HOW TO MOTIVATE MY GIRL TO PUT IN MORE EFFORT IN HER STUDIES

[Melodies]

Yo, good stuffs n look forward to.... :rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah:

:thankyou:

Chenonceau:

Life Skills Learnt Through Project Work
- Powerpoint skills
- Presentation skills
- Info search skills
- Evaluate reliability of knowledge
- Divergent thinking (see definition here -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divergent_thinking) because
- Many others...

Designing a study process for projects is not too different than designing a process for drilling. One has to...
(1) break up the project into skills sets
(2) break up the skills sets into discrete behaviors and train each behavior
(3) put them altogether

Break Things Up
You can't expect to teach all the skills in project work all at once so ya gotta break things up and focus on one area at a time.

Focus on Powerpoint Skills
I use a lot of Powerpoint in the course of my work. I love creating Powerpoint presentations and when DD was in primary school, she saw me messing around with animations and exclaimed, This is not work! This is play!\" DD became quite nifty with Powerpoint and now far surpasses me in skill with design and animation.

When it came to DS' turn, I thought it useful to teach him a few tricks and then I asked him to make a Powerpoint \"movie\" with animation. Content wasn't important, I wanted to see him mess with all the animation features of Powerpoint. The focus was Powerpoint skills. He spent a few weekends on his \"movie\". He was in P2 I think. It was quite an awful movie but it made sense to him and gave him satisfaction when we all stood around and watched it. No one except him really understood what was going on. But who cares, right?

Focus on Info Search Skills
In P3, he kept asking me obscure Science stuff he picked up from I dunno where. I taught him how to google... then I just made time to listen to him teach me without yawning too much.


To be continued tomorrow...

[Chenonceau]

Focus on Info Search Skills

In P3, he kept asking me obscure Science stuff he picked up from I dunno where. I taught him how to google... then I just made time to listen to him teach me without yawning too much.

Info search skills can be broken up into the following sub-skills...
(1) Keyword search
(2) Fact triangulation
(3) Source reliability

I started DS on keyword search. I gave some guidelines such as (a) always add the words \"kids' science\" to prevent all the cheem research papers from surfacing in the search (b) brainstorm synonyms. I gave positive examples by proposing a variety of keywords and then let him search... very naturally, he began to propose his own keywords and I endorsed them. Not long after, he could search without guidance.

Of course, some searches threw up porn and stuff... but well, there is no privacy in this family. No door is locked, not even mine... and in the beginning, I was around during his searches and whenever we came across objectionable material, it was an opportunity to view it and talk about our values.

After that, I introduced the notion of competing hypothesis and just because one site documents a fact to be true doesn't mean it is. I encouraged him to search for opposing views to see if he could find them. We discussed the contradictions and this gave me the opportunity to introduce reliable sources VS unreliable sources... first hand accounts... experimental results... rigour of the experiment... research rigor... 2nd hand accounts. Before we visited the Pompeii Exhibition at The Art Science Museum, he did some pre-reading on Pompeii. We discussed the writings of Josephus and he learnt that the Josephus account of Masada and Pompeii had to be taken with a pinch of salt because they weren't first hand accounts.

I taught him to triangulate \"findings\". If a single perspective documents it, it may not be true. If 2 \"opposing\" perspectives document it then it is more likely true. Let me give an example. If PARENTS (who view tuition negatively) assert that teachers have no time to mark homework, it is possible that parents have too high expectations of teachers. However, if one can find a documented perspective of the PRIVATE TUTOR who argues that parents should view tuition positively because tutors do the important job of marking homework that teachers have no time to mark, then the notion that teachers have no time to mark homework is corroborated by 2 opposing perspectives.

This makes for greater reliability and one can be more confident that in effect, teachers in our primary schools sometimes give homework that they have no time to mark.

Now... IF a teacher writes into The Straits Times and complains that admin load eats up so much time that he/she has little time to teach and mark homework, then we can be even more confident that teachers have no time to mark homework because we have triangulation (i.e., 3 perspectives corroborate a single fact).

Triangulation is a critical skill for self-learning because not everything you google is true. It is also a good life skill. I designed and built an entire house by myself from foundation up and I could not have known how to do it if I didn't know how to triangulate the perspectives of internet, BCA regulations, architect perspective, structural engineer perspective, contractor perspective. If only the contractor says something is true, he is lying. If only the architect says something is true, he is also lying. In this way, I was able to see my way through the dark and murky paths in the process of house construction.

In other words, hear from as many perspectives as possible before you decide. Teaching DS how to triangulate meant that he could independently google Science material without me having to learn his syllabus. I taught him how to learn... I didn't have to learn it and then teach him.'

I taught him about source reliability too. If it's Wiki, hmmmm... maybe OK (for primary school). If it's anything other than Wiki... well errrr... alarm bells should ring. If it is a dedicated Kids' Science website, good.... but if it's someone's blog then better check out that person's credentials or triangulate.

Lastly, learning to synthesize opposing perspectives, see communalities and reconcile differences is another critical thinking skill... which thankfully, PSLE 2012 has not yet thought of testing. But ummmm... I can see it already in 2015's English PSLE format.

To be cont'd....

[Melodies]

Thank you for taking time to put all together!

I'm :yikes: to read the highlighted part. :nailbite: :imconstipated:
船到桥头自然直！

Chenonceau:

Focus on Info Search Skills
In P3, he kept asking me obscure Science stuff he picked up from I dunno where. I taught him how to google... then I just made time to listen to him teach me without yawning too much.

