Methods used by business helping Welsh pupils to think on their feet

Rhydypenau Primary and Christ the King Catholic Primary in Cardiff are the first schools in Wales to officially become Thinking Schools. They have been accredited as one of only a handful of centres of excellence in the UK.

The scheme run by the University of Exeter's Cognitive Education Centre (CEC) encourages schools to incorporate the use of thinking tools from mind maps to thinking hats into all aspects of the curriculum to help pupils become independent learners, promote a love of learning and help lay the foundations for every pupil to become lifelong learners.

The tools have until recently been more commonly used by businesses but headteachers say they are having a positive impact on the way children learn and interact with each other. Being a Thinking School is defined by CEC as "an educational community in which all members share a common commitment to giving regular careful thought to everything that takes place." On a practical level for schools it means that pupils continually develop and demonstrate independent and co-operative learning skills using the skills and strategies they have been taught.



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Hippo continues to expand under a positive kind of hex

One of the equipment makers that generally flies under the big-name radar, but a company that is technologically advanced with value-priced products, is Hippo Golf.

The Hippo name dates back to 1989 and equipment manufacturer Howson Sports in the U.K. It has since grown to become one of the largest European lines in golf. In the U.S., Hippo is based in Carlsbad, Calif.

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Living the Thinking Life

That book was so readable, even for a mere kid, and the logic was so pristine that it transformed my thinking at all levels. I grew up in a rural farming community, so many of the examples that Darwin used to illustrate his points were familiar. Through his words, his logic, his cautious and carefully-worded arguments, the world was revealed as a vibrant and mysterious place, but despite its seeming chaos, the world was still logical and understandable: it was governed by rules, even though those rules might not be obvious to humans. Inspired, I began asking questions, lots of questions, of the adults around me. Of course, I was ignored, but it wasn't long before I asked the preacher what was the purpose of god since we evolved. Woops.

After being told that I was a stupid little girl who should remain silent until I "knew something" (the precise word used was "shaddup"), I realized that I would never be taken seriously until I had a serious education.



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5 positive ways to

With the mortgage meltdown, floods in the Midwest, $4 a gallon for gas, food prices, the economy, the war in Iraq, thinking positive is hard to do. Yet, Jon Gordon, author of the No Complaining Rule, says despite the negative circumstances in life, you really can be positive. Here are five positive ways to quit your complaining and change your dark cloud perspective.

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Miss Africa 2008: Contestant Mariamma Brown from Senegal

Most of all she possesses a spirituality and faith that enables her to conquer and survive anything from the Atlantic Slave Trade to modern day battles in life.

Mariamma Brown.

Mariamma Brown

What is your beauty secret?

I use Witch Hazel and water on a cotton ball as a toner. Its a low costing, natural, and effective toner.

What do you think is the best solution for the current crisis in the oil markets and why?

Well many things have become dependent on oil. The solution to the current oil crisis is not something that can be solved overnight. Big companies have been so extremely occupied with oil and its great revenue, that they avoid developing sources such as solar energy, wind mill energy, and other alternatives that would prevent such a massive scale of oil use.



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Edner Cherry: "I would love to fight Manny Pacquiao and Nate

BC: I spoke earlier in the article about your spirituality. How big a part of your life does spirituality play?

EC: I always put God first in everything I do. He is the one who provides everything I need. Everywhere I go and everything I do, God is there for me. I make mistakes but I ask god for his guidance to help me correct the mistakes. People do not want to be around negative people. I want to show people love and respect everywhere I go so that they will look at Edner Cherry and say that I’m a nice guy. I want to continue to give God praise for everything he has provided for me. I will continue to praise God, win or lose, after a fight. He has given me the opportunity to be a boxer, and he needs thanks for giving me that gift.

BC: Do you find yourself ever asking the Lord for guidance before or during a fight?

EC: Yes, absolutely.



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The Power of Self Improvement

"People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy after." Goldsmith

The subject of my note today is Self Improvement. In discussing this subject I'd love to look at the word KAIZEN. Kaizen is a Japanese management term referring to constant, continuous and never-ending improvement. Anthony Robbins calls the notion CANI that stands for: "Constant And Never Ending Improvement." Kaizen is a way of life. It is constant improvement in every aspect of your life. You have a built-in mechanism to substantiate and to improve. Therefore, ascertaining how to improve your relationship, your knowledge, your attitude, your goals and goal-setting strategies, leadership skills and time management should be your daily responsibility. Experts in the field of human development say overly everything can be improved on by at least ten per cent.

There is no pursuit a good deal more venerable than the pursuit of self-improvement. Self-improvement as aforementioned, begins amongst your born once again spirit, your mind, as you consistently renew it with God's word. Everything is capable of being improved, even if only incrementally. The concept of continuous improvement can literally be applied to every aspect of your customized and professional life. Consistent and constant pursuit of improvement in all cities of your life is indispensable in the attainment of your real potential. Hence improving daily, whether by spending some time exercising, reading, visualizing or forging better relationships, you are making common deposits and evolving toward a desired attainable end.

