A website for left-handers to check out.

You read earlier that I've found a place to get free books, as long as I read them and post a review on my blog. Well, now I've won a promotion by  Simply Lefty  who will send me one of their writing products free, after I've "blogged my view on them" here. But I have actually already mentioned them in a previous post. Although I was wrong on one thing in that post, they do ship overseas - and they were very keen to tell me so.

As a left-handed Occupational Therapist interested in helping kids with handwriting, their products do interest me. They've even got a Singaporean website.

Never having tried any of their products it is a little hard to comment, but I am keen to see if their pens help me to write. Writing left-handed does have its challenges and I don't actually do it much any more, I'd rather type. But as I plan to go back to Japan at try to help children at CAJ with handwriting, I'm sure I'm going to come across some 'lefties'! If these products are helpful, then I can pass the link onto others.

Left-handers take note!

Being left-handed and an OT I am intrigued by this website and these pens:

There are their claims: The award winning Yoropen is a revolutionary ergonomic pen designed to make writing more natural and comfortable, especially for left-handers.

Yoropen’s offset portion prevents fingers from slipping down towards the pen tip; thus improving posture, saving energy and reducing writing strain. The tripod grip can be adjusted to one’s preferred writing position; left-handers simply twist to the left. It also creates a clear field of vision, prevents hooking and smudging of work. The unique design helps reduce writing strain and is ideal for everyone including; children, students, left-handers, dyspraxia and arthritis sufferers.

Pity they don't ship overseas. But then we do have our very own Lefty store here in Australia. You can even buy a left-handed watch (the opposite to usual, of course).

More on left and right brainedness in teachers

I went hunting and found a better set of descriptions of left and right brainedness here. It makes sense that there are right-brained teachers and left-brained teachers. We all know that maths teachers and art teachers are in completely different ball parks most of the time, don't we? Maths and music go together sometimes though, did you know? In me they do. At my high school the head of the maths department was also a gifted musician. Anyway, see if these descriptions work better for you:

The Left-Brain Teacher Teachers with left-brain strengths generally prefer to teach using lecture and discussion. To incorporate sequence, they put outlines on the board or overhead, and they like to adhere to prepared time schedules. They give problems to the students to solve independently. Teachers with left-brain preferences assign more research and writing than their right-brain peers. A reasonably quiet, structured classroom is preferred. The classroom tends to be clean, with items in their place

The Right-Brain Teacher Teachers with right-brain strengths generally prefer to use hands-on activities over a lecture format. In concert with the right-brain preference of seeing the whole picture, these teachers incorporate more art, manipulatives, visuals, and music into their lessons. They tend to embrace Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences. They like to assign more group projects and activities, and prefer a busy, active, noisy classroom environment. The classroom of a strong right-brain teacher will typically have materials and books scattered all over.

Right brained teachers?

I just found this Right brain-Left brain explanation on Facebook. I'm a little concerned that both politicians and teachers are described as having difficulty explaining ideas verbally. Also that they are impulsive, spontaneous and don't like time limits? My experience of most teachers is exactly the opposite, that they rule by time limits. The worst teachers were the ones who couldn't explain...

Right brain individual: Right brain individuals are intuitive, creative and imaginative. They are flexible and are concerned with the bigger picture rather than details. They are impulsive and spontaneous and do not like time limits. They have difficulty explaining ideas verbally and prefer illustrations to verbal instructions. Careers: Architects, Artists, Salespeople, Psychiatrists, Musicians, Politicians, Teachers.