Questions and Curiosity

Questions and Curiosity

Recently I’ve become completely fascinated by the website tweetping.net. Tweetping shows realtime Twitter activity from around the world in a beautiful way – when a Tweet goes out a little light appears on the map locating the place where the Tweet came from. The tweet lights start appearing when go to the website and it’s beautifully displayed. Here is an example taken after 15 minutes at lunchtime GMT…

Tweetping Map Lunchtime UK

I think the reason it fascinates me so much is because it makes me ask so many questions. It gets me curious! For example, does everyone in Japan and South East Asia use Twitter?! why do the lights coming from the USA seem to stop half way along? is that bright light to the right of the middle coming from Istanbul? do people use something else in China? is that Pretoria in South Africa? why is it brighter than Cape Town? does the brightness on the map reflect population size? is that why there are fewer lights in Australia? but then what about India? does it reflect the wealth of an area? connectivity? 4G? what does it look like at different times of the day?

I can offer answers for some … Read more...

Why is it called a butterfly?

Why is it called a butterfly?

It’s not got butter on it! It should be called ‘big-wing-fly’…

And so the conversation with 6-year-old continued, with much laughing over the name of the beautiful creature – the butterfly. So why is it called a butterfly? No one knew, but a quick look in the partner database (aka Google, thanks Peter) brought up a few suggestions:

  1. because they would flutter around milk while it was being turned into butter
  2. because witches that took on the shape of the ‘butterfly’ stole milk and butter
  3. it was really called a ‘flutterby’ but that got mixed up
  4. because the first butterfly to come out of hibernation (yes, this one hibernates) in the summer is the male brimstone butterfly and it is yellow, the colour of butter

There doesn’t seem to be any clear answer, all of these sound like they might be right – what do you think?… Read more...

The importance of having fun

‘The Piano Staircase’ is one of my favourite videos. It shows that fun really does make a difference! It’s a wonderful example of exciting curiosity and exciting curiosity! The video comes from TheFunTheory.com – an initiative “dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better”.

The quote below by Oswald Shallow beautifully sums up why having fun is so important:

Choose to have fun. Fun creates enjoyment. Enjoyment invites participation. Participation focuses attention. Attention expands awareness. Awareness promotes insight. Insight generates knowledge. Knowledge facilitates action. Action yields results.

Enjoyment and satisfaction are their own rewards. It’s this enjoyment that makes you want to do things again – not any certificate or medal or other carrot there might be further down the line. As the quote says anyway, fun = results! (Not to mention the added health benefits.) 

Sometimes you hear people say that they’re having too much fun and must get back to work. Well, if you’re having too much fun – keep it up!… Read more...

How do we see the world?

Sometimes things just are so amazing all you can do is go ‘oh wow’. This was one of those moments. I mentioned to a couple of friends at work that 9 year old had been watching a video of a guy riding his bike along the sides of a bridge (which was very cool), then FM showed us the latest video from the trial bike guys – ‘Road Bike Party 2’. Wow. If you need a bit of inspiration, take 6 minutes out of your day and watch this. It is truly awe-inspiring.

Watching this (and the other bike videos it led to) really brought home to me that people see the world in completely different ways. These guys don’t just see trees and rocks and bits of wood, or even water slides or trains, they see places they can go on their bike. I’m grateful for videos like this that let me experience the world through the eyes of someone else and to think about things I’ve never thought of. It reminds me that even though I think my eyes are open, there is always more to see; there is always more to learn. Thanks bike guys for exciting … Read more...

Teach Like A Pirate – Part 2

Teach Like A Pirate – Part 2

…on hooks, silence, and iPhone ocarinas!

“If people think something is going to be great they are more likely to experience it as such.” Teach Like A Pirate p122

In part 2 of Teach Like A Pirate the author, Dave Burgess, explains some of the ‘hooks’ he uses to craft engaging lessons. This got me thinking to some of the lessons I’ve been part of that have been special experiences, and funnily enough they all involved some sort of hook – something that excited curiosity!

4’33” by the composer John Cage is a piece that requires an introduction. Possibly his most famous piece, it is 4 minutes and 33 minutes of ‘silence’. Arguably, there is no such thing as silence and so it is really a study of the sounds around us. I introduce it for some time, going into details about the composer, the piece, how it is performed and what it hopes to achieve. I try and ramp up the student’s curiosity to such a level that they can’t wait to hear it! Before we listen to the piece, I ask the students to get comfy – to choose any place in the room, the floor, their … Read more...