How often do you find yourself quietly on your own in this noisy world? Even when you’re at work, out of the 7 to 8 hours, how many of them are your own quiet hours?
A study at the University of California, Irvine, found that a typical office worker’s focused quiet time is only 11 minutes in-between interruptions on average,[1] and it actually takes 25 minutes to resume to work after any interruptions.
The noise and interruptions are badly affecting our work efficiency, and in fact, our life too.
The article discusses the workplace, but some of what happens in the workplace can also pertain to the classroom. I absolutely despise interruptions, and as such, will only interrupt another class if the teacher has submitted a help desk or if their door is open. If the door is closed, I’m going to assume they don’t want to be interrupted.
During a professional development session a while back I thought I killed someone. He didn’t respond when his name was called. He didn’t respond I tapped his shoulder. Finally, he responded when I shook him a bit harder. Lucky for me (and him) he was just asleep. But it was a wake up call to…
Designed for kids ages eight and up, the Educator Kit contains over 300 building blocks and 30 hours of educational STEAM curriculum to teach kids Scratch, an introductory programming language on the KOOV app to control the robots they build. There’s 23 different robots you can make using pre-coded “Robot Recipes”, which are jumping-off points…
Ernst and Young was the first prominent graduate employer to decide that its own entry criteria were a more accurate judge of job applicants than the degree classifications on their CVs. But similar moves away from a reliance on degree grades are now taking root at other big accountancy firms PwC and Deloitte, too. Source: What skills do…
Yesterday, I noticed this article being shared; “Hays school district orders 800 padlocks for students“. I am glad that they are providing iPads to their students so it is not that they are not ignoring opportunities for both creation and consumption, but I am firm believer that the best device for any learner is often the…
I received a Christmas gift in fourth grade that profoundly impacted my career path and thus the rest of my life. That gift was a VTech PowerPad Plus “pre-computer.” While just a toy, the PowerPad line of products from the late 1980s and early 1990s were functioning computers that featured, among a handful of educational…
When the Montgomery bus boycott electrified the struggle against segregation, it was all recorded in appeals bonds, court motions and $10 fines. A forgotten trove has turned up in a courthouse vault. Source: Found: Rosa Parks’s Arrest Warrant, and More Traces of Civil Rights History – The New York Times What a great source of information…
