Emotional Intelligence: Rules from my Mum

For over a decade now, the issue of teaching Emotional Intelligence has become hot trending topic.

Everybody is talking about it, there are the skeptics and then there are the ones who'll swallow everything trending without so much as a question.

I'm neither one nor the other. I just think that emotionally  intelligent people have been around forever and it seems a little bit interesting that some of us are only just waking up to that fact. 
But as my people would say, " your morning is when you wake up" and usually whenever they do, we say good morning to them all the same.

These day, a lot of people are paying huge amount of money to coaches and experts to help them become emotionally intelligent.

I admire those who are advocating for its inclusion in school and by all means, I think we should.

However, I admire even more my Mum who taught me a lot of what is now being defined as "emotional intelligence".

Back in the days, it had other names...

Back in the days, it was not a school subject but you learnt it anyway.

There were no refresher courses or coaching session, but you never forget.

The rules were simple:

“Treat others the same way you want to be treated”.

“Understand them, and even when you can’t,  you don’t judge”.

“Be kind to people, everyone you meet is fighting some battle”.

“A kind word turns away wrath, but retorts blurted out in haste and without considerations will weaken and even poison a saint”.

“Always extend a helping hand, you never know when you might need it back”.

“Take people up, it could be quite lonely at the top and you will need all the help you can get, and some nice company won´t hurt you”.

“Everyone is your teacher; superiors, peers and subordinate alike. Learn, learn and never stop learning”.

“A cheerful disposition makes a lot of things a whole lot easier. Keep a smile about”.

There were other rules where those came from, but then I´m trying to keep this post short.

In leadership, management and all other interpersonal relationships, the need for emotionally intelligent people can not be overempazised and over the years, after Daniel Goleman´s bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence a lot is still being written about it. People are still learning and gradually we are all becoming more aware of the benefits of being emotionally intelligent and encouraging the same in others.

Re-modelling your Community in the Clouds

Educators’ Lounge

Following on from the previous post, I wanted to share with you some interesting ways to shape the way you can build your Cloud Storage Community. Enjoy and don't be afraid of experimenting in the classroom.

• Sharing Stored Files

In the early days, some educators probably turned to cloud storage simply because their school's own networking setup lacked such a feature. Anecdotal reports suggest that schools now are sanctioning the use of cloud services like Dropbox. 
In 2012, Dropbox launched a program called Space Race, offering people with an .edu email address an extra 3 GB of storage -- on top of the 2 GB of storage all users get. At this writing, it is not clear if Dropbox will offer Space Race again this year.
Sharing a single file with students can be as easy as emailing over a unique link created for each file or by networking the cloud storage and allowing students easy access.

• Overcoming Email and cross device limitations.

Over-size attachments, such as large PowerPoint files and videos, that never reach their intended recipient because the email program chokes on the file, is a common complaint of email users. Cloud Storage essentially solves this problem by bypassing email. Another useful function is having your Cloud across devices with differing Operating Systems. Linking Android – Apple – PC devices is as easy as dropping a file into you Cloud Storage and syncing everything together. Problem solved

• Setting and Turning in Homework

In its simplest application, Dropbox can be as used a common filing cabinet through which teachers can provide documents, such as homework assignments and handouts, and media files for the entire class. But another popular use goes in the opposite direction, from students to teachers. Using Dropbox as a homework drop has the added benefit of providing, by default, a time-stamp for these submissions. 
Of course, students can share Dropbox folders with each other too, and so collaborate on joint assignments. Happily, the free version of Dropbox saves a history of all deleted and earlier versions of files for 30 days. Paid Dropbox Pro accounts have a feature called Packrat that saves file history indefinitely. 

• Easy back-up and syncing with apps

Quite a number of popular productivity and educational applications now feature a Cloud "sync" option. Evernote, for example, has a "save to Dropbox" option. Other popular education apps with Dropbox integration include: Notability, iThoughtsHD and Ghostwriter Notes. 
A free Cloud storage account can include 2 GB of space. Users can earn more free space in a variety of ways. Also, more storage can be purchased via monthly or annual plans. For institutions needing even more storage, there is Dropbox for Teams, which adds a number of advanced account security and management options, as well as unlimited storage.

• Building communities in the classroom

One of the most important features of Cloud Storage is giving a classroom a sense of ‘Community’, where interaction can be encouraged. Be it downloading, uploading or Facilitating Group Projects.
Some courses require that students work collaboratively on a project. Cloud Storage can help facilitate this process by providing a space in which students can work together. Group folders can be created and accessed in the Public folder (via a web-link to the folder) or a private folder in which each student in that group has personal Access.

