Browsing CategoryTools & Techniques

As the title tells you, it takes work to get and keep a friend.  The idea of needing to work on social skills existed well before the invention of Social Workers. So why is a friend so important and what does it take to acquire and keep a friend? Life is about balance in all things.  I think that perhaps it is for this reason there are many contradictions to life.  One of these dichotomies is the human need for the comfort of predictability, while at the same time a need for novelty.  Predictability is so important that research shows …

This means say it out loud.  There are so many benefits to doing so but here I will focus on two. Most of us are familiar with the idea of “learning style”.  The term tends to refer to preferred sensory modality: auditory, visual or tactile. Learning style does include other factors which we will have to discuss another time.  The teacher’s lesson planning is an aside to the main point of the sages’ steps.  What NLP teaches is that the visual learner can connect better to auditory content when visual words are used e.g. “Do you see what I am …

  I shared previously (Engaging Materials) that people are born self-centered and the more concrete your lesson the easier it is for your learner to engage and retain the information. In this post I am going to discuss these timeless principles of Engagement and how to apply them. The less mature your students are, the more self-centered they are.  This is why it is so helpful to find out what your students are “in to”.  This is also why relevance and engagement are such important components of the lesson plan.  If the lesson is about them they will be interested. I use this fact …

While last time we talked about the importance of action, for a plan without action is merely a dream, it is equally important to appreciate that action without a plan can also be disastrous (and something we would diagnose as impulsive).  That is why nearly half my lesson plan is focused on the pre-planning part.  The following items of the paradigm make it a well-thought-out plan. Goal rationale Objective rationale Research Relevance If you have been following us until now, you know that having a curriculum is not a good enough rationale for what you teach (see What to Teach).  Your …

What differentiates the dreamer from the visionary.  You may have heard “a goal”.  One of the most popular new professions is coaching.  People are hiring coaches to help them achieve their goals in many areas, be it business, health or relationships.  What is the job of these coaches?  To help the person create a viable plan of action.  However, a plan is merely a detailed dream.  One of the jobs of the coach is for the person to feel compelled to follow through on their plan with action.    An idea, goal or plan without execution is just a dream. …