Friday, January 31, 2014

FEBRUARY 3 - 7

16 Things I Wish They Had Taught Me in School
by HENRIK EDBERG

I am 28 now. I don’t think about the past or regret things much these days.
But sometimes I wish that I had known some of things I have learned over the last few years a bit earlier. That perhaps there had been a self-improvement class in school. And in some ways there probably was.

Because some of these 16 things in this article a teacher probably spoke about in class. But I forgot about them or didn’t pay attention.

Some of it would probably not have stuck in my mind anyway. Or just been too far outside my reality at the time for me to accept and use.

But I still think that taking a few hours from all those German language classes and use them for some personal development classes would have been a good idea. Perhaps for just an hour a week in high school. It would probably be useful for many students and on a larger scale quite helpful for society in general.
So here are 16 things I wish they had taught me in school (or I just would like to have known about earlier).

1. The 80/20 rule.
This is one of the best ways to make better use of your time. The 80/20 rule – also known as The Pareto Principle – basically says that 80 percent of the value you will receive will come from 20 percent of your activities.
So a lot of what you do is probably not as useful or even necessary to do as you may think.
You can just drop – or vastly decrease the time you spend on – a whole bunch of things.
And if you do that you will have more time and energy to spend on those things that really brings your value, happiness, fulfilment and so on.

2. Parkinson’s Law.
You can do things quicker than you think. This law says that a task will expand in time and seeming complexity depending on the time you set aside for it. For instance, if you say to yourself that you’ll come up with a solution within a week then the problem will seem to grow more difficult and you’ll spend more and more time trying to come up with a solution.
So focus your time on finding solutions. Then just give yourself an hour (instead of the whole day) or the day (instead of the whole week) to solve the problem. This will force your mind to focus on solutions and action.
The result may not be exactly as perfect as if you had spent a week on the task, but as mentioned in the previous point, 80 percent of the value will come from 20 percent of the activities anyway. Or you may wind up with a better result because you haven’t overcomplicated or overpolished things. This will help you to get things done faster, to improve your ability to focus and give you more free time where you can totally focus on what’s in front of you instead of having some looming task creating stress in the back of your mind.

3. Batching.
Boring or routine tasks can create a lot of procrastination and low-level anxiety. One good way to get these things done quickly is to batch them. This means that you do them all in row. You will be able to do them quicker because there is less start-up time compared to if you spread them out. And when you are batching you become fully engaged in the tasks and more focused.
A batch of things to do in an hour today may look like this: Clean your desk / answer today’s emails / do the dishes / make three calls / write a grocery shopping list for tomorrow.

4. First, give value. Then, get value. Not the other way around.
This is a bit of a counter-intuitive thing. There is often an idea that someone should give us something or do something for us before we give back. The problem is just that a lot of people think that way. And so far less than possible is given either way.
If you want to increase the value you receive (money, love, kindness, opportunities etc.) you have to increase the value you give. Because over time you pretty much get what you give. It would perhaps be nice to get something for nothing. But that seldom happens.

5. Be proactive. Not reactive.
This one ties into the last point. If everyone is reactive then very little will get done. You could sit and wait and hope for someone else to do something. And that happens pretty often, but it can take a lot of time before it happens.
A more useful and beneficial way is to be proactive, to simply be the one to take the first practical action and get the ball rolling. This not only saves you a lot of waiting, but is also more pleasurable since you feel like you have the power over your life. Instead of feeling like you are run by a bunch of random outside forces.

6. Mistakes and failures are good.
When you are young you just try things and fail until you learn. As you grow a bit older, you learn from – for example – school to not make mistakes. And you try less and less things.
This may cause you to stop being proactive and to fall into a habit of being reactive, of waiting for someone else to do something. I mean, what if you actually tried something and failed? Perhaps people would laugh at you?
Perhaps they would. But when you experience that you soon realize that it is seldom the end of the world. And a lot of the time people don’t care that much. They have their own challenges and lives to worry about.
And success in life often comes from not giving up despite mistakes and failure. It comes from being persistent.
When you first learn to ride your bike you may fall over and over. Bruise a knee and cry a bit. But you get up, brush yourself off and get on the saddle again. And eventually you learn how to ride a bike. If you can just reconnect to your 5 year old self and do things that way – instead of giving up after a try/failure or two as grown-ups often do -you would probably experience a lot more interesting things, learn valuable lessons and have quite a bit more success.