The personal mark of all but every high achiever and successful people is a daily dedication to improvement in both personal and qualified lives. To be effective, you own to do Times daily and consistently and not haphazardly to advance congruently in the direction of your goals, final purpose and destiny.

It is fundamental to apply the Kaizen or CANI principle on a continuing basis to every component of your life from spiritual to physical, business to family to attain peak performance as you migrate toward your desired end.

Mark Vernon

Or I found myself turning my back on the spirituality that is represented in great religious music and architecture. I did not take it seriously simply because it might imply I was letting religion in again, through the back door.

Then there were the arguments for and against the existence of God. I'd read them all, and came to think that there is no knock-out blow one way or the other. Anyway, proofs never persuade anyone to change their mind. They just bolster the opinions of those whose minds are made up already.

To put it another way, I had become an agnostic. But not just a shrug-of-the-shoulders agnostic. This agnosticism felt more passionate than that. I wanted to ask the big questions, develop a spirituality. I was committed to the search.

It is such a passionate agnosticism that sees science as inspired by wonder, nurturing a piety towards the natural world.


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Inner power

MANY of us communicate with ourselves consciously or unknowingly in our daily lives when we are confronted with all kinds of issues, positive or negative.

Some regard this intuitive contact as a conversation with our inner voice or strength, which guides us in our decision making, particularly when we have nowhere else to turn to.

All of us have this self-talk gift and invoking it is vital to able to constantly be in touch with this talent for our well-being and others.

But one needs to examine these signals because they are often known to be negative.

I write this week�s column following a request from a reader in Penang on how she can tap her inner strength for happiness, prosperity and peace of mind.

The power of the inner energy, which is within every individual, is that it can stimulate our consciousness and also show an individual what is right and what is wrong.


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How to be happy: Be more active to feel better about ageing

They will also be more relevant in terms of spending power, which means that advertisers are going to have to start identifying positive aspects of this ever-growing group. This will be a good thing as currently we know that older age is largely associated with negative attributes, which presents an unbalanced view.

Step 2: Research shows that most adults over 65 are very healthy, and physical deterioration can be ameliorated quite dramatically with a healthy diet and physical exercise. Research also confirms that cognitive functioning does not decline as rapidly as first thought and that older brains are still capable of forming new neuronal networks, so one way to stay youthful is to keep learning. An active sex life is also important for maintaining youthfulness.

Step 3: The things we can do to age healthily are to stop smoking by the age of 45, drink alcohol moderately, maintain a healthy weight and healthy relationships, exercise, have a mature outlook on life and keep learning.


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Problems With Do-Gooder Self-Improvement Types Making Society Weak

There are so many self-improvement types and psychologists working on helping people get through their problems and their concern in life. Many of these psychologists and self-improvement consultants write articles and the give advice, and a large number of of them a mean well. Unfortunately a lot of what I see it is there are various problems with these types of do-gooder self-improvement types as properties are making society weak.

If someone has psychological issues or tremendous stress in their livlihood then properties fancy to direction that energy and those matters and do something around it. However, going throughout old childhood memories and trying to psychoanalyze every single event in someones life is purely silly. People need to take responsibility for their actions and situation with their hardships and prevent complaining and making excuses.

Too many do-gooder self-improvement sorts allow folks excuse themselves out of things to try to make them feel comfortable even when properties failed to perform a duty or made favorably on a responsibility. There is no excuse for failure, no excuse for piss poor performance in any of lives many endeavors.

It would seem to me that self-improvement sorts really want to help the people who properties are consulting with then they would notify them to be more responsible for the actions, honor their commitments and stop acting fancy this kind of a crybaby. But if properties did this I suppose the people would be cured and not need them anymore?

I don't like self-improvement psychologists when of the bad advice they give to people who are already weak when too often right now advice causes them weaker. But then again, I do like weakness nevertheless and I think weak people are of no value as they do not try, they make excuses and everything is always suddenly someone elses fault. Who needs them, they don't do anything. Now then, how can we service the self-help experts? Consider presently in 2006.

'Lady Idina Sackville was nicknamed "The Bolter" because of the

I have been reading The Secret, a book which has sold a zillion copies and which purports to tell me how I can make myself have absolutely anything I want.

At first, I was extremely excited and highly motivated by this possibility. And I have been eagerly and religiously affirming and visualising and intending my perfect life. The only problem is, whenever I sit down to do my visualising, I change my mind about what I want to manifest. Some days, I have a huge house in Sandymount, and one in Hampstead and one in New York, overlooking the park, but then, some days I decide I want to live a simple, eco-friendly life in a log cabin in California with a bunch of hippies. To the outside observer, these problems are only the normal problems that any multi-billionaire in my position would be faced with.


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The Art of Acceptance

The concluding goal for any endeavor in self improvement is to gain a clearer understanding of your own potential. Through the insights gained with self assessment a picture begins to form which suggests the things of that potential. Who you will become begins to take shape in your mind, but among such new found insight, obstacles become apparent, behaviours and actions which have not served to help you on your way to improvement.

