Lee Jackson Motivational Speaker inspires exam students Northern Echo newspaper

June 1, 2016 By Lee

“STUDENTS have been inspired by a motivational speaker Lee Jackson to look to their future in the run up to impending exams…

Lee Jackson Motivational speaker in the northern echo

Being from the North East originally its nice to get a bit of press in one of North Easts newspapers – thanks to Wensleydale School and the Northern Echo 🙂

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/14521379.Exam_students_are_inspired_by_motivational_speaker

“STUDENTS have been inspired by a motivational speaker to look to their future in the run up to impending exams.

Motivational speaker and self-help author Lee Jackson addressed Year 11 and Year 13 students at the Wensleydale School and Sixth Form as they prepare to sit GCSEs and A Levels.

Billingham-born and now based in Leeds, Mr Jackson will become president of the Professional Speaking Association in the UK and Ireland in October.

An award winning teenage DJ and a youth worker, he has been speaking to audiences of all sizes for the past eight years as a motivational speaker in business and education.

He told students: “You are experts in education. The fact you are still here means you have the ability to do it. Up to this point you have taken many exams so you know you can do them.”

“Ding is the noise your brain hears when you learn something new,” he said. “But learning only ever takes place when you put it into practice.

“Every second counts and there is not enough time in the day to study and spend five hours on-line and on social media.

“Write down your ideas or you will forget them and it is the little steps that make a difference. Behave well in lessons and encourage you friends. Keep going as you are approaching the final hurdle.” ”

5 ways to really enjoy Christmas this year…

December 11, 2015 By Lee

Christmas – 5 ways to really enjoy Christmas this year…

Things I love about Christmas:
Turkey and cranberry sauce, slightly mad Christmas lights, food, seeing my family, food, time off work, great TV specials, food and a drop of Port with good friends, oh, and, err food!

Things I hate about Christmas:
People buying stuff they don’t need or can’t afford, presents that go straight to landfill, the over-hype of “the day”, hearing of people I know being on their own at Christmas, people who say it’s just for kids, Christmas pudding!

What do you love and hate about this time of year?

Sure, there are things that I love and hate about Christmas time like most people do – but I certainly wouldn’t ban it, like some have said that they would on Martin Lewis’s new online poll.

He says: “…20,367 voted on whether they’d cancel Christmas if given the choice. Perhaps unsurprisingly, parents of school-age kids were most festive, with 64% of those mums and dads happy to celebrate. Of the rest of voters, 55% would choose to press the cancel Christmas button if they could. Bah humbug!” See the full results of the poll here: http://is.gd/jgjQ78

People who want to ban it may well be in the majority, but why is that?
Maybe they are reacting to the over-hyped season of shopping?
Maybe they have a different religion, like my old neighbour who was a Jehovah’s Witness?
Maybe they have bad memories of certain events at Christmas time?
Maybe it’s an expense that they just can’t afford?
Or maybe they are just a bit grumpy?!

But for most semi-Scrooge’s, maybe they don’t realise the power of a celebration. Christmas is good for us, in fact any good holiday or celebration is good for us. But we in our British culture often just don’t celebrate very much. And some make not celebrating an artform! It always makes me laugh that anti-Christmas type people still go to Christmas parties but they sit there with a “Bah humbug” hat on while there! Or as I saw the other day at a hotel where a works party was taking place – everyone was wearing a Christmas jumper. i never saw the party as it was behind closed doors but one by one people were popping to the loo looking very sheepish wearing a really embarrassing jumper at a 5 star hotel! Their faces were a picture as they mumbled under their breath “please don’t see me please don’t see me” in their rush for the loo! I think they’d had an email from the boss to wear a light-up Christmas jumper, none of them were doing it by choice.

But amazingly it can be good for you…

5 reasons Christmas is good for you
(taken from The Mirror’s article)

1. You sing more at Christmas.
Singing is good for us, it lifts our spirits and makes us feel part of a community. Why not get to a carol service or start a sing-song at home? A study for the annual Sing for your Heart campaign by Heart Research UK found singing is a “great aerobic exercise, giving your heart and lungs a fantastic workout”.

2. You give and receive.
Studies show that when we give and receive gifts, the brain releases the feel-good chemical dopamine. Giving also releases the “cuddle” hormone oxytocin.

3. We spend more time together.
The average family manages just 36 minutes of quality time together a day, according to recent research, yet a separate poll reveals 95% of parents believe the key to happiness lies in spending quality family time together.

4. We make family traditions that will last.
“Whether it’s buying a new tree bauble every year, leaving a mince pie out for Santa or watching It’s A Wonderful Life, family traditions unite all generations”. We always watch National Lampoons Christmas vacation as our start to Christmas!