7. Don’t beat yourself up.
Why do people give up after just few mistakes or failures? Well, I think one big reason is because they beat themselves up way too much. But it’s a kinda pointless habit. It only creates additional and unnecessary pain inside you and wastes your precious time. It’s best to try to drop this habit as much as you can.

8. Assume rapport.
Meeting new people is fun. But it can also induce nervousness. We all want to make a good first impression and not get stuck in an awkward conversation.
The best way to do this that I have found so far is to assume rapport. This means that you simply pretend that you are meeting one of your best friends. Then you start the interaction in that frame of mind instead of the nervous one.
This works surprisingly well. You can read more about it in How to Have Less Awkward Conversations: Assuming Rapport.

9. Use your reticular activation system to your advantage.
I learned about the organs and the inner workings of the body in class but nobody told me about the reticular activation system. And that’s a shame, because this is one of the most powerful things you can learn about. What this focus system, this R.A.S, in your mind does is to allow you to see in your surroundings what you focus your thoughts on. It pretty much always helps you to find what you are looking for.
So you really need to focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want. And keep that focus steady.
Setting goals and reviewing them frequently is one way to keep your focus on what’s important and to help you take action that will move your closer to toward where you want to go. Another way is just to use external reminders such as pieces of paper where you can, for instance, write down a few things from this post like “Give value” or “Assume rapport”. And then you can put those pieces of paper on your fridge, bathroom mirror etc.

10. Your attitude changes your reality.
We have all heard that you should keep a positive attitude or perhaps that “you need to change your attitude!”. That is a nice piece of advice I suppose, but without any more reasons to do it is very easy to just brush such suggestions off and continue using your old attitude.
But the thing that I’ve discovered the last few years is that if you change your attitude, you actually change your reality. When you for instance use a positive attitude instead of a negative one you start to see things and viewpoints that were invisible to you before. You may think to yourself “why haven’t I thought about things this way before?”.
When you change your attitude you change what you focus on. And all things in your world can now be seen in a different light.
This is of course very similar to the previous tip but I wanted to give this one some space. Because changing your attitude can create an insane change in your world. It might not look like it if you just think about it though. Pessimism might seem like realism. But that is mostly because your R.A.S is tuned into seeing all the negative things you want to see. And that makes you “right” a lot of the time. And perhaps that is what you want. On the other hand, there are more fun things than being right all the time.
If you try changing your attitude for real – instead of analysing such a concept in your mind – you’ll be surprised.
You may want to read more about this topic in Take the Positivity Challenge!

11. Gratitude is a simple way to make yourself feel happy.
Sure, I was probably told that I should be grateful. Perhaps because it was the right thing to do or just something I should do. But if someone had said that feeling grateful about things for minute or two is a great way to turn a negative mood into a happy one I would probably have practised gratitude more. It is also a good tool for keeping your attitude up and focusing on the right things. And to make other people happy. Which tends to make you even happier, since emotions are contagious.

12. Don’t compare yourself to others.
The ego wants to compare. It wants to find reasons for you to feel good about yourself (“I’ve got a new bike!”). But by doing that it also becomes very hard to not compare yourself to others who have more than you (“Oh no, Bill has bought an even nicer bike!”). And so you don’t feel so good about yourself once again. If you compare yourself to others you let the world around control how you feel about yourself. It always becomes a rollercoaster of emotions.
A more useful way is to compare yourself to yourself. To look at how far you have come, what you have accomplished and how you have grown. It may not sound like that much fun but in the long run it brings a lot more inner stillness, personal power and positive feelings.

13. 80-90% of what you fear will happen never really come into reality.
This is a big one. Most things you fear will happen never happen. They are just monsters in your own mind. And if they happen then they will most often not be as painful or bad as you expected. Worrying is most often just a waste of time.
This is of course easy to say. But if you remind yourself of how little of what you feared throughout your life that has actually happened you can start to release more and more of that worry from your thoughts.

