Stay soft, not strong
Even though I’ve been learning it the hard way, I’m beginning to see it more clearly: my patterns, and my choice points. When times get more compressed, and when the context is fuller than usual, it’s not that I need to ramp up my determination (my usual go-to), nor is it that I need to get hyper-efficient. Instead, I need to insist on more space, soothing, and softness
The problem with pomodoro
The logic is that with a short duration of only 25 minutes, a learner can start more easily and get through the work efficiently. The hope is that students begin to think in pomodoros: how many rounds of 25+5 will a particular task take? For example, a student can begin to internalize that a list of homework questions will take two rounds, whereas an essay will take ten.
What “counts” as a learning strategy?
There are always individual preferences and differences. There will be some learners who thrive solo, and I’m all about cheering on when a student finds their recipe or repertoire for feel-good learning.
4 Tips for frazzled learners
Between the 73 tabs we might have open to the hypervigilant “what am I forgetting?” feeling, it can feel so hard to stick to the task–any task–these days.
Spotlight on stamina
Students are sometimes surprised when I mention food and water as part of learning strategy coaching sessions, but I’ve had too many 1:1s with students who describe sleeplessness yet have a Red Bull in hand, who speak about relentless underlying worry and who live off of coffee and candy. I’m not claiming causation, but I do notice correlation.
