Creative Learning Systems: Learning Styles Blog

Get yourself motivated in 2015

2015-01-15T10:18:00.001+13:00

Whether your Working Style is internal or external, sometimes you need a few words of wisdom to get you started and keep you going. It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. Confucius In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can. Nikos Kazantzakis Good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them. Anonymous Do

2014 --> 2015

2014-12-31T01:23:00.000+13:00

This time of the year is a time to reflect on the past and to plan the future. It's also a time to count our blessings and to be grateful. A novel way to remember all the things we're grateful for, is to create a Gratitude Jar. An old jam jar, an ornamental box with a lid, a decorated Tupperware container - the choice is yours. Fill it with scraps of paper and attach a pen. Throughout 2015, make

Merry Christmas 2014

2014-12-23T17:35:00.000+13:00

Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves. So may your world be filled with love, warmth and good cheer this Holy season, and throughout the year.

For the teacher in your life

2014-12-19T02:31:00.000+13:00

Do you know a teacher? Delight them this Christmas with a unique gift: a present created especially for them. Barbara Prashnig’s book, “Learning Styles in Action”, is a practical guide to implementing learning styles in the daily teaching practice, thus helping teachers solve any stress and discipline issues. The newspaper-column-style of the book ensures fast reading. The layout

Travel Less Save More

2014-12-13T01:48:00.000+13:00

For many companies and organisations, travel is routine. Meetings, training, site visits, and, of course, commuting to work – for most people these are all part of the daily schedule. With travel comes cost: the cost of travel, the cost to the environment, as well as the cost of productivity lost during travel time. Communications technology can help reduce the need for travel in business today.

Christmas Maths

2014-12-04T22:36:00.001+13:00

Whether it's summer or winter in your part of the world, you've probably noticed your children's learning has decreased in intensity in anticipation of the Christmas holidays. However, the break will not be favourable towards the students' progress in maths. Fun sheets to the rescue! Have a look at these magnificent ways of capturing your child's imagination and enthusiasm for learning this

Useful Maths Tricks

2014-11-27T13:58:00.002+13:00

How many of these super-cool maths tricks do you know? Have a look. Incidentally, did you know that your child's ability to do maths depends, among others, on their Learning Style: If you ask a child who needs movement to sit still and memorise a times-table, you’re unlikely to get good results. You would do far better if you allowed them to walk around or play hopscotch on a

Learning Resources: Do you prefer technology or tradition?

2014-11-20T14:14:00.000+13:00

When it comes to learning, today's technology keeps providing us with the latest and the greatest gadgets. We can access knowledge online, we can experience new skills in simulated environments, we can use our eyes, our ears, and our hands. Whether you embrace technology or prefer the tried-and-tested resources will depend, in part, on your Learning Style. But here's an interesting argument from

What Teachers Can Learn From Famous People

2014-11-13T14:22:00.001+13:00

Terry Pratchett is an internationally bestselling novelist and a multi-millionaire. At school, he was, according to his own words, "a non-decrypt student", a "dreamer", and a "goat". His principal open doubted Terry would achieve anything in life. At 17, Terry left school with 5 O-levels, and got a job at a local newspaper. at 35, he had his first Discworld novel published. 25 years later, he was

What Teachers Can Learn From Students

2014-11-06T13:42:00.000+13:00

In a recent study, a teacher took two days to replicate a student's life at school: she attended all the classes, played the sports and did the homework. Here's what she learnt: Students spend a lot of time sitting, and it's more energy-draining than you can imagine. Before the first day was over, the teacher had a lot of empathy for children who fidget in their desks. Students spend a lot of

An Excerpt From Barbara Prashnig's Keynote Address in Poland

2014-10-29T21:27:00.000+13:00

11 Steps to implementing Learning Styles on a school-wide basis: 1. Teacher training (LS Day 1) “Diversity in the Classroom Based on Learning Styles” including teachers’ own personal LSA-Adult profiles 2. Student assessments with LSA questionnaires, printing of computer-generated student

Learning Styles Continue To Conquer Poland

2014-10-24T00:27:00.001+13:00

(please scroll down for the Polish version) Good morning. It's our privilege today to host in our virtual studio a Polish specialist in learning and teaching, an enthusiast of psychology, education, neuro-didactics and learning styles, as well as a mind map devotee: Joanna Prus. Earlier in October 2014, Joanna took part in the Conference Of Neuro-Didactics, attended by outstanding Polish and

Learning Styles Rock Poland

2014-10-16T13:57:00.002+13:00

Earlier this week, Barbara Prashnig caused an outbreak of public excitement when she addressed the audience of the First Neuro-didactics Conference in Poland. Learning Styles, it seems, is exactly what the Polish education system needs in order to overcome forty years of communism followed by three decades of not knowing how to apply the political

Our Company Turns 20!

