12 things to do immediately issued by HCMC People's Committee

Specifically, Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee - City Steering Committee on prevention and control recommended 12 things to do immediately as follows:

1. Stopping meeting activities, events gathering over 20 people in 1 room; Do not gather from 10 people or more outside the workplace, school, hospital.

2. Completely stopping religious rituals and activities of 20 or more people at religious, belief or worship establishments; stop all cultural, sports and recreational activities in public places.

3. People don't leave their home without a job that is absolutely necessary. People over 60 need to stay home all the time.

4. Must wear a mask in public places and work. People do not contact, deal with and work with people who do not wear masks.

5. Always raising awareness of COVID-19 epidemic prevention , should ensure a safe distance of at least 2m to avoid the risk of virus spread. Regularly wash hands with soap, antiseptic solution, increase nutritional supplements, exercise, improve health.

6. Houses, condominiums, buildings, offices that are using air-conditioning systems should switch to using the fan system, opening all windows to use natural gas. If you must use the air-conditioner, the minimum temperature is 27 degrees C. Regularly clean the place, workplace, furniture and personal items with soap or disinfectant solution.

7. All service establishments must be closed, except for shops: petrol, western medicine, supermarkets, food and foodstuff stores, necessities and medical examination and treatment establishments.

8. Business organizations and organizations with offices in buildings and condominiums should preferably choose online and home-based jobs. In a working room of no more than 10 people / room, ensure a minimum distance of 2 meters and use personal protective measures when working.

9. Not sharing, spreading unproven or untruthful information. People find out and update information at the electronic portals of state agencies and news agencies and radio stations of Ho Chi Minh City. All acts of sharing and spreading false information will be strictly handled according to law provisions.

10. Continuing production and business activities which are not banned by the Government. People prioritize online shopping.

11. Strictly abide by the regulations on medical isolation for 14 days. Facilitate and do not discriminate against y isolated people.

12. From March 28, 2020, the city will sanction administrative violations for the following acts:

- Do not wear a mask in public places under Decree No. 176/2013 / ND-CP dated November 14, 2013 of the Government.

- Failure to quarantine at the request of competent authorities under Decree No. 101/2010 / ND-CP dated September 30, 2010 and Decree No. 176/2013 / ND-CP dated November 14, 2013 of the Government. covered.

- Trading in medical masks without permission from competent agencies under the provisions of Decree No. 185/2013 / ND-CP of November 15, 2013, Decree No. 109/2013 / ND-CP of November 24 -9-2013, Decree No. 124/2015 / ND-CP dated November 19, 2015, Decree No. 49/2016 / ND-CP dated May 27, 2016 of the Government.

In addition, the leaflet also conveyed the message of City Party Secretary Nguyen Thien Nhan: “In the next 2 weeks, the people of Ho Chi Minh City must live differently: simpler, more economical. Limit the streets when not needed and share the city to overcome this challenge.

If we miss the upcoming "14 golden days" we are at fault with the country and cannot do it again. "

https://tuoitre.vn/tp-hcm-ban-bo-12-viec-can-lam-ngay-trong-14-ngay-vang-chong-dich-covid-19-20200327144538516.htm

Food for Thought: Our Fears.

As we know, and keep getting reinforced, these are unprecedented times that we are going through at present. I have to admit that I am incredibly impressed by the way you have all been dealing with our changed situation and life under these new conditions. You have kept going amazingly and yet I know if my own feelings are anything to go by that there are times of doubt when fear and anxiety creep into our minds. Hence, I thought I would share with you this Food for Thought that is focused on how we deal with that fear and minimize its impact upon us and our wellbeing. You will notice how similar the suggests are, and how easily they can be employed in those moments when you feel some anxiety/ fear growing inside you. Remember you are not alone, it is happening to us all.

The three resources that I am sharing are:

1. A combination of two posts from Awakened Leadership about Fear and tips for how to reduce it at these times
2. Eckhart Tolle, the person who transformed my understanding of mindfulness when I read his book, A New Earth. In this video teaching, he talks about the mind and fear and how to control that train of thought.
3. Finally, a blog post from the UK that again provides very practical ideas that you can implement and share to control our emotions and fears at this time.

