Courtesy of Charlene Fried

Brianna Alvarez works on a bag representing her Peruvian and Mexican heritage in Charlene Fried's English class.

Brianna Alvarez works on a bag representing her Peruvian and Mexican heritage in Charlene Fried's English class.

As students return to in-person classes, some California teachers are focused on giving English learners lots of time to talk and write about their feelings.

In order to learn to speak, read and write fluently in English, those students need many opportunities to practice interacting with their peers in the language. A lot of English learners didnt get enough of that practice during distance learning.

During the pandemic many school districts lacked adequate plans to support English learners, according to areport by Californians Together, a nonprofit focused on educational equity for students who are learning English as a second language.

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As students come back to school, experts say teachers need to pay special attention to providing additional language support for English learners and making school a welcoming place to ease the anxiety and stress caused by the pandemic.

Some teachers are doing both at once.

Charlene Fried teaches high school English learners at Sierra Vista High School in Baldwin Park Unified in Los Angeles. On the first day of class this month, Fried asked her students a series of questions, such as: How do you feel coming back to school? Whats something you fear? What is your dream in life? What is the most important thing that you want to learn in this class?

Fried let them each answer however they wanted in one or two words or in complete sentences. Afterward, they discussed which words came up most often. The main point was to build trust, but also to start to get them talking and listening to each other.

Host Zaidee Stavely talks with a teacher in Los Angeles about how shes welcoming back English learners with lots of opportunities to practice speaking and making her classroom a place where students can build a community to ease the anxiety and stress caused by the pandemic.

Even with the senior English class where they have to do heavy-duty research, we do everything orally first, said Fried, who also teaches in the teaching credential programs at Cal State LA and Loyola Marymount University. If were doing claim and counterclaim for a research paper, we will do it orally first I make a claim, you make a counterclaim, I make another claim, you make a counterclaim. Because I really believe for all kids, but especially English learners, that if theyve been able to do it orally first, that they feel much more comfortable.

Building trust from the very first day helps the students break some fear or embarrassment they might have about speaking aloud in English, especially after a year and a half of learning from home. It also helps students feel comfortable at school.

In her first week of school, Annessa Bock talked about self-awareness with her third- and fourth-grade students at Edenvale Elementary in Oak Grove School District in San Jose. She made a graph with them writing down words to describe what it looks like and sounds like to be aware of your feelings. She said this kind of lesson is important for her students, especially now as they return to school buildings mid-pandemic.

For a lot of the kids coming back to school this year, we knew it would be scary, frankly. My third graders really stopped their official brick and mortar education in the middle of first grade, she said. A year and a half to them is super long, like a lot of their life, depending on their age. They have been home so long and hearing how scary, how unsafe, and now suddenly, Here, put this little mask on, youre going to be fine, off you go, can be traumatizing.

About 60% of the students at Bocks school are English learners. The school uses curriculum and approaches developed by Sobrato Early Academic Language (SEAL) that can be used for any students but have a special focus on English learners. The organization prepared toolkits for returning to school after distance learning, with lesson plans for kindergarten through sixth grade. From songs for teachers to sing with their students to journals and research projects, the lessons focus on ways to get students talking and using vocabulary that helps them express their feelings.

We wanted to make sure that when students came back, they were given every opportunity to be in classrooms where it wasnt going to be the teacher who was going to be talking all the time, said Marna Ledesma, coach program coordinator for SEAL. We knew it was important for students to talk and have opportunities to talk. We also realized that English learners could have lost progress they had been making in terms of learning English.

The units have a strong focus on social-emotional learning, helping students share how theyve been feeling during the pandemic. Ledesma said when teachers do activities like circle-time or community meeting, its important for English learners to have visual cues and words that they can use to start their own sentences, in addition to time in small groups to practice expressing themselves out loud, so they feel more comfortable participating in the larger group.

Students need the language to be able to communicate their feelings, and they need opportunities to be able to do that in classrooms, Ledesma said.

To make her classroom especially rich with language for her English learners, Bock has everything in her classroom labeled. She draws pictures as she explains concepts, in addition to writing down words. She also uses a technique called total physical response, in which children use their bodies to make movements to go with words and phrases they learn. For example, her class is learning right now about growing as conscious, active community members.

