Education: What determines a successful school system?
NCTA at Trinity University
I was recently invited to attend an event hosted by the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA) at Trinity University in San Antonio since my book, Less Stress for Teachers, was being gifted to the guest teachers visiting from South Korea. During the American portion of the presentation, attendees were given impressive statistics about the South Korean school system:
205 school days – compared to our average of 180
8:00-4:00 school day – compared to our typical day of 8:30-3:30
Additional tutoring at a separate school (cram schools) until well into the evening – compared to no separate school for tutoring here
15 years in a traditional classroom – compared to 13 years here
85% of students enter college – compared to some areas in the U.S. that have a 50% high school drop-out rate
End result: South Korea ranks at the top of the world in nearly every school subject.
Those are the kinds of stats that make American teachers smack themselves on their foreheads and mutter things like, “Why can’t our schools be like that?” “Why can’t our students be like that?” “How will we ever compete?”
And those are the kinds of stats the media uses to crucify our education system and teachers.
But when you talk to the South Korean teachers, they tell us the human side of the story that can’t be quantified in statistics.
They have a labor problem because college graduates don’t want to work blue collar jobs. The U.S. tries to keep out low-wage workers, but they need to import them.
Their students must meet critical deadlines. The Korean teachers noticed that many of the American teachers they observed encouraged students to take their time.
Their students are stressed out beyond belief and are not encouraged to express their emotions. The teachers commented on how happy American students looked.
Their students’ names, grades and rankings are posted on a wall for everyone in the school to see. In the U.S. that would lead to some kind of lawsuit about a violation of privacy.
Their students don’t have hobbies and many don’t understand the meaning of fun.
Their students don’t have high school electives (“fun classes”) from which to choose.
End result: The U.S. ranks well below other nations on international exams, but we’re free and happy.
After their panel discussion, I had the chance to speak with a few of the South Korean teachers about the saying, “The grass is always greener.” We want to be like South Korea. South Korea wants to be like us. Or we think we do, anyway.
What is the best type of school system? That depends on who’s judging. What do you think?
What does your pencil choice say about you?
Image via Wikipedia
I get a call every year to work at a high school with students who have been removed from their standard classroom environments. They have been invited to leave their home campuses for a variety of reasons – misbehavior, truancy or arrests. The choices and mistakes they’ve made have caused them to fall behind in their credits by one year or more. My job is to get them focused for their exit exams and help them with decision-making skills along the way. In a nutshell, I try to rewire how their brains think and plan for their exams – and life – so they can become productive citizens.
We have the same routine at the beginning of each one of my sessions. The students pick up their activity packets and borrow a pencil and highlighter to use for the class period. It dawned on me the other day when I watched how the students chose their pencils that their choices reflected who they are. Those who chose their pencils based on the sharpness of the writing tip were the same students who were working hard to make changes in their lives and get back on track. The students who chose their pencils based on the condition of the eraser were the same students who were fumbling aimlessly in life. They were already planning to make mistakes and erase the mess. Their counterparts, on the other hand, chose based on the tool they needed to complete their work; if they wound up needing an eraser later, they knew where to get one.
The attitude you have in your approach to projects will determine your success. If you start every day prepping for your tasks and telling yourself you will complete them, then you will. But if you start every day with the expectation that you won’t meet the standards, well, you’ll do just that.
So, how will you choose your pencil: by the sharpness of the tip or the size of the eraser?
Is it possible to live in 400 sf?
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Space is finite, so anyone who lives in a small space has some tough choices to make about how many belongings they can own. Whether you’re living temporarily in a 10′ x 10′ dorm room or living permanently in a 400 square foot apartment, you’ll need to consider these options:
1. Choose a vision for your home. Do you want to live in a place that feels like a storage facility, crammed with boxes and stuff everywhere? Or do you want to be able to move around freely without any obstacles impeding your path? What do you want to come home to? When you close your eyes, what does that look like?
2. Determine the types of tasks you will need to complete in your home. Your answer will determine what zones you need to establish. You’ll need a place to sleep and an area to store clothing. What else will you do? Work at a computer? Read? Cook? Assign a “territory” to each task so that all the supplies you’ll need are located in that immediate vicinity instead of being spread out all over the place.
3. Go wall. Use wall storage as much as you can in order to utilize vertical space. The more floor that is visible, the more open your space will feel. If you have an open floor plan and want to separate your sleeping area from a living room, you can position stand-alone bookcases as a “wall” between the two areas. You gain privacy and storage at the same time.
4. Get creative. Don’t just think outside the box. Kick the box out the door. If you never cook but love to stay home and read, turn your kitchen into your library. Just because a room is named on the floor plan doesn’t mean you’re required to use the room in the same way.