Awakened Leadership, Dawa Tarchin Phillips:

"For many people. COVID-19 has given rise to unprecedented levels of uncertainty and change, and with that can come new levels of anxiety, fear, and worry. Here are some useful tips and tools to effectively work with anxiety and worry. By better understanding how the human fear response works, it is easier to see how anxiety can be positively influenced and regulated. It is normal to respond to great levels of uncertainty and change with some degree of fear, anxiety, and worry. And as you likely have experienced in your life firsthand, it is not as easy to talk yourself out of anxiety, as it is to talk yourself into it. From a scientific perspective, we distinguish four (4) different kinds of fear responses in people: Fight: This fear response is a rise in tension and aggravation directed outwardly. We want to attack and be proactive about overcoming and eliminating our threat. With COVID-19, which is an invisible threat to most people, this type of fear response manifests mostly in antagonizing others by blaming them for not doing the right thing or wanting them to “fix” the problems and issues faster than anyone is currently capable of. When we are in fight mode, we are ready to get things over and done with immediately and quickly. We don’t mind if we break things or if things get messy, our focus is narrow and tense as we seek to destroy the threat and take no prisoners in the process. Flight: This fear response is an effort to remove ourselves from the threatening situation as fast as possible by escaping it or checking out. This checking out can happen mentally, emotionally or physically. We simply respond to the perceived threat of the situation with instant withdrawal and escapism. It can take hours, days, even weeks or longer until we notice our escape, and that we have checked out under the challenging circumstances. And it can take some time to make our way back to the situation in order to actually address and resolve it responsibly in a timely, meaningful and helpful way. Freeze: This fear response represents a partial shutdown in the face of the threat. Our system is so overwhelmed under perceived attack that the only thing that seems doable is to stay still, stick our head in the sand, hold our breath and do nothing. We don’t move, don’t think, don’t breathe if we can. Triggered into a sense of paralysis, we just hope that the situation passes us unharmed. By freezing in place, we hope to not become a target (like others), we assume that if we just hold still and don’t move at all, we somehow can’t be negatively affected; that somehow freezing still will make us invisible. Faint: This fear response is the total loss of conscious awareness due to the perceived threat. Paralyzed by fear, anxiety, and worry, our mind simply blacks out completely and we lose our ability to respond. As our system is not prepared or feels incapable of dealing with the perceived threat in a conscious way, the only option that remains is to pass out and/or go to sleep. Often, we hope that when we wake up – and we usually do - it will all be over, and we look back at the situation as one of those nightmares we managed to avoid by simply sleeping through it. “Wake me up when it is all over!” is the unconscious survival strategy necessitated by our overloaded autonomic nervous system. Understanding these four (4) fear responses will make you better able to identify what you might be going through, and to develop effective strategies to reduce anxiety, fear and worry in your system when you have been triggered into one or several of these described responses. Here are tips for dealing with these fear responses:      1. Understand that you need a kinesthetic or somatic strategy, as some of your fear response is based in the body. Stretching, yoga, working out, breathing exercises, and massages can all be good kinesthetic or somatic exercises that can help you release worry and anxiety from the body. For more on how to do simple work with the body to release fear and anxiety, explore these Fear Melter®  tools developed by our friends at the Hendricks Institute.

     2. Since you may have talked yourself into worry, you can also talk yourself out of it. The key here is to understand the role of the two most powerful words in fear and anxiety management: “What if…?”
Most worries, anxieties and fears start with “What if…?”. What if I catch the COVID-19 virus? What if I fall very ill? What if I infect others? What if I lose my job? What if I can’t pay my rent? What if the economy does not recover? What if this lasts longer than anticipated? An on and on it goes. “What if…?” is like a wild bull in a china shop, and if not properly harnessed it can destroy your confidence and peace of mind in a single sitting. Here is a helpful article that shows you how you can harness your “What if…?” to work for you rather than against you, and how you can regain your clarity and composure to make intelligent and smart decisions.


     3. Integrate simple mindfulness practices into your life...daily. If you part of our mailing list, you may have heard it before, few things have been as scientifically validated to radically reduce stress and anxiety in your life than a few short minutes of mindfulness practice every day. Whether you get your daily dose while walking your dog or sitting still on your chair or sofa, observing your breath with a five-minute timer, every small investment you make in your ability to be calm and present while letting go of thoughts and emotions, as described in this article here, can help you gain an edge over anxiety and worry.  "

Ekhart Tolle on Transcending Fear: 

In his slightly eccentric manner, Ekhart shows us how we can turn our attention away from any fearful thinking and focus on the inner body and deepening into the present moment.   

Slightly UK centric post but an easy read that many of us can relate to: 

IN CRISES, WE START DOING WEIRD STUFF: Over the last week, I have struggled to sleep, stayed up late into the night reading endless news articles, bought pasta I don’t even like very much and got angry with my mum for not staying home. My spelling is a disaster and I’m definitely drinking more. I’ve been a bit teary, and all I really want to eat is cake, cake, and more cake. From what I got back from my post yesterday, I’m not alone.

If you’re having a wobble, you may also have noticed all sorts of weird stuff going on. Are you arguing more, talking faster, struggling to sleep, restless, desperate for information? Or are you teary and overwhelmed, perhaps feeling a bit sick? Struggling to make decisions? Just want to stay in bed? Tummy upsets? Having palpitations, butterflies, headaches? Ranting, picking fights or getting into arguments? Laughing unexpectedly or saying random, inappropriate things? Developing Very Strong Opinions on epidemiology overnight? Or have you just completely gone to ground?

