Breathe and reflect

It's Friday! 

It's the end of the week. Let's find time to breathe and reflect.  Also, it's June tomorrow. 

Let's breathe

All of us work so hard, day in, day out. Don't let the stress of life get to you. I say this to everyone no matter what your circumstances. Problems are temporary. Find the calmness in quiet moments. Allow yourself to just be. Relax your shoulders. Unclench your jaw. Breathe. 

Most importantly, you are loved. 

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Learning outside, why not?

Learning outside.

There's something cathartic about sitting outside to learn. Bringing the kids out of the classroom gives them fresh air, freedom and it clears the mind. They can think! Even when I bring myself outside to work or study, it changes my perception of what my tasks are and gives me clarity. And most importantly, I feel less stressed!

We don't need to sit outside only for an art class. Although, while that is nice to do, we can create a comfortable space in which our students can function and work while feeling free of the constraints of the classroom. Nobody likes being cooped up with 30 other humans in a classroom for 8 hours a day 5 days a week. (6 days a week where I live!) We are supposed to have space to breathe. Perhaps it should be a regular thing, though obviously not when it's raining. 

Where I work, we often allow the kids freedom to get out of the classroom to sit on the grass and continue with their work. Some of my colleagues have yoga mats for them to sit on, there's cushions, blankets and deck chairs. However, I think that's a privilege; not everyone has access to those things at school. It can be worth having the PTA organise a donation or collection of those items. 

With this in mind, we can ask ourselves, how can we change our learning environment to improve our students' learning experience? (Some of these suggestions might sound obvious but when we have so many young minds to teach, our perception of our environment can become clouded.)

• Regular change of seating plans
• Change the tables into a different place completely
• Put new artwork on the walls or re organise the posters
• Move the teacher's table, change the view point
• Take time for 5 minute meditation or breathing exercises
• Weather permitting, head outside together and spend time learning in the fresh air
• Give your students time to take turns teaching the class about what they learned and have the kids ask questions. Give guidance. 
• Remember to drink
• It's good fun to learn a song and sing it together, especially to break up the monotony
• Just Dance videos to expend some of that pent up energy (check out some of the videos on YT)
• Reading time
• Writing down or drawing our emotions and feelings
  

I hope these help a little!

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Useful links for support and education

A list of useful links (for UK)

Links for SEN both adult and child:

https://www.autism.org.uk/

https://adhduk.co.uk/

https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/

https://dyspraxiauk.com/

https://www.hft.org.uk/

Adult resources:

National Numeracy UK

https://www.wea.org.uk/

https://adulteducation.org.uk/

Citizens Advice Bureau

Educational support:

Bright Connections Educational Services

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ICD-10 codes - What are they?

I'd like to touch on the process of getting a diagnosis of a neurodivergent condition - that includes autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia and more. 

The most important thing to remember is that these are not associated with intelligence.

A neurodivergent condition (in simple terms) means that the brain processes information differently to those who are neurotypical (someone who doesn't have a condition such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, for example.)

The process of getting diagnosed, whether via traditional healthcare routes or privately, can be daunting for any person and their family. Most of the time we enter this part of life with little to no idea of what to expect and it's a learning curve for everyone. There are so many questions we need answering and fortunately in this day and age, the Internet is a huge help. Finding out the meaning of new medical terms is an enlightening experience, and often leads us down a rabbit hole, thus teaching us about conditions and disorders we didn't even know existed. Suddenly we know things. 

Medical diagnoses often contain a lot of jargon that just makes no sense to us, and while we can search for these terms online, there are often codes included in the paperwork that really have us stumped. So, I would like to introduce you to the ICD-10 codes, which are medical reference codes for diagnoses (all types!) but the ones I think that are important today are the following:

1. F84.0 Autism spectrum condition
   
   
2. F90.0 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, predominantly inattentive type
3. F90.1 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, predominantly hyperactive type
4. F90.2 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, combined type
   
   
5. F81.1 Specific reading disorder (dyslexia)
6. F81.2 Specific disorder of arithmetical skills (dyscalculia)
7. F81.3 Mixed disorder of scholastic skills (dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysorthography (spelling disorder), dysgraphia (handwriting disorder).)

I have found that understanding these codes helps to understand where the specialist is coming from. 

I've linked the ICD codes and explanations of what neurodiversity means in this post, so just click the hyperlinks if you'd like to know more.

Figuring it out

Where do you strengths lie?

