Tutor: Activity and Achievement
Don't confuse the two
Thanks to all who reached our after last week’s newsletter. Knowing how many educators look forward to these meditations on tutoring gratifies and motivates me.
We all need to evaluate our activity on a regular basis to make sure we’re applying effort in the most important places. Coach John Wooden expressed this idea best:
“Don’t mistake activity for achievement. To produce results, tasks must be well organized and properly executed; otherwise, it’s no different from children running around the playground—everybody is doing something, but nothing is being done; lots of activity, no achievement.”
Big thinker James Clear builds on this idea in his comparison of motion and action:
“Motion makes you feel like you’re getting things done. But really, you’re just preparing to get something done. When preparation becomes a form of procrastination, you need to change something. You don’t want to merely be planning. You want to be practicing.
“Motion will never produce a final result. Action will.”
What I want for myself is what I want for my students: results, in whatever form they are sought. Too much motion in the wrong direction detracts from the ability to achieve desired goals, like revamping an entire SAT/ACT curriculum—more on that below.
So, consider just how busy you find yourself, then sort your tasks into piles. How much are motion and how much are action? Feeling busy all the time is a drag, but the pain really sets in when you recognize how much time you’re wasting. Think of all those students who spend untold hours on homework without learning anything, mainly because they multitask and prioritize the wrong things. Activity is not enough.
Don’t mistake activity for achievement.
Tips, Tools, And Thoughts
Smartphones and social media are leading to depression and anxiety for our students. Are they depressing test scores, too?
The timelines are certainly suspicious.
Zoom Conversations vs In-Person: Brain Activity Tells a Different Tale
The next question is what, if any, learning implications do these findings have for in-person vs. remote tutoring.
Hyperbolic Discounting
How can you use hyperbolic discounting in both your teaching and business practices?
RACI model: A map for team structure [+ template]
Depending on the size of your enterprise, you either need a RACI matrix for some projects or possibly wish you did
The Beauty of Chalk
Do you still follow the old ways?
And what was that about curriculum?
The TestBright SAT/ACT Curriculum System is just about ready for the dSAT age! Find out what I’ve been working on, what’s changed for the new test, and how to easily integrate a world-class curriculum into your test prep practice at my first Curriculum Discovery Seminar on November 13 at 1pm EST. Register here.