If you are feeling any of these things: good news! You are not going mad. And you are 100% not alone. You are, in fact completely normal: a fully emotionally functional human being. Congratulations! Why? I’ll explain: take a seat and put the kettle on.

WE ARE LIVING IN TURBO-ANXIOUS TIMES. Well, no kidding. We’re in the middle of an unprecedented crisis that has shown up unexpectedly (they do that) and which presents a mortal threat to ourselves, our loved ones and our way of life. It’s terrifying and it's getting worse and it makes us feel totally out of control. And this is on top of anything else we have going on.

HERE’S THE SCIENCE BIT. When we are exposed to threats and need to deal with them, our brain springs into action. Specifically a tiny, innocent-looking thing buried behind your ear called the amygdala (fun fact: it's the size and shape of an almond). It’s the bit in charge when we are frightened and right now, it’s in full tin-hat klaxon mode. Unfortunately, it’s also very ancient bit of kit. It came into being when threats basically consisted of being eaten by large scary animals like bears. You know that thing about when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail? Well, to the amygdala, everything looks like a bear. It’s also pretty basic, so it really only has two settings. They are no bear 🙂 and BEAR!!!.

SETTING: BEAR!!!. Because all threats look like a bear to the amygdala, it preps you accordingly. There are really only two reactions to a bear about to eat you: fight it or run away really fast. So this is what the body gets you ready to do. It’s called the Fight or Flight response (there’s also freeze, meaning you just get paralyzed). It does this by flooding your body with chemicals like cortisol, and adrenaline. Your heart rate goes up, you feel super alert, your breathing goes shallow, your muscles are ready for action. These chemicals are also largely responsible for the huge range of other cognitive/physical/emotional reactions in my intro. In group fear situation like a pandemic, this tends to happen whether you think you're scared or not - anxiety is even more infectious than COVID. Your body reacts even if your conscious mind doesn't.

BEAR V VIRUS: Obviously this is all great if you really are running away from a bear. But we’re now in a situation where we’re being asked to do the EXACT OPPOSITE of running away. We are being told to sit tight. Literally, stay still. Process large amounts of information, make complicated and life-changing decisions and stay calm. All while a bit of your brain is running around yelling BEAR!!! BEAR!!! BEAR!!! This isn’t easy. The result is an awful lot of stress and anxiety. And if you’re anything like me, you end up feeling really overwhelmed and having all sorts of reactions.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS: Anxiety isn’t just mental – it’s also physical, cognitive and behavioral. You will notice all kinds of things: stomach upsets, headaches, insomnia, changes to eating, changes to the way you talk. It’s also cognitive: it’s very difficult to think straight when you’ve got the BEAR!!! BEAR!!! BEAR!!! thing going on – so we also become very bad at making decisions, absorbing information and generally thinking rationally. Which is EXACTLY what we need to do.

SO WHAT TO DO: well, the good news is it is possible to calm down. We can turn the amygdala from BEAR!!! to NO BEAR 😊, and not just by distracting it with cake and tea. Here are some solid, scientifically proven things you can do.

BREATHE. It’s so basic, but breathing exercises are basically magic. They work in minutes and you can do them anywhere. They work because of all the physical reactions the amygdala triggers, rapid breathing is the only one over which we have conscious control. Control your breathing and you are basically telling your body: it’s OK. There is no bear. Your body will then start to dial down the adrenaline and cortisol and all the other reactions will slow to a halt. How to control your breathing? It’s easy – and if you want help just put a "two minutes breathe bubble" into YouTube. The golden rules are these:

• In through the nose, out through the mouth. SLOWLY

• Make the out-breath longer than the in-breath – imagine there’s a candle in front of you and it mustn’t go out

• Breathe from the tummy, not chest – really make your tummy go out when breathing in.

• Do it for two minutes - time yourself - and see how you feel

Seriously, try it – this technique is used by everyone from top athletes to the US military to help stay in control while under stress. There are all sorts of versions – from yogic breathing to box breathing to 4-7-8. Google them, mess around, figure out what works for you.

CALL A FRIEND: Don’t suffer alone. Call a mate - someone who’ll listen while you have a bit of a rant, or a cry, or a general wobble. Someone you can trust not to judge you and who’ll just sympathize. And if you get one of those calls, just be nice to them. You only need to be kind. You can’t fix what’s going on so just give them a bit of space to rant and tell them they're normal and doing great. And if you’re OK, call your friends and check in on them. Especially if they’ve gone silent.

LAUGH: it doesn’t matter what is funny – laughter is a huge releaser of endorphins. Silly memes, silly jokes, stand-up, rolling around with your kids – videos on YouTube. The sillier the better. Also v good for bonding with friends, which will also help you feel less alone.

