the last six months I have had some significant difficulties, which I have considered blogging on however haven’t felt in the correct state of mind or correct place in my life to share, yet.   I have also more recently found myself to be very busy, and at times possible too busy.    As I consider the past six months and my 5 a day, I can see areas where I am making real progress, such as on my fitness but areas which, due to other things have taken a back seat including simply having fun and also setting aside time to reflect.   With this now in mind I have a better idea of the direction I need to take in the months ahead.   This can then help me in planning.

Hopefully the above 5 a day will help me to achieve the balance I believe is so important.

 

Reflections on the Bryanston Edu Summit

I recently attended the Bryanston Education Summit, with this being my third visit for what was the third annual education summit.    As has been the case in previous years the weather smiled on the event.   Having now had a little time to reflect I thought I would share my take away’s from the event.

The need for reflection

Sir Anthony Seldon’s keynote began with a breathing exercise where he encouraged all in attendance to get involved, providing all a moment of mindfulness.  This was a bit of a departure from the normal start to a presentation which might highlight the key questions of the session or the key topics.  The purpose of this activity was to highlight the need to stop and reflect.   Sir Anthony also suggested the need for us to stop and ask “am I being the best I can be?”    This message is one I believe strongly in as our fast and frenetic lives often mean we are focussed on getting things done and checking off tasks from our to-do lists, simply moving from one activity to the next.    In education things can get particularly busy as is evidenced by the continued discussions as to workload.   The issue with this is that we don’t have time to reflect on our core values and on what really matters, on being the best we can be.    Without time to reflect we may be very busy however we may be having little impact or may simply be doing the wrong things.  In order to address this we need to provide ourselves both the permission and time to stop and reflect.   I will admit that finding the time isn’t necessarily easy but we need to prioritise and provide ourselves regular opportunities to reflect.  I also think there is value in doing this to model best practice for the students in our care.   Otherwise all they will see is their teachers rushing from task to task, forever busy, and for them this will shape their view of what is normal.

Trust

The session on leadership by Michael Buchanan included mention of trust and the need for leaders to provide their teams the “permission to be themselves”.    I think this needs to permeate through the culture of a successful school to include formal teams such as departments, but also informal teams and all the way through to how teachers lead the students in their care.

In Alex Beard’s session he referred to the need to try and remove things from teachers where they don’t have an impact on teaching and learning going on to suggest that such time might be used to develop technology skills, understanding of cognitive science and subject expertise.   To me this links to trust in that the most obvious thing to remove, or at least the thing which appears most obvious to me, is any task of an administrative nature which is related to accountability.   If we trust teachers we wouldn’t need as much of the paperwork and data to prove that what needs to be done was being done.

Professional Learning

Cath Scutt’s session focussed on the status of the teaching profession.    She quickly identified her concern with the idea that we need to “raise” the status of the profession in that this creates a “deficit” model.    It suggests that there is something wrong or deficient.   This is similar to the concept of Professional Development which has always for me suggested a deficit;   I have therefore always preferred the term “professional learning”.   For me the key issue here is the need for a culture in education similar to the Japanese term Kaizen, or continual improvement, as mentioned by Alex Beard in his presentation.    We should be seeking to improve, or better learn, not because there is a deficiency, but because we have to if we want to be the best we can be and if we want to enable our students to be the best they can be.

Networking

The session focussing on Hattie’s research into visible learning highlighted the importance of teacher self efficacy to student outcomes and also on the need for “teachers who are learners.”   I believe technology can help with both of these issues.   Take for example twitter.   It allows for discussion and sharing of ideas, for us to question our own practices and ideas.    I think as a tool to both self reflect and also to search out new solutions, twitter is excellent.   It also allows us to stretch beyond our own local context and connect with different educational institutions with differing age ranges, focal areas, internal structures and from different parts of the world.    This can only help us both in being more self aware and in being learners as well as teachers.

