Tag: Learning

Curation – A Disturbance in the Force

As you know – I’ve just curated the Carnival of HR for the second time. The response from all quarters was very encouraging thank you, and the blog had its busiest day so far this month. I appreciate the support – and before the Carnival packs up and heads on to the next destination I wanted to share three things I learned from the curation process.

Deadline

Despite marking time in my diary to bring the Carnival together, I struggled to get going because I got hung up on the submission deadline. This meant I waited until everyone had contributed before I began to plan and write up the curation. I also accepted late submissions, though I didn’t try to factor them into the Carnival theme. The next time I do something like this I will seek an earlier deadline so that I can begin the curation process sooner.

Time

It takes a lot of time to curate a Carnival. Each post needs to be read and considered. Does it fit the theme? What is it about each post that I should reference in the curation summary? It took me over six hours to pull everything together and whilst I appreciate that I am inexperienced in this field, I expect even a seasoned curator like Michael Carty or Martin Couzins would echo that the process of curation is a time consuming one. And reflecting on the feedback I’ve received – I think that investment is necessary, otherwise you are effectively just listing a bunch of stuff, and I don’t perceive much value in that for the reader.

Mistakes

I goofed, a little. First – I incorrectly copied the link to Mark Catchlove’s blog post into the Carnival, so when you clicked on him, you ended up in the ether. Sukh Pabial was kind enough to contact me with the news and courtesy of the WordPress app, I was able to fix this error on the train back from Reading yesterday. Second – I made an omission. Susan Heathfield submitted a contribution titled ‘Never Tell HR These 10 Things’ and although it was past the deadline, I forgot to include it. Sorry Susan. I think these errors arose as a result of the amount of time it took me to get the whole thing done so I think that by tending to the deadline dilemma above, then time, and possible mistakes may be easier to work with and iron out.

I hope this reflection helps you in your blogging endeavours. Thanks again to the contributors and readers, see you at the next Carnival town.

photo credit

Lightbulb Moments – Lessons in Learning

Lightbulb Moments

Keira and I were walking to school this morning and this afternoon’s swimming lesson came up in conversation. Keira said, ‘I hope Mum lets us practice butterfly, today – it’s my favourite stroke’, before asking me, ‘Do you think it is difficult for Mum to come up with a whole load of interesting lessons. I flipped the question back to Keira, ‘I don’t know – what do you think makes an interesting lesson?’ The following thoughts emerged from my ten year old daughter in the next 100 yards.

What Makes A Lesson Interesting?

Make it hard, but not too hard

Make it fun, especially if you’ve been good

Use different techniques

Involve people, ask them what they want to know

Encourage and support people, help them with their fear

Show me don’t tell me

‘What do you mean, show me don’t tell me?’ I asked. Keira replied, ‘There’s no point in telling a small child that the deep end is two metres deep, you need to get in the water and show them what that looks like and feels like’. And there we were – close enough to school for Keira’s embarrassment alarm to sound. A quick kiss, an ‘I love you’ and she was gone.

I walked home, lifted by the conversation and the sunny day. We didn’t get round to talking about Keira’s opening question, I’ll see what Keira thinks about that later this afternoon, but as a simple guide to what makes a lesson interesting, I think Keira is pretty much on the money here. What might you add to her list?

Slowly Bares The Soul

On arrival at Facilitation Jam last Friday, Flora shared with us a few words first spoken by Johan Wolfgang von Goethe:

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

And so began one of the deepest, most powerful experiences it has been my privilege to attend and share in. The time we spent together was fun, challenging, educational, observational and much more. We laughed, cried, walked, talked, dined and learned with and from each other, and we were bold beyond my high expectations.

I wrote this poem on Sunday as I reflected on my experience. I hope you like it.

Sincere thanks to David, Flora, Jools, Kev, Martin, Meg and Tash.