DO SOMETHING WITH YOUR HANDS. Yes, you can meditate if this is your bag, it’s amazing. But if it’s not, and personally I’m rubbish, then trying to start when you’re already anxious is really hard. So do something instead with your hands, that you have to focus on to get right. Cook. Tidy. Knit. Draw. Bake. Garden. Mend things. This is what nice middle-class therapists like me call Mindfulness.

TREAT YOUR BODY: We hold stress in our bodies at least as much as our minds. Take a bath or a shower. Put on things that feel good on your skin. Use nice smelling body creams. Stretch. Skip. Do yoga. Dance. Eat healthy but delicious things - fresh if you can get it. All of these will help calm you down.

SUNSHINE. It’s SPRINGTIME amid this horror – enjoy it. If you can’t go outside, open the windows and feel it on your face and breathe it in. If it’s safe for you to go outside (maybe you live in the country) do it, while of course observing social distance. Go for a walk. Being outdoors, connecting to nature, is hugely calming.  

STEP AWAY FROM SOCIAL MEDIA/THE NEWS: All it will do will scare you more and make things worse. Turn off the telly and for god’s sake avoid the psychopathic digital wild west that is Twitter. Stick to sensible sources like the BBC and the NHS, and limit yourself to short need-to-know bits a day. You’ll feel better immediately. Talk to friends instead - this is physical, not social distancing

STEP AWAY FROM TERRIBLE COPING MECHANISMS: They will all translate as BEAR!! to your poor brain. Especially don’t get drunk, especially if you’re alone (BEAR!!!), take drugs (BEAR!!!), stay up all night reading (BEAR!!!), get sucked into conspiracy theories (BEAR!!!), pay attention to ANYTHING Donald Trump says (BEAR!!!).  See? Stress levels going up already. Breathe.

BE KIND: to yourself and others. Now is not the time to go on a diet. Nor is this the time to start on Proust or makeover your life. You'll probably struggle to concentrate, fail and make yourself feel worse. Don’t make this more stressful than it already is. Think comfort books, comfort telly, comfort everything. Personally, I re-read children's books. Everyone is wobbly, everyone is going to have a meltdown at some point. Understand that if someone is angry or aggressive, then they are also just scared. And eat more cake. Cake makes everything better.

So, there we go. Hopefully a bit less BEAR!!. Now, that kettle should have boiled by now. Go make a nice cup of tea, sit by a window and drink it in this lovely morning sunshine. We are British after all. And save me some cake ❤.

Update from HCMC People's Committee:
https://ishcmchungry2learn.blogspot.com/2020/03/12-things-to-do-immediately-issued-by.html

Food For Thought: Humans need not Apply

Thought that it was time to take our minds off Coronavirus, Covid 19 or SARS-2 CoV or whatever else it is eventually called.

Here are two good provocations that link together in my mind. Firstly is this YouTube video, 15 mins, explaining the likely future of the workplace and that it won't be long before humans need not apply for the advertised position because they will be going to AI. It's not an extreme point of view but rather examines the why's and the what's happening in the labour market.

The key question that arose from this video in my mind was how can we avoid this situation? What can we do as educators to prepare our students to be able to compete for those jobs? I believe now, as I have always believed, and that is that if we make students think, and give them the freedom to have opinions, then they can create original ideas, solutions, and conclusions that will go beyond those offered by AI. This beautifully argued 3,000-word essay from AEON, byJohn Taylor, The Examined Life, encourages us to re-examine the purpose of school and return to a more Socratic methodology. Having read it twice this morning, I believe that a Socratic methodology is equally applicable to teaching in our present situation of learning at home. Without moving to live content streaming we could encouraging face to face and group discussion through some of the tools that we are already using. 

"Daydream with me for a moment while I imagine my ideal classroom. The first thing that strikes you when you walk in is the arrangement of the room. Not serried ranks of desks lined up before a blackboard but comfortable seats placed in a large circle. This arrangement sends a message: here is a space for open discussion and the free exchange of ideas. On the wall is a poster of Bertrand Russell with the quotation: ‘Most people would sooner die than think, and most of them do.’ There is a display cabinet with row upon row of student dissertations, covering topics as diverse as business ethics, engineering, architecture, political history, linguistics and the philosophy of science.

The students enter, taking their places in the circle, ready for the seminar to begin. The teacher sits with them in the circle and gets straight down to business. ‘Am I the same person today as I was yesterday?’ she asks. Debate breaks out immediately. The teacher says little, interjecting occasionally to ask for clarification of a point, or to suggest that the class gives further consideration to an argument that one of the students has made.

After a lively initial exchange of ideas, things calm down a little and the teacher makes some remarks about the distinction between essential and non-essential properties. She then suggests the students read an extract from the writings of the philosopher John Locke. This stimulates further discussion and debate.

In their contributions, students draw on ideas they have encountered in different subjects. One says she is the person she is because of her DNA. The teacher asks for an explanation of the biology behind this idea. Someone questions how the theory applies to identical twins. Another student suggests that we all play roles in life and it is these roles that define our identity.