Conclusion

The third annual Bryanston education summit was an interesting and useful event.  The above only briefly summarises some of the key points of the pages of notes I found myself coming away with.   I suspect as I have more time to reflect other points will likely surface for me.   One area which I haven’t mentioned for example is the impact of technology on student outcomes.   The provided Hattie data indicates 1:1 laptops only have a minor positive impact on student outcomes however, as was suggested in the session, there is a lot of context to be considered in this.  This is something I will likely discuss in a blog post in the near future.     For now I will conclude that my key take away wasn’t a particular leadership approach or curriculum model or learning model.   The key message I heard from sessions was a need to focus on softer aspects of education, on reflecting, on trusting and on working together to ensure the educational experience we provide is the best it can be.

I enjoyed this years event and now hope to be able to put in practice some of what I have learned.   I look forward to next years Bryanston Education Summit.

2019, another new year

It is that time again to write my new years resolutions, my pledges for the year ahead and once again I face the same challenge.   I could select SMART targets such as to read 12 books but in picking something so easily measurable there is a danger that I focus on the target, and select 12 books which are shorter and easier to read rather than picking more challenging reads, which may take more time to read however in the long term will be more useful.    There is also danger that I pick a target that I then quickly achieve early in the year, leaving me to look back at the end of 2019 having achieved everything in the first couple of months.    The other option is I pick bigger goals such as to develop my understanding of learning and how individuals learn.    This is a much bigger goal however is difficult to measure in terms of my success in achieving it.

For 2019 my plan is to set some over arching strategic targets, which are big goals, but within each to also indicate some initial shorter SMART targets.   My hope is this should give me a balance of micro and macro level goals.

And so onto the new years resolutions, pledges or goals for the year ahead:

Family                                 

A key target for the year ahead is to have a family holiday together.    This is something we haven’t done for a while, other than last summer.   As such I think this should now become an annual event as it gives the opportunity to spend some uninterrupted family time together, to decompress and to relax.

A wider target would be to make more family time together.   This needs to involve actually sitting down to dinner together, to playing football with my youngest, to going out as a family on the occasional weekend.   Myself and my wife will also need to seek to make more time for each other, with “date night” a clear possibility however given our working patterns we will need to work on resolving the logistical issues.

Exercise, Wellbeing and Reading

This year rather than having separate targets for exercise and readings I have decided to roll them all up into a single area for focus.

In terms of SMART targets, my key targets will be to complete the 9 weeks of Couch to 5K before the end of the calendar year and to read my usual 12 books, one book per month.

Looking towards a wider target, I want to feel happier in myself at the end of the year.   This will mean trying to strike a balance between work and personal life.    In with work I include my efforts in blogging and posting on social media.   My work doesn’t just include my job but includes other tasks and activities which I do as part of my wider professional contribution to education and to IT.  I would also like to start podcasting during 2019 however I need to be conscious that I need to achieve a better work/life balance and to be more comfortable taking time out to relax.

Professional Development

Having achieved certifications in each of the last three years, and conscious of the fact that I will need to re-certify which will require me to repeat my exams, I am not going to set myself a target of a specific certification in 2019.   Instead I am going to focus on some specific areas of interest with these being cyber security and data analytics in particular.   I hope to be able to use Udemy courses and various books as my method of study with a view to being knowledgeable and experienced in relation to these topics by the time 2019 draws to a close.

Work

I have found thinking about work targets a little difficult as I have a number of projects currently underway which therefore could all make for good, SMART, targets.   It is therefore key for me to think about what is most important and for this I think the development of a key statement of the schools IT strategy, to be shared with all staff and pupils, is most important.   Linked to this will be our approach to staff training on EdTech and also our device strategy for the next couple of years.    As it stands we are using 1:1 iPads however with these devices up for review in the next couple of years, now is the time to consider alternatives and make a decision as to the devices we will be using for the next 4 or 5 years.

As a more strategic goal I think my key area to work on in 2019 will be empowering my team such that they can lead on various projects across the school.    I think this year I need to make more use of my middle leaders and their skills, experience and knowledge and support them to be more proactive.

