BUT, the best learning is when you find out stuff, not when you just get ‘told’ it !!

I find it utterly alarming, and much of it has to do with the teaching style – and I’m not trying to be rude to teachers – and the attitude towards ‘failure’ in this country, where young people are not allowed to fail or make mistakes and find out for themselves.
This country and many others are paralysed by fear. Afraid of ‘this’ or afraid of what they’ll think and even afraid of success !! (because, you can ONLY go downwards after !!! – that is how fearful people think).

•    The time when YOU learnt MOST in your life was not when everything went right !!! This is not a fact but it is the truth. It was when everything went wrong. That is REAL learning.
•    The time when you learnt most was not when someone told you something: it was when you asked, because you wanted to find out.
•    The time when you learnt most was when you were made to think, i.e. the teachers asked you a question – and you answered it.
•    The time when you learnt most was when you most readily engaged with the teacher and not necessarily the subject. They struck a balance between caring for you and stretching your mind. Why was I brilliant at French with one teacher and useless with another? Mmmm…
•    The time when you achieved most in your life was when you wanted to,NOT when ‘someone else wanted you to’. Let’s face it; mature students return to school and never muck about. They aren’t cleverer; they just want it more !!!

You notice that I am not going to tell you THE SOLUTION to our education problem – That would be too easy. I just want to ask the question !!!

Part of THE SOLUTION is in my 2 hour workshop for teachers called “How to get students to learn in the quickest easiest way”…
I could never be a teacher but I am a motivational speaker. My job is to enagage students and get them to learn some ‘life changing’ stuff – all in just 2 hours. I’ve now just applied all of that logic to helping teachers in the classroom.

I have neither the patience nor the knowledge to be a teacher; it’s a specialist thing. Teachers are amazing people, but they way they deliver their ‘learning’ is formulaic and lacking the most important quality – it doesn’t get students and kids to ‘think’ !!! It doesn’t get them to find out, make mistakes nor question. Teachers aren’t always the best at getting ‘buy-in’ from the students and engaging their minds. The way I do it shows you how to.

Giles Ennis (a cool science teacher) from Monks Dyke in Louth said
“I don’t want students to answer my questions – I want them to question my answers“.
This is genius, because what Giles is saying means that the pupils have to ‘think’ about it. Thinking and learning go hand in hand.

It’s this philosophy that means we’ve been 90% SOLD OUT for the last 3 months and 100% SOLD OUT for the next 6 weeks!!!

Competition – This is a good thing BUT it’s good to realise that it doesn’t work for all kids. The reality is, the only person who is truly motivated by competition is the person who thinks he/she has a chance of winning!

Rewards don’t always work either, especially if the child is having difficulty. All reward systems are based on the concept that the child CAN DO IT, but what if they just choose NOT TO. That’s great if you know they’re not really trying.

Punishment is not normally a very effective way because it takes the child’s favourite thing, whether it be a football or a skateboard, and takes it away from them when they’re bad. In the adult world, marriages can break up over sex or money, and because one spouse takes something that the other spouse wants and uses it to manipulate the other person. You’re basically saying “I’ll give it to you when you’re good, and I won’t when you’re bad.” So if it doesn’t work with adults, maybe it might not be all that effective with kids?

So, what do I do to motivate??

The NINE RULES I use to motivate students are inspired by the author Richard Lovoie.

1.   Play – Have fun, enjoy, enthuse and bring energy to the room. “No-one ever achieved anything without enthusiasm” Emerson
2.   Personal – School is about life.

• Indulge your students and listen to their stories.
• Indulge yourself – Share your stories with them… if it benefits them

3.    Provoke – Ask questions about life; ask questions about the topic – it gets them to think. It’s powerful when they get to see things through their own minds !
4.    Praise – Catch people doing things right. Be focused on praise BUT be specific and sincere. The praise should be focused on effort and improvement – this is always effective. We all need to feel good enough.
5.   Power – Let your students determine some of the agenda or make certain rules. This gets them feeling like they’re ‘in charge’ without you losing control.
6.    Projects – These are very powerful mechanisms for connecting different skills and knowledge and harnessing natural curiosity.
7.    Positive People – This gets them to learn quickly how to behave in a positive manner.
8.    Prizes – Rewards can be powerful when they are unannounced and not too familiar. Prizes can be as innocuous or as humorous as you like.
9.    Prestige – All children need to feel important – some more than others – so prestige and recognition are fundamental. Consistent encouragement and opportunities to showcase talent are important.

