January 2003

Accelerated Learning newsletter, January 2003

The newsletter this month has a self-improvement theme! For those of you who nursed festive hangovers, we outline some recent breakthroughs in headache research. We also look at how to set and keep resolutions (we call them goals and targets) and why some researchers believe better buildings build better learners! There are tips on reducing noise levels in class and a little about OFSTED and why they are interested in what you eat. We describe how Alite Ltd has improved its website and provide some dates for your (new) diary. Finally we give the next twenty ideas for ‘transforming’ your school in our 20/20 Vision series.

Headache cures

If you overdid the festive celebrations, or suffer from migraines or the occasional debilitating headache, you may be interested in the most recent research into causes and cures of headaches. First, some facts:

• three times as many women as men suffer migraine

• swollen blood vessels occur as a result of migraine

• migraine can last from four hours to three days and come with sensitivity to light and sound and feelings of nausea

• around 50% of migraine sufferers never visit their GP

• tension headaches are more common and are experienced as vice like pressure throughout the head

• cluster headaches – though uncommon and said to be the most painful - occur more often amongst men

• the brain of a migraineur is primed to overreact to all sorts of stimuli that most of us can easily tolerate

• migraineurs become more sensitive to pain with each episode

• migraine attacks peak between the ages of 35 and 45 and decline after that

Scientists at the Michigan Head-Pain and Neurological Institute see extreme headaches as more akin to biologically based disorders such as Epilepsy or Alzheimer’s and occur as a result of wayward circuits in the brain. The trigeminal nerve is now believed to be involved in all types of headaches. People who are prone to migraine have a low threshold for activating the trigeminal nerve and may have poorer capability for suppressing pain signals. To help cope with migraine, identify the individual triggers – chocolate, fluorescent lights, stress, caffeine – and avoid them! Practice yoga, biofeedback or relaxation techniques. Anti-depressants, beta-blockers and anti-epilepsy drugs can help. Finally, it is reported that botox not only smoothes wrinkles but relieves headache pain too.

Your New Year Resolutions – some thoughts

• Set positive - and not avoidance or negative – goals. The more attractive, the more compelling…

• Don’t set too many goals – we suggest three at most

• Share your goals with someone who will help you remain accountable!

• Record the goals in a written or visual form. Be extravagant with this but keep the record private if you wish

• For each goal, identify specific targets that will form your steps along the way but keep each step close.

• Review progress by ticking off each target as you reach it and,

• Reward yourself for reaching each target – but not with something that is a backward step! Don’t celebrate your weight loss target by ordering a take-away pizza!
  

Better buildings

Well-designed buildings and pleasant surroundings lead to better behaviour and attitudes These factors affect performance and attainment, according to UK and USA research cited in a journal called ‘ Building Education’ published in Summer 2002In a piece entitled ‘The role of the physical environment in enhancing teaching and learning’, author Helen Clark says: "Physical features such as light, space, furnishings and equipment can make people feel valued - or not. This affects their behaviour and attitudes and can significantly enhance or impede the learning process. Creating stimulating environments can raise the expectations of parents and teachers and act as a powerful motivator in bringing about positive change."Features known to influence learning include age of the building, lighting, colour, noise, graffiti, cleanliness and the amount of physical space shared by pupils. Noise levels were seen to have a particular impact on learning.

Top Tips to reduce noise levels in class

1. carpet the classroom
2. teach appropriate ‘sound levels for learning’ as a whole class activity and practice them
3. teach ‘good listening’ skills
4. avoid seeing silence as necessarily purposeful and always conducive to learning
5. provide lots of opportunity for structured paired and small group discussion
6. lower your voice
7. ensure all new furniture has rubber tips on the bottom! Buy blinds that roll rather than pull vertically.
8. replace chalkboards with whiteboards
9. use a noise meter visual to show what sort of volume level is appropriate for any given activity
10. play quiet, restful background music and gradually lower the volume or,
11. play ‘natural sounds’ such as birdsong quietly as background!
12. practice extended visualisation as part of classroom learning
13. review lesson content using a passive concert: students close their eyes, rest their heads and listen as you review the key material with quiet background music
14. give the very young fidgeters noiseless ‘toys’ to fidget with, so they don’t distract everyone else

The Best on Motivation and Learning – The National Conference
The Renaissance Hotel, Manchester, 11 April 2003

Find out about innovative UK practice in motivation and learning at this one-day national event, featuring four outstanding keynote speakers and twelve Case Study presentations. Find out how practitioners have achieved success in their own schools and authorities. This is the first of two Alite National Conferences for 2003.

• Three conference strands: LEA, Primary and Secondary

• Three concurrent themes: innovation, leadership and collaboration

• Plus exhibitors and a bookshop

Keynote speakers are:

• Alistair Smith – ‘the science and sense of motivation and learning’

• Dame Jean Else, Headteacher – ‘motivation and your school’

• Tanni Grey-Thompson, international athlete – ‘motivation and the top performer’

• Dr Mike Gibbons, Lead Director Innovation Unit – ‘motivated to innovate’

Case studies include sharing innovation across schools, teaching outside the box, embedding accelerated learning, motivating boys, using multiple intelligences in a primary classroom, whole school approaches to motivation and learning, integrating technology and thinking skills, and more! For more details please visit the website.