Overall

I have noted on social media a number of people identifying a single word to symbolise their plans for 2019.    I have given this some thought to try and identify what word I would most identify with and in my case it would be:

Balance

I need to reach balance as I seek to engage in social media, contributing to both the education and IT sectors, deliver as a Director of IT, be successful as a family member, father and husband and continue to develop as a professional and a person.    Balance therefore seems like the most important word.    My hope would be that next year when I get to the end of the year I can be more positive on what has been achieved having actually built in time to sit and reflect throughout the year, rather than rushing to cram everything in and finding the year has sped past in the blink of an eye.

And so 2018 draws to a close and 2019 begins.   I look forward to the year ahead which would be my 21st year working within education.    I have worked in international schools, further education, higher education, state schools and now independent schools.    I wonder what new opportunities and challenges I can find or create in the year ahead.

Summary: My 2018

And so another year comes to an end.    2018 has flown by although as I think back I realise how much has been accomplished during the year.   That said the year hasn’t been without its challenges.

In reviewing the year I am going to use the same headings I used when I created my new years resolutions and pledges a year ago.   These seem to make for a sensible framework for writing this review.

Family

During the summer of 2018 was the first time in around 10 years that myself, my wife and our youngest went on a family holiday abroad.    We have each been abroad separately for various reasons, including school trips or returning to the UK while we were living out in the UAE, however we never did these together.     Our week away in Tenerife was both enjoyable and relaxing and something which hopefully we will repeat either this year or next.   The weather was very warm and we went for daily walks, plus had a few beers as well.   The fact that the world cup was on at the same time was also a benefit as we went and watched a few games in a pub on the seafront.   It was all an opportunity to decompress, relax and reorient towards what is important.

During the year I have also spent time out on the football park with my youngest.    This has been nice in spending time together as opposed to both of us sitting on our respective computers either gaming or watching TV or doing work.    It is something I need to do more of.

Looking back on the year though, other than the holiday I don’t think we made enough time for each other as a family and this is something we will all need to consider and work to resolve in 2019.

Fitness

Fitness has long been something I have wanted to improve albeit with very little improvement being made.   I have acknowledged this lack of progress in my review of the year over the last couple of years.   This year I finally made some progress engaging in Couch to 5k.    I managed to get quite a few weeks of running in, running every 3 times per week.    I only managed to get to week 5, however managed to get to this point on multiple occasions before the winter weather and dark mornings kicked in.    In the grand scheme of things only getting to week 5 isn’t a massive achievement but considering my lack of progress over multiple years means it is a major improvement and major progress on my previous level of fitness.   Week 5 means running 3 times per week, for over a month, a level of consistency I have never previously got close to.   I hope to restart my couch to 5k efforts early in the new year as soon as the dark morning cease.

Reading

I continue to enjoy reading and 2018 was no different with me once again working my way through more than 12 books throughout the course of the year.   As before I have tried to pick books across a number of different topic areas, however continue to focus on non-fiction as opposed to fiction.    I think reading across different topics makes the experience of reading more interesting plus is more useful in that it allows me to see different viewpoints on various topics and concepts.   This year neurobiology, digital citizenship and psychology have been just a small number of topics which I have read about.   I have, as I did last year, already started filling my book shelve with my books for 2019.   Christmas marks a great opportunity to get some titles lined up for the year ahead.

Professional Development

2018 saw me complete my CRISC exam and receive certification.   This means I have now achieved CISA, CISSP and CRISC in consecutive years.    On considering my next steps I am conscious that each of these certifications will require me to redo the exam and therefore I am reluctant to take on CISM or CGEIT which are the other two certifications I might otherwise consider.

During 2018 I also started some non-certificated PD in a couple of areas including cyber security and also data analytics.   Sadly in both cases I didn’t make much progress which I suspect was largely due to the lack of a fixed exam date or something to help me maintain my motivation.    This is something I need to bear into consideration in future.

Throughout the year I also engaged in a number of smaller professional development activities relating to specific work areas or areas of personal focus.   This included spending time learning how to better use PowerBI plus learning about GDPR in preparation for the May 2018 implementation date.