14. Don’t take things too seriously.
It’s very easy to get wrapped up in things. But most of the things you worry about never come into reality. And what may seem like a big problem right now you may not even remember in three years.
Taking yourself, your thoughts and your emotions too seriously often just seems to lead to more unnecessary suffering. So relax a little more and lighten up a bit. It can do wonders for your mood and as an extension of that; your life.

15. Write everything down.
If your memory is anything like mine then it’s like a leaking bucket. Many of your good or great ideas may be lost forever if you don’t make a habit of writing things down. This is also a good way to keep your focus on what you want. Read more about it in Why You Should Write Things Down.

16. There are opportunities in just about every experience.
In pretty much any experience there are always things that you can learn from it and things within the experience that can help you to grow. Negative experiences, mistakes and failure can sometimes be even better than a success because it teaches you something totally new, something that another success could never teach you.
Whenever you have a “negative experience” ask yourself: where is the opportunity in this? What is good about this situation? One negative experience can – with time – help you create many very positive experiences.
What do you wish someone had told you in school or you had just learned earlier in life?


Monday, January 27, 2014

JANUARY 27 - 31

Teens
Why Parental Involvement in Education is so Important

It's no secret that parental involvement in education is important, but some parents don't know how important.  

More than 80 percent of new teachers feel that parental support and involvement is the most challenging area they face; parents are either unwilling or don't have time to participate in their child's education. However, when children have the involvement of their parents, they are more likely to get better grades, graduate high school, go on to college and even have better attitudes. Not only that, but family life gets better.  As a parent gets more involved in their child's education, alcohol abuse decreases and social behavior increases within the family unit.

If you show your child that education is important and live it out, they will believe it and their grades will be positively impacted. Setting homework schedules is a great way to start. For example, the homework has to be done before the television is flipped on. You can also attend school open houses, participate in on-campus programs, set up teacher conferences, and talk to your child about their career goals to give them something to work toward.

Since school curriculum is being accelerated, your children are probably learning in fourth grade what you learned in seventh. For this reason, it's not going to be too long before you're lost on your child's homework. It happened to my parents by the time I reached high school. In math, it happened well before high school. However, even though they couldn't help with the actual work, they encouraged me. I was rewarded with family nights out when I got good grades. My parents found out who the best teachers were for each subject and ensured I was placed in their class. They always scheduled their events around any after-school assistance I needed and brought me popcorn when I was really frustrated with Advanced Placement Calculus.

Being involved in your child's education doesn't mean doing the work for them. It means being an involved advocate for your child's future. With the job market as bad as it is, it's important now more than ever to excel academically, and with your encouragement, your children will do exactly that. 


Taken from: www.imom.com

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

JANUARY 20 -24

Discovery School
Secondary Honor Roll
2013 - 2014
Quarter 2

PRINCIPAL’S HONOR ROLL
(4.00 GPA)

Grade 7
Ian Husler

Grade 8
Ian Glynn

Grade 9
Oliver Chang

Grade 11
Victoria Glynn




HONOR ROLL
(3.5 - 3.9 GPA)

Grade 6
Andrea Moran
Emily Billingsley
Jake Herrera
Jean Carlo Archaga
Sofia Sherman
Nathan Husler
Lisa Watson

Grade 7
Kelvin Myers
Francisco Echeverria
Rebekah Fenn

Grade 8
Elena Sanchez
Isabella Rosales

Grade 9
Anna Cueva

Grade 10
Daniela Leal
Gabriel Rodriguez

Grade 11
Andrea Martinez
Katarina Fenn

Grade 12
Ana Paulina Leal
Sachi Kameishi
Sofia Pina



Monday, January 13, 2014

JANUARY 13 - 17

Teens
Anxiety

What Do Kids Have Anxiety About?
Kids typically develop anxiety about things like grades, tests, fitting in with friends, excelling in sports, the way they look, tension between their parents, being teased or bullied, separation from their parents, making mistakes and different types of peer pressure.

Know Your Child:
You are the best judge of your child. Watch for signs of anxiety. Watch for patterns, such as chronic complaints of illness. 

