Mindful Ink     Life, Living and Productivity

Life Is Far Too Short To Drink Cheap Beer - 10 Ways To Maximize Your Beer Value - Personal Finance Advice

First, stop thinking of beer as a commodity. It’s not toilet paper, or screws, or an all-you-can-eat buffet. Stop thinking of beer in terms of the bland, yellow, fizzy beverages foisted on the American public by huge brewing conglomerates. Not just the big American brewers, who have spent countless marketing dollars convincing most of us that beer is supposed to be bland, yellow, and fizzy, but also their overseas counterparts who offer essentially the same product but use the additional marketing message that theirs is better because it’s imported.

I really couldn’t resist posting this. The editor wrote another article recently about saving money on beer, as well. As I know beer is something like a food group to students, it seems apt.

Personally, I’m not that fond of beer. I prefer wine, liquor and port. Now if someone would just show me how to get a good deal on that stuff!

MindfulInk has dealt with alcohol a bit before though, in our post: Drinking in College (Rules to Drink By)

An interesting video. HackCollege had a link to another video they (the producers of the other video I’m about to show, not HackCollege) produced which I’m not as fond of, but I found I enjoyed this quite a bit. I think students, we paragons of knowledge workers, certainly would do well to give some serious thought to what we know and what we don’t, how we know and how we organize it. This video starts the conversation.

Care of Digital Ethnography (updated for clarification)

The Physical and Mental Benefits of Daily Meditation | PickTheBrain

In a modern world that values activity, achievements and results, it is perhaps surprising that more people are turning to meditation. For all the activity of modern society, many still feel a fundamental need for silence, inner peace, and a moment of reflection. Meditation can reduce stress and help us relax; but, it can also give us a lot more. These are some of the benefits that daily meditation can give us.

I’ve actually been meaning to write a post about meditation for some time, and kind of skirted the subject a bit in my post about Stopping, but Tejvan Pettinger at PickTheBrain got there first and did an excellent job.  

Meditation sounds esoteric (and it can be!) but at its root it is simply about stilling the mind and regaining some focus.  I can personally attest that when I meditate, my mental life is better.  It can also be a bit trying until you’ve done it for a while, but if you’re interested - try to stick to it for at least a couple of weeks (15-30 minutes a day is pretty ideal.)

And if you do, let me know!  I’d love to hear how it goes.

Occasionally I get a request from teachers or professors about how they can help their students learn more.  I do have some rather, shall we say, strong feelings about this.

Teachers teach in different ways, students learn in different ways.  I do believe there are ways to help more students succeed with just a bit more help from the professors.

The key to this?  Putting notes up online or sending them out so the student can print them out before class.  Now why is this so handy?  Well, mainly, because a student who isn’t furiously writing down notes is going to (ideally) be paying attention more and making their own notes on the notes.

Now, how is this tricky?  Well, some students really do learn better by writing out the notes - personally, in trying to get everything written I rarely have time to think about it much so the print out method is best for me.  The good part about this technique, however, is students who do need to write out all the notes are still welcome, but those aural learners can focus more on the lecture and less on furiously writing.

The other drawback?  Some students may use the notes as an excuse not to go to class.  Well, first - I don’t believe that the lazy students should be setting the standards.  Also, the point of a class is not to punish a student for attending or not attending, but to educate and if a student misses a class he or she should absolutely be able to benefit from the notes.  Some professors forget this, unfortunately.

So what else can they do?

Clear goals, clear expectations.  If a student is going to be expected to know something, let them know they are to know it.  Playing hide and seek with what is expected is counterproductive.  A student cannot learn every bit offered in a course and should have some good idea of what should be focused on.  Generally, I feel this is best handled by some sort of review sheet given out at least a few days before any big exam, but also in the beginning of any new section.  Going to need to know the dates of every slide?  Fine, but let your students know ahead of time.

Now, all these things allow for a certain level of freeloader allowance.  All I can say is, so what?  Again, I don’t believe the lowest common denominator should be the basis.  This will help the students learn, not just succeed - and I’m pretty sure that’s kind of the point.  I can assure you, however, that some of the most challenging classes I’ve taken have provided these sorts of options - freeloaders won’t succeed here any better.

But, as I said - every professor and student is different and this is certainly not the only way to effectively teach; I think, like a student thinking about studying, a professor that spends some time thinking about teaching and learning is likely to do a much better job.