The atmosphere in the class is relaxed, collaborative, enquiring; learning is driven by curiosity and personal interest. The teacher offers no answers but instead records comments on a flip-chart as the class discusses. Nor does the lesson end with an answer. In fact, it doesn’t end when the bell goes: the students are still arguing on the way out.

This is my ideal classroom. In point of fact, it is more than just a dream. My real classroom sometimes looks like this, at least occasionally. I learned when I began teaching that lessons in which students are actively involved in discussion, debate and enquiry tend to be more enjoyable and memorable both for the student and the teacher, therefore I try wherever possible to run things this way.

But the sad fact is that the vast majority of lessons are determined by a different goal. For most teachers and students, the classroom experience is shaped, down to the last detail, by the requirement to prepare for examinations. When students enter such classrooms, the focus is not on open-ended discussion or enquiry, but on learning ‘what we need to know’ to succeed in whichever examination is next on the horizon. Most likely, there will be a ‘learning outcome’ for the lesson, drawn straight from the exam syllabus. There will be textbooks with comments from the examiners, banks of possible exam questions and bullet-pointed notes with ‘model answers’. Far from being open spaces for free enquiry, the classroom of today resembles a military training ground, where students are drilled to produce perfect answers to potential examination questions."

Food For Thought: Viruses

A great week of online learning. Our students are lucky to have you as their teachers. so much innovative learning being enjoyed by our students. Very pleased to see so many of you trying new media techniques and learning from each other.

Food for Thought is three simple videos, a trailer from Netflix and an article that will help us understand viruses better and be able to discuss with our students why the school is closed.

Where did viruses originate?

How do Viruses jump from animals to Humans?

How do pandemics spread?

Netflix trailer: The next pandemic explained

It wouldn't be a Food for Thought if there wasn't something to think about, so here is a view from the Katherine A Mason in the  LA Times about the overreaction to the outbreak and the damage that might be doing.

"What is needed now is calm — both in China and throughout the global community. Citizens of all countries should stay home if they are ill and should wash their hands often in any case. Scientists should do their jobs in tracking and studying this new disease, without inciting public panic. In the meantime, broad quarantines of the general population (beyond those who are sick) should be lifted. This is not the end of the world. Treating the coronavirus outbreak as if it were will do a lot more harm than good."

Food for Thought: Five Steps to Reverse a Sense of Entitlement

There are two sections to this week's Food for Thought that I feel link together very nicely. 

The first is an extract from a recent Tim Elmore post on Growing Leaders. I have been part of the international teaching circuit for over 30 years and have noticed many changes. In the late 1980's I noticed that the word 'stress' became common vocab in the 2000's it was 'time' and most recently it is entitlement. Simon Leslie and I used to discuss this at great length when we were reminiscing about changes in international schools. On my recent recruitment trip, it was a word that emerged in several conversations with leading heads and administrators. So when I read this post I realized it is not something peculiar to international schools, however, it may be linked with privilege. I hope that you can read the post with an open mind, be provoked into a few minutes of self-reflection every day and try to introduce the five suggestions at the end of the post into yours and your student's routines.

"I had the most intriguing experience on the road this year while speaking at a private, elite high school.

The school was located in a wealthy suburb. I was astonished by the beautiful, expensive cars the students drove to school. Some who didn’t drive themselves took an Uber. Every student and teacher had the latest iPhone; technology seemed to be the centerpiece of their daily experience. Kids wore brand-name clothes and either complained or bragged about where they’d gone on fall break.

It was no surprise to me, then, that during and after my faculty in-service, they grumbled about the sense of entitlement the teens exhibited on campus.

What made this experience intriguing, however, was my conversations with the faculty and staff afterward. These adults complained to me about how they didn’t have what they felt they deserved and how they resented the kids and their parents. In short, it was not just the kids who demonstrated a sense of entitlement.

In fact, I think I see where the kids got it from.

Understanding Entitlement

The fact is, a sense of entitlement is not only real, it is growing in our culture today. And while I don’t blame the “kids” for it, it is affecting them more than other demographics.

According to a study from the University of Hampshire, young professionals born between 1988 and 1994 scored 25 percent higher on entitlement-related issues than their 40-60 year-old counterparts, and 50 percent higher than those over 60.

“Another study found that people in their 20s are more than three times as likely to have narcissistic personality disorder (which is commonly associated with entitlement) than people 65 or older,” according to a report from Forbes.

If someone has a sense of entitlement, it means the person believes he deserves certain privileges—and he’s arrogant about it. The term “culture of entitlement” suggests that many people now have highly unreasonable expectations about what they are entitled to. An Atlanta-based employer told me he chose to dismiss a young applicant, not because he felt this Millennial was unable to do the job, but because of his sense of entitlement:

• He felt he deserved a job just because he graduated from college.
• He felt he deserved more pay than the position allowed.
• He felt he deserved more perks than the rest of the team.