5. Err and lastly,
“The Christmas holidays are the most popular time to conceive, according to one US study, probably due to a combination of socialising more and the long, cold days of the Yuletide period when, for many, there isn’t the distraction of work! Condom sales also double in December, showing that sexual activity in general rises. And extra sex is good news for your health. As well as giving your heart a boost and relieving stress, its great for your self-esteem and wellbeing – and even makes you look younger!”

Here’s my 5 ways to really make the most of Christmas this year:

1. Take time to stop and think, reflect on the last year, write down the positives, learn from the negatives, then throw them away.

2. Don’t buy tit-for-tat presents for the sake of it, buy presents for those you want to, maybe even make a present or two yourself, a tin of homemade mince pies is much more meaningful than a bottle of talc! Or just send a text, have a Skype chat or send a card to someone you’ve lost touch with.

3. Write down a gratitude list. What are you thankful for this Christmas? It’s proven to make us feel better. Maybe also write down a task list for work too, so you can forget it and relax.

4. If you are not in the emergency services, then switch off your phone for a while (it’s so rare to do that these days) and put an autoresponder on your email too for a while, use it as your winter break.

5. And lastly, when you are at a party or get-together – be in the moment, enjoy the random conversation, games or cheesy TV, you’ll enjoy things so much more. Just go with it. Work can and should wait every now and then.

Have a great Christmas holiday, however you chose to celebrate it.

merry christmas lee jackson

Finland schools throw down the gauntlet to English schools… Subjects scrapped and replaced with ‘topics’ as country reforms its education system via The Independent

March 23, 2015 By Lee

Wow this is very challenging for the top brass in the Dept. For Education.

So often in the past few years Finland and Singapore amongst others have been lauded as the top countries to emulate…

…and now they want to scrap some subject teaching.

How will that fit with OFSTED and the obsessive reporting and admin that causes so much stress for teachers?

Radical stuff, could this help to kill the high turnover of English teachers and just let teachers teach?

More information below via the excellent Telegraph article by Richard Garner:

Finland schools: Subjects scrapped and replaced with ‘topics’ as country reforms its education system – Europe – World – The Independent.

For years, Finland has been the by-word for a successful education system, perched at the top of international league tables for literacy and numeracy.

Only far eastern countries such as Singapore and China outperform the Nordic nation in the influential Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) rankings. Politicians and education experts from around the world – including the UK – have made pilgrimages to Helsinki in the hope of identifying and replicating the secret of its success.Which makes it all the more remarkable that Finland is about to embark on one of the most radical education reform programmes ever undertaken by a nation state – scrapping traditional “teaching by subject” in favour of “teaching by topic”.“This is going to be a big change in education in Finland that we’re just beginning,” said Liisa Pohjolainen, who is in charge of youth and adult education in Helsinki – the capital city at the forefront of the reform programme.Pasi Silander, the city’s development manager, explained: “What we need now is a different kind of education to prepare people for working life.“Young people use quite advanced computers.

In the past the banks had lots of bank clerks totting up figures but now that has totally changed.“We therefore have to make the changes in education that are necessary for industry and modern society.”Subject-specific lessons – an hour of history in the morning, an hour of geography in the afternoon – are already being phased out for 16-year-olds in the city’s upper schools. They are being replaced by what the Finns call “phenomenon” teaching – or teaching by topic. For instance, a teenager studying a vocational course might take “cafeteria services” lessons, which would include elements of maths, languages (to help serve foreign customers), writing skills and communication skills.More academic pupils would be taught cross-subject topics such as the European Union – which would merge elements of economics, history (of the countries involved), languages and geography.

There are other changes too, not least to the traditional format that sees rows of pupils sitting passively in front of their teacher, listening to lessons or waiting to be questioned. Instead there will be a more collaborative approach, with pupils working in smaller groups to solve problems while improving their communication skills.Marjo Kyllonen, Helsinki’s education manager – who will be presenting her blueprint for change to the council at the end of this month, said: “It is not only Helsinki but the whole of Finland who will be embracing change.“We really need a rethinking of education and a redesigning of our system, so it prepares our children for the future with the skills that are needed for today and tomorrow.“There are schools that are teaching in the old fashioned way which was of benefit in the beginnings of the 1900s – but the needs are not the same and we need something fit for the 21st century.”The reforms reflect growing calls in the UK – not least from the Confederation of British Industry and Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt – for education to promote character, resilience and communication skills, rather than just pushing children through “exam factories”.

But there would currently be little appetite in the UK for going as far as ditching traditional subjects. Even in Finland, the reforms have met objections from teachers and heads – many of whom have spent their lives focusing on a particular subject only to be told to change their approach.Ms Kyllonen has been advocating a “co-teaching” approach to lesson planning, with input from more than one subject specialist. Teachers who embrace this new system can receive a small top-up in salary.About 70 per cent of the city’s high school teachers have now been trained in adopting the new approach, according to Mr Silander.“We have really changed the mindset,” he said. “It is quite difficult to get teachers to start and take the first step… but teachers who have taken to the new approach say they can’t go back.”Early data shows that students are benefiting too. In the two years since the new teaching methods first began being introduced, pupil “outcomes” – they prefer that word to standards – have improved.Finnish schools are obliged to introduce a period of “phenomenon-based teaching” at least once a year.