That’s it!

These techniques are NOT magic as you can see; they’re just ways of keeping people focused when their natural attention wanes. Overall, it’s incredibly powerful, it’s effective and…

…it’s a lot of fun.

This is the $64Million Question…

Teachers are constantly haranguing me for answers and it’s certainly given me cause for thought over the past few years.

I do NOT have THE answer but I do have some observations of what is different today, versus the ‘past’.

I know you can’t generalise, but I do believe that there have been some movements and trends throughout the years:

First…there are ONLY 2 motivating factors that us humans are driven by…

1. Avoiding Pain  – things we want to get away from
2. Seeking Pleasure  – getting more of things we want

ALSO, you need to know that ‘Avoiding Pain’ is a bigger motivator than seeking pleasure.

SO, what’s changed then?

My observation is that ‘many’ of the ‘AVOIDING PAIN’ motivators (which are so powerful) have either diminished or GONE altogether…

Factor 1 : Religion – going to ‘HELL’, used to be a big thing. Today it is not. Religious shame was a very powerful motivating force in the past to ‘make you do things’ – but, not now.

Factor 2 : ‘Victorian’ dad – this role has softened over the years as the children have taken on an ever bigger role in society and the ‘father figure’ diminished. There was once a time when the father of the house was someone to ‘fear’ if you stepped out of line, but this has changed.

Factor 3 : Corporal Punishment – ‘getting the cane’ was a big thing when I was at school; Mr Goodman (the scary deputy headteacher) was someone to be avoided at all costs. NOW you can’t ‘touch’ a child for fear of being sued and sacked from your post.

Factor 4 : Poverty – this is becoming a thing of the past. Most people have heating, lighting, water, clothes, food and all of the mod cons (phones, tv’s etc…). When I was a kid, this was not the case; we even had paraffin heaters and home-made beds/clothes. Life in general is loads easier. Heating, washing your clothes, cooking and cleaning your house is now cheaper and a whole lot faster.

Factor 5 : Personal Responsibility – in my view, I believe that kids do less ‘jobs’ than they used to. They have more leisure time and less chores. There is no responsibility placed upon young children in preparation for their future years. My own feeling is that ‘jobs’ are good; they help kids appreciate the ‘value’ of things.

Factor 6 : The Internet – the  dawn of the internet has now meant that kids can do less ‘thinking’ to complete tasks etc… this breeds laziness.

Factor 7 : Pressure from OFSTED and SATS - this pressure has meant that teachers want the results ‘more then the kids’ !!! How mad is that? In my view, we should let students ‘fail’ more often to help them understand the value of success.

Factor 8 : Grown-ups are too often giving answers rather than asking questions – this is a big factor that is largely misunderstood. You don’t have to ‘think’ when someone gives you an answer, but you do have to ‘think’ when you answer a question. The process of thinking is ‘learning’ and takes effort. Grown-ups are often poor listeners and poor questioners; this means that you ‘talk at them and tell them stuff’, rather than letting them find out for themselves.

That’s it. My 8 factors that have contributed massively to making students less motivated and ‘hungry’ than they used to be…

It’s the reason why I have a ‘career’… !!

When you think about it….

Whatever we do as students, or anybody for that matter, the idea of  a new year’s resolution is all about growth, and there’s only 2 areas that resolutions are ever focused on… FACT.

1. Growing your mind
2. Growing your body

That’s it…

So when people talk about being healthy, or making money, or seeing more of their family, or going out more, then you know it has something to do with one or both of these things.

OK. So to make life easy, I’ll give you 4 things to do that cost NO money at ALL that nutritionists and health experts tell me to do.

GROWING YOUR BODY – HELPING YOU TO LOOK AND FEEL GOOD

1. Sleep for 8 hours – WHY? Because sleep is the time when your body replenishes and rebuilds. This cannot be done in the gym or on the sofa !! 7 hours is not enough – FACT – even though you know someone who only has 6 hours per night and they seem fine etc… This is not about survival, this is about being at your best.