Becoming a minimalist will be most helpful in creating more living space for yourself, but it doesn’t mean that your abode has to be sterile. Your home can still reflect your personality. Enjoy life without the burden of so much stuff.
How can parents help their children regroup after a less than stellar first semester?
Image by pjern via Flickr
It’s a tough job for parents to walk that line between being a non-participant in their child’s education and being overzealous. The latter calls teachers at all hours of the day and night to ask why their child only made an eighty-nine on a homework assignment that they stayed up all night completing for their child. The former waits until the last week of school to ask what makeup work can be done so their kid can pass – ignoring the twice monthly requests on progress reports and report cards to call to discuss their child’s grades.
My friend, CPO® Deb Lee, asked me to write a blog post about what can be done in this situation. If you need tips on how to recover from a not-so-great first semester of school, please click here to read that post.
How do you know what to get rid of in your closet?
©2008 - present LO Organizers San Antonio, LLC
“How do I know what to get rid of in my closet?” I get asked this question quite often. Instead of the normal “if you haven’t worn it in __ years” answer, think in terms of parting with what doesn’t make you look Freakin’ Fabulous. How do you know what makes you look good and what doesn’t? Here are some fashionista tips from a friend of mine…
10 Ways to Dress 10 Pounds Thinner
by
Hope Dufner, Accessory Consultant
Premier Designs Jewelry
Losing weight and getting fit is always one of the top New Year’s resolutions. And while it is always at the top of my list, one of the things that I help my customers do is to look their best at any size or weight. So while you are going to the gym and cutting back on carbs, here are 10 tips to help you dress 10 pounds thinner:
- Dress in one color from head to toe. Creating a vertical vs. a horizontal silhouette is visually slimming. And don’t necessarily think you have to dress in black from head to toe, unless you happen to look great in it. You can go monochromatic in white, navy or even a jewel tone.
- Make sure your clothes fit properly. Clothes that are too big (or too small) can add weight to your frame. Simple tailoring can do wonders for off the rack jackets, skirts and slacks.
- Dark colors such as black, navy and dark gray are minimizers. Wear these shades to camouflage the areas of your body where you are the least confident.
- Light and bright colors are maximizers. If self-conscious about your weight, wear darker slacks and skirts and wear bright colors near your face in the form of a cardigan, jacket or scarf.
- Avoid bulky layers and chunky sweaters as they will make you look heavier.
- Wear larger earrings. Small earrings make large women look larger and small women look smaller. Proportion is key. Earrings are a great way to draw the eye up and away from our “challenge” areas.
- Shoulder pads add height, square up narrow shoulders, create a more tailored appearance, and balance out hips. Sometimes our “hidden” accessories can be a girl’s best secret!
- Add a jacket, cardigan or longer sweater to create a more pulled together look. Leave unbuttoned to create more vertical lines and a slender appearance.
- Pay attention to sleeve length. You don’t want your sleeves to stop right at your hip line, which is typically the widest part of your body. Either roll up your sleeves, add sleeve bands, or have your sleeves professionally altered. (A good alteration person is a must. My gal is worth her weight in gold!)
- Match your hose, tights or socks to your shoe color. This again creates a monochromatic, vertical line for a visually slimming effect.
About Hope Dufner:
Helping women look great on the outside so they can feel good inside is what accessory consultant Hope Dufner has been doing for the past 19 years. As an independent representative/business owner with Premier Designs Jewelry, a Dallas, Texas-based direct service company, Hope enjoys helping her customers discover the difference well-chosen accessories can make in their wardrobe. With 19 plus years in the industry, Hope is a well-respected field leader with Premier Designs. In addition to serving her customers and hostesses through retail sales and jewelry shows, Hope also helps women become business owners when they choose to become independent reps with this 26 year old company. Hope earned a B.A. in Communication from Arizona State University. She lives in San Antonio, Texas with husband Carl, and is mom to son Christian who is a sophomore at the University of Texas.
Hope can be reached by e-mail at jewelrylady92 at sbcglobal.net, on Facebook at Hope Kingsley Dufner or by phone at 210-621-4932. For more information on Premier Designs, go to www.premierdesigns.com or follow Premier Designs, Inc. on Facebook.
Need help with your resolution to get organized?
I meet a lot of people who want to hire a Certified Professional Organizer® to help them in person, but it’s not in their budget. If you’re in the same boat, here’s a great opportunity to get that expert help in an affordable way!
In 2006 my good friend, organizing expert Lorie Marrero, created The Clutter Diet®, an innovative online program that helps you “get your house in shape.” Her program has helped thousands of members in eighteen countries around the world, making organizing expertise affordable and accessible to anyone, anywhere.