The Psychology Behind Our Sense of Entitlement

If we break down what is happening psychologically, a sense of entitlement usually involves the elements below. I don’t believe we can overcome the problem until we understand it. Here is what I have discovered in my research:

• The source of entitlement is arrogance.

I feel I’m important and superior; I deserve perks without working for them.

• The symptom of entitlement is resentment.

When I don’t get all I deserve, I grow bitter and feel resentful toward others.

• The enemy of entitlement is humility.

I overcome this as I humble myself, realizing I’m part of a much bigger picture.

• The antidote to entitlement is gratitude.

I must recognize what others have done for me that I didn’t deserve and thank them.

I actually believe the source of entitlement is arrogance. If we’re not aware of our arrogance, we’re blind to its influence. Both arrogance and its offspring, a sense of entitlement, have symptoms:

1. Offenses come quickly. You become easily hurt and insulted.
2. You don’t express gratitude as often as you should.
3. Your compassion evolves into merely looking down on little people.
4. Forgiveness becomes difficult. You begin holding grudges.
5. Expectations of others is high, but you make exceptions for yourself.

Steps to Take to Avoid a Sense of Entitlement

1. Combat your awareness of what you don’t possess with what you do. Be mindful of your blessings. Write down what you’ve gained over the years.
2. When you resent someone else having something you don’t, research to discover the hardships that person has endured. This will level the playing field.
3. Begin benefit-seeking activities, where you reflect and record all the benefits you’ve received but didn’t necessarily earn.
4. Be mindful of progress more than status. In other words, instead of focusing on what you haven’t gained, celebrate the fact you’ve made progress.
5. Write a note of gratitude to someone new every day this week. This forces you to stay focused on what you have, not what you feel entitled to have."

Author Dan Rockwell says, “Everything good in leadership begins with humility. Everything bad in leadership is rooted in arrogance.”

The second part of this week's Food for Thought is a TED talk by Tom Nash. I hope you find it humorous and inspiring, and something we can all learn from. When you watch it you will feel many emotions but amongst them, building on the Tim Elmore advice, I hope you will feel gratitude for your health and wellbeing and secondly, the need to have and instill in our students the importance of determination and resilience in the face of adversity.

Food For Thought: Shaping our world

This is a two-section Food for Thought. The first is about forming habits that can drive self-regulated learning and relates to our first Principle of Learning. The second part is not educational but again focuses on social media, the press and the world our students will inherit.  I found it very interesting because it linked with the pain I am suffering from the victory of Boris Johnson in the UK  general election.

Section A:

Let's start with teaching and learning. Our first Principle of Learning is:  All learners are capable of achieving their goals in a guided environment where there is an appropriate balance of standards, challenge, and support. As so many of you have joined us in the past six years the history behind our Principles of Learning is that they were crafted by teachers in a series of meetings that defined what learning meant at ISHCMC and what were its key characteristics that they believed were non-negotiables. This provided a focus on learning that was to underpin the creation of the mission and vision. Of course, a lot of things have changed and I'm sure more will change in the next few years so it might be time to review what learning means, etc as ISHCMC moves into a new era. 

We are not quite there, half a year to go, hence this section of Food for Thought as this principle has technically been at the center of our discussions over the concept of gradually releasing learning and developing self-regulated learners leading to the point at which these learners are equipped enough to be seen as self-directed. Some of the big questions emerging are when is this most appropriate, what systems and structures need to be in place to ensure it is robust, can it be achieved within and across the IB programs, are our community and owners ready for a major disruption of education, and of course what short term assessments can be used to prove the validity of this transformation from easily assessed knowledge and content to the development and application of learning skills? 

So how do we create our self-regulated learners across the school? I believe the answer has to lie in the habits that we embed in our students through their learning toolkits. James Clear has popularized his thinking through his book Atom Habits. Here is a short 8-minute video that provides some good suggestions on how we can develop good habits in our students. Although talking about habit-forming in general I think that his ideas are useful in how we encourage our students to set learning goals. He starts by explaining it is the small steps towards your goal that matter. His advice for success in achieving goals is based around four strands that need to exist, noticing, wanting, doing and liking. He talks about strategies that will put in place these strands

I especially liked this slide from his talk because I think it is something that we often get wrong when we ask students to set goals.

I found more about the thinking of James Clear on the A.J.Juliani site where he talks about learning happening when you stretch but do not overextend the learner

AJJuliani illustrated this ide through his own classroom experience: 

"When students came into the room, they were quick to open up their device, check the do now activity, and get started with an entrance activity.

Although the activities changed, it was almost always in the Zone of Automation for my students.

Then there were times when I would put together a ridiculously hard/challenging test and almost every single one of my students would be in the Zone of Aggravation. There wasn't much learning happening here either, just a lot of cramming for something they would often forget weeks and months later.