2. Chew your food – WHY? Your body’s energy levels are only as good as what they get from you. The body likes food that is as small as possible because it takes less work and energy for your body to process. The less energy it takes, the more it gives you! This means you won’t be tired at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and yawning !!!

3. Exercise for 30 minutes every day – WHY? Expending energy builds energy!! It also makes you FEEL good and look good, improving your confidence etc… This exercise, preferably aerobic but maybe just walking, whatever it is, will keep you in great shape physically and mentally.

4. Drink a small glass of water every hour – WHY? If Your body is depleted by water by just 2 % it will have 20% less power to concentrate. The reason you don’t notice is because you’re always dehydrated!! When you’re born you are 98% water, when you die < 50%!

GROWING YOUR MIND – DEVELOPING YOUR MIND AS WELL AS YOUR BODY

1. Say ‘WHY NOT?’ – WHY? People always say “Yes” or “No”, but this is a ‘closed minded approach’, because it means you’ve already decided. When you say “Why not?”, this lets things into your life and opens your outlook… It’s totally changed my world and allowed some MASSIVE opportunities to flourish.

2. Take a genuine interest in other people and say “Tell me more” – WHY? Let’s face it; you don’t have all of the answers, nobody ever does. But when you say “Tell Me More”, this way you get to find out loads of things for free and you’ll make more friends and more money ( I should know !!)

3. Accept what is and accept yourself… WHY? People normally try to be ‘Superman/Superwoman’. They want everything to be ‘just fine’ so they tell themselves that things are fine when they’re not and even pretend to others that this is the case.

4. Be honest with you and your friends. Learn to like ‘YOU’ for who you are. If you feel sad – be sad. If you’re happy – be happy. Let it out, express yourself, be honest with yourself and others – there is still a place for diplomacy !! – but stop trying to be someone you’re not. No-one has a perfect life. This doesn’t happen.

5. Avoid negative disempowering language – WHY? It makes you FEEL negative and negative people sap your energy. Turn everything you say into a positive. This is NOT about being cheesy or false. It’s about having fun and feeling good. Q. Do any negative observations seriously help anyone (aside from constructive feedback)? If you make people feel good, they’ll want to do the same with you and spend time with you !!! This is dead powerful. Avoid words like I hate, or I don’t like – it makes you and others FEEL negative.
E.g. “What I really like about Jon” vs “What I hate about him”, “What I really like about this” vs “What I really don’t like?”, “This could be good” vs “This is rubbish”.

These are some ideas I stole from a forum on the TES

“This is boring… !!”

1. “Yeah but, not as boring as detention…”
2. “Bored are you? let me check my ‘bovvered drawer’ (search in drawer) ‘nope, that’s empty”
3. “Good!”
4. “Maybe it is, but it needs to be finished by the end of the lesson so that you can go out to break.”
5. “Then make sure you learn it thoroughly…it’ll be even more boring if you have to revise it for a resit”!
6. “I didn’t realise you like me so much. Four lessons a week isn’t enough for you but hey, if you want to make it five during your lunch break, then I guess there’s not a lot I can do about it except be flattered”
7. “Nope…..YOU are bored. There’s a difference.”
8. “What is that hideous noise? … Oh it’s you.”
9. “I’m sure you’re trying to tell me something, but I’m not sure what.”
10. “What has 2 thumbs and doesn’t give a crap? (gestures at self with both thumbs and a smile !)

DON’T BELIEVE WHAT PEOPLE TELL YOU…. AND DO YOUR OWN THING!