What’s special and unique about Lorie’s service is that you get unlimited personal access, 7 days a week, to Lorie’s team of Certified Professional Organizers®. You can even upload photos of your trouble spots to get consultations on them! I’m proud to serve on her panel of experts and have been doing so since its inception over five years ago.
When you use the coupon code “2012win”, you will receive 25% off an Annual membership! This discount is the lowest possible price Lorie offers.
Annual memberships are usually $143.40, but with this coupon code your price is 25% off, just $107, good through Monday, January 16, 2012, at midnight CDT. In other words, it costs you only $8.92/month to have unlimited access to organizing experts for personal consultations online! Considering that the average price of a professional organizer in person is $75 per hour, this is a huge savings.
The best part of all– If you are concerned whether this program is right for you, no worries, because your first two weeks are free! You can sign up for the Annual membership with this coupon code and your card will not be charged until 2 weeks later, and you can cancel at any time. (You can trust Lorie and Clutter Diet!!)
Get organized with these member resources:
• unlimited access, 7 days a week, to a team of Certified Professional Organizers® for personal consulting in the member area, including photo consultations,
•easy multimedia tutorials,
• searchable reference articles,
• your own customized reminder system,
• and – one of the best parts - their exclusive weekly project plans…
…all for about the monthly price of a box of trash bags or a package of coffee.
Click here, choose “ANNUAL” option, and enter the coupon code 2012win to get started with your free two weeks and lock in this very special
discount price. Offer ends January 16, 2012, at midnight CDT.
Happy Organizing!
FREE Shred Day + Drop Off Clutter for Charity! Details…
January is National Get Organized Month! It’s time to set in motion your New Year’s resolutions for getting organized in the new year. But what do you do with all of the stuff you want to remove?
Simple: If you’re in San Antonio, bring it to NAPO San Antonio’s 2nd Annual GO Month Clear Your Clutter Day!
Saturday, January 21, 2012
10:00 A.M. – 2:00 P.M.
at Goodwill’s 281/Bitters location
It’s such a beautiful concept. Give yourself a happy home and help others in the process. We’re gathering your clutter to turn it into donations to non-profits in San Antonio. So, what all can you bring? Read on…
Goodwill helps change lives through the power of work. Your donations will help fund someone’s job training. Check out Goodwill International’s nifty donation calculator.
Drop off:
· Computers, electronics
· Furniture, antiques, framed pictures
· Cookware, dishes, housewares
· Clothing, jewelry, shoes
· Games, toys, sporting goods
· Books, lamps, office supplies
Bring it on!
Note: flammable, corrosive, toxic, poisonous, reactive, or explosive (including paint and batteries) cannot be accepted at this event.
Founders Lions Club on behalf of Lighthouse for the Blind and other agencies will collect:
· Prescription & reading glasses
Check underneath your magazines and behind your nightstand. You know you’ve got some old ones!
San Antonio Battered Women’s Shelter will collect:
· Used cell phones
How many times have you upgraded in the last ten years? Check the back of your junk drawers!
San Antonio Food Bank will collect:
· Unopened, unexpired, non-perishable food
Check those pantries! If you started the new year with a diet, remove temptation and donate it to the Food Bank!
FREE SHREDDING
Bring ONE letter size banker’s box of papers to be shredded for free!
Note: first box is free, additional boxes will be $5 (letter size) and $8 (legal size) – that’s cheap!!
Thank you to Pinnacle Shredding for providing this service to the community.
Rubbish Works will be on hand to help out Goodwill’s collection process, so thank you very much to them for helping out.
Empty your home of what you don’t need and assist others at the same time!
Come meet the Professional Organizers and Certified Professional Organizers of NAPO San Antonio.
I’ll be onsite for the entire event, so please be sure to say hello!
How to be successful with your New Year’s resolutions (via @KABBFox29)
- Organizing for the New Year on Daytime @ Nine on KABB Fox 29
Lose weight
Get organized
Stop smoking
Those are wonderful goals, and everyone knows all of that is good for our health and well-being, so why do so many people each year not succeed? The best intentions are not enough. There’s a little more to it than that.
The co-hosts of Daytime @ Nine on KABB Fox 29, Monica Taylor and Miriam Zamorano, asked me to give some advice to their viewers. Here are some video tips for…
1. Planning for your New Year’s resolutions - You can download my T.E.A.C.H. Approach™ Week Planner at www.LessStressForTeachers.com so you can begin working on your goals.
2. Quick tips to get started organizing yourself and your family
What are your resolutions, and how will you be successful?
Did you thumb your nose at holiday stress?
Image via Wikipedia
Dear Helene,
I’m writing this letter to you to serve as a reminder for next year’s holiday season.