The sweet spot happened during design sprints and project-based learning experiences where students had a manageable level of difficulty but also an end in sight. Whether they were creating a PSA for a UN Global Goal or crafting a video with a student half-way around the world, these activities were in the Zone of Adaptation.

It also happened during the smaller moments of teaching. A mini-lesson on the dangers of a single story, a class discussion about the author's purpose, an appeal's day.

The Zone of Adaptation is not about huge exponential learning gains, it is about small 1% experiences that over time add up to powerful learning and growth."

In his post, AJ Juliani points out that, "When we look at what research says about becoming better at something, two pieces of evidence stand out.

First, we must have clarity on what our goals are, and where we want to go or what we want to become.

Second, it is deliberate practice (combined with feedback loops) that increase the myelin in our brain and in turn help improve performance and growth.

Today I want to talk about a process that we often miss when we look at learner success. We tend to talk about growth, goals, and instructional practice…yet, we miss a key element of going from “defining a goal” to “achieving a goal” without students."

Part Two: War on Truth

The final section of my last post for 2019 comes on the Boris Johnson's victory in the UK election and my search for the answer to how could this have happened? I'm sure that US citizens will be asking the same question when Donald Trump is re-elected shortly. As I have shared before, there is definitely a sinister side to social media and the role it is playing in creating lies and misconceptions across societies. This is an interesting Al Jazeerah documentary about a journalist in the Philippines and her struggle to counter the lies.

What I found as interesting as the documentary were the comments on the Youtube site. Reading through them it made me wonder where they had come from, and what was their agenda, as it was clear they weren't related to what was being said in the documentary, and if read before watching might dissuade viewers, especially given the negative likes. If you'd like to read the comments and see what I mean here is the Youtube link.
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Food For Thought: 10 Biggest Breakthroughs in the Science of Learning

One of the great steps forward in education has been the increasing link between neuroscience and education. We are lucky to be working in this era as scientists are learning more and more about how our brain works and how we learn best. Of course, not all of education is listening to this research or changing as a result of it. I thought to share this older article as this week's Food for Thought because it is an easy yet useful read that provides arguments to explain why school should be changing and why how we teach today is different from how our student's parents were taught.

A greater understanding of our brain’s functioning, abilities, and limitations allows us to constantly improve our teaching skills and the productivity of our Brainscape study sessions and working hours (and after-work hours, for that matter). We’ve already given you tips on how to keep your brain in shape and how to boost your brain’s abilities through exercise.
This article, originally published by OnlinePHDPrograms.com, shares the 10 most significant breakthroughs that recent research has made on the science of learning, providing valuable insights on how to make the best use of your brain without wasting energy.

10 Key Learning Sciences Discoveries
When it comes to human organs, none is quite so mysterious as the brain. For centuries, humans have had numerous misconceptions and misunderstandings about how the organ works, grows and shapes our ability to learn.
While we still have a long way to go before we truly unravel all the mysteries the brain has to offer, scientists have been making some major breakthroughs that have gone a long way in explaining how the brain functions and how we use it to organize, recall and acquire new information. Here are a few of the biggest and most important of these breakthroughs in the science of learning.

1. More information doesn’t mean more learning.
The brain is equipped to tackle a pretty hefty load of information and sensory input, but there is a point at which the brain becomes overwhelmed, an effect scientists call cognitive overload. While our brains do appreciate new and novel information (as we’ll discuss later), when there is too much of it we become overwhelmed. Our minds simply can’t divide our attention between all the different elements.
This term has become a major talking point in criticisms of multi-tasking, especially given the modern information-saturated world we live in. But the discovery of this cognitive phenomenon also has major implications for education. In order to reduce mental noise, teachers have had to take new approaches to present material. These methods include chunking, focusing on past experiences, and eliminating non-essential elements to help students remember a large body of information.

2. The brain is a highly dynamic organ.
Until the past few decades, people believed that the connections between the neurons in your brain were fixed by the time you were a teenager, and perhaps even earlier. One of the biggest breakthroughs in understanding the science of learning happened when scientists began to realize that this just wasn’t the case. In fact, the brain’s wiring can change at any age and it can grow new neurons and adapt to new situations — though the rate at which this happens does slow with age. This phenomenon is called neuroplasticity, and it has had major ramifications in our understanding of how the brain works and how we can use that understanding to improve learning outcomes.

3. Emotion influences the ability to learn.
The ability to learn, retain, and use information isn’t just based on our raw IQ. Over the past few decades, it has become increasingly clear that how we feel — our overall emotional state — can have a major impact on how well we can learn new things. Educational situations where students feel stressed, shamed, or just uncomfortable can actually make it more difficult for them to learn, increasing negative emotions and sparking a vicious cycle that may leave some children reluctant to attend class.
Research is revealing why, as the emotional part of the brain, the limbic system has the ability to open up or shut off access to learning and memory. When under stress or anxiety, the brain blocks access to higher processing and stops forming new connections, making it difficult or impossible to learn. It may seem like common sense that classrooms should be welcoming, non-stressful environments, but different students have different triggers for negative emotional states, making it key for educators to watch for signs that indicate this problem is afflicting their students.