All of those words may be new to some of her students, so she talked with her students about each word and its meaning and wrote down the definition. Then she asked for kids to act them out. One student raised both hands above his head with closed fists and yelled, Active!

At Marguerite Montgomery Elementary School in Davis, teacher Edith Suarez plans to organize what she calls Socratic seminars for her sixth graders. Between one-third and one-half of her students are English learners, she said.

In the seminars, students pick a topic to discuss, such as whether students should get paid for getting good grades. They read an article about the topic, then sit in a circle and discuss it and debate the pros and cons. When they participate, they are given a token, and when they participate again, they put the token down. The idea is to both encourage students who dont often participate to do so, and to encourage students who participate all the time to sit back and listen to their peers.

They go on to middle school, and I really want to push them outside of their comfort zone, so that way, when they are asked to speak in front of a class or in front of their peers, they have some type of experience sharing their thoughts, Suarez said.

Many teachers say the pandemic taught them the importance of reaching out more often and more meaningfully to families. SEAL recommends teachers interview families about their experiences during the pandemic and about what they do together at home, and make sure to acknowledge the importance of students home language and culture, which was so present in many of their lives when school buildings closed.

Its important to acknowledge and value the learning that happened at home, that wouldnt have happened if they were in school, Bock said. The child who learned how to make tortillas with Abuela, the child who learned how to run a cash register because they went to work with mom every day, those are things that are really to be valued and are life skills.

Conducting interviews with families helps teachers get to know and understand their students better, which also helps engage them in the classroom, said Ramona Torres, who teaches third grade at Marguerite Montgomery Elementary School in Davis.

It helps tremendously, Torres said. It lets the students be the experts. If a student is very into gardening, theyll be the experts for the class. If a student has a parent that works in fruits or in law, they can talk to the whole class about what they know.

Daniel McDonald, who teaches fifth grade at Taylor Elementary School in Oak Grove School District, said he has a playlist of songs for the morning and the afternoon, when the students are cleaning up. He lets the students pick their own songs to add, and sometimes they ask him to add songs from their own culture. Can I put Indian music? one student recently asked him. Of course! he answered.

Its so cute to see their little faces react when their song comes on, McDonald said. Its validating for them to listen to songs they might listen to in the car with their parent or guardian.

Allowing students to use their home language in the classroom can help them learn English, said Fried, the Sierra Vista teacher, but many teachers dont understand that. She said a former AP calculus teacher at her school had several English learners in his class.

And he said to me, Arent you teaching them English? Every time I put them in groups, they speak Mandarin. And I said, How are they doing? He goes, Well, fine. He didnt understand the idea of home language reinforcement, Fried said. I can teach you in English. I can put you in little groups, and you can work in your own language. And then we can come back together and put it together in English.

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How California teachers are welcoming back English learners with language and community - EdSource

A cursory glance at the headlines of articles discussing Imposter Syndrome reveals just how many of us feel about the phenomenon Steps to kill Imposter Syndrome, How to fight self-doubt, How to conquer Imposter Syndrome, and How I beat Imposter Syndrome are just a few examples.

First identified in 1978, Imposter Syndrome is a type of self-denying thoughts and feelings. Sufferers feel that their accomplishments arise from some stroke of luck rather than because of their competencies and are often struck by fear of being found out as not being that competent.

The syndrome is often loaded with negative connotations and is regularly described as highly personal, or something predominantly experienced by women, but a recent surveyof 1,000 U.K. workers found that 80% of men, as well as 90% of women, experienced intense feelings of being an imposter at work.

Now is the time to rethink our attitudes and approach towards the condition, as viewing Imposter Syndrome as a purely individual or generic sex-related problem can desensitise the response to it and stop employers from trying to understand it.

The effect of Imposter Syndrome on the individualThe condition can be harmful to sufferers as constant doubt on ones competencies and fear of being found out can prevent workers from truly engaging with their work and feeling accomplished. The sustained experience of intense imposter feelings may lead to more serious mental health problems such as depression.

