I was privileged to be invited to train as an arbiter to enable me to work with a team of dedicated and enthusiastic individuals who prepared, supported and organised this amazing event.

Follow this link to see the announcement of the winners at the end of the three day event.

Tim

This is an amazing article about a lady with half a brain.

In the Sainsbury’s Magazine last month there was a fantastic article for parents   ‘Parental Guidance’ from page 29 onwards.

One of the most interesting was ‘Exam Stress’ on page 32.

I wrote to the Editor Helena Lang, newly in post this year, to congratulate her on a sensible no nonsense article which was full of useful, practical advice.

Helena published an edited version of my letter this month.

I will be running revision preparation courses during the next four months, please contact me for further details.

In the mean time here are my top 10 tips for exam and revision:

On Sunday 4th October I ran, for Buzan Training, a workshop for parents and KS2 children a  which centred on Mind Mapping.

It was lovely to see the children working with the parents developing their thinking, planning, memory and learning skills.  What was truely wonderful was when the children were helping their parents learn new skills!

This workshop was successful because the group was small, enabling me to spend time with each family on every task.

We had the pleasure of the presence of a German freelance journalist who was joining in the tasks but also researching Mind Mapping training for an Education Journal. We also had the support of Anne Reynolds (training manager for Buzan) who made sure that everything ran to plan. As always Anne did an excellent job and managed to find time to join the workshop as well.

This style of workshop will run again in the near future. Please contact me for further details of future events. tim.fulford@buzanworld.com

• ‘….very encouraging for the children…’
• ‘….we feel far more confident to Mind Map…’
• ‘….lots of ideas to build on…’
• ‘….Loved it, we really know how to Mind Map now….’
• ‘….great fun learning…’
• ‘…..excellent materials and support…’

I have never been one for running around a field with a ball or taking part in team sports, I’m sorry but it just does not do it for me. However that does not mean I don’t like exercise. I love to walk in the countryside, up hills and down dales, I love to be outdoors doing something physical, cutting wood, that kind of exercise.

I commented on an article on 6 Ways to Boost Your Brain Power by Emily Anthes and now I would like to add this post which I have come across by Meg Mahoney.  This is a lovely post which suggests that dance boosts brain power, and I think it does too.  Just like me walking in the great outdoors to clear my head and get a better picture or think things through, my exercise makes my brain function better. Thanks Meg for making me think again about the importance of exercise.

For the last few weeks I have been watching Herons on a local lake. There are four or five of them and they all have different characters. They are huge solitary birds who spend a vast amount of time sitting and watching, just watching. Then every now and again they silently reach out and delicately eat a snack.

Like the slightly unusual child in the school playground they get poked, harassed and bullied by the gulls and crows who appear to think it’s fun to get a reaction.

This Mind Map records the words I have been using to describe these amazing birds.

Herons: an observation from NewMillerDam

Mind Mapping is a simple, practical tool for improving your creative-thinking, planning and problem-solving abilities. It will help you:

Generate more ideas: Mind Mapping allows you to start quickly and generate more ideas in less time. You don’t have to edit or order your thoughts; just start with a creative doodle in the center of your page and begin printing words on lines emanating from the center as you think of them. The free-ranging format — adding words to one branch one moment, then skipping over to another branch the next — increases your chances of generating new ideas.

Make new connections: Mind Mapping allows you to represent a tremendous amount of information in a relatively small space. You can have all your notes for a topic on one piece of paper, with your ideas arranged in a way that encourages you to see relationships between them. Mind Mapping helps you see connections among things that may have seemed completely separate.

Improve your memory: Remembering your material becomes much easier. Colors, images and key words — three central ingredients of Mind Maps — are much more engaging to the brain than sentences. A well-made Mind Map is almost impossible to forget!

Use your whole brain: Half a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Mind Mapping helps you strengthen your analytical left brain by training you to look for the most essential key words. At the same time, it stimulates the right brain by encouraging you to use colors and images.

Taken from Advantages of Mind Mapping all rights acknowledged.

I am currently working on a project to show how Mind Mapping and Mind Maps can be used in Education right from reception through to Sixth Form.

These first Mind Maps are spelling sheets which are being used by Year 5 pupils. They work on the founding principle of Mind Mapping: Image and Association as developed by Tony Buzan.  Each Mind Map is produced using iMindMap software and can be used in the very useful ‘presentation mode’ displaying one branch and image at a time to enable the pupils to record the words themselves rather than working from a prepared linear list.

Spelling sheet Year 5

Each week the pupils were given a list of 20 spellings to learn for a test the following week. I have converted the list into a Mind Map for some of the pupils and I will be monitoring the performance in the weekly tests.

Spelling sheet Year 5

Mind Map to learn the order of the planets

I am pleased to let you know that in the latest edition of the Buzan Online news letter I have two Mind Maps featured. While talking Emily at Buzan Online it came up that I enjoy cooking and had started recording recipes as Mind Maps to make them easier to follow, particularly for younger children to use.

Follow this link to the newsletter and my featured recipes.

I will be producing more in this format soon and will be publishing an ‘e’ book of Mind Mapped recipes very soon.

Follow this link to see the new gallery of my mind maps.

Travel Log of my recent trip to Morocco