These projects can last several weeks. In Helsinki, they are pushing the reforms at a faster pace with schools encouraged to set aside two periods during the year for adopting the new approach. Ms Kyllonen’s blueprint, to be published later this month, envisages the reforms will be in place across all Finnish schools by 2020.Meanwhile, the pre-school sector is also embracing change through an innovative project, the Playful Learning Centre, which is engaged in discussions with the computer games industry about how it could help introduce a more “playful” learning approach to younger children.“We would like to make Finland the leading country in terms of playful solutions to children’s learning,” said Olavi Mentanen, director of the PLC project,The eyes of the education world will be upon Finland as it opts for change: will it be able to retain or improve its showing in the PISA league tables published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.If it does, how will the rest of the education world react?Case study: Finnish approachIt is an English lesson, but there is a map of continental Europe on the whiteboard. The children must combine weather conditions with the different countries displayed on the board. For instance, today it is sunny in Finland and foggy in Denmark. This means the pupils combine the learning of English with geography.Welcome to Siltamaki primary school in Helsinki – a school with 240 seven- to 12-year-olds – which has embraced Finland’s new learning style. Its principal, Anne-Mari Jaatinen, explains the school’s philosophy: “We want the pupils to learn in a safe, happy, relaxed and inspired atmosphere.”We come across children playing chess in a corridor and a game being played whereby children rush around the corridors collecting information about different parts of Africa. Ms Jaatinen describes what is going on as “joyful learning”. She wants more collaboration and communication between pupils to allow them to develop their creative thinking skills.

How to pass exams – Part 16 – Serve

March 13, 2015 By Lee

How to pass exams – Part 16 – Serving your fellow adventurers

“If there is one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view, and see things from that person’s angle, as well as from your own.”
Henry Ford (the first person to make mass produced cars)

Gordon Brown was one of the most ridiculed and hated Prime Ministers of recent times, the media were always having a go at him saying crazy things like “He’s Scottish, he’s got a wrinkly face…and he can’t even smile properly!’ Poor man. Whichever way you may want to vote no-one can help what their face looks like! He was trying to steer us through the worst financial crisis since the Second World War but everyone seemed to hate him. It was a tough ride for him, but when Gordon Brown eventually resigned as the Prime Minister, he said ‘It was a privilege to SERVE as the Prime Minister of the UK’.

A privilege to serve? Eh?!

He didn’t have a go at anyone he just said, “It was a privilege to serve”.

I was amazed.

When Richard St. John did his research into ‘successful’ people, he found out that they all served others in some way.

What?

Aren’t successful people only out for themselves?

Serve wasn’t really a word I expected to see in his list, and to be honest it’s kind of unfashionable these days. Rarely mentioned, never mind promoted. Serve? What did they mean?

[ Based on years of research you can read more about Lee’s work at http://leejackson.org/education/howtoenjoyandsucceedatschoolandcollege – How to pass exams ]

In order to be a successful human being we have to serve others in some way. I charge for what I do, that’s business, but I also give free advice too, because when you give something away I believe it is returned to you.

I speak at schools and businesses now, where in the past I helped them for free.

“What goes around comes around.”

“What you sow you reap.”

Imagine your favourite shop where the people serving you were only focused on themselves and not on you as a customer. What a horrible shop that would be. Rude and aloof staff; no returns or even help – maybe we’d buy something once from them, but we’d probably not go back there.

‘..I asked Ben Cohen (the co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream) what led to his success and he said “ I think I’m good at being able to put myself in the shoes of my consumer (i.e an ice cream eater!)’
(Ben comes up with all their new flavours)

Extract from “8 Traits Successful People Have In Common: 8 to be great” by Richard St. John 2010 ISBN 9780973900972

“put myself in their shoes…” sounds like serving to me.

When people are messing about in lessons and giving the teacher hassle, what would happen if they put themselves in the teacher’s shoes?

How would that make them feel?

Where do you serve?

Have a think.

More to come…

This an excerpt from Top UK motivational School Speaker Lee Jackson’s book “How To Enjoy And Succeed At School And College” Available in paperback and on Kindle (for only £1.99 during pre-exam time) here now.

Video: Lee Jackson interviewed by TES @tesresources about his book for students and his work speaking in schools and colleges – one of my free @tesresources #revision and #exam videos for secondary schools

May 7, 2013 By Lee

TES interview with Lee Jackson about his book and work speaking in schools and colleges…

Thanks for watching my short videos produced by myself and www.tes.co.uk – I really enjoyed making them and hope you found them helpful.