• Evaluate Student Portfolios

If you are teaching a course where students submit multiple assignments or portfolios for evaluation, you can create and share a folder for each individual student, and have them submit their work to the folder. Students can have a private portfolio that only you can see if they sign up for Dropbox themselves and create their own folder and share it with you.

[example: See ENGL 211 for a course that uses Dropbox for evaluating student writing portfolios: http://writingaboutlit.community.uaf.edu/how-to-submit-work/]

Author: Nicholas Blunsum

Positivity and Leadership

JoggleLounge

As a leader, the need to focus on positive interactions and encouraging an upbeat emotional state at the workplace as often as possible, will likely help you build a happy, productive and efficient team.

To start with, let’s look at how positive and negative
emotions work in our brains, and what we can learn from that.

Positive emotions generally work in an opposite way to negative emotions. So, while emotions like fear, anxiety, stress and anger narrow our focus, inhibit our concentration and decrease our cognitive abilities, positive emotions can do the opposite. When we’re feeling upbeat and happy, we’re more likely to have an inclusive focus than a self-centered outlook, and to perform better on cognitively demanding tasks.

When faced with negative events, our brains struggle to perform at their regular—and sometimes, highest—capacity. The prefrontal cortex, which is the brain’s “executive center” is pushed aside so the amygdala can take over and prepare the body for any crisis that might possibly arise.
This shift in control to the low road favors automatic habits, as the amygdala draws on knee-jerk responses to save us. 

When we’re stressed or scared, for instance, we struggle to think clearly, to coordinate well with others, to take in new information and to come up with new ideas. Even existing routines suffer, as our concentration is taken over by our negative emotions.
The more intense the pressure, the more our performance and thinking will suffer. 

In his book Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, Daniel Goleman explains that heightened prefrontal activity, which is associated with positive emotions, enhances mental abilities such as “creative thinking, cognitive flexibility, and the processing of information.” The left prefrontal area of our brains, which lights up with activity when we’re in a positive mood, is also associated with reminding us of the good feelings we’ll have when we reach a long-term goal.

Goleman’s book Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence also discusses positivity and how it affects us. Goleman explains how positivity is measured at a neural level, which involves looking at the length of time we can maintain a positive outlook after something good happens. In a study of participants with depression, control subjects with no mental illness were able to hold onto positive feelings for much longer than those with symptoms of depression.

Positive encouragement and communication.

The way leaders use positivity when communicating with employees can make a huge impact on their emotional well-being and their performance. Goleman looked at several ways this can happen in Social Intelligence.

In one experiment, the emotional tone of a leader delivering news to an employee made more impact that the news itself. When negative feedback was delivered with a warm tone, the employees usually rated the interaction positively. On the other hand, good news, such as achieving a goal, delivered with a negative tone would leave employees feeling bad.

The emotional state of a leader can rub off on employees even when they’re not sharing feedback specifically. Just being more upbeat can improve the emotional state of your employees, as well as helping them to be more efficient and coordinate better.

Employees are also more likely to remember negative interactions than positive ones, and to spread the negativity among other employees.

When sharing feedback with employees, negatively-focused discussions are more likely to increase feelings of guilt, fear and anxiety. As I mentioned earlier, these emotions work against our cognitive abilities, forcing us into a spiral of being stressed about the need to improve, while our brains are too busy being stressed for us to actually improve.

In Focus, Goleman looked at how talking about positive goals and dreams can be a better way to encourage employess. Richard Boyatzis, a psychologist at Case Western Reserve University explained that focusing on what someone needs to do to “fix” themselves will effectively close them down to new possibilities or ideas.

Boyatzis did an experiment on college students, scanning their brains during interviews about college life. For one group, the interviews focused on positive outlooks—where they hoped to be in ten years, and what they wanted to gain from college. The other group had a negatively-focused interview where they talked about the stresses and fears of college life, struggles in their performance and workload and troubles in making new friends.

As you might expect, the areas of the brain related to negative emotions like anxiety and sadness were more often activated during the negative interviews. During the positive interviews, more activity was seen in the brain’s reward circuitry and areas related to happy memories and positive emotions.
A conversation that starts with a person’s dreams and hopes can lead to a learning path yielding that vision. 

No doubt, we can’t avoid all negative moments, but adding enough positive ones to offset those that trouble us can make us happier and more productive.