The Imposter Syndrome can also have a detrimental impact on organisations, as workers suffering from the syndrome may, in the long term, engage in counterproductive behaviours. Self-doubt, one of the most pernicious effects of the syndrome, limits the use of ones skills and can trigger workers to withdraw from work and other coworkers. Or, to the other extreme, workers with Imposter Syndrome can overwork and burn themselves out as a way to self-verify.

Prevalent but not duly recognised in the workplaceDespite how prevalent Imposter Syndrome is, several surveys reveal a huge lack of awareness of the syndrome. Whereas most of the workers experience imposter feelings, only a very small proportion of the sufferers are explicitly aware that their distress and fear may relate to Imposter Syndrome.

This lack of knowledge on and awareness of Imposter Syndrome may explain why it has not received enough recognition in the workplace. When sufferers do not have a clear recognition of their condition, it becomes extremely challenging for organisations to understand employees with such a condition. But thinking about its detrimental impacts at work, organisations and their leaders should consider taking a more active approach in identifying employees suffering from the syndrome and providing them with systematic support.

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome as a GroupIn the past, people tended to think that Imposter Syndrome was a personal problem and that sufferers alone should take full responsibility for acknowledging and tackling it. However, as Imposter Syndrome becomes more prevalent at work and thus gains more attention, the focus in managing the syndrome started to shift from individuals to groups.

As organisations realise the importance of dealing with Imposter Syndrome, they make more efforts to understand it and do something about it. As prior focus was too much on individuals self-awareness and self-fix, this change will add some balance to our perspective on and approach to Imposter Syndrome. I think that we should view the syndrome as a systematic problem embedded in organisations and society as much as we view it as a personal problem. As such, organisations and their leaders can take a more proactive role than before in managing Imposter Syndrome among their employees.

How organisations can manage the syndrome among their workers brings up the two extra questions on how to identify Imposter Syndrome and how to treat it.

Identifying Imposter SyndromeIdentifying Imposter Syndrome is difficult. As noted, although many workers experience imposter feelings, most of them are not fully aware of their experience as a condition that needs recognition and treatment.

I suggest that organisations should take a lead in looking out to find and assess the symptoms of Imposter Syndrome among employees. To do so, its important that HR leaders and line managers those who will perform a job of diagnosis are equipped with solid knowledge on the syndrome and a set of symptoms associated with it. As typical symptoms of Imposter Syndrome, such as self-doubt, distress, and anxiety, can be seen rather as generic, I suggest that HR leaders and other managers also check whether an employee engages in the following behaviours:

Group treatments and support: culture and systemsTo some extent, Imposter Syndrome is a personal phenomenon, shaped by a persons idiosyncratic socialisation through childhood and youthhood and other critical life experience. Thus, remedies addressing personal issues and trauma, such as improving self-understanding, putting effort into self-care, and managing self-narratives, can be effective in treating the syndrome.

Yet, given that Imposter Syndrome is, to a large extent, a collective problem shaped by an organisations or a societys specific values, rewards system, and culture, I think that organisations, in addition to assessing the symptoms of employees, can do more to treat and help those who suffer from it. These are as follows:

1. Culture and systems that secure psychological safetyIn a recent blogpost, a successful portfolio manager at Wells Fargo Asset Management talks about the frustrations of herself and other sufferers as they did not have opportunities to openly and safely discuss their imposter feelings. This shows the importance of having safe place where employees can share their Imposter Syndrome with each other. When people suffer from Imposter Syndrome, their sense of belonging is already weak because of their self-doubt and withdrawal behaviours. If the sufferers think that they are the only one experiencing imposter feelings, the negative impact on their self-esteem and sense of belonging can be doubled.

Organisations should not hold back from discussing these issues. If we want to ensure teams perform at their very best, we must destigmatise conversations around Imposter Syndrome and break down the perceived barriers between personal problems and professional life. As an example, MIT Physics Department had long-held monthly luncheons where faculty, staff, and students discussed their work and personal challenges including imposter feelings.

