Goal Setting- Why it matters.......and how to do it

Is goal setting a good idea? Properly learnt and managed, yes, absolutely! Knowing how to set and achieve goals is a life skill that many people never make the most of. Make sure you learn this well as, it is a valuable skill for managing time and life.

WHY?

-Goal setting students are more likely to focus on what they want and less on what they don't.
-You will learn how to plan, prioritize and produce to get the results you want.
-You will learn the importance of persistance, making it easy for you to have the ability to be persistant when reaching to achieve your goals.
-Whether you achieve the goal or not, you would have learnt to take 100% responsibility for every outcome of your actions.
-Goal setting and achievement creates confidence, raises self esteem and leads to a real sense of satisfaction.
-It will create challenges to overcome, and opportunities to learn and grow by tackling them.

HOW?
Six tips to take that will really improve the quality of your goal setting

-START SMALL. Keep goal setting sweet and simple. Long term, conceptual goals can be tackled with time and experience of personal goal setting.
-OWN IT. Make sure your goals really are your own and no one else's.
-KNOWING WHY YOU WANT IT. Motivation starts goals, whereas persistance is usually what finishes them. Both can be built if you have a compelling reason for why you want something. To help you understand this, write a list of reasons for your goals.
-GET SMART. A short term goal is more likely to be achieved if it is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound.
-WRITE GOALS DOWN. Writing it down is the best and most effective way of remembering what exactly you are aiming for. Write, read and review each day, this will help you keep your goals in mind.
-GET SUPPORT. Have someone you trust there to encourage you when your goals seem to hard.

Starting your own Book Club

The first step to organizing a book club is to nail down the details. You don't want the club to be too small or too large, so limit the number of participants to about 12 or so. Once you have a twelve interested peers, you'll have to decide how often the group will meet and where. Monthly meetings are frequent enough to keep all the members involved, and it gives them plenty of time to read the book selected. The meetings could be bi-monthly, depending on the participants and their schedules. Selecting a meeting place for the book club may be a challenge. You probably don't want your home to be the exclusive meeting spot, so think about asking other parents if they're willing to host a meeting. Other meeting locations could be the local library, a local recreation center, a nearby church, or your school. The meetings themselves should be organized by the members, and you might want to recommend that the meetings last about an hour and a half. So the members have about 30 minutes to discuss the book, 30 minutes to eat and enjoy each other's company, and 30 minutes to go over any book club business, such as selecting next month's selection.

Listening in class

It is important for you to be a good listener in class. Much of what you will have to learn will be presented verbally by your teachers. Just hearing what your teachers say is not the same as listening to what they say. Listening is a cognitive act that requires you to pay attention and think about and mentally process what you hear. Here are some things you should do to be a good listener in class.

• Be Cognitively Ready to Listen When You Come to Class. Make sure you complete all assigned work and readings. Review your notes from previous class sessions. Think about what you know about the topic that will be covered in class that day.
• Be Emotionally Ready to Listen When You Come to Class. Your attitude is important. Make a conscious choice to find the topic useful and interesting. Be committed to learning all that you can.
• Listen with a Purpose. Identify what you expect and hope to learn from the class session. Listen for these things as your teacher talks.
• Listen with an Open Mind. Be receptive to what your teacher says. It is good to question what is said as long as you remain open to points of view other than your own.
• Be Attentive. Focus on what your teacher is saying. Try not to daydream and let your mind wander to other things. It helps to sit in the front and center of the class, and to maintain eye contact with your teacher.

• Be an Active Listener. You can think faster than your teacher can speak. Use this to your advantage by evaluating what is being said and trying to anticipate what will be said next. Take good written notes about what your teacher says. While you can think faster than your teacher can speak, you cannot write faster than your teacher can speak.Taking notes requires you to make decisions about what to write, and you have to be an active listener to do this.
• Meet the Challenge. Don't give up and stop listening when you find the information being presented difficult to understand. Listen even more carefully at these times and work hard to understand what is being said. Don't be reluctant to ask questions.
• Triumph Over the Environment. The classroom may too noisy, too hot, too cold, too bright, or too dark. Don't give in to these inconveniences. Stay focused on the big picture - LEARNING.

 For more tips
www.how-to-study.com

Don’t Let Anyone Tell You You Can’t Do Something

Everyday we go to school we are faced with challenges inside ant outside the bounds of the classroom that it often becomes overwhelming. We've discussed many things on this page but we've never discussed the potential each one of us possesses, this is because our potential is insurmountable. Often we forget that we are smarter, stronger and more capable than what we are allowing ourselves to believe.

 Below please find a piece posted in Personal development by Ilka Flood. this piece serves as that reminder of the strength you posses and your ability to acquire knowledge against all odds.

If you want something bad enough … go get it!

When I was in grade school in Germany I wanted to take an English language class that was offered as an extra curriculum class. (Back then English and French weren’t part of the curriculum like they are now.) The Beatles just started to get real popular and I wanted to understand what they were singing. Since I had to have the permission of my teacher to take that class I went to ask her if she would allow me to go. Here’s what she told me, “Ilka,” she said, “I’m sorry but I can’t give you permission to take that class. Your grades in German are so bad you will never make it. You’ll never learn English. You can’t even speak German properly.” (Well, who at the age of 10 really does?)

I was crushed. Twice a week my friends would take “Walter & Connie” classes and I couldn’t go with them. So I saved up the money for the audio lessons – they came in the old 45 records back then – and taught myself. After I had the basics down I started translating Beatles songs with the help of a dictionary. And after that, I bought every English language book I could find in the bookstores of my hometown. I looked up the words I didn’t know in my dictionary and just kept going.  With each and every book I got better. That teacher couldn’t stop me. I was bound and determined to learn English … and I did! What’s funny is, that years later when I met my husband (he was stationed in my hometown), he had me spell-check his letters to his mom before he mailed them home.

An open letter to Judge Edwin Cameron from Spud

South African author John van de Ruit's book Spud changed the fiction publishing in South Africa. Many of you may have read this book and even more of you may have seen the movie.

 After Constitutional court Judge Edwin Cameron wrote a letter to Spud-the movie's producer, Ross Garland, would you believe it, Spud, the actual character from the book wrote a response to the Judge.

Dear Justice Cameron

I have never written to a judge before and I must admit that I am rather nervous about doing so, especially to one as decorated and widely respected as you. Wombat, my grandmother, forbade me to respond to your open letter to Ross Garland and the subsequent newspaper reports because she said if I made a cock-up or any silly spelling mistakes you could get me hanged. (I think it’s now only Wombat left who thinks the death penalty is still in operation here.)

Unfortunately, I then saw the headline of the Daily News: “Spud endangers gays – Judge”
The article was faxed to me by a triumphant Boggo eight seconds after it was published. Boggo clearly hadn’t followed what you were saying in your letter because he squawked down the phone, “Hah! Always knew you were gay, Spuddy!”
When I tried to inform the idiot that there was a vast gulf between homophobia and homosexuality he sniggered and hung up. I don’t think he’ll ever get it.
Anyway, after numerous false starts to this letter I decided to consult Reverend Bishop, who grew instantly pale and told me that responding to you in writing would be akin to David taking on Goliath. Unfortunately, I’ve never been one to throw stones and since Mad Dog was expelled, I don’t even have access to a decent slingshot. So if these sentences strike you as lacking in intellectual rigour or as the mere ramblings of an inconsequential young lad, please cast them aside and think no further on them nor me. Better still, you could pretend that I am not even real and that I only exist in the imaginations of deranged people.

Let me first begin with a sincere apology on behalf of The Guv for his insensitive treatment of lesbians and gays in his English class. I agree that the term “rogering lesbians” was totally uncalled for and that our English teacher deserved finger tongs (or worse) for his poor form and obvious intolerance. (There’s probably a good chance that The Guv was drunk at the time and he was most probably showing off like he always does with his bizarre references and shocking opinions.) Remember he’s a cranky guy and often strange sentences pour out of his mouth. He frequently uses the word “rogering” like in first year when I was a still a spud and he advised me to “Roger the entire chorus line before the end of the month.” I don’t like his occasional bigotry, or his heavy drinking, but he has still changed the way that I look at the world around me. It’s tempting to say that I shouldn’t have written that offensive statement down in my diary and then it never would have reached the screenplay and now the papers. I could have simply replaced it with a line as tame as a sleepy orange house cat. But that would not have been my true account.
Like you, I also enjoyed the film but had one major reservation that also kept me awake at night. It wasn’t the homophobia, or the sexism, or the racism, or the scene when I had my balls polished. It wasn’t even the examples of statutory rape which Eve repeatedly deals out to Rambo (this despite Rambo greatly enjoying them). Nor was it when The Guv made me drink alcohol at age 13 and filled my head with the notion that life is absurd and insane and that we are all poor players in some never-ending Kafkaesque farce. What really drove me bonkers was that the character of myself was played by a blue-eyed Australian! I mean, if that isn’t a low blow, what is? Not that I’m xenophobic, mind you; it’s just that ever since Shane Warne, I just don’t like Australians that much.