Building Communities in the Clouds

Educators' Lounge:

For those that are new to this idea, cloud storage is a term used to describe services that back up your files to a remote server owned by the cloud storage provider. The documents and pictures from your computers, tablets, and smart phones can be backed up (often automatically) to this remote server, which then allows you to access the files from any other computer or mobile device with an internet connection and a web browser (or the appropriate app).
Using cloud storage is becoming essential as people depend on more and more electronic devices. Most of us and not only Educators utilize (on a daily basis!) a home desktop, a work laptop, an iPad or Tablet, or a mobile phone. We need to be able to access any and all of our personal and work files from any of these devices at any time. USB thumb drives wouldn't work on two of those devices and emailing ourselves every file needed would be ludicrous . 
Here is a pretty fundamental list of the benefits of cloud storage: 
1. Keep the files on multiple computers synced automatically.
2. Access your files from any device with an internet connection
3. Back up your computer in case it is damaged or crashes: 
4. Provide your iPad or Tablet with a familiar file structure
5. Easy sharing:
6. Clear up space on your Device 
There are hundreds of cloud storage services available. Many of them have varying levels of free hosting before they start trying to charge you as an individual or as a company for additional space and features. However, for the vast majority of Educators, simply using two or three of the free providers (and grabbing some bonus space by referring friends) will provide you with more than enough space for everything you need.
Six different cloud providers are suggested below(plus a Flickr account), that will enable you to start utilizing the power of Cloud Storage now.
1. Dropbox: Dropbox is the reiging King of cloud storage providers. They give you 2GB to start which you can instantly inflate to several gigs by doing a few simple tasks (follow them on Twitter, etc…) or getting referrals. Dropbox has a great desktop client for computers and one of the best iPad apps. The app even lets you automatically backup your iPad/iPhone camea roll to Dropbox, which is a great feature.They also have established integration with tons of various iPad apps and website plugins. Finally, they maintain a history of your document edits so you can find old copies of a document you might have changed and saved in a way you don't like or one you might have deleted accidently.
2. Skydrive: This is Microsoft's cloud system. It is automatically integrated into Windows 8.1, so you might already have an account and be backing up your stuff and not even realize it. They give you 7GB to start with. The Skydrive website lets you edit Office documents right in your web browser, which is pretty useful if you need it in a snap. Their app is pretty decent but not quite as robust as the Dropbox app. If you have a Windows Phone or a Windows Tablet you can set it to automatically upload photos and videos to your Skydrive account.
3. Google Drive (if you have a Google account, you already have Drive, but you might not know about the desktop client – then download the app): Google Drive is automatically given to anybody with a Gmail, Google+, YouTube, or any other aspect of a Google account. You get 15GB split between your Drive and your Gmail storage. Be warned that if you keep all your old emails and attachments archived in Gmail, this can take a chunk out of your starting Drive space. You can store traditional office documents on Drive, but you can also utilize Google's web programs to create documents, presentations, spread-sheets, forms, and more. Which leads to Drive's best feature: if you edit a Google Doc on your iPad using the Drive app, it syncs across all your devices (as opposed to Dropbox, where you'd have to open the doc in Pages and then any edits are stored locally on your iPad instead of on the cloud server until you re-upload it manually).
4. Copy (sign up via my referral link – then download the app): Copy is relatively new, but wow, they make a great first impression. They have a fully functional desktop client and iPad app that lets you do most of the stuff the other services do. They start you off with 15GB or 20GB if you sign up via a referral link (like the one I posted). Then they will give you 5GB extra for every person you refer. You could quickly and easily inflate this to a huge amount of space; but this is a limited time deal, so get it while it exists. If you are reading this post months in the future it might already be gone. But Copy is still a great service and worth having, especially if your other free services are filling up. When you share files with others, Copy will also evenly divide the space between the shared members. If two people are sharing 10GB of data it will only take up 5GB of allotted space from each of them.
5. Box (sign up – then download the app): Box seems very focused on business solutions. They have additional plugins and web apps that provide different features that corporations might find useful. As a teacher, you might want to grab it for the easy extra 10GB of space. It has all the usual features you'd expect, plus a desktop client and a decent app. Many iPad apps have Box integration as well.
6. iCloud (if you have an AppleID, you already have iCloud – make sure to turn it on): iCloud gives you 5GB that is best used to automatically backup your iPad, iPhone, and iWorks documents. That is pretty much it: emergency, behind-the-scenes backup and syncing across multiple iDevices. It does not really have the functionality of these other services, but you should use it just to protect your iPad. It also lets you sign in via a web browser, find a lost iPad, and edit iWorks documents on the web (like Google and Microsoft).
7. Flickr (sign up – then check out Flickr Studio): This is not really a cloud service, but it is worth mentioning. They do not have an official desktop syncing client, and it is only really used for photos. But for that, it is amazing. Flickr gives you an unbeatable 1TB (1,000 GB!!!) of photo storage space. You can edit photos online and organize them into sets that are either private or public. With that sort of space, you can basically upload and back up every photo you ever take in your life. Ever.
* Please note that the details listed above, especially the starting space, is subject to change at any time based on the whims of the company. So if this post gets too outdated, I will have to return to it and update it. 
So, what now? 
There is one last issue to consider and that is managing all of your clients and apps that have been installed. Whilst there are many Paid and Free compliers available one of the best of the bunch is called SME Cloud File Manager.
This app lets you do something very important: link access to all your cloud drives in a single app. The app supports pretty much every service imaginable, including Flickr and Evernote: 
But not only that, but you can link multiple accounts from each service. I have a personal Gmail and a work Gmail, so you can link both Drive accounts to Cloud Commander and access all 30GB of space. 
Once you've linked all your accounts, SME acts as a mediocre file viewer (you should stick to the official service apps for that), but an awesome file manager. 
Then you can easily copy or move files from one service to another. Got a bunch of PDF's in Dropbox you want to upload to SkyDrive? Just drag them over. Want to download a Flickr photo set to Copy? Just drag them over. This is the easiest way to copy or move files between services if you aren't on your computer with the desktop clients installed.
There are a million other things you can do with this technology. You can't implement a forward thinking class in your school without implementing Cloud Storage at the same time.