Info search skills can be broken up into the following sub-skills...
(1) Keyword search
(2) Fact triangulation
(3) Source reliability

I started DS on keyword search. I gave some guidelines such as (a) always add the words \"kids' science\" to prevent all the cheem research papers from surfacing in the search (b) brainstorm synonyms. I gave positive examples by proposing a variety of keywords and then let him search... very naturally, he began to propose his own keywords and I endorsed them. Not long after, he could search without guidance.

Of course, some searches threw up porn and stuff... but well, there is no privacy in this family. No door is locked, not even mine... and in the beginning, I was around during his searches and whenever we came across objectionable material, it was an opportunity to view it and talk about our values.

After that, I introduced the notion of competing hypothesis and just because one site documents a fact to be true doesn't mean it is. I encouraged him to search for opposing views to see if he could find them. We discussed the contradictions and this gave me the opportunity to introduce reliable sources VS unreliable sources... first hand accounts... experimental results... rigour of the experiment... research rigor... 2nd hand accounts. Before we visited the Pompeii Exhibition at The Art Science Museum, he did some pre-reading on Pompeii. We discussed the writings of Josephus and he learnt that the Josephus account of Masada and Pompeii had to be taken with a pinch of salt because they weren't first hand accounts.

I taught him to triangulate \"findings\". If a single perspective documents it, it may not be true. If 2 \"opposing\" perspectives document it then it is more likely true. Let me give an example. If PARENTS (who view tuition negatively) assert that teachers have no time to mark homework, it is possible that parents have too high expectations of teachers. However, if one can find a documented perspective of the PRIVATE TUTOR who argues that parents should view tuition positively because tutors do the important job of marking homework that teachers have no time to mark, then the notion that teachers have no time to mark homework is corroborated by 2 opposing perspectives.

This makes for greater reliability and one can be more confident that in effect, teachers in our primary schools sometimes give homework that they have no time to mark.

Now... IF a teacher writes into The Straits Times and complains that admin load eats up so much time that he/she has little time to teach and mark homework, then we can be even more confident that teachers have no time to mark homework because we have triangulation (i.e., 3 perspectives corroborate a single fact).

Triangulation is a critical skill for self-learning because not everything you google is true. It is also a good life skill. I designed and built an entire house by myself from foundation up and I could not have known how to do it if I didn't know how to triangulate the perspectives of internet, BCA regulations, architect perspective, structural engineer perspective, contractor perspective. If only the contractor says something is true, he is lying. If only the architect says something is true, he is also lying. In this way, I was able to see my way through the dark and murky paths in the process of house construction.

In other words, hear from as many perspectives as possible before you decide. Teaching DS how to triangulate meant that he could independently google Science material without me having to learn his syllabus. I taught him how to learn... I didn't have to learn it and then teach him.'

I taught him about source reliability too. If it's Wiki, hmmmm... maybe OK (for primary school). If it's anything other than Wiki... well errrr... alarm bells should ring. If it is a dedicated Kids' Science website, good.... but if it's someone's blog then better check out that person's credentials or triangulate.

Lastly, learning to synthesize opposing perspectives, see communalities and reconcile differences is another critical thinking skill... which thankfully, PSLE 2012 has not yet thought of testing. But ummmm... I can see it already in 2015's English PSLE format.

To be cont'd....

[Chenonceau]

This is probably the stupidest post I can ever write since after reading this, fewer people will buy Petunia's Book but I am too happy to care!! Whilst waiting for the dry cleaner to finish lunch, I went and checked out Petunia's Book in the library upstairs.


EVERY SINGLE copy has either been borrowed OR reserved OR transit to reservation. I am sooooooooooo happy. Sooooooooo happy! Soooooooo happy!


http://i45.tinypic.com/30u4vp3.jpg\">

[Nebbermind]

Happy for you too!! :imcool:

[Sun_2010]

Chenonceau:

This is probably the stupidest post I can ever write since after reading this, fewer people will buy Petunia's Book but I am too happy to care!! Whilst waiting for the dry cleaner to finish lunch, I went and checked out Petunia's Book in the library upstairs.


EVERY SINGLE copy has either been borrowed OR reserved OR transit to reservation. I am sooooooooooo happy. Sooooooooo happy! Soooooooo happy!

:snuggles: So happy for you. the book is worth it.

Let me share that DD read your book before I could finish it.
And she often show her superiority by giving me advise on how to handle DS and how i am doing it wrong and quotes you to prove that she is right like always. :faint:

I, being the adult, camly thank her tell her how she should keep her advise to herself and implement it on her kids and let me handle mine . :spank:

Also wanted to say that I have also grown to love the illustrations, at first they were like nice, but the more I saw them as I read , the more they seem alive.

Wonderful book!

[schweppes]

:congrats: Chen, very happy for you!! :salute:

[Chenonceau]

Nebbermind:

Happy for you too!! :imcool:

Nebbermind... thank you. I really really really appreciate this short note from you to share in my joy.

The joy I felt when the screen first appeared was indescribable. I felt happier than on my wedding day ... I guess I did not expect the NLB search results to look like that. I had quite forgotten that the NLB search results report Book Status too.

I actually went and grabbed a hapless librarian and then I jumped up and down... and squealed at her. She thought I was quite mad at first and then... bless her kind soul... she squealed with me and she went and got her librarian friends to squeal with us. We must have looked very stupid in the library.

Unfortunately errrr... as expected... book orders went down sharply yesterday. Sob! :moneyflies: :moneyflies: :moneyflies:

[Nebbermind]

Must also motivate you mah!!


But really...u so drama one har!!!

[zebrafish]

Hi Chen


I enjoyed reading your book. Very pleasant reading.

I'm now trying to implement some of the strategies on my DD and hope that it is not too late as she is in P4 this year.

Will reread the book again to get a better feel of the strategies. Thank you!! :thankyou: