Michael Maser’s Post

A very insightful conversation I had with Bernard Phiri, An Alumni of the University of Livingstonia who is also an Associate Lecturer in the Education Department. Learn and enjoy the interview through the link below👇 University Of Livingstonia https://lnkd.in/edCyt2Ru

This year is the first time since 1803 that 13-year cicadas and 17-year cicadas will emerge at the same time! What else happened in 1803? 🇺🇸 Thomas Jefferson was the President 🛶 The Lewis & Clark Expedition began 🧪 Five new elements were discovered and the periodic table was created Our digital "I am a Friend to Cicadas" workbook is a teaching tool to help students investigate many fascinating aspects of this phenomenon. Download it here: https://loom.ly/yONBLek

Here is your confirmation!!

#FasterReading - I'm all for it, but it brings back memories of 1982 (ish), in the year or so before my O levels - that ages me! I don't know if it was a fad at the time, but I remember being put through a course on how to read faster, without compromising on comprehension. The intent was to make it easier for us to access the knowledge we needed from books for O and A levels. Anyway, fixed texts, a mechanical device that was fixed over the book, moving down the page to force us to read quicker. Then tested on comprehension. Techniques were trained, such as focusing on the centre of the page, and scanning around that central point, and we used both normal page layouts and magazine newspaper columns (the latter are far easier to scan quickly and something I was trained to use by ROGENSI LIMITED when doing presentations, and I still use today in lesson PowerPoints; 2 or 3 columns per slide instead of long lines of text. Great scaffolding for weak readers, students with eye/text tracking issues, and more). I seem to recall base-line had me reading about 300 words per minute, and over 600 by the end of the course. We were re-tested later (a month or so) and I still clocked over 500 words per minute. This was related to a certain level of comprehension - I forget the details of that. Hey, I was 14 or 15 😆 When I consider all the #Oracy and #Literacy posts in my 5 years of teaching, and another today from GL Education about their 'Turning the Page' survey in international schools, I have to believe, unfortunately, that in certain areas education has regressed, and we've missed the point at time. Let's not forget InnerDrive's free oracy webinar coming soon. My thoughts on this are that education is too focused on "content", and grades, as it makes it easier to in terms of accountability. Too much focus on data; don't get me wrong, big data is key for governments and making decisions and very useful it is (I love a good bit of data). BUT, teachers deal with children, as individuals, in the classroom, not big data, not resources. It's like a company thinking their core product is making money, and giving accountants too much weight in decisions (they are one part of it); the core product is whatever their good or service is, making money is the consequence of getting most elements of the core product correct. So, yes, let's increase the amount of time in Primary for teachers to read the students (see Mary Myatt's post earlier this week), and let's start encouraging parents to do the same too! Or some other family member. For children who already read, let's get them reading faster with #FasterReading courses. How about Amazon offering Kindle Unlimited discounts or some kind of package to #education? #EncourageReading Highly recommend reading this in conjunction from an earlier post of Mary's https://lnkd.in/d6dmGAJN

New monographic publication with my humble non-invasive input detailing the research of the Teutonic Order Castle in Sztum (Stuhm)

Should any history undergraduate students need assistance with cramming, perhaps the contents in the links below could help: https://lnkd.in/gnm-Ghqj https://lnkd.in/gHiAzDr3 This is for some encouragement: https://lnkd.in/gQsshKhu

If you haven't yet, check out my newest post on how the science of awe can transform your life.

🍃 Can you identify this tree from its leaves?⁠ 🌳 We'll give you a clue! It has ancient associations with May Day and its blossoms traditionally mark the point at which spring turns into summer.⁠ 🤔 We'll let you know the answer tomorrow morning! 👉 Head to our blog and test your knowledge with our summer tree identification quiz: https://bit.ly/4cOSbGe

Let‘s dive into the manufacturing of immune cells.

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