EP289 A practical guide to building students’ attention stamina and ability to focus

Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers

Angela Watson

Teachers, Courses, Education, Teaching

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2023

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How long can you read a book without getting distracted? Do you swipe through TikToks or reels before they’re over because you’ve gotten impatient? Do you find it hard to just stream a TV show or movie without also looking at your phone or doing another activity at the same time?

Yep — the shortened attention span issue isn’t something unique to Gen Z.

It’s something that I think almost all of us in modern western culture have been impacted by…and there’s good reasons for that. In this episode, I’ll share:

Some of the reasons why it’s difficult for us to concentrate and think deeply
Why the ability to focus for extended periods will be like a superpower in the coming years
A 3 step process you can teach students for redirecting their attention when they notice their minds wandering
How to make intangible terms like “stay focused” easy for students to understand
The 5 step classroom practice you can use regularly to help students build capacity for concentration over time
The limits of the human ability to do focused work, and what valuable tasks students can do once they’ve maxed out concentration for the class period
Cal Newport’s research on how to alternate periods of deep work and shallow work
How–and why–to break the addiction to staying busy with low-level tasks and spend more time (on our own and with students) in deep work, focus, and concentration

Click here to read the transcript and participate in the discussion or, join our podcast Facebook group here to connect with other teachers and discuss the Truth for Teachers' podcast episodes.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to episode 289 of Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers.
0:08.0	I'm your host, Angela Watson, and I'm here to speak encouragement into the hearts of educators
0:13.0	and get you informed and energized for the week ahead.
0:16.0	Today, I'm offering a practical guide to building students' attention stamina.
0:21.0	Visit truthforteachers.com for and easy to read, easy to share version of this podcast episode.
0:31.0	Did you hear that I've started another podcast?
0:34.0	It's called The Truth for Teachers' Daily Encouragement Podcast,
0:38.0	with new episodes dropping each day from Monday to Friday.
0:42.0	Every episode is just three to five minutes long,
0:45.0	so it's perfect to listen when you first wake up to start your day on a positive note.
0:50.0	Or listen during your commute to school to ease into school mode.
0:53.0	You could listen on your break to re-energize yourself in the afternoon.
0:57.0	Or listen after dismissal to ground, calm, and recenter when the day is done.
1:03.0	The Truth for Teachers' Daily Encouragement Podcast is ad-free and exclusive to subscribers for $3.99 a month.
1:10.0	Click the link in the show notes to sign up.
1:12.0	I hope this will be an easy, fun way for you to hear some positive words spoken into your heart and mind on a daily basis,
1:19.0	so you can keep showing up as the best version of yourself.
1:22.0	Thank you for supporting me and for supporting my work.
1:27.0	So we're talking today about attention spans.
1:31.0	And I want to start by thinking about us, right,
1:35.0	because who we are as people and how we show up in the schools is all impacted by our own habits and our own practices.
1:43.0	So I'm wondering, how long can you read a book without getting distracted?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Angela Watson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Angela Watson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.