Hello, and welcome to issue #4! Each Tuesday's newsletter will include a Tuesday Tip, book review, or an article on education or science or the arts. If you've received a forwarded copy of this message from a friend, be sure to subscribe, so that you will continue to receive my newsletter directly from me. Just click on the "Join Our Mailing List" button above and to the left of this paragraph. In each mailing will be an unsubscribe link, so that you can opt out at any time. You can also subscribe from my website: www.kevindohmen.net. |
Tuesday Tip: Checklists 01
|
|
Legend has it that Socrates never wrote anything down because he believed that the use of writing would ruin one's memory. The ancient Greeks performed some truly amazing feats, like reciting the entire Iliad by heart, but few of us today have the time for such things. Some of us have more than enough to deal with just trying to remember where we've left our car keys. One very useful tool for tracking the myriad details of modern life is the humble checklist.
Checklists are simply an efficient way to store important, detailed, repetitive information outside of our fallible heads. Airline pilots use checklists. So do brain surgeons and astronauts. One particularly useful application for a checklist is the management of daily homework. A homework checklist should have at least three parts. The first would list all the places where you would look (online, homework hotline, assignment book, handouts folder, etc.) in order to assemble the complete list of necessary tasks. The second part would list all of the subjects, so that each can be checked off after its work has been completed. It is important to write in something for each subject, even if just the word "none," so you know that you've remembered to look. The last part of the checklist would be a list of all materials that need to be packed up when all work is done.
By using checklists, you can maximize your ability to remember and efficiently juggle many small but critical tasks and to conserve your mental horsepower for larger, complex tasks that demand your analytical skills and full attention.
|
I hope you have found this issue helpful. Please feel free to forward
this newsletter to friends, family, teachers -- to anyone who has an
interest in, or a passion for, learning. I welcome your feedback.
Sincerely, 
Kevin D. Dohmen, M.Ed. Learning Consultant21 West Caton Avenue Alexandria, VA 22301-1519 --- 703.683.9617 kevindohmen@verizon.netwww.kevindohmen.netthe art of learning for the information age |