4. Mistakes are an essential part of learning.
Failure is a dirty word in most aspects of modern American society, but when it comes to the science of learning, research shows that failure is essential. A recent study found that students performed better in school and felt more confident when they were told that failure was a normal part of learning, bolstering a growing body of research that suggests the same conclusion.
Much like it takes multiple tries to get the hang of riding a bike or to complete an acrobatic feat, it can also take multiple tries to master an academic task. Neuroscience research suggests that the best way to learn something new isn’t to focus on mistakes, but instead to concentrate on how to do a task correctly. Focusing on the error only reinforces the existing incorrect neural pathway, and will increase the chance that the mistake will be made again. A new pathway has to be built, which means abandoning the old one and letting go of that mistake.This idea has formed the basis for a growing debate about education in American schools, which many believe doesn’t allow children to embrace creativity and problem solving as they are too focused on memorization and test scores.

5. The brain needs novelty.
Turns out boredom really can kill you, or at least your willpower to pay attention and learn. Repetition is critical in learning, but what the brain really craves is novelty.
Researchers have found that novelty causes the dopamine system in the brain to become activated, sending the chemical throughout the brain. While we often regard dopamine as the “feel good” chemical, scientists have shown that it actually plays a much bigger role, encouraging feelings of motivation and prompting the brain to learn about these new and novel stimuli. This breakthrough has led to some major changes in how we think about learning and has motivated many schools to embrace learning methods that cater to our brains’ need for new and different experiences.

6. There are no learning styles.
What kind of learner are you? Chances are good that at some point during your educational career someone labeled you like a particular type of learner, either visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. This idea that there are distinct types of learners who learn best with a certain assortment of stimuli has been showing up in education and brain science for decades, but recent studies have shown that this idea really doesn’t hold much water.
Students may have preferences for how they learn, but when put to the test, students were found to have equivalent levels of learning regardless of how information is presented. Attention to the individual talents, preferences, and abilities of students, which helps to cater to the emotional and social needs of students and improves their ability to learn, is more important than styles (of which there have been 71 different models over the past few decades).

7. Brains operate on the “use it or lose it” principle.
There’s a reason that you forget how to speak a language or work out a trigonometry problem if you don’t use those skills on a regular basis. Information in the brain that isn’t used is often lost, as neural pathways weaken over time.
Research has found that the brain generates more cells than it needs, with those that receive chemical and electrical stimuli surviving and the rest dying off. The brain has to receive regular stimulation to a given pathway in the brain to sustain those cells, which is why lifelong learning is so important to brain health. These findings also have implications for vacations in K-12 education as well, as students who don’t get intellectual stimulation over the summer are much more likely to forget important skills in reading and math when they return to class.

8. Learning is social.
While some select individuals may learn well cloistered in a library with a stack of books, the majority of people need a social environment to maximize their learning. Research has found that from infancy on, people learn better through social cues such as recalling and emulating the actions or words of another person.
Aside from social cues, socialization has been shown to have other learning benefits. Peer collaboration offers students access to a diverse array of experiences and requires the use of nearly all the body’s senses, which in turn creates greater activation throughout the brain and enhances long-term memory. Group work, especially when it capitalizes on the strengths of its members, may be more beneficial than many realize.

9. Learning is best when innate abilities are capitalized on.
All of us, from the time we are born, possess innate abilities to see and hear patterns, something that psychologists doubted was true for decades but that we now know to be the case. Research suggests that reinforcing those innate capabilities by teaching patterns early on may actually help kids learn more and sharpen their brains.
Aside from being able to see and hear patterns, the human mind has a number of innate abilities (the ability to learn a language, for instance) that when capitalized on in the right way, can help make learning any concept, even one that is abstract, much easier. Combining these innate abilities with structured practice, repetition, and training can help make new ideas and concepts “stick” and make more sense.

10. Learning can change brain structure.
Brain structure and function are intertwined, and you can’t improve one without taking the other into consideration. Yet, in years past, most ideas about learning ignored ways that the brain’s structure itself could be modified, instead of focusing on brain function or the brain’s output.
The reality is that brain function can only be changed through changing brain structure, which is actually less complicated than it sounds. For example, brain cells fired up during both perception and action overlap in people, and lessons that engage both allow students to more easily identify with their teachers and to learn concepts more quickly, as their brain cells are getting twice the attention and workout. In fact, any new information, if used enough, can modify the structure of the brain, something educators and neuroscientists are just starting to fully explore.

https://www.brainscape.com/blog/2012/10/breakthroughs-science-of-learning-2/