So let us know how it goes with your adventures in the Clouds.

Author: Nicholas Blunsum.

Managing your Time.

Over the years, many management gurus have said and written a lot about effective time management, but still, countless professionals, employees and executives in different fields are still struggling with this problem.

Every living being under the face of the earth is entitled to the same number of hours in a day and the same number of months in a year, so, why is it that some people seem to get more things done than others? Why do some employees appear to be more productive than others?

Perhaps the best way to manage your time better is one portrayed in the classic Ivy Lee approach and  which has been told and retold many times in one of the few truly charming stories in the history of management.

Several years ago, Charles Schwab, who was at the time, President of Bethlehem Steel, a well known steel manufacturing company in U.S.A, was looking to increase his own efficiency, and that of the management team at the steel company. He was visited by Ivy Lee. Lee, was a well-known efficiency expert at the time and is considered today as one of the founding fathers of Public Relation.

In that meeeting, Lee told made some recommendations and told Schwab that he could turn things around for him.

Ivy Lee: “I can increase your people’s efficiency – and your sales – if you will allow me to spend fifteen minutes with each of your executives.”

Charles Schwab: “How much will it cost me?”

Ivy Lee: “Nothing, unless it works. After three months, you can send me a check for whatever you feel it’s worth to you.”

Charles Schwab: “It’s a deal.”

The following day, Ivy Lee met with Charles Schwab’s management executives, spending only ten minutes with each and told them:

Ivy Lee: “I want you to promise me that for the next ninety days, before leaving your office at the end of the day, you will make a list of the six most important things you have to do the next day and number them in their order of importance.”

The astonished Executives asked, “That it?”

Ivy Lee: “That’s it. Scratch off each item after finishing it, and go on to the next one on your list. If something doesn’t get done, put it on the following day’s list.”

Each Bethlehem executive consented to follow Lee’s instructions. Three months later, Schwab studied the results and was so pleased that he sent Lee a check for $25,000.

Within five years, the Bethlehem Steel Company had become the biggest independent steel producer in the world and Schwab went on to make a hundred-million-dollar fortune.

The story of Lee and the recommendation he made to Schwab and his team is well-known in the business and self-development world. But even if you do already know the story, it’s totally worth studying again and again until it’s ingrained into your daily habits.

In just 4 steps:

• Each night, make a list of the top 6 things you want to accomplish the following day
• Prioritize the list
• Start working on task number one, and keep working on it until you complete it. Do not move onto the next task until you complete this one.
• If any tasks are left at the end of the day, move them to the top of the next days list. For example, if you finish tasks 1-4 today, tasks 5 and 6 become tasks 1 and 2 on tomorrows list.