Some teachers told me with ‘The Big Picture’ …

1. You’ll have nothing to talk about !!
2. You can’t charge schools money for what you do
3. You’ll never work with more than a classroom of students at a time

BUT, it’s funny because…

1. I’ve now got 5 different talks all lasting 2 hours including The Big Picture, The Big Picture Pt II, The Big Leap & Pt II and also The Bigger Picture
2. I do charge schools for what I do even though it started out being FREE
3. I now work with up to 350 students at a time

Then it got even better. They told me…

1. You won’t be able to make what you do long lasting
2. You won’t get schools to repeat buy what you do
3. The students will soon get bored of what you do

Well…

1. The material and learning we have goes throughout the whole year. We have PSHE material that develops students in the form of lesson plans and school assemblies that teachers use all year round.
2. Schools are not only repeat buying but they’re also investing in multiple year groups al at once. They hire us for Year 7’s, 10’s and 11’s all at once and then follow up with Year 8’s, 9’s and 6th Formers. We have nearly 40 schools that have committed to multiple year groups this year alone. Last year it was ZERO !!!
3. The students are following ‘The Big Picture’ in growing numbers. We now have nearly 1700 members of ‘The Big Picture Keith Warren” and also have a new group formed (BUT NOT by me) it’s called the “Keith Warren has been to my school” !!!

So, what’s next in 2010 ?

* Target numbers of schools x 225
* More FREE teaching resources for schools
* Edit and publish the 3 books that I’ve written
* Run a Big Picture festival in Stockport with 100’s of students
* Develop the Facebook page to 7000 students !!
* Film inspirational advice for students about careers to go onto YouTube
* Load up inspirational films and quotes to help students get focused
* Personality profiling to help students learn more about themselves
* Managing Money – A program for students AND “How to make a $Million Quid?”

Dermot Gunn (a relative of a Deputy Headteacher I recently met) said …

“Unfortunately, children have to make the biggest decision of their life when they’re least capable to do so…”

I stumbled across an article talking about American students views on higher education and their ability to complete their course of education. You can find it at http://www.publicagenda.org/theirwholelivesaheadofthem

It made some interesting observations, specifically that 45% of the students in the USA worked longer than 20 hours per week whilst studying.

The study suggested that students leave school because the stress of work and study becomes too much as they put ‘themselves’ through school.

My interest though was focused on a couple of questions in the study…

The First Question

The question in the survey said “Did you always know that you were going to continue onto higher education?” This is essentially a question of their self belief…

• 67% of those that eventually DID NOT graduate said “YES – they did always know”
• 83% of those that DID eventually graduate said “YES – they did always know”.

This means that a significant percentage of students genuinely ‘believed’ that they could and would make it to the next level.

The Second Question

“My teacher in high school probably thought I would go onto higher education”

• 68% of teachers said YES about those students that eventually DID not graduate
• 83% of teachers said YES about those students that DID go on to graduate

The measurement is all about what they ‘probably thought’ and therefore it’s all about ‘belief’ and certainty that the student is going to do something…

You can NEVER prove that they will, or won’t, but to me the level of ‘belief’ is the biggest measure of anything…

Let’s face it, life is tough, it will require mammoth sacrifices and it is your level of belief that gets people to succeed.

I’ll make a small bet that the time that YOU achieved most in your life was not when you were necessarily rich or poor, it was just when you most wanted to !!

We can all find examples of the most fortunate students that did ‘make it’ and equally there are the examples of students who have ‘made it’ from seemingly nothing.

Henry Ford said:

“If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re probably right”.

Life is all about desire and ambition and achieving your potential.

This is what we focus on with www.thebigpicture.eu.com

Let’s face it…. You can’t monitor them and you can’t badger them… they have to badger themselves!!!

What do I mean?

Well, firstly, do you think that really successful people have a vision or absolutely no idea what they want?

So, let’s assume that they did have a vision, you know that this is the truth.

You can be sure, that the time when you achieved most in your life was when you wanted something the most. It stands to reason.

This following exercise with your students takes just 15 minutes, it’s also very powerful and effective…

This is an exercise for them to complete with themselves. It’s not for you to mark or check or validate in any way. It’s about them managing themselves and their own mind.

You say to your students:

1. “What’s an important thing for you to do over christmas? (typical answers – going out, doing nothing, having fun or seeing friends etc….)”
2. ” Similarly, what’s important to you in the next year? (Holiday, exams, money etc…)”
3. “What’s important to you in the next 10 years? (job, house, family etc…)”

They write something down… under each of these headings (this is already a good start). If they try to be clever then they’ll say “nothing – I don’t want anything”. You say “That’s ok, you’ve achieved your dream in life then, because you’ve already got nothing !!”