I love speaking in education to students and school staff alike. If you’d like to know a little more about my work in schools and colleges, there are some links below.

My book ‘How to Enjoy and Succeed at School and College’ can be bought direct using the link here, or you can get it from Amazon too, although we always deliver quicker…

More information on my main motivational presentation and workshop for schools and colleges students is here

More information on my staff training on understanding Generation Y / students behaviour is here

Or just have a look around my ever-developing website for yourself.

You can always contact me on 0113 2170081 or email me here – I always aim to respond quickly to requests during office hours , please leave a direct contact/mobile number if possible to speed things up.

Best wishes,

Lee Jackson

P.S. I do hope to possibly work with TES again in the future, what subjects would you like us to cover, if I do?

#takingexams – one of my free @tesresources #revision and #exam videos for secondary schools

May 7, 2013 By Lee

Taking exams

Thanks for watching my short videos produced by myself and www.tes.co.uk – I really enjoyed making them and hope you found them helpful.

I love speaking in education to students and school staff alike. If you’d like to know a little more about my work in schools and colleges, there are some links below.

My book ‘How to Enjoy and Succeed at School and College’ can be bought direct using the link here, or you can get it from Amazon too, although we always deliver quicker…

More information on my main motivational presentation and workshop for schools and colleges students is here

More information on my staff training on understanding Generation Y / students behaviour is here

Or just have a look around my ever-developing website for yourself.

Best wishes,

Lee Jackson

P.S. I do hope to possibly work with TES again in the future, what subjects would you like us to cover, if I do?

#Preparingforexams – one of my free @tesresources #revision and #exam videos for secondary schools

May 7, 2013 By Lee

Thanks for watching my short videos produced by myself and www.tes.co.uk – I really enjoyed making them and hope you found them helpful.

I love speaking in education to students and school staff alike. If you’d like to know a little more about my work in schools and colleges, there are some links below.

My book ‘How to Enjoy and Succeed at School and College’ can be bought direct using the link here, or you can get it from Amazon too, although we always deliver quicker…

More information on my main motivational presentation and workshop for schools and colleges students is here

More information on my staff training on understanding Generation Y / students behaviour is here

Or just have a look around my ever-developing website for yourself.

Best wishes,

Lee Jackson

P.S. I do hope to possibly work with TES again in the future, what subjects would you like us to cover, if I do?

My intro – one of my free @tesresources #revision and #exam videos for secondary schools

May 7, 2013 By Lee

Thanks for watching my short videos produced by myself and www.tes.co.uk – I really enjoyed making them and hope you found them helpful.

I love speaking in education to students and school staff alike. If you’d like to know a little more about my work in schools and colleges, there are some links below.

My book ‘How to Enjoy and Succeed at School and College’ can be bought direct using the link here, or you can get it from Amazon too, although we always deliver quicker…

More information on my main motivational presentation and workshop for schools and colleges students is here

More information on my staff training on understanding Generation Y / students behaviour is here

Or just have a look around my ever-developing website for yourself.

Best wishes,

Lee Jackson

P.S. I do hope to possibly work with TES again in the future, what subjects would you like us to cover, if I do?

#keepongoing – one of my free @tesresources #revision and #exam videos for secondary schools

May 7, 2013 By Lee

Keep on going!

Thanks for watching my short videos produced by myself and www.tes.co.uk – I really enjoyed making them and hope you found them helpful.

I love speaking in education to students and school staff alike. If you’d like to know a little more about my work in schools and colleges, there are some links below.

My book ‘How to Enjoy and Succeed at School and College’ can be bought direct using the link here, or you can get it from Amazon too, although we always deliver quicker…

More information on my main motivational presentation and workshop for schools and colleges students is here

More information on my staff training on understanding Generation Y / students behaviour is here

Or just have a look around my ever-developing website for yourself.

Best wishes,

Lee Jackson

P.S. I do hope to possibly work with TES again in the future, what subjects would you like us to cover, if I do?

#howtorevise – one of my @tesresources #revision and #exam videos for secondary schools

May 7, 2013 By Lee

How to revise

Thanks for watching my short videos produced by myself and www.tes.co.uk – I really enjoyed making them and hope you found them helpful.

I love speaking in education to students and school staff alike. If you’d like to know a little more about my work in schools and colleges, there are some links below.

My book ‘How to Enjoy and Succeed at School and College’ can be bought direct using the link here, or you can get it from Amazon too, although we always deliver quicker…

More information on my main motivational presentation and workshop for schools and colleges students is here

More information on my staff training on understanding Generation Y / students behaviour is here

Or just have a look around my ever-developing website for yourself.

Best wishes,

Lee Jackson

P.S. I do hope to possibly work with TES again in the future, what subjects would you like us to cover, if I do?