Better diet

The UK Schools inspection watchdog OFSTED is to investigate nutrition in England's primary schools. One in three British children is overweight, and it is estimated that the number of overweight teenagers has doubled in the last 20 years. Experts say type 2 diabetes, commonly associated with middle age, is now being seen among children. Prompted by the Food Standards Agency, inspections will be carried out by specialist teams who will report on the way diet and nutrition are covered in the school curriculum - and what is provided in the tuck shop or at breakfast or after-school clubs. In the UK four million school meals are provided each day.

One London Primary has already found a link between the food its children eat and their behaviour in school. New End Primary School in Hampstead has banned children from bringing in sweets, crisps, chocolate, fruit bars, fruit juices and fizzy drinks in their lunch boxes. The only drink allowed now is water. The new rules have only been in place since September, but head teacher Pam Fitzpatrick said the children were noticeably better behaved. "The children have been very positive about it and they are much calmer in the afternoons," said Mrs Fitzpatrick.

Alite Website updated

We have improved the Alite website – www.alite.co.uk - to make it easier for you to buy resources and book courses on-line, access research and keep updated about our work in motivation, teaching and learning. Look out for these new featureso National Conferences – watch out for the prestigious national events

• Research update – stay updated on recent brain-based research
• Cuttings – national press coverage of Alite activities
• 20/20 Vision – radical ideas to transform your school
• Top Tens – Top Ten CD’s to Accelerate Learning and more!
• Online shopping – buy books, courses and resources
• Readings – access recent academic thinking
• Update on the AL cycle – keep your teaching freshYou will also find new book recommendations, added Case Studies and details of all new courses.
  

Muddled metaphors of the Month

“His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances
like underpants in a tumble dryer.”

“She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that
used to dangle from doors and would fly up whenever you banged the
door open again.”

“Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.”

“Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced
across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains,
one having left York at 6:36 p. m. travelling at 55 mph, the other
from Peterborough at 4:19p. m. at a speed of 35 mph.”

Guiding Light from the Beacon LEA

With the constant government emphasis on literacy and numeracy, several schools in North Lincolnshire were worried that ordinary subjects were being overshadowed. In stepped the LEA. They helped inspire and support the schools in their quest to re-energise the curriculum and raise attainment. Using what had been learnt from education and brain research, the LEA put together ideas that would make learning more enjoyable and more successful for the children. Among the initiatives were a better use of colour, lighting and wall space in the schools; attention to children’s diets (including breakfast clubs and access to water in classrooms); improved reward systems; and making lessons more multi-sensory. Many schools have since reported improved attitudes and interest in lessons, and it is expected that what has been witnessed in the classroom will be supported by exam results.

To read a full case study about the work of North Lincolnshire LEA, and other examples of innovative practice from around the UK, Case Studies at the Alite website.

How to Create an Accelerated Learning School

How to Create an Accelerated Learning School is a one day course that reveals how a large 13-18 High School took the ideas from training led by Alistair Smith and put them into practice as a coherent and school wide strategy. Led by Mark Lovatt, this course is highly practical and will be presented in the context of a real school which is managing to change the nature of learning across the board on a daily basis. How to Create an Accelerated Learning School will take place on 14 January in Manchester and 11 February in Derby. For reviews and more details please visit Training on the Alite website.

Alite for Numeracy

Ex-professional footballer and mathematics genius Chris Tomlinson has worked with Alite to create an Accelerated Learning-based numeracy course. Drawing on his extraordinary success using AL to teach maths, Chris shares a wealth of innovative and effective ways to develop and improve your numeracy strategy. The course in Leeds on 13th January will focus on secondary schools, whilst on 3rd March in London Chris will deal with numeracy in the primary school. The course may also be booked as an INSET. For reviews and more details please visit please visit Training on the Alite website.

20/20 Vision: 20 ideas for transforming motivation, teaching and learning (part III)

1. audit sixth form part-time working hours against previous recorded academic performance – share the correlation with students
2. utilise support staff for administrative posts – exams officer, head of careers, assistant head of year – instead of using teachers
3. have a multiple intelligence week
4. hold summer schools where the focus is on developing student attitude, self belief and team co-operation: teach the skill and the will
5. use smart cards for the cashless restaurant
6. provide themed assemblies around learning issues
7. use consultation evenings for tutorials for parents on 'learning to learn' and 'how to help your child(ren) learn' and run these tutorials every 20 minutes alongside target-setting consultation with pupil, parent and teacher
8. dis-apply the timetable for gifted students, GCSE early and follow through with IB
9. introduce a learning theme of the week as part of staff development - e.g., focus on positive starts to lessons, good review practice - and have these themes recur on a termly basis over the course of the year
10. abandon effort grades as most pupils find such grades confusing
11. have science teachers initiate a drive on appropriate use of scientific language in practicals
12. introduce a paper free week - no writing in class, no worksheets, no reports
13. provide Saturday enrichment classes on non academic themes
14. include hands-on algebra as part of your numeracy strategy
15. have a visual learners week where every lesson has a high visual component
16. have a coloured pencil-free week
17. introduce teaching for older students with groups of 100 in high quality lecture format followed by tutoring with groups of 3 or 4!
18. apply for Specialist College status
19. create training credits for staff who allow visitors in to observe lessons
20. use screen savers on computers with motivational messages

For all 20/20 Vision ideas for transforming motivation, teaching and learning see the scrolling list at 20/20 Vision on the Alite website.

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