This, like most great ideas, might seem incredibly simple, and some might even be disappointed at its simplicity but, if you´re really determined to be effective and  a true achiever, this obviously simple system can bring about the desired change and turn the tables around for you and your organization. 

The lesson to be learned is the importance of defining top priorities and focusing on those important items until they are finished, rather than letting the mundane and unimportant distract  us.

Poker Mouth

In business, leadership and in all interpersonal relationships, you´ll find that most people are too quick to blurt out a response without thinking and most often not caring about how it could affect their listeners. 

Many a times, both personal, work and business relationships have been marred because of a quick and unkind retort. No matter how quick the brain is to think or to react, feelings could be hurt, deals are oft lost simply because someone in a fit of anger, frustration or even confusion was in too much of a haste to voice his or her opinion. 

When faced with a disagreeable situation, many people lose the ability to stop and think. Many of us forget about being mindful and thoughtful, and we easily forget that sometimes, saying nothing at all for a few second can help us get our thoughts into perspective, articulate our opinions better and that, only then can we have the possibilty of explaining our stance without stepping on any toes (and, when we do step on toes with justifiable reason, the toe will know exactly why it got stepped on).

Poker is a card game based on information availability and combines elements of chance and strategy. You never know for sure how good or bad another player’s hand is, often until it’s too late. But because poker is a game of human interaction, we sometimes receive clues from other players, based on changes in their betting patterns or their physical demeanour, which indicates the strength or weakness of their hand. These are called “poker tells” and even though most times, these "tells" could be false, players have used them as indicators of how to bet.

And so, for a leader, the concept known as "poker face" basically means adapting your behaviours and reactions so that your facial or bodily expressions don´t reveal your thoughts or emotions too much., especially with an "opponent".

Also, consider the concept of "poker mouth" - which can be the ability to be intentional and thoughtful, not saying everything that comes into your head, but rather choosing to say the things which are most likely to help you get the desired results.

Developing a "poker mouth" might be easier for some people than for others. Some people count to a certain number, some think about a loved one; spouse, parent or someone of influence over them, some people leave the room for a while.

How do you hit that "pause botton"? How do you stop and think when we are being pushed to make one of those barbed responses and how has it worked for you.
Share your tactics.

Recent Trends for Educators.

With the staggering evolution of the Internet and Social Media Networks, Educators have been left in their wake playing catch up what feels like a greased pig. At Joggle Lounge we try to create a platform for sharing debate and discussion, so please feel free to agree or disagree with the following.

The Use of the Internet and Social Media Networks as a Teaching Tool:
All students nowadays know how to use a computer, they have a smartphone and are bound to have either Twitter or Facebook. One problem Educators can face is creating a community in the classroom that resembles what they have as an online presence. Blending the classroom with something as simple as a Twitter account or Facebook page can empower students to share their thoughts and opinions outside a classroom environment.

The Condition of Facilities and Resources Affecting Performance:
We can all accept that the better the facilities the happier the Student and Teacher. Recently across the USA a report was collected and released stating that the condition of the school, classroom and resources offered impacted the performance of both Students and Teachers to an exponential degree.

Whilst these ideas ring true for many of us, How would you deal with a classroom without the basics?

No Electricity, no Chairs, no Whiteboard and no Air-Con.

These are conditions that many Educators are facing on a daily basis and something we should all reflect on as well as experiencing in our own classrooms.

How would you cope?

Students Teaching Teachers and Handing Over Power:

Students love to give their opinion as well as giving performance reviews to their Teachers. Contrary to the belief that 'Teacher knows Best', Students/Learners have varied experiences and backgrounds that can aid Teachers deliver a more successful lesson. Why not have a Student driven lesson where Learners try and teach others? You never know, you may learn something.

The Passion.

A deep-rooted, long-standing and unquenchable passion for resonant leadership and effective education skills is the reason behind JoggleLounge. We aim to bring together a group of skilled and experienced professionals with a strong drive to provide a much needed support for leaders and educators at different levels.

As both an educator and a leader, I´ve seen myself attain height I had never even imagined before embarking on the journey as an educator; learning new things, exploring new horizons and enthusistically reaching for the stars.
I have seen that, the more I teach, the more I learn, and in effect, the more inspired I am to share. And, because, I have learnt that in sharing, you learn even more, I have become a life-long learner.

In JoggleLounge, we understand this circle and we intend to keep spinning the wheel and get every leader, every educator and every professional in on this ride. Because, we know that the only way to maximize our potentials, to impart knowlegde, to positively influence the people around us and to leave our marks on the sands of time is by being a life-long learner.