Educate This: A Podcast For Teachers, Trainers, Mentors, Coaches & Learners podcast

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Overcoming Fear: Snakes on a Face 15:17

לפני 3 years15:17

15:17

“I’m a celebrity, get me out of here!” He said it! There was no way in hell he was going to lay his 2.5 metre tall body into a Perspex coffin on what the hosts were calling “The Wheel of Death”. I was participating as a stand-in (basically someone who does the “dummy run”) for celebrities on the popular UK version of the reality show “I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here”. For those who may be unaware, this is a show where a group of celebrities live together in extreme conditions. They get very little food and creature comforts. That was how it was for us stand-ins. We slept in the bush, in the open air on hammocks (being kamikazed by bugs all night was probably my least favourite part,) with meagre rations. Water had to be gathered from the creek and boiled before drinking and a tiny portion of uncooked rice and uncooked kidney beans was what needed to last us through breakfast lunch and dinner. Fun times. On this camp we had a large in stature, big talking, American. He was a great guy with a lot of love for those around him but there were certain challenges that he would refuse to do. On one of our final challenges, we were told nothing about it but what they had decided to call it. “For this next challenge, you will be placed inside the “Wheel of Death””. That was all we had to go on to decide whether we would go through with it or dip out by saying the words “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here.” I hate confined spaces. I can’t even sleep with my feet under a blanket. It’s weird because I used to love spelunking in my scout days. Now I decidedly hate being in a tightly enclosed space. Something in my brain told me that that was exactly what I would be experiencing if I went through with participating in this challenge. I switched off the part of my brain saying “Aw hell no! Say no!” and told myself, “My own risk assessment involves understanding that I’m on a highly scrutinised and well managed TV show with consultants, security, OHS officers etc. that have all gone over and over this challenge. I’m in safe hands. My heartbeat was a drum roll and inside my gut churned a cyclone but with a drought-stricken mouth I said, “Sure, I’ll do it.” They laid me inside a tight Perspex “coffin.” Not so bad. I was right about being constricted and as I could barely move my arms, pretty much constrained, but at least it was a transparent casket. The next thing that they did was slide in 2 panels, to segregate my legs from my torso and my torso from my head. Then they laid the lid on top of my sarcophagus. On this lid were 3 small sliding doors – 1 for each section of my compartmentalised body. As I lay there in bare feet, shorts, a singlet and goggles, the first sliding door was opened near my feet. Mud crabs were placed on top of my toes that had decided to stop wriggling in anxiousness and stand frozen. I wasn’t about to give these large crabs the idea that my toes were the enemy. They had some mighty strong pincers. Note: After the game we discovered that the crabs had their claws tied so that they couldn’t actually chop our toes off. All we felt was their little legs running back and forth across our legs and exposed feet. To that point I had never wanted to be wearing a groin cup more. Then the second door opened and dirt, molasses and meal worms were poured all over my torso. Mealworms are the larval form of the mealworm beetle. They look like short garden worms but with harder bodies and tiny little legs that feel “pinchy” when they crawl all over your exposed skin. Lovely. With my head trapped in a position where I couldn’t move from side to side, my blurred peripheral was all I had to give me warning about what was coming next. I saw a pair of tanned, Blundstone, steel-cap boots stand next to my enclosed face. Then I saw a bulky hessian sack that was somehow moving in a weird, dance-like manner. Something was inside. The sliding door to my face was opened and 2 pythons were gently placed on top of my nose and mouth. The challenge was to stay in that position with these creatures making themselves at home on our flesh, for 5 minutes. Then we had to use the limited room that we had to find a locking nut that was near our hand and awkwardly screw it on to a bolt. This action would lead to our release. I did it, I got through it. I faced my fears and not only that, but I won the challenge. The fastest 5 got to enjoy a banquet of biblical proportions rather than the meagre allocation of rice and beans. I like to think that even if I hadn’t been the quickest to escape after the 5 minutes was up, I could still consider the fact that I completed the challenge, to be a win. Fear is normal. There is no bravery if fear is absent. Bravery is not, not being scared. It’s about feeling fear and going for it anyway. Fear can also save your life. Fear is often a good instinct that can stop us from doing something so dangerous that our lives are in imminent threat of being lost. Where it is harmful, is when it infiltrates the mind and stops you from doing things that aren’t life-threatening but could provide great pay-off. If you fear public speaking, which is very common, you may miss out on networking opportunities, job advancements or even just giving a toast at your best mates wedding. Maybe you dream of travelling the planet, but your fear of flying is stifling that opportunity to explore the world. If you are living with a fear that is so debilitating that you can’t function let alone progress through life, then please consider seeing therapist. Other ways to face your fears include: Evaluate Risks Education and knowing a bit more about what is involved with a risk (as you see it,) can help to diminish the fear. It’s about creating intellectual trust. For me, while I was going into unknown territory, I relied upon my knowledge that this TV show had professional risk assessment officers, maintenance, experienced first aid officers, animal handlers and more who had done a lot of prep work to make sure this was a safe exercise. Thinking back to that fear of flying example that is damming your world travel plans; you could dig into the statistics around flying. You would realise that flying is an extremely low risk method of travel. There’s an app that has been created called “Am I going Down” that calculates the likelihood of a flight going down and crashing. It takes history, the airline itself, departure, arrival and airports and calculates your risk of flying. An example of what you might find is this: If you were to take a flight from London to New York on a Virgin Atlantic Airbus 330, you would have a one-in-5.3 million chance of being involved in an aeroplane accident. So, in other words, you take the same flight every day, for nearly 15 thousand years, before an accident happened while you were on board. Don’t confuse being scared with being at risk. Create an Action Plan What do you do before reaching a destination? Take a step towards that destination. What do you do before conquering or at least getting a handle on your fear? Take a step towards that fear. I’ve talked in other blog posts about working at a large and pop...…

