News from Mr Grady
Hello everyone.
I hope everyone had a positive and restful break. It struck me during the week, as I and both cats stared out of the front window at the rain bouncing off the pavements, that I was simply mirroring my younger self and that sense of disappointment at the rain that it was stopping me doing things.
Given the things I had to do were nothing to do with going outside and everything to do with all of those household chores one catches up with over the half term, this could have been perfect!
The thing is though, none of the chores were going to be any fun, I was simply using the weather as an excuse, and lo and behold, after a couple of days procrastination had well and truly set in.
I was quite literally prepared to do anything to avoid doing the things I knew I needed to do, and as the week went on, as those things became more pressing, and indeed the deadline for them came ever nearer, the list of things I chose to do instead of actually doing what I needed to do grew ever longer. Once you find yourself cleaning the bottom of the vegetable drawer in the fridge, or polishing the cat flap you know you are in full-on avoidance mode.
I was talking to Year 10 about a variety of revision techniques yesterday, some of which, I hope might prove useful. The message I shared though, as we explored a variety of ways of remembering things, was that none of the techniques will ever help you if you haven’t done anything, and then try to apply them all in the last week before an exam or a unit test. There was a lot of earnest nodding, and students agreeing that yes, constant revisiting and checking their knowledge would, in the long run mean they felt very prepared for anything that could be thrown at them.
What I hope the students will remember to do first, is the honest reflection on their own working methods before they make any sort of promise: Are you a procrastinator? Will you literally find anything else to do other than the thing you should be doing? Rather than grand promises of “I’m going to do this brilliant plan where I write cue cards for everything so I can revise,” or “I will always write my notes up at the end of every week/ unit,” and now you’re staring at a pile of unwritten cue cards, and 6 weeks of notes yet to be written up. Think about the small thing you could be doing now, and tomorrow, rather than the massive thing you’ve every intention of doing, that will just be too big or unwieldy to ever conquer. Take it from a 43-year-old procrastinator, being honest with yourself first makes things so much calmer in the long-run!
Best wishes,
Mr Grady
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