Desirable Difficulties

John Sivell just sent me a link to this video of Robert Bjork talking about the importance of what he calls "desirable difficulties" in helping students not just to learn and quickly forget material but rather to retain it over the long term.  I take it as a validation of 'Back to the Well' principles and feel vindicated in one aspect of my teaching philosophy as he urges teachers not to jump in and answer their own posed questions after only four or five seconds. Amen!

It is under six minutes long. I hope you'll take the time to view it and comment below.

P.S. The contest for the $50 Amazon certificate is still open (read prior post).

Win a $50 USD Amazon Gift Card

I am on summer break, and it looks to me as if most of you are, too. Since things are a bit slow around here, I'm thinking this is a great time for me to take a summer break from blogging while leaving you with something to do!

Between now and September 1, I am inviting you snoop around my blog, website and worksheets looking for errors for a chance to win a $50 USD Amazon Gift Certificate.

Rules: To have your name put in the hat, you have to find an error (typo, misspelled word, grammar mistake, broken link) in one of these three places:

• in any post in this blog (JoyofESL.blogspot.ca)
• on any page of my website (www.kellymorrissey.com)
• on any of the worksheets that I have created and made available for download on my website

When you find an error, simply leave me a comment on this post. As long as you don't comment anonymously, I will be able to track you down via email while other readers will not be able to see your email address.

For each mistake that you find, your name will be entered once in the draw.

My thanks go out to reader Maria who pointed out to me a download link that was pointing to the wrong worksheet. Mind you, there is a particular bug in Weebly that makes it quite likely that more such errors exist on www.kellymorrissey.com. Since Maria inspired this competition by finding a broken link, I've already put her name in the hat. The winner will be decided in September by numbering all entries and using a random number generator to choose one.

If you are the winner and reside in a part of the world where you are not able to take advantage of an Amazon.com gift card, I will work with you so that you receive a book or item of the same value--even if I have to mail it to you myself.

Since this blog only has about five readers in the whole world, your chances of winning are quite good. So happy hunting, and see you in September!