Work

GDPR was a significant area of focus during 2018 and I think largely this went well.   There are obviously ongoing requirements in relation to GDPR but I think this is in hand.

It has been a very challenging year for me as Director of IT and I think these challenges will continue into 2019.   That said, if things were easy I would suggest that maybe I am not being innovative enough or seeking new solutions with sufficient vigour.     I need to try to remain more positive and focus on the fact that time often solves issues in a way that simple effort cannot, or at least cannot as easily achieve.

I also need to accept that frustrations will occur especially when dealing with the views and perspectives of others.   I need to be conscious that my “truth” may not necessarily be the truth of others and therefore I need to more appreciative of their views and their truth, and use this to help me in bringing them around to my view or to reaching a negotiated viewpoint.

From a teaching point of view I continue to work with Lower 6 students.   I need to acknowledge that my role and therefore the significant reduction in the time I spend in a classroom has meant I don’t feel things go as well as I would like.    This is something I need to work on in the year ahead, redesigning the way I approach the sessions I deliver.

Conclusion

2018 draws to a close and 2019 is almost upon us.   2018 has been a busy year and in this it has flown by.   I find myself a little bit depressed at the moment and I think that is simply the result of realising I have reached the end of the year, and realising that maybe despite being busy I haven’t achieved as much as I would have liked in the areas I would consider to have been important.   This focus on that which is important is something I will need to be more cognizant of in 2019.    It may also be related to a deflated feeling having reached the end of the year and not being quite so busy, having spent the whole year being very busy.   A lack of a to do list, lessons to do, meetings to attend, etc, leaves me feeling as if something is missing, leading me to feel a little depressed.   I need to be wary of this as life is more than just work, blogging, etc, and sometimes you need to stop and simply enjoy the scenery.

I also think I need to be more conscious of my own feelings and of how to manage these.   The cold wet winter combined with the dark days seem to have made me feel down during the opening months of 2018 when looking back on my journal, and as we again are in winter the same appears to be occurring now, and therefore is likely to continue into the start of 2019.   I need to find a way to manage this in myself possibly through treating myself or finding another way to lift my spirits.

So 2018 is almost finished.   Bring on 2019.   Let me wish you all the very best for 2019.

Teacher5aday calendar: Dec 1st

 

Taking up the #Teacher5aday Calendar challenge see below for my “3 things you are most looking forward to over the festive period”

One of the things I am looking forward to doing over the Christmas break is reading.   I currently have just started reading Behave by Robert Sapolsky however haven’t made much progress in the last week or so.   I note that it is quite a substantial book running at 675 pages excluding the appendices.   I also have a book on Data Science which has been sat on my bedside table for a while now.

I am also looking forward to doing my annual reflection and pledge.    Actually setting time aside to look back on 2018 and the successes and challenges is very useful.  In the day to day it is often difficult to see what has been accomplished so to put time aside to actually sit down an reflect is very useful   It is also useful to consider those things which haven’t been done and those things I want to tackle in the year ahead, and to put some initial prioritization into these, identifying what is really important and what is less so.

And my final item is family time.   My wife will be largely busy during Christmas so I will be stealing whatever time she has free, and outside this plan to spend some time with my son working on our new PC and also having a kick around on the football park.      We are hopefully going to explore podcasting and video/audio editing which is something we both have an interest in.

 

Couch to 2K, to couch then 5K?

The path to success is seldom a straight line.    My struggles with improving my personal fitness go to prove this.

For several years, I had set a target at the start of each year to try and get fitter or at least to engage in some sort of fitness activity.   Sadly, each year I have ended up prioritizing this target as low and therefore failed to make much progress against it.  I completed courses, read books, completed projects, but neglected the health and fitness aspect of my well-being.  I either couldn’t find the time, couldn’t find an appropriate fitness activity, couldn’t establish a habit or routine or one of a number of other excuses which all sounded plausible and valid to me at the time.