1. “Which one of the three things (this month, this year or the next 10 years) is the most important to you today?”
2. “Which of these things will be the most important thing to you when you’re 70 years old?”

“Let’s face it, you want to achieve all 3 things right? (I mean, who wouldn’t?) “

• So, taking each section (NOW, this year, 10 years) one at a time; ask these 2 questions…

1. “What would be the most useful thing that you could you do NOW that will help you achieve all 3 things?”
2. “What would NOT be useful and would prevent you from doing these 3 things?”

This WILL get your students to think clearly about what they really want to do today for today… and also what they might have to think about or do today for tomorrow. Although they may ‘decide’ not to complete the whole thing; it doesn’t mean they haven’t thought about it.

Powerful stuff.

Why does this not surprise me; because knowing what I know about government organisations (I used to run Sheffield school dinners for the local authority for 5 years), I ‘could’ totally believe their interest in the latest gimmicks and fads within schools. I could also believe that they lose the sense of context and the reality of what they were designed to do in the first place.  This is a little harsh, but I agree with the author, it’s definitely true for me.

The article quotes…

“School shatters your dreams before you get anywhere.” – It’ hard for me to disagree with this when I see the students body language in the workshops I run, they look disinterested and not ‘bovvered’ before we’ve even started. I know that their aspirations are determined to a large degree by their parents and their environment. The problem for me, is that many of them seem to have ‘given up’ so soon !!!

It also quotes…

“Ofsted is subject to political pressure. The emphasis is on what makes the government look good rather than what might benefit pupils”. I can easily believe that this point is true. NOT being a teacher, I don’t know, but I can believe that there are so many new initiatives to contend with. My experience of government/local authorities is that they are very risk averse and are very good at ‘covering their back-sides’, rather than necessarily benefiting the students. Show me a ‘brave’ local authority !!!

For me I feel very fortunate because I don’t have anybody to answer to, I just get to talk about stuff that benefits and changes the lives of students.

My view is that if at the same time ‘it happens’ to fit in with the curriculum (SEAL, PSHE and Every Child Matters), then great, if NOT….  I’m not bovvered !!

There is no ‘political agenda’ with what we do, all we’re interested in is harnessing the ‘dreams of young people’. Everything we do directly benefits the pupil irrespective of whether it looks good or not !!

I’m sure that Cedric (the boy featured in the article) does possess considerable talent, but the BIG question is whether or not the education system or Cedric will ever get to find out !!!

It’s a bit political and a bit Ben Elton !!    and I like it…

The answer of course is

‘you wouldn’t…!’, ‘you wouldn’t do anything unless you had a reason to do it…’

Seriously,

• You wouldn’t get dressed unless you had somewhere to go
• You wouldn’t eat your dinner unless you were hungry and … equally
• You wouldn’t get into a taxi just for the view !!! That would seem mad !!

BUT, people get transfixed by what they want to DO and less of who they want to BE. I‘ll explain.

ONE simple FACT

Most people don’t know what they want to do when they leave school. Most of us grown-ups don’t even know what we want to do and we’ve been around loads longer !!

BUT, I bet you know who you want to  BE….

ANOTHER simple FACT

People know who they want to BE…

People always have a vision about what they aspire to look like, behave, holiday, friends, hairstyle etc…. it’s perfectly normal.

So, for me it was simple…

1. I wanted to be successful
2. I wanted to look good
3. I wanted to have a nice car
4. I wanted to own a house
5. I wanted to be married
6. I wanted to have kids
7. I wanted to look have fun
8. I wanted to go on expensive holidays

NOW, whilst some of these things are not quite so TRUE today (I didn’t even mention my health), they were then…

And, when you know who you want to be then you normally have some clarity about what it is that you need to do to get there….

For example, I can still easily BE all of the above whether I’m a doctor or an accountant or a business owner. The point being that just because your job changes (what you do), you can still achieve your ambitions doing something else (what you want to be).

ONE more simple FACT

People change their minds !!

This is normal – who doesn’t change their mind in their life, we all do. I did and I’m sure you did too. What is good for you at the age of 16 is unlikely to good for you at 36.

So, planning for the future is actually straight forward enough if you focus on who you want to be and less what you want to do….