2014-10-10T01:17:00.000+13:00

That's right! Creative Learning Systems is now twenty years old. Scary how time has flown. We've survived the Big Auckland Blackout of 1998, the introduction of NCEA (National Certificate of Educational Achievement) in 2002, the Global Recession of 2008-2009, and the birth of National Standards in 2010. We've had several website looks and we've added heaps of new products to our offering. Our

New Productivity Rules... Or Are They?

2014-10-02T02:08:00.000+13:00

Business consultant, Gihan Perera, has this to say about our productivity: "The old rules of goal setting, productivity and time management don’t work. Our goals become meaningless when the environment changes, it’s difficult to stay productive when we’re constantly interrupted, globally dispersed teams make in-person meetings impractical, and the 9-to-5 workday just doesn’t make sense

What's better - books or reading online?

2014-09-24T20:54:00.000+12:00

There's no doubt about it: exposure to fiction is essential for developing children's imagination. In a way, it matters less whether the format is listening to a book, reading together with a parent or reading by themselves, just as long as they get lost in the imaginary world of book characters. We usually include e-books and online reading in the same set: as long as it's a book, it doesn't

Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society

2014-09-18T02:23:00.000+12:00

This blog post is a tribute not only to Robin Williams, but also to all the great teachers out there. In the movie "Dead Poets Society", Williams played the role of John Keating, an unconventional English Literature teacher. John Keating's teaching style - it involved tearing "boring bits" out of textbooks - would have horrified sequential thinkers and delighted simultaneous ones. (To read more

Finland and South Korea - The Best Education

2014-09-12T00:51:00.000+12:00

Recently, Finland and South Korea were proclaimed the two countries with the best education systems. Shocking? Indeed. You would be pressed to find two countries so different in their philosophy towards learning, and yet, both systems yield results. The differences are staggering. South Korea has large classes and relies heavily on hard work and repetition. Finland has tiny classes with very few

Best Learning Quotes

2014-09-04T13:22:00.000+12:00

“Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or the same way.” – George Evans “Do not train children to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.” – Plato “The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to

Google Earth and Learning Styles

2014-08-28T21:50:00.000+12:00

Google Earth helps children visualise and discover the world around them. It’s an online program that lets you explore the earth using 3D maps and 3D street views. It also has some library images of forests and mountains, so you can see inside the White House including all the details of the Oval

Fun Education Apps

2014-08-21T13:43:00.001+12:00

For all those students out there whose Learning Style is visual, tactile and stationary, here are a few iPad apps to try out at school or at home. StoryKit - an awesome app that allows users to create an electronic storybook via illustrations by drawing on the screen, using pictures and text, and recording audio to attach to stories. Video Science - A growing library of hands-on

Your Working Style And Conferences

2014-08-14T13:12:00.002+12:00

You hear about a new conference in your field coming up next month. The topics all seem interesting at worst and ranging all the way up to super-fascinating. The guest speakers are experts you've heard of and would love to connect with/ And, best of all, your diary is clear for that week and your boss is paying. Are you excited? Or not so much? That will probably depend on your Working Style. If

Nigel Latta Rates Kiwi Schools Brilliant

2014-08-07T12:45:00.002+12:00

Nigel Latta is a familiar name in every Kiwi household. His parenting advice may appeal or raise eyebrows, but is inevitably hilarious and memorable. A few weeks ago, we were honoured to host Nigel on our blog. Today, the country hosts him in our TV lounges as he discusses the way New Zealand schools work today and whether it's better than the traditional approach. The traditional approach

The secret to balancing work and life

2014-07-31T14:23:00.001+12:00

Julie Ashton, Life Coach and Business Consultant, has this to say about managing time: "It is well a known fact that you cannot manage time, you can only manage what you do with your time. Many people talk about ‘to do’ lists and priority management in order to get control of their ‘time’. However, while we need these tools, most of us do not question our habits, personality and belief systems

What Can You Learn In A Boat?

2014-07-24T13:12:00.000+12:00

What can you learn if you sail the world with your parents for a year? In addition to your expected home-schooling lessons, you will learn: minute geographical details of the area you're sailing the culture and the history of every port exposure to foreign languages navigation soft materials technology when mending sails and sewing new clothes from your old ones hard materials technology with