This year I made progress.   I started the couch to 5K programme and for 5 weeks made good progress.   It was becoming increasingly difficult each week as I had to run for longer periods of time however I had built a habit of getting up for my run each morning before work.   I was experiencing some mild aches in my legs but this wasn’t stopping me.  I simply put this down to the strain of the increasing distances.    I was motivated, and I could see the progress I was making.   Each week I was running further and further.   All was going well towards achieving a 5K run.

Then I had a family holiday and took two weeks out.    On my return I decided to jump in at week 4 of the programme, stepping back a week as I thought this would be sufficient to build up the habit again.   I found it difficult to restart my habit of morning runs but I managed it.   After only a couple of runs I started to have painful aches in the left leg in particular.    I gave myself a couple of extra rest days to see if this would help.    It didn’t.    I then tried to work through the aches and pains and this didn’t help either.

I eventually settled with a couple of weeks of rest and decided to go all the way back to week 1 of the programme, which brings us up to this week.    On Monday I wanted to start but made the excuse that it was a bank holiday.    Tuesday wasn’t any good; I cant quite remember what my excuse was, possibly that the first day back after a bank holiday deserved a lie in.    Finally on Wednesday after a significant internal struggle in getting out of bed, I did week 1 run 1 again.  Now, I just need to establish the habit.

As I reflect I can see decisions which impacted my progress, some right decisions and some where in retrospect I may have been wrong.    I can see that motivation has been key.   In the first 5 weeks I could see my increasing fitness level in the increasing times spent running.   This obvious progress kept my motivation up which helped in maintaining my habit.   When I stopped however and when I then had difficulties restarting the progress wasn’t there.  I was running distances less than I had previously managed but having pain in doing so.   It was demotivating and as a result made sustaining the habit difficult.   Trying to get going again was difficult and I must admit to being close this morning to not going for a run, to in effect give up on the whole endeavour.

I have now taken my first step to restarting.   The motivation and habit isn’t there so I will need to rely on my resilience and perseverance.   I suspect this will mean, each morning for the foreseeable future, I will need to fight to get myself out of bed and running rather than having an extra 30mins in bed.   Hopefully in five weeks time I will be back to the same stage I had previously achieved and that I can then go beyond to my eventual goal of 5K.

I wonder how my experiences might be mirrored in student learning?   How do we as teachers help to ensure they remain motivated and develop resilience?

 

 

 

 

 

My first 12 books of 2018; done!

I set out this year to continue my habit of trying to read at least one book per month throughout the year.   My aim being to read some light self-help books along with some significantly heavier texts.  I wanted to read across a couple of different topics.

And so, in August the 8th month of year, I finished my 12th book and met my target.   So far I have read:

  • The fourth education revolution, Anthony Seldon
  • Make it stick, Peter C Brown, Henry L Roediger and Mark A McDaniel
  • SUMO (Shut up and move on), Paul McGee
  • The upside of rationality, Dan Ariely
  • Open, David Price
  • The gift of failure, Jessica Lahey
  • Change, Richard Gerver
  • The Cyber Effect, Mary Aiken
  • The $100 Startup, Chris Guillebeau
  • The marshmallow effect, Walker Mischel
  • Mindfulness, Gill Hasson
  • The Art of balance, David J Bookbinder

Although I have hit my target for the year I still look forward to further reading in the remaining months of 2018.    I continue to try to ensure that my bookshelf is never empty of books yet to read.    I think it was in Naseem Talebs Black Swam where he mentioned the importance not of the books you have read, but of the books yet to read.   There is always room to learn more, to refine or change your views and to continue to evolve.   This is something I hope to continue to do.

I must also acknowledge that reading has also become a bit of a wellbeing activity for me.   It provides an opportunity to step away from the stresses and concerns of the working week and managing a household.   It provides me a space to relax.     And on my return to the normal week I often am able to take a fresh perspective on issues or to arrive at new ideas or solutions.

My bookshelf still has a number of books unread on it, including a couple of heavy but interesting titles.   I also intend to revisit a book I read some time ago in Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence.

So with that I will put my laptop down and get back to reading.