Study Techniques for Busy People

On top of my usual teaching load and working through my Experienced Teacher Accreditation, I thought I'd finish off my Masters in Education Leadership this year! I knew that it would make for a busy year, but I don't think I realised just HOW busy things would be. As I started first semester at University, I had to get used to the whole online environment and figure out how to get the readings for my classes. One of my biggest struggles has been finding time to do the readings, so I decided to get creative with how I do this. Here's what I worked out:


Let Siri do the reading 

I don't live too far from work, but each day I have over an hour of commute. Ordinarily I have used this time for listening to podcasts or enjoying some of my favourite songs. I now use this time to listen to the readings I need to get done.

Step 1: Download the readings and send them email you can access on the iPhone or iPad.

Step 2: Go into email, download file and import with iBooks.

Step 3: Change settings. Go into General, then Accessibility, then Speech. Toggle Speak Screen.

Step 4: Open the reading in iBooks. When the reading is displayed, scroll down from the top of the page using two fingers. This will bring up a control bar and Siri should begin reading the page.

Siri doesn't pronounce all words correctly, and I found it amusing that she struggles with some words that a techy 'person' should know - like ICT and "geeking out" and "technologies". Ideally it would be great to be able to teach Siri how to pronounce the words that she is getting wrong. Perhaps this is something Apple will build in at a later point in time.


Annotate the readings with Notability

I got a new iPad for Christmas, with the intention that it could help me through my studies this year. So far I've been really pleased with how it's working out for me, and I LOVE having the Apple pencil. After I have listened to the readings, I need to return to them in order to prepare a response for the assessment of the course. I like to be able to scribble down ideas and highlight the important parts to come back to. For this I use Notability, and then I don't have to cart around a pile of papers everywhere. Please note, this is an app that needs to be purchased from iTunes.

Step 1: Go back to the email I sent the readings to.

Step 2: Import the reading with Notability this time.

Step 3: Go into Notability and respond to the dialogue box - either select the pages you want to import, or import the whole thing.

Step 4: Open the file and make notes using the available tools. I prefer to handwrite and use highlighter, but you could add text or post-its if that is your preference. For my other posts about using Notability, go here.


Build a YouTube Playlist

There have been a number of YouTube videos as part of my course materials this semester. Again, these are things that I would prefer to listen to "on the road" or walking my dog, rather than eating into official study time. Making a playlist to store these, and logging into YouTube on the various devices I use means that I can access the videos easily wherever I am.

Step 1: Log into YouTube.

Step 2: Go to a video you want in the playlist.

Step 3: On the bottom left, select "Add to", then at the bottom of the dropdown box choose "Create New Playlist".

Step 4: Enter a name for the playlist and select Create. Your video can now be accessed within that playlist, in your "library".

Step 5: To access your playlist on your mobile device, log into YouTube with the same account, select the Library tab. Find your playlist and play your video.

Another benefit of logging into YouTube is that it will suggest other relevant videos, given what you have been watching. This can help to provide further exploration and depth when researching the topic.

The next thing I need to find a short-cut for is collecting citations for the texts I use. I have been using the Citation Machine to help with this, but I really should get better at collecting the citations as I go, rather than having to chase that up when I use them in my work.

Do you know of any other time saving study techniques that you could share to help other busy people?

Oh poo!

Had a shocker on Wednesday morning.

For once I was on time getting my little guy out the door and headed next door for family day care. It was a good feeling because it rarely happens, since I usually have to coax him away from whatever he is playing with and wrestle to get his socks and shoes on!

Once out the door, however, the struggle began with my little guy trying to balance along the garden edge. I was trying to suggest this wasn't so nice for our neighbour as some of the plants spilt over the edge and he was trampling them. Of course, being a stubborn two-year-old, he insisted and so I continued to the front door without him. He burst into tears and I then stood on the stoop looking like a heartless (and spineless) mum.

So, I got him through the door with a cuddle and continued with the normal signing in process and hand over. All looked to be going well again so I headed over to my little guy's side to sing our goodbye song. Only, once I got there, I spotted mud on the bottom of one of his shoes. And on closer inspection, realised it was actually dog poo. So the next ten minutes was gobbled up cleaning the mess he had walked in and his shoes. And then we realised it was also on the bottom of MY shoe. I thought I'd never get off to work!

Of course, I did finally get to work, and told my story to the other teachers as we took turns on the photocopier. These teachers were also balancing the mummy and teacher roles, so we laughed about how hectic our mornings are and the many things we race around doing before our work day begins. We remembered the days before family when we only had ourselves to get ready in the morning.

Having a little one has definitely changed my time management. I find my days very full and don't get around to sitting and chatting to staff members as much as before. I try to get my work day finished at work as once I'm home there is no guarantee I'll have time to do anything. I like to think it's forcing me to work smarter as well, but that's yet to be proven!

I am enjoying both parts to my life at the moment and the challenges each brings. Life is far from boring!