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23.01.2022 Exercise. I was talking to one of my senior secondary students about exercise this week. When I was in my 20s I definitely thought exercise had only a few functions: - improving strength and cardiovascular fitness; - competition;... - changing your appearance. That was it, really. It wasn't until I became a parent in my 30s that I realised exercise is important for so many other reasons. For example, our lymphatic system, which is a key component of our immune response, doesn't have its own central pump. Lymph only moves around our body if we move our skeletons and muscles. For students of any age, exercise is extremely important for several more reasons: - Exercise pumps blood, and therefore oxygen and glucose, to our brain; - Exercise releases neurotransmitters that can lower stress and help you feel happier; - These neurotransmitters also help in memory formation; - Having a break from constant studying can help the slower, problem solving, system of our brain to work subconsciously on tricky problems; - People who do more physical exercise tend to sleep better, which also helps with consolidating memories, cognitive function and mood. I know, however, that it's often hard to prioritise exercise for its own sake. When students are feeling overwhelmed by work, they and their parents can think that the answer is simply to work more. Sometimes it's better to take a break and do something physical rather than forcing yourself to work with diminishing returns. The 'Skills You Need' website has a great summary of the importance of exercise, not just for students but for everyone. https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/exercise.html

16.01.2022 Brilliant news!

13.01.2022 Sleep. I can't say I have it sorted out at all. Before Christmas, our Northern Beaches community went into forced isolation due to a rise in coronavirus cases, and my diurnal cycle shifted almost straight away to waking at 11 am and going to sleep at 3 am! Now it's nearly the start of a new term and I have to shift my cycle back again. So this is just a little anecdote to let you know I'm not the best at establishing healthy sleep-wake cycles that fit in with everyday life. N...evertheless, I'm trying to emphasise for my students that sleep is really important for learning. If you have 20 mins to spare, listen to Matthew Walker talking about sleep in this TED talk. And if you want to learn more, I highly recommend his book 'Why We Sleep'. It certainly made me think about prioritising sleep more than I have done over the past 20 to 30 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MuIMqhT8DM

11.01.2022 I love teaching private students. I find it rewarding seeing my students progress in their understanding and performance in maths or science. However, I'm not taking on any new tutorial students. I've had quite a few enquiries recently. I'm sorry to disappoint families who are looking for a tutor but I am busy enough with my current students, and with my own children. I'll post here when the situation changes.... Sam

10.01.2022 I'm posting this as a reminder to myself, as much as my followers! My youngest child is autistic and has ADHD and things go much worse when we focus on her weaknesses instead of her strengths. https://www.additudemag.com/positive-parenting-adhd-touchs/

07.01.2022 For Valentine's day I'm sharing this beautiful board book aimed at babies up to 5 year olds. Pictures include otters holding hands while sleeping, giraffes nuzzling and penguins warming eggs together, illustrating the many different forms that love can take and stating that "love is love wherever it's found." From Katy Tanis's website daughterearth.com: The sweet rhyming text in Mudpuppy's Love in the Wild Board Book highlights the many different types of love that can be f...ound in the animal kingdom! This colorful celebration of love is based on scientists' observations of same-sex couples, adoption, non-binary gender expression and more. Author-illustrator Katy Tanis is currently earning a MA in Biology from Miami University of Ohio. Her graduate work, partnering with the Wildlife Conservation Society, explores the promotion of conservation biology through art. https://booko.com.au/9780735368/Love-in-the-Wild-Board-Book

06.01.2022 Happy New Year to all my previous and current students, and followers of this page. I'm at home for the whole of January so please contact me if you want any catch-up or revision tutorials, in person or online, before term starts. I've been thinking a lot recently about how to help students whose brains don't work in a typical way. Personally, it has taken me a long time to accept some of the implications of my atypical brain. If I want to learn effectively, approaches that w...ork for other people won't necessarily work for me. Most of my students will probably feel the same way. At the moment, I'm trying to accept my tendency to hyperfocus on topics that I am interested in, and that 'study sessions' on these topics can go for several hours. Instead of deliberately interrupting my focus I'm just going with the flow, which can actually be quite productive. This goes against common advice to split up study sessions into small periods with breaks in between. However, the key to being able to hyperfocus is interest and motivation. There are some tasks on my to-do list that just fill me with dread. If I am not motivated to do them in the first place, I'm definitely not going to want to spend four hours doing them. So for those tasks I tell myself that I only have to do them for 10-20 minutes, and then I can reward myself with a (short) time doing something more enjoyable. With my students, I try to make my tutorials fun, so they don't have that same sinking feeling when they know they have a tutorial coming up. I also try to link maths and science to individual interests. If you would like to find out more about harnessing hyperfocus for productivity, this article on ADDitude mag is a good starting point: https://www.additudemag.com/sl/hyperfocus-for-productivity/ This talk by Lou Brown about motivation is also very useful, with a great explanation of the neurology of ADHD. I especially recommend it if you know or suspect that you, your child or your student has ADHD. I'm sure I've linked to it before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLqDwur_kmw 'How to ADHD' videos on YouTube are also very helpful, and shorter than Lou Brown's talk, so probably better if you don't have 45 mins plus to spare! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM0Xv0eVGtY How is everyone's studying going? Have you worked out how you study best and how to harness your own interests? Does anyone else have any study tips that work for them but seem to go against conventional wisdom?

06.01.2022 FREE STEM enrichment activities for gifted primary aged children. Let me know what you think of them. I just sent a huge reply to a friend asking about a Year 2 child who is advanced in maths, loves problem solving and is fascinated by science and engineering. I thought I could share my ideas with you here. These are all free resources. I'd love to know if you try them.... I know there are a growing number of online programs and in-person classes catering to this audience. There are also subscription boxes for science, engineering and design, national competitions in maths, science, computational thinking etc. and fiction and non-fiction books to inspire and challenge children in all areas of STEM. But there may be many reasons why your family can't use these. Instead, have a look at these completely free resources. Some require a lot of preparation on the part of the parent or teacher. Others are pretty much print-and-go. What do you think? Have you tried these already? Do your children enjoy them or not? Are there other resources you like that I have missed? (I'm sure I have!) Please comment below. MATHS: Try the Daily Math problem on BedtimeMath http://bedtimemath.org/category/daily-math/ Play maths games from nrich https://nrich.maths.org/9086 CHEMISTRY: A completely free and very comprehensive 'middle school' chemistry curriculum from the American Chemical Society, with loads of activities using household items. https://www.middleschoolchemistry.com/ ENGINEERING AND DESIGN: A huge searchable database of engineering lesson plans and activities https://www.teachengineering.org/ Challenge cards from the James Dyson Foundation https://www.jamesdysonfoundation.co.uk//challenge-cards.ht COMPUTER SCIENCE/ COMPUTER PROGRAMMING: 'Unplugged' activities to explore key concepts in computer science without using digital devices. https://csunplugged.org/en/ Free visual programming language developed by MIT https://scratch.mit.edu/ GENERAL: Crash Course and Crash Course Kids YouTube videos on pretty much any topic you can think of https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse/featured The Kid Should See This video clips for inquisitive minds https://thekidshouldseethis.com/ Free online courses in maths, science, economics and more on Kahn Academy https://www.khanacademy.org/signup

06.01.2022 I know many students are suffering with anxiety right now. I plan to write a blog post about this one day but I have my own issues with organisation and time management so I can't promise anything very soon. In the meantime, here's a helpful post from @mellow.doodles on Instagram. Other accounts I like to follow are @thelatestkate and Introvert Doodles. Big hugs to everyone. Please know that if you are struggling, you are not alone.