2. Culture and systems that promote inclusion and diversityImposter Syndrome is felt on an individual level; however, the symptoms and reactions can be exacerbated by a sufferers environment. For example, when there is a lack of support for diversity at work and few relatable role models, workers with minority backgrounds fall more easily into the feelings of phoniness. Thus, to effectively manage Imposter Syndrome among employees across different backgrounds, it is important for organisations to take actions to ensure diversity and inclusion such as organising relevant unbiased training sessions and monitoring diversity issues among their workers.

For example, one step that organisations could take to ensure that minorities feel supported would be to create Employee Resource Groups where workers with minority backgrounds can discuss the unique difficulties they face as they do their jobs. Strong links between these groups and upper management should also be put into place when structural problems are exacerbating feelings of self-doubt, so they can be rectified quickly by management.

3. Culture and systems that avoid extreme competitionEvidence suggests that organisations that value extremely competitive cultures and performance-based rewards can put their employees at the risk of developing Imposter Syndrome, particularly those who work in highly competitive fields, such as in finance, start-ups, and sports, can be more susceptible.

Competition and performance-based rewards are one of the greatest motivations for employees and one of the key drivers for organisational performance. But organisations and leaders should be aware that extreme focus on competition and performance can backfire in the long term by hurting their employees if they dont make sure they are reading the signs and properly supporting their staff.

Moving forwardNobody is predestined to struggle with Imposter Syndrome. And while some steps can be taken on an individual basis to help reduce the impact that self-doubt has on a person, but I believe that organisations should be stepping in. By creating spaces for discussions about Imposter Syndrome and educating employees about the nuances of the syndrome, organisations can create a culture where no one feels like they should not be there.

Originally posted here:
It's time we reconsidered our approach to Imposter Syndrome - The HR Director Magazine

In recent years, Love Island has become as ingrained in the British calendar as April showers in spring, and that sludgy stuff that appears in the road when cars drive over fallen leaves in autumn. Love Island is summer, summer is Love Island and as all seasonal phenomena must it drew to a close last night. Deflate your novelty doughnut-shaped rubber ring; hang your bikini over a chair to finally dry.

The thing about events that come around every year, however, is that while theyre sometimes comforting, they can also be boring. Last night, denied of the banter outcome (that is, a win by Chloe Burrows and Toby Aromolaran, a couple with the delightful, fizzy energy of two Beroccas dissolving in the same glass), we instead looked on politely as Liam Reardon and Millie Court were crowned the winners of Love Island 2021, the prosaic prom king and queen of the villa.

From Selling Sunset to Love Island, are reality TV relationships the real thing?

As usual, the couple shared the 50,000 prize money, and Love Island 2021 ended with the whimper of predictability in its ears. It has been a problem throughout the season, from the challenges (if fans are moaning that a task wherein contestants spit sauce into each others mouths has become par for the course, surely theres something wrong), to the fact that contestants themselves are now all too conscious of what awaits them in the outside world valuable brand deals, celebrity treatment if only they can stay on TV long enough.

Self-awareness on reality TV can be a good thing it can provide storylines and humour but it can also take away the authenticity and spontaneity that makes the medium so exciting (the nation raised its collective eyebrows this year, as Jake Cornish asked Liberty Poole to be his girlfriend just under four weeks into the series, giving her a bracelet hed brought into the villa with him.) Coupled with the fact that unlike its antecedent Big Brother, Love Islands format rarely changes, there was often a strong sense that everyone in the villa was just going through the motions.

Its a shame because, at its best, Love Island is still compelling viewing, reflecting heterosexual mores through the funhouse mirror of the impossibly attractive. It is still frequently entertaining to watch contestants spend all day talking about their relationships despite only having been in them for a week, while wearing elaborate swimwear and showing off abs that look as though theyve been painted on. When the cast give themselves over to the experience (which to their credit is often), its there that pockets of magic are found, even this year.

There was the aforementioned Toby as the worlds most confused philanderer, winner Liam roleplaying as a dad during the baby challenge by asking everyone Hows your mother? like hed just bumped into them at Tesco and of course the deep and tender friendship between Kaz Kamwi and Liberty Poole (the rightful winning couple), the latter of whom left the villa with days to go, announcing that while her relationship had broken down, she had found real love self-love in the villa.