It's sometimes difficult to figure out where we want to go in life. Some people are very lucky enough to figure out what exactly they plan to do when they leave school. They know their interests, what their strengths are, the things they are good at. I'm a little envious of those people because until I was in my thirties, I had no idea. It's fascinating seeing young people sail through college and university. My eldest son has 2 paths in front of him, he can speak 4 languages: English, Spanish, Italian and Russian. So, he's trying to figure out if he will study linguistics or tourism. Either way he knows he wants to do something.

What can be a little sad though, is going to all that trouble and studying for a Bachelors degree only to find out it's not what you want. Has that happened to you? What happened? What did you do instead? 

I would love to know what subjects you studied at university. As a mature student, I chose the path of psychology which I would never in a million years would have thought I would actually enjoy but it's really interesting. I've also learned a lot about myself, by studying later in life. Things like realising what I am capable of, what kind of learner I am and how I study. It's funny how life turns out.

I think today's blog entry is just to touch on your educational lives, no matter how old you are. Remembering that life is not linear. It just doesn't plan out the way we expect it to. And that's OK.

Comment below and tell me what your strengths are. Let's talk!

A History Lesson

I saw this on the internet so I thought I would share it with you.

Enjoy!

They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the tannery. If you had to do this to survive you were “piss poor.”

But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn’t even afford to buy a pot; they “didn’t have a pot to piss in” & were the lowest of the low.

The next time you are washing your hands & complain because the water temperature isn’t just how you like it, think about how things used to be. 

Here are some facts about the 1500s.

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June. Since they were starting to smell, however, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women, and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it … hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the Bath water!”

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof, resulting in the idiom, “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed, therefore, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, leading folks to coin the phrase “dirt poor.”

The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way, subsequently creating a “thresh hold.”

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while, and thus the rhyme, “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.”

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, “bring home the bacon.” They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and “chew the fat.”

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the “upper crust.”

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up, creating the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive, so they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer.

And that’s the truth. Now, whoever said History was boring?

You've got this!

Revision for exams and note taking.
Feeling good when going into an exam.

Revision can be daunting for any student no matter how old they are. We expect the old grey matter to just do its thing and perform when it needs to. I believe the key to revision is just the same as the recommended "way to eat": little and often. 

Here's some tips on how to revise. 

1. Make sure you have drinks and snacks to hand. 
   Water, fruit juice, whatever takes your fancy. Avoid drinking coffee, the caffeine crash doesn't help and will make you feel lethargic and unable to focus. Matcha, on the other hand is a nice alternative. 
   Snack bars, nuts (obviously not if you have allergies!), dried fruit, bananas, sandwiches, whatever you feel good about snacking on.
   Our brains need feeding. You can't drive a car without fuel, right?
2. 40 minute study: 20 minute break.
   Don't overstretch yourself. Your brain needs time to digest information. 
   Set a timer on your phone or smart speaker (if you have one). I actually find Alexa a really good tool for things like this. They're also inexpensive.
3. Make flashcards and get someone to test your knowledge.
   Revision is much easier when you have someone to help you. (That person doesn't need to be in the same room, don't forget we can do everything online!)
   The act of making flashcards is a great way to keep on top of things, your brain enjoys it and will retain more. Get creative! You can get blank flashcards or, if you prefer, you can download an app here. 
4. Highlighters and fancy pens are your friends!
   I couldn't survive without highlighters and thankfully, they come in a whole range of colours. (I remember back in the 80s when the standard yellow was about all you could get...)
   Check out some highlighter sets here and here.
5. Going into an exam should feel good. You can feel confident about it. 
   We've all been there once in our lives at least when we didn't feel so good about sitting an exam but it shouldn't be so daunting if we have prepared effectively. The main thing to remember is you can only do your best and nothing more. And that's enough. When we don't sufficiently prepare, we leave ourselves open to the niggling doubts, which is normal, but when you know you haven't prepared in the right way, you will always know when you're not ready. 
   - Breathing exercises are important. 4 second inhale, 8 second exhale. Try it. Breathe in for 4 seconds. Then, slowly exhale for 8 seconds. Repeat until you feel calm. This is a very easy exercise to do while driving. I've done it myself. It works. 

Following the 5 steps above can really help you to prepare for your exams. It isn't easy but I think that giving yourself a chance will make all the difference. Remember that you don't have to study alone. And you're not the only one in this situation. Lastly, remember to reach out when you can't move forward. Always ask for help. 

Comment below and let's get the conversation going!