When you begin a process of self assessment and self analysis it can be difficult to confront certain aspects of our personalities. The measure of battling through ingrained thought processes, learned behaviours, and counter productive reactions to situation can seem overwhelming. It is important to come to terms providing the elements of our personality that are unhealthy and obstructive to the development of our real selves. These counter productive elements if not be considered as faults or negative traits, properties are how they are, and most notably they are obstructions to a deeper understanding of our real natures.

The nurturing and growth of the real self is a process and should viewed as such. As we become a multitude of self up to date we can boost to become more accepting of the non intuitive components of our behaviours and thoughts. With awareness comes responsibility, responsibility to deal with the challenges posed by the improvement of the inner self.

The acceptance of non-productive aspects of personality should be applied to others as well. We are all fallible and have setbacks, perfection is not an attainable goal, understanding and improvement are goals. Treat others to the same level of acceptance as you allow for yourself. Know that not anyone shares your commitment to a deeper spiritual bargain and not everyone is on the path towards discovery.

Docs keep the faith

Well, doctors do believe in God and some don't mind infusing a dose of spirituality into their sessions at the clinic. Like Dr Vinod Kumar Nigam, a general and laparoscopic surgeon, who is writing a book 40 Minutes With God, where he talks about the time he spends praying for his patients while on the treadmill.

Currently at the Apollo Hospital, Gurgaon, he encountered the power of prayer early in his career of over 30 years. “There was a patient who was diagnosed with a cancerous tumour. When she found out, she simply asked me for a photograph of the malignant organ and assured me that she would knock down the tumour and she did, simply through prayer and the power of positive thinking. She went on to live for years, defying the prognosis of a couple of months."

Adds Dr Nigam, “We all know about the feel good hormones like serotonin and pheromones that are secreted in the body when we exercise or experience happiness and positive emotions.


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Religion: Thinking vs. feeling

Not thinking. Thinking, even atheistic thinking, can lead to belief, because thinking is the province of logos, the Word. And so, this caught my eye. A few weeks ago, we blogged on the Templeton Foundation's posing of the question, "Does science make belief in God obsolete?" This article from The American examines the answer of one physicist and Christian who answered the question with "Absolutely not!" But I'm not sure the rest of his answer is satisfying. His name is William D. Phillips, a professor at the University of Maryland and a Nobel Laureate in physics.

Phillips, himself a scientist and a practicing Christian who talks openly about his faith, wrote in his essay that "a scientist can believe in God because such belief is not a scientific matter." […] Phillips said that examining belief in God from a scientific vantage point was the wrong approach, since one cannot measure God scientifically.


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Those Embarrassing Body Problems

But wouldn't you know it, just when you want to project an image of cool confidence, "body central" has other ideas.

"There are some people who actually have a problem with overactive sweat glands, but for the most part, excessive sweating that occurs only in certain situations is all about stress," says Siegel.

A by-product of stress hormones such as cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine, Siegel says nervous sweating is a reflection of sympathetic nerve discharge - a manifestation of the fight-or-flight response that kicks in when we're anxious.

The way to prevent it, he says, is to condition ourselves ahead of time for facing stressful situations. "It's a matter of brain retraining. Gradually expose yourself to the nervous situation, and eventually your body won't respond as if you're in danger."

An easier way to prevent excessive sweating is simply to try an antiperspirant deodorant, Siegel says.


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Power of the positive helps cancer survivor

"I absolutely have a more positive outlook on life.

"We are much more in control of our destinies than I would ever have dreamed."

New Thought Unity Center is located at 1401 E. McMillan. For information on the workshop, call 961-2527.

Forrest Sellers is a reporter for The Eastern Hills Journal. You can reach him at fsellers@communitypress.com or at 248-7680.

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Be Hardworking to Reap Results!

SELF-IMPROVEMENT

How to be a better person?
This is a common question instructors ask of students. It is to lead this thinking juice to enhance the learning process.

Basically teachers can make aware to the under graduates the process whereby the brain accepts and digest guidelines before learning takes place. They can move on to methods to acquire info or intellectual resources with reading, listening, or any process this causes use of the 5 human senses. However, it should be highlighted to the students that acquiring data is useless if the tips gained is not digested by thinking and iterative linking of the acquired material and facts.

Through understanding of the newly accepted material, the next phase is for one to apply the new knowledge. This is able to then make sure that the understanding is correct and if it did not require out (with inconsistent outcome), the understanding process has to be re-visited with maybe more hints gathering to supplement the previous bank of information. He has to be hardworking mentally and to repeat the process with persistence in condition to reap a satisfactory result. Good habit will be made in the for a long while run which will mould a person's character and ingenuity capability.

The system of learning is a tedious one of feedback and improvement on oneself. The learning process if properly handled and manged will experience a marked improvement on one's being and confidence. It will create awareness of self-improvement. This self-improvement skills can go on for one's livlihood time and has compounded benefit through application of knowledge and sharing with others.

If a society or community had acquired this attitude of self-improvement, the quality of life within the society or community can be greatly increased. This has a spreading effect when people on other community sees the aide of self-improvement.