Viewers are perceptive we want to invest in the contestants and their relationships, and its instances like all of the above that help us to do that. But we too are so aware of Love Islands behemothic status and everything that surrounds it, that the show can seem like a victim of its own success.

That said, dont expect to see Love Island going away anytime soon. When a programme has achieved cultural phenomenon status, its tough for execs to wave goodbye to it, even when its no longer at the height of its powers (look how long Big Brother ran past its prime). And, despite the issues that have plagued the show, ITV seems determined that Love Island will ride again. For years, there have been consistent concerns around race and diversity during casting, plus the sustained harassment of contestants (including racist abuse and death threats) via social media. Add to this a record 25,000 Ofcom complaints this year, declining viewing figures, and the growing, irksome sense that the shows makers want things both ways, telling viewers to be kind via online posts while courting and stoking controversy on camera and there are plenty of factors that would derail any other reality series.

However, they dont seem likely to stop the Love Island train from leaving the station, at least for now. Indeed, host Laura Whitmore announced during last nights final that applications for next years instalment are open on ITVs website. Lets just hope that next time, the shows makers nurture its magic.

Read more here:
Love Island: the tired TV behemoth thats lost its magic - The Guardian

Skip to main content Peter Williams, We traveled to distant worlds, 2019. Collection of Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA. Courtesy of Luis De Jesus Los Angeles

Peter Williams, a genre-bending painter who explored the past and present of Black America through surreal narratives, has died at 69. Luis De Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles, which represents the artist, said that Williams passed away on August 19 following complications from a long illness.

Williamss prolific practice was guided by his strong moral and political convictions, and addressed issues from mass incarceration to slavery and unequal wealth distribution. Working in an Afrofuturist style, he cast his colorful, often fractured scenes in distant solar systems and injected them with a good dose of wry humor.

He was a painter who painted for himself and was not afraid to poignantly portray the truths of contemporary society. His passing is a huge loss for us and his many friends and colleagues in the art world, gallery director Luis De Jesus said in a statement.

Throughout his 45-year career, Williams, who was based in Wilmington, Delaware, shifted between abstract and figurative modes, though in an 2020 interview with Forbes he referred to himself as a figurative narrative painter. He liked to skewer the traditions of modernism, often portraying its grid as a prison for non-white artists. In some works, figures holding or wearing African masks burst out of Mondrian-like bands of red, yellow, and blue in an explosion of densely packed dots.

Williamss most recent work focuses on the killing of unarmed Black men and children by police in America. In the large-scale painting The Arrest of George Floyd (2020), he depicted Floyd screaming as disembodied white hands grab him and a blue eye looks on untroubled. In another work dedicated to Floyd, Williams incorporated symbols of corporate greed, suggesting that Americas wealth is built on the suffering and exploitation of Black people.

My work has always had a political ethos, it comes out of my self-awareness as a black American, he told Forbes. This work is a compendium of modernist form and the politics of right now.

Williams was born in 1952, in Nyack, New York, and earned a B.F.A. from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and an M.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art. At 17, he was given his first solo show, at the Pat Merenstein Gallery in Nyack, which led to more shows in the region, including one at the Woodstock Music Festival.

A car accident during a college trip to New Mexico led to the loss of one leg; he had lifelong pain. He cited the trauma as a major influence on his practice, in particular the use of a recurring cast of characters as means to tell stories of hardship and triumph.

Williams was known as a passionate mentor and had recently retired from from the fine arts department at the University of Delaware, which he joined following a 17-year tenure at Wayne State University. His many accolades include the Artists Legacy Foundations 2020 Artist Award and a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Williams paintings are held in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Walker Art Center, the Whitney Museum, and the Detroit Institute of Arts, among other institutions. His work appeared in the 2002 Whitney Biennial and the 2017 edition of the Prospect New Orleans triennial, and examples are slated to appear in a solo show at Luis De Jesus next year.

