Welcome to Monday Email #20
Welcome back to the first Monday Email after the Summer break. I hope everyone is well-rested and good to go. Straight into the deep-end here with a free eBook to download, some interesting new lego for the blind and visually impaired and a final thought from Sir Ken Robinson (RIP).
One Strategy for Behaviour
I wrote an eBook over the summer. I have no doubt there will be children returning to school this week and next week that will have minor anxieties about coming back. I have no doubt there will be adults coming in with similar feelings.
The eBook is a short read and provides lots of actionable strategies and food for thought.
Download the book by clicking here.
It can be read as a PDF, it can be put on your Kindle or it can be downloaded and printed out. If you find ideas or strategies in there that you like, I'd appreciate some feedback. You could click reply to this e-mail to let me know or private message me on instagram, twitter or facebook.
Please feel free to share far and wide whether it is through email, instagram stories, tweets or printing it out and passing it around.
One Strategy for Inclusion
I read about a really cool concept this week that I loved the idea of. I read about Lego Braille Bricks.
"The LEGO® Braille Bricks concept is a play-based methodology that teaches braille to children who are blind or have a visual impairment.
Each brick in the LEGO® Braille Bricks toolkit retains its iconic form, but unlike a regular LEGO® brick, the studs are arranged to correspond to numbers and letters in the Braille alphabet. Each brick shows the printed version of the symbol or letter, allowing sighted and blind children to play and learn together on equal terms. This ingenious combination of features opens up a whole new world of playful learning that teaches children Braille in an enjoyable and tactile environment.
With thousands of audiobooks and computer programs on the market today, fewer young people are learning Braille. Yet, individuals with blindness or impaired vision all over the world rely on Braille to work, study and enjoy their daily lives to the fullest. This simplistic but highly practical educational tool will teach a range of skills needed to thrive."
I thought this was a brilliant idea.
You can read more here.
One Thought
Sir Ken Robinson passed away in the past week. I would imagine lots of people reading this would know who he is. He was a creativity expert who challenged the way we educate children. I remember being shown his videos in college and I have always watched and rewatched any of his content since. I only recently finished his book The Element which I would highly recommend.
I still remember the first video I watched and where I was when I watched it (link here).
For today's email, I'm going to let Sir Ken provide the thought:
"Our children are living in the most intensely stimulating period in the history of the earth. They’re being besieged with information and coerced for attention from every platform: computers, from iPhones, from advertising hoardings, from hundreds of television channels. And we’re penalizing them now for getting distracted.
From what?
Boring stuff.
At school, for the most part. It seems to me not a coincidence, totally, that the instance of ADHD has risen in parallel with the growth of the standardized testing. Now, these kids are being given Ritalin and Adderall and all manner of things, often quite dangerous drugs, to get them focused and calm them down."
Rest in Peace.
If you have read to this point, you must have found something of note here. I'd appreciate you sharing this email or the contents of it by screenshots, forwarding, social media or any means necessary and send people to www.behaviour101.com to get their own. Thanks for the support.
Behave yourself,
Barry
P.S I have recently launched a course for teachers in New South Wales, Australia. The course is fully accredited and contributes 2 hours to their NESA registered professional development.
If you know any teachers in Sydney or anywhere in New South Wales, I would massively appreciate you sending them the link.
Link: https://tpd.edu.au/product/social-emotional-behavioural-difficulties-101-taking-a-problem-solving-approach-online/
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