I guess the point I’m making is that it would probably be impossible to read any of my diaries or watch Mr Garland’s film without being slightly offended by something or other if you feel really strongly about that particular cause or standpoint. Seeing other people laughing at something personal and serious to oneself is difficult, like when people repeatedly mocked my late development and its nasty repercussions. My limited experience of life is that many people say offensive things, like Rambo, who deliberately tries to antagonise people with his verbal abuse and ultra cool demeanour. You mentioned the word “faggotism”. I guarantee that you won’t find that word in any dictionary because Rambo made it up to look cool and have power over us because the word was his. I don’t like the word either and would never have thought to use it myself, but I still wrote it down because he said it and I was there and the moment happened before my very eyes. I don’t think Rambo accused Vern of “fagottism” by lazy accident. He said that word specifically to demean and humiliate Vern for stealing everybody’s underpants. For that in my experience is the way that boys humiliate each other.


I do apologise if this letter seems in any way immature or insincere or if it offends or irritates you further. That is not my intention. I also apologise for the offence that my words caused and I don’t argue that you have the right to voice your offence about the Spud movie. I once read that honesty trumps guile every time, and if I’m being honest, then I’m really sorry that you didn’t invite Mr Garland, whom you know to be an intelligent, generous and talented man, around for a fragrant coffee and discuss this issue with him face to face. If that bastard Sparerib hadn’t caught me running to dinner yesterday and given me a month’s detention, I would have loved to have been there, too, for what I would imagine could have been an excellent discussion.

Thank you again for your time and I hope to meet you someday – just not in
court.
Best regards
Spud Milton
Senior Dorm
 
Source:www.timeslive.co.za

Reading opens our minds to new ideas and creates a new understanding of our surroundings. I hope each one of you get to read the book but if not I do hope you are able to see the movie so you too can comment on issues of relevance.

How to become an avid Reader

This year we explore ways to improve ourselves and make learning an easier and pleasurable experience. Let's start with making sure we all enjoy living in the world of books. Today we look at how one can become an avid reader!

People who have not gotten into the habit of reading may wish that they had established this habit early in life. It's something that can benefit them throughout their lives.

1. Make reading an integral part of your day. During the times that you would ordinarily be watching TV or playing a video game, read a book instead. It can take some time to get into this habit, but after a few weeks it will be an ingrained habit each day. Even just a chapter a day is a good start and will quickly get you hooked in a book.
   
2. Keep a diverse supply of books on hand. You may be more inclined to read if you have a wide selection of books from which to choose. These can be bought at a local or online bookstore if you have the budget for them. If not, books are also readily available in thrift stores and yard sales. And don't forget the library!
   
   
   
   
3. Get books that cater to your interests. If you love history, buying a selection of books about crafting will probably not entice you to read more often. It is okay to buy a few books about things you want to learn about, but you also need books about things that already interest you. There are a lot of times when you won't be in the mood for learning and simply want some entertainment.
   
4. Take a book with you. There are countless times when being able to read for a few minutes will make time pass more quickly. You can read while waiting in line or waiting to see a doctor or any other time when you find yourself with time to spare and little to do.

Knowledge is not on the desks

Schools resume this week for 2011 and 2010 matric results are still making headlines. we've all seen them, "The good, the bad and the ugly"

The good- Students who worked hard throughout the course of the year and achieve excellent results though they faced the same conditions, had the same extended holidays and had to deal with the same public sector strikes that other lazy students who chose to shift the blame of their poor performance on others except themselves.

The bad- Only half the students who started school 12 years ago wrote matric last year, 18 schools with a 0% pass rate. What happens in these schools? Don't waste funds unnecessarily if you go to school grounds to do absolutely nothing. 0% pass rate relays the message that not a single person in these schools cared to take some initiative, how long do students plan on pointing fingers to explain their own future.

The ugly- We are so blind to our potential that we accept the minimal requirement for a pass and throw parties to celebrate passing as if it shouldn't be  something we expect of ourselves. Should we really be excited when we pass Mathematics or Science having met the minimum requirement especially seeing as the minimum requirement to pass these subjects is 30%. Is something so wrong with us that they keep dropping the standard? If so then the solution should start with us.
  

It's about time we take responsibility for our future and realise its not about the resources or the fees we pay for school fees that give results, for the most part it's how much we want to have a bright future and when we wake up slowly but surely others around us will wake up. Dream bigger, worker harder to achieve more.