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Peter Williams, Painter Who Explored Black Americas Past and Present, Has Died at 69 - ARTnews

A new event on the Tobin Centers Will Naylor Smith River Walk Plaza is using rhythm to help people overcome their blues. Offered free to the community at 9 a.m. every third Saturday through November (Sept. 18 this month), the drum circle course is lead by Jorge Ochoa, an occupational therapist and founder of TamboRhythms, which uses rhythmic expression to promote fun and functional living. Drumming activates both hemispheres of the brain, he says, adding that studies have shown it can improve mood while also releasing endorphins, and in turn, decreasing stress. Drumming also increases energy levels, concentration and self-awareness, he says. A variety of percussion instruments are available each month for use during the event, and students dont need any experience or equipment. Through TamboRhythms, Ochoa offers drumming sessions at schools and community centers, including for organizations that serve individuals with special needs or mental illness. He says group drumming helps develop sensory skills while promoting social participation. For everyone, the ability to hit an instrument and participate in a positive group activity provides the kind of stress relief that can be tough to accomplish on your own

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Try a Free, All-Ages Drum Circle Course at the Tobin Center - San Antonio Magazine

Comment It always comes around sooner than you think. With a large slice of fantasy, cultural mythology, and suspension of disbelief, it's time to get out the tinsel and celebrate the arrival of this year's Gartner hype cycle.

Officially the "Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2021", the research documents trends the tech industry would like to talk about, even if few emerge fully formed into anything we would understand as the real world.

Top of the gift list this year are nonfungible tokens (NFT), sovereign cloud, data fabric, generative AI, and composable networks, all supposedly arriving to help beat the competition in some way or other, the omnipresent analyst organisation said.

"Technology innovation is a key enabler of competitive differentiation and is the catalyst for transforming many industries," according to Brian Burke, research vice president at Gartner. "Breakthrough technologies are continually appearing, challenging even the most innovative organisations to keep up. Leading organisations will lean on the emerging technologies in this year's Hype Cycle to build trust and new growth opportunities against a background of continued strategic change and economic uncertainty."

The Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies is unique among most Gartner Hype Cycles, the press release babbles on, because it distils insights from more than 1,500 technologies into a succinct set of "must know" emerging technologies and trends that show promise in delivering a high degree of competitive advantage over the next five to 10 years.

In a statement singularly lacking in self-awareness, Melissa Davis, research vice president at Gartner, added that organisations should "cut through the hype surrounding emerging technologies" as if her esteemed employers were not providing a continual stream of risible hyperbole.

Now, The Register has published a definite debunking of the hype machine, pointing out that, even on its own terms, many of its earlier predictions fail to see the light of day in any recognisable form. For example, just five years ago Smart Dust, 4G printing, and General Purpose Machine Intelligence appeared on the list. Quantum computing seems to appear and disappear from the list almost at random as if springing from some kind of probability field.

Other items appear out of nowhere. The aforementioned NFTs, now darling of the post-bonkers blockchain bubble, is right at the top of the hype cycle for 2021. And yet, just a year ago, it was nowhere to be seen, at least according to the media-shared graph.

Conversely, concepts said to be on the up last year, such as two-way brain-machine interfaces, have disappeared without a trace on this year's chart. It's enough to make a confused observer wonder if the whole enterprise is even a vaguely reliable predictor of future technologies, or heaven forbid a pantomime engineered to keep Gartner's name and logo in the spotlight.

But for those who keep score, the highlights of this year's list includes quantum machine learning, machine-readable legislation, and homomorphic encryption.

Maybe we are indeed entering the season when if you believe something enough, it just might come true.

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Gartner Gartner on the wall, which is the hypest cycle of them all? - The Register

From losing weight by tapping into your psyche, to better understanding what motivates you to make sustainable lifestyle choices, behavioural psychology can help you to improve your health and reduce your environmental impact

Do you want to reduce single-use plastic but never remember to take a reusable cup when buying your takeaway coffee? Or maybe you know that too many cakes arent good for your health but somehow they keep making their way into your shopping basket. Most of us have fallen prey to cognitive dissonance; when our actions dont marry up with our beliefs.

What can we do to overcome this? One solution that innovators and academics are championing is the use of behavioural psychology the study of the connection between our minds and behaviour to help bridge the gap between intention and action.