As a recovering perfectionist, that dark side in you – like many people out there – often worries about getting everything just right. You usually do a good job of fighting it off, but sometimes it creeps up and bites you in the rear. So let’s review what didn’t happen the way it was supposed to.
Every Thanksgiving weekend, you put up the tree and hang the outdoor lights. This year, it didn’t happen because you were just plain tuckered out from all of your book-related events and celebrations, so you didn’t feel like doing it. For the next two Saturdays after that, the weather was cold and rainy, so you didn’t hang the outdoor lights. Only the three lighted angels were set out.
And did the world end because you put out fewer decorations? No. In fact, not a single person who came over commented on the missing outdoor lights. “They were just being polite,” you say? No, they weren’t. They’re not shy about making comments, and they would’ve said something if it mattered.
For the pre-Christmas Eve gathering you hosted for thirty people, you didn’t make a huge spread of homemade dishes as originally planned. About half the food came ready-made from the store. Did people thumb their noses at this? Judging from the empty serving bowls, nobody took issue.
You went to your parents’ house for Christmas. They didn’t put up a tree. But you didn’t notice until your dad pointed out that fact. No one else who came to the house for the aforementioned gathering noticed either. Did the holiday season come to a grinding halt because one of the most common symbols of the season (non-religious, anyway) was missing? Nope.
So what’s the point of all this? Simple. Don’t fall into the trap of holiday stress outs. They are self-imposed. Do what you can and forget about the rest. What matters is that you spend the time with people you love and count your blessings. You did a great job just going with the flow this year, but in case you start backsliding into the holiday frenzy next year, I want you to remember that you managed just fine without it.
Now go set a calendar reminder for next Thanksgiving weekend to read this. Don’t worry. Be happy.
Wishing you love, peace and happiness,
Yourself
How do you know when to call it quits?
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The word “quit” did not enter my vocabulary until I was in my late twenties or so. Until then, I was even more headstrong than I am now and believed that I could muscle through even the impossible. Gradually I learned that I still need to give it my all, but sometimes I need to head in a different direction if things aren’t working out.
When we built our home 11 years ago, we wanted to be as energy conscious and cost-effective as possible, so we had two tankless water heaters installed. It was quite unheard of in our neck of the woods at the time, so we relied on the Internet for our research. We chose one of the top rated units. Installed, they cost nearly $1000 each. That’s a lot of money today, so it was definitely a lot of money back then.
The first time we tried the hot water was in the summer. The ground water was already warm, so the heating elements in the tankless unit didn’t have a lot of work to do to heat up the water. All was well. But after a few months, we noticed that the lights in the house would flicker and blink when we ran the hot water. We called the manufacturer to ask if this was normal. Yes, they said. Lights often blink. Everything is OK if you’re getting hot water. Not wanting to be duped by a company that perhaps didn’t want to pay for repairs under the warranty, we consulted an electrician who was not part of the original install. He told us that electric tankless units use quite a bit of juice to run, so it’s not uncommon to have the blinking lights. Great.
Over the years, we learned to live with our dislikes. After all, we’d spent lots o’ money to install it. We couldn’t just replace it with something else that worked better. We learned to live with:
*the loud noise it would make when the hot water was turned on
*turning off the A/C or furnace when the hot water was on so those units wouldn’t override
*not running the hot water while the TV was on so it wouldn’t flicker
*the heating elements giving out once or twice a year (replacements were $30 each plus shipping)
*having to haul up buckets of hot water for hot showers while when the elements went out sooner than expected and replacements were not yet on hand
The last straw came a few weeks ago. During a cold snap, the tankless unit for the showers failed. Again. We tried the replacement elements we had on hand. No go. We paid to rush ship a replacement panel. Still nothing. Five days of Little House on the Prairie showers in the middle of winter put things into perspective for us. We decided to have the tankless units removed and replaced with a traditional water heater. We’ve been enjoying hot showers for almost three weeks now. No loud noises. No blinking lights. No running around to turn off other electrical appliances when we needed to run the dishwasher or shower. This is heaven!
We’re normally pretty good about cutting loose a task or object or relationship that is bothering us. If we’ve tried our very hardest to make the best of a situation but it doesn’t work out, we’ve learned to walk away from it and move on. So why the heck did we wait so long to change in this case? Was it because of the money we’d initially sunk into it? Or the expense we’d incur for making the change? Did we not want to make time for the work to be done? Or did we not want to give up on being environmentally friendly? Or was it good ol’ fashioned stubbornness?
It’s probably a little bit of all of the above. And it was a good reminder to go back to what works for us – research as much as possible to make the best decision, try our best to make it work, evaluate the pros and cons, and do what will make us happiest. Life is too short to settle for something that makes us unhappy.
What do you need to evaluate – and possibly quit?