For example:  If your child is often complaining of a stomach ache, isolate and evaluate. Are the stomachaches primarily happening on school days or every day?  Was there a test that day or a baseball game? If the stomachache is every school day, whether there is a test or not, try to find out what your child's social situation is at school. The sooner you intervene and develop a plan, the healthier your child will be physically, academically and socially. 

Know the Signs of Anxiety:

1.     Unusual clinginess (or fear of leaving your presence)
2.     Impulsiveness or distraction
3.     Nervous movements such as twitches
4.     Irritability
5.     Sleep problems, including difficulty falling asleep or sleeping longer than usual
6.     Sweaty hands
7.     Rapid heart rate and breathing
8.     Paleness or dizziness
9.     Nausea
10.   Headaches
11.   Stomachaches
12.   Self-criticism or low self-esteem

What You Can Do:

Be available: Try to plan your day so that when you are home with your child, especially at bedtime, you are available to engage them in conversation. 

Be interested: Take an interest in what happened at school, daycare, or team practices. Casually and often, ask how things are going. And listen carefully – be prepared to read between the lines. Getting detailed responses often takes more probing with boys, so try to be specific in your questioning. 

For example: rather than asking "How was lunch today?" you could ask "Who did you sit with at lunch today?"

Be responsive: By responding to your child with reassuring comments, your child will feel supported and understood.  This feeling alone can alleviate anxiety for children. Reassuring comments are most effective after your child has had adequate time to express their feelings. Reassure your child that you understand how they feel and you understand the problem. Comfort your child with hugs or encouraging words, or extra time together doing something your child enjoys.

Teach Your Child the RELAX Acronym:
R
emind yourself………….of all the things you are doing that might be making you feel anxiety.
E
xplain to your mom……what you are feeling and what might be causing you to feel anxiety.
L
ay out a plan…………….with your mom, to help you take control of the situation.
A
pplaud yourself…………whatever the outcome, because you are trying and will eventually succeed.
X
-hale, inhale………………breathe in slowly and deeply through your nose, and then breathe out slowly through your mouth.  Do this 2 to 4 times to help you RELAX.

Develop a Plan for Your Child's Anxiety:

1.     Performance anxiety – Children who are susceptible to performance anxiety are often perfectionists.  They worry about their grades, pitching stats, piano performance, etc.  The fact that they care and want to do well is a good thing. Giving them plenty of time to prepare will give them confidence and help them to feel in control.  Avoid over-scheduling your child or yourself, as this will contribute to the anxiety.

2.     Peer pressure anxiety – Children who are very social and verbal are more susceptible to anxiety from peer relations. They really care what others think about them and will feel hurt if they do not have the relationships they desire. You can help your child focus less on school relationships by providing opportunities for relationships outside of school. Clubs, sports, art classes, church youth groups, and visits with cousins can all be opportunities for your child to form friendships.  For children who are less socially developed, these places will provide opportunities for your child to befriend someone who is the same developmental age - but not necessarily in the same grade.

3.     General anxiety – Some children are just more timid and cautious. This can cause anxiety when they see other children jumping on roller coasters, eager to attend slumber parties or just being physical on the playground. They may not like the fact that they are so afraid but do not know how to overcome their fears. Sometimes these children will withdraw from other children for fear of being called "chicken". Many children overcome these fears with age and once they've developed the ability to rationally understand why they should not be afraid. Until that time, support your child. If necessary, be the scapegoat for your child. 

For example: If your child is afraid to spend the night out, let your child know you understand that they are uncomfortable with the idea. Tell your child they may go if they like until 10 or 11 o'clock but they are not allowed to spend the night, you want them home. If necessary, arrange to have an early morning activity so that your child may say "I can't stay all night because my mom said I have to go to my sister's soccer game early in the morning." Be patient with your child and remind yourself that cautiousness can be a good trait. You will be thankful your child is cautious when they are 16 and driving around town without you, or when word gets out that some of those fearless childhood peers are taking dares and drugs for fun.

Know When to Seek Professional Advice:

If you child's anxiety escalates, do not hesitate to seek professional help. Begin with your pediatrician. Early intervention is ideal for teaching healthy life skills to deal with anxiety.