Back to basics

Time to reset

You know what happens when you clear the cache of your phone apps? It frees up a shitload of space for starters. I do this on a semi-regular basis, but 1.8 GB of cached data had accumulated, nonetheless. Another thing that happens is that when you want to share something with a friend, they no longer show up first when you hit share. It’s like having to teach your phone your preferences all over again. I enjoyed when this happened this morning. A total reset.

I also went for a couple of early morning hikes on Friday and Saturday. A good way to recalibrate. Is “early morning” an important part of that? I don’t know. It works for me. It works for me because my mind is fresh. It works for me because there are fewer people around. It works for me because I do like that early morning solitude. It works for me because at this time of year the birds are very active and seem to sing just for me. It works for me because nature seems at rest and is just waking up.

It works for me.

I made relive videos of those two hikes. You can find them on my YouTube channel. The weather was a bit moody and there seemed to be some Sahara dust in the air. Despite that walking was a great way to get clarity on things. To get back to basics. Just me and my backpack. And that app on my phone I make the videos with 😉.

Some thoughts on EMDR

It’s difficult to explain what EMDR does. I think reprocessing memories would be the easiest way of putting it. It’s also about acknowledging those memories and the feelings associated with them. That’s the starting point of everything. Acknowledgment. There is no healing without that. Anyway, you take that memory and your associated feelings/thoughts, and you change them into something empowering. Your entire mindset shifts at that point.

For me a lot of it had to do with realizing that for a four-year old my actions were freaking epic. I was way ahead of the curve. And the adults telling me there was something wrong with me or that I’d done something wrong were the ones that had fallen behind.

This is also a way to get back to basics. Question everything you thought about yourself as a child and most likely still think about yourself today. Question everything people told you about yourself. Question every single label you’ve been given. Question your choices – not in terms of right or wrong, but in terms of if they really were YOUR choices or ones dictated by society, friends or family. And boy do I have many of those. Not too late to get back to basics and take a different route. Never too late.

New media in the classroom – the opposite of “back to basics”

I might not fully open this can of worms, but maybe just pop the lid open to let some light in. What we have to ask ourselves in this context is – what are the benefits of new media in the classroom? Where do they make education better, easier, more enjoyable, improve learning progress etc.? And where are they not helpful at all.

Currently, it feels like all new media have to be brought into the classroom immediately. What we forget is that sometimes they might hinder learning. Sometimes the target audience is the wrong one. If your target audience is not very tech savvy and prefers to work with their hands or with real people, don’t put them into a room full of computers, virtual reality applications or other intimidating things and tell them that’s how they need to learn their skills from now on. That makes no sense whatsoever.

We all learn differently, and new media should not be another way of telling us we’re learning the wrong way. For me learning how to plant e.g. vegetables needs to involve actually getting my hands dirty and feeling the dirt and then the water on my skin. I don’t see the benefit of doing this on my living room floor wearing VR glasses.

More on that some other time, I don’t want those proverbial worms all over the place.

This is so basic, but it has to be said

If we’re put in a situation where we literally have hours to figure out how to do something and then we manage to actually pull it off, what do you think we learned in that situation? A new skill? Nope! We learned how to figure it out enough to make it work in a very short time. If we’re asked to do it again, we’ll start from scratch.

This is not where or how growth happens. So far from it. And again, this is really basic! Growth happens when we empower people, when we give them the relevant tools, the relevant training. Growth happens when people get to apply what they learned, feel good about it and have the confidence to push it a bit further to see what’s possible. It’s the very basics of learning.

Getting a bit frustrated with Word telling me “More concise language would be clearer for your reader” and marking the words “actually”, “really”, “very” and “pretty”. I’m trying to make a freaking point here, Word. Sometimes emphasis is needed.

This is another example. We’re not told “well written” for the rest of the 1000 words. Nope! But there are four instances where your language could be more concise. Leave me alone!

It’s not just Word. We all do this. It’s how our brains have been trained. Especially us teachers have a tendency to spot mistakes – not our own writing, mind you. Being this deficit-oriented is not good for us.

Before this grows into a full-on rant, let’s remember the most basic of things: kindness. Kindness doesn’t cost anything, and it can change a life. Especially kindness towards ourselves.

Kindness: it’s simple. It’s basic. It matters.

That’s it.