The approach is used by Noom, a digital health platform that provides educational articles, tools for tracking progress, and support from virtual coaches, to help people work towards their health goals. It draws upon cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a popular talking therapy that helps people manage problems by changing the way they think and behave, as an integral part of its programme. The curriculum encourages self-awareness and provides gentle nudges to help people stay on track.

Behavioural psychology helps bridge the gap between intention and action. Image: Sam Owoyemi

Many people depend on a willpower-only approach when trying to implement new habits, says Nooms chief of psychology, Andreas Michaelides. But this often doesnt work in the long-run. When it comes to losing weight, for example, people may approach it as a fairly easy task because its just a matter of reducing calories. However, Michaelides says weight loss is not easy at all.

Have you ever heard a friend say, I know what to do, but I just cant do it? If weight loss only amounted to the sum of calories in and calories out, people would not struggle on this journey, or there would not be a prevalence of obesity in our society. Unfortunately, the reasons for eating certain foods are not always easy to identify or change.

To change a habit, he continues, you must work against the brains natural urges to repeat common, established processes. These changes are difficult to accomplish as you will need to combat natural impulses and solidified habits. Whats more, he explains, is that as you try to rewrite these habits in your brain, decision fatigue and willpower depletion often follow.

So what to do? It is essential to set small, realistic goals that will help build your confidence around these new habits, Michaelides says, adding that our mental wellbeing can be affected if we keep failing at something we think we should be able to master through willpower alone.

Can behavioural psychology help us embrace more sustainable habits? Image: Louis Hansel

When diets fail people tend to turn on themselves as they start to feel inadequate or see themselves as the failure. However, the more we break down unrealistic goals and expectations, the more we can begin to see that we can make changes. By providing users with bite-sized courses broken down into 1-3 minute modules, this is exactly what Noom aims to do.

Sustainable thinking

This idea that success comes when information in our brains is split into manageable chunks also feeds into a psychological approach being investigated by researchers from the University of Geneva. They published a paper last year on how decision-making around sustainability can be improved through the concept of mental accounting.

The idea is centred around how people tend to create separate budget compartments in their minds, linked to specific things. For example, if someone goes to a concert but cant find their ticket, they are unlikely to buy another as they have already spent their concert budget.

One aspect of mental accounting is called the spillover effect, which refers to the fact that we tend to justify one behaviour by another. Someone who makes the effort to cycle to work every day will use this argument to justify, to himself or others, buying a plane ticket to go on holiday to the Seychelles, says Tobias Brosch, professor of the psychology of sustainable development at the university.

A possible strategy to prevent this could be to encourage people to think of separate mental accounts for each different behaviour, just like they might do in a purely financial sense, as in our concert ticket example. For example, one for everyday transportation and one for flights or holidays. The urge to justify behaviour would then be impeded due to the lack of fungibility [exchangeability] between accounts, Brosch says. Perhaps that person would then use any financial savings that came about through cycling, on another environmentally friendly everyday transport-centred goal, such as buying an electric car.

When it comes to any personal goal health, environmental or otherwise Michaelides believes the possibilities are endless when we approach them through a behavioural psychology lens. Behaviour is an essential component of many of the goals we want to achieve. By expanding your knowledge of how behaviour change works, you can apply these principles to any area of your life.

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How behavioural psychology can help you put your intentions into action - Positive.News

Emma Corrin and Josh O'Connor prepared royally for their scene-stealing roles as Princess Diana and Prince Charles.

In a recent interview with W Magazine, Corrin, who uses they/them and she/her pronouns, and their co-star, O'Connor, explained that for their painstaking roles in the fourth season of the Netflix hit, The Crown, the two were committed to capturing every inch of a love story going awry in the public eye.

"We both spent a long time during prep researching the nuances of failed marriages," O'Connor told the outlet. "Our care for our own characters and each other's meant that whatever the scene was, we were completely focused on telling a truthful and real account of those moments."

Corrinwho recalled a particular scene of the Princess dancing to Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" at London's Royal Opera (while the Prince sulked in his house box)also opened up about the perception they had on the relationship while playing the Princess of Wales.

The Crown Cast Vs. the Royals They Play

"We see her burning, youthful spirit exploding out in these dance scenes," Corrin recalled, "and in the way she tried to get through to Charles how she felt about him."

Another heartbreaking scene involved Princess Diana surprising her then-husband with a unique wedding anniversary gift: a recording of her performance of "All I Ask of You" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical, The Phantom of the Opera. Fans of the series may recall Prince Charles making fun of the present to his sister, calling it "monstrous."

Netflix

And although Corrin goes on to credit their co-star for getting them through those tough moments during filming, O' Connor praised his on-screen love interest for their self-awareness.

"Emma has a natural wisdom," O'Connor told the outlet. "They understand the pressures associated with being in the public eye better than anyone I know, including people who've been in the public eye for many years."

It's worth noting that for their portrayals, both Corrin and O' Connor have snagged countless awards respectively. For their individual roles as the royal couple, both O'Connor, 31, and Corrin, 25, each won a Golden Globe award, and Screen Actors Guild award, and both have been nominated for a Primetime Emmy.

Also, fun fact: Corrin commemorated Princess Diana's ring during her audition for The Crown in the most unique way: by getting her nails to match the priceless accessory. Check out the details in the interview with W above!

Go here to read the rest:
Emma Corrin and Josh O'Connor Researched This Before Playing Princess Diana and Prince Charles - Yahoo Entertainment

Education Minister Chan Chun Sing said that to navigate an increasingly complex and competitive world, Singapore students have to pursue more diverse interests and capabilities, beyond what is taught and tested in schools (Develop diverse strengths for a more complex world: Chan, Aug 17).

This suggests that formal education may no longer provide the necessary skills and knowledge to take on challenges of the future.

The beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic saw the acceleration of the democratisation of education.

Coursera, co-founded by Singapore-educated Andrew Ng, reported a 644 per cent year-on-year increase in course enrolment during a 30-day period last year. Other massive online open course platforms also reported astounding growth.

As the viability of these offerings enters the public consciousness, we must re-evaluate the role of formal education in Singapore, and acknowledge and tap the global talent pool of educators who are at the top of their domains.

Mr Chan's words allude to a concession that we can no longer forecast future needs, which would require an approach beyond what formal education can offer at present.

I see this as a shift in dynamics towards relevant, high-quality, modular, just-in-time continuing education and training schemes.

What then do we do with the six years of compulsory education in Singapore?

We must instil in our students a good sense of self-awareness and a sound moral compass.

To that end, schools should make philosophy a core subject, and make sure it is contextualised authentically.

As an educator who coaches student roboticists to represent the nation and win top honours on the biggest stages, I am intimately aware of the limitations of our current system and am stoked about the changes Mr Chan's words suggest.

I look forward to a formal education system that is more flexible and efficient in delivering the outcomes we desire by moving from pedagogy, where one is taught, to heutagogy, where one determines one's own learning.

Kenneth Chow

Link:
Forum: Make formal education system more flexible to deliver new outcomes - The Straits Times

One episode that stands out among the others is Season 6, Episode 12, "Scott's Tots," which received the most mentions. Reddit user u/jdeluca87 wrote, "SCOTTS TOTS FOR SURE! Took me 3 attempts to finish that episode," and u/Alternative_Body 7345 commented the episode "makes me want to hide under the couch."

Throughout the series, Michael inadvertently exhibits homophobic, racist, sexist, and generally offensive behavior, but the only ones who suffer are his employees, and it's difficult not to feel sympathy towards a man who so desperately just wants to be liked. However, in "Scott's Tots," Michael's bad judgment and overall stupidity have far-reaching consequences. The episode reveals that 10 years earlier, Michael promised a class of underprivileged children that if they graduated from high school, he would subsidize their college educations. When it comes time to pay the tab, Michael has to skip out on the bill. Michael admits that this one was by far the most generous out of all the empty promises he's made.

We have to agree with u/interestingmongoose's critique, who stated the episode "always makes me cringe."

Link:
Fans Agree That These Are The Hardest Episodes Of The Office To Watch - Looper