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Motivation Series: The Incredible Importance of Introspection 6:14

לפני 3 years6:14

6:14

The Incredible Importance of Introspection Sometimes motivation starts with insight. Every year millions of self-help books are sold. Add to that courses, apps, programs and more and it’s a multibillion dollar industry. Here’s the thing, the answers you are looking for, can almost always be found within. Often when we go seeking external help from a “self-help” source, which is kind of a paradox, it’s because we are either feeling stuck in a “Groundhog Day” routine or we feel our life is out of control. If you feel like that, you’ve taken a first step, which is recognition. Self-awareness starts with recognition of an issue that you could have control over but you’ve perhaps let go of. You have started to look inward, or introspect. Wilhelm Wundt, the father of experimental psychology, taught that introspection could be used to reveal one's consciousness . He promoted the theory that we have the ability to think about, and then have a chance to actively alter, our motives, feelings, and situations. Looking inward is an essential step towards self-awareness. Self-awareness will improve your: Communication Listening Skills Empathy Critical Thinking Decision Making Leadership Self-Control Creativity And much more. Introspection is the process where you look inward and examine your thoughts, previous and potential actions, and emotions. This is something that becomes easier with age but in youth, if learned and practised, can be a powerful tool to help you achieve your goals. The warning is that you can overdo it and start ruminating to the point where you get stuck in a mental quagmire. To quote author Frank Herbert of Dune fame, “Truth suffers from too much analysis.” or fellow author Phillip K Dick, “The problem with introspection is that it has no end.” but if we give ourselves parameters including time and we remind ourselves of the subjective elements of introspection, then we can harness a great power. Try starting with 5-10 minutes in the morning and/or evening. First you need to sit within the privacy of your own head. To do that you need to get rid of distractions. Put your phone away. Turn off noise distractions or make sure it’s light, meditative music, or the sound of nature. Get comfortable and start reflecting on the day or days prior. Bring to the fore any successes you had whether big or small. Enjoy reflecting on those “wins”. Think about any goals missed and and thoughts, behaviours and actions that held you back from nailing those goals. The idea is not to ruminate in a sad tar pit of despair but to positively critique yourself in order to improve. Introspection should feel hopeful. It’s a way to help you feel more intentional about life. You can get introspective at any time of course but before the day and at the conclusion are 2 ideal times. In starting the day with some quiet introspection, you should ask yourself questions that will step out of the door with confidence. Some questions could include: · What habits are holding me back? · What is my motivation for stepping up today? · Was I the kind of person yesterday that I’m happy to be today? · What mistakes did I make yesterday? · What lessons can I draw from those mistakes? · What are 5 things that I am grateful for? I’ll finish with a quote by the notable psychoanalyst Carl Jung, “Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” ― C.G. Jung Thank you for being with me today. My name is Nate Hamon and we are proudly sponsored by Qualify Now RTO Have you been thinking about a change of career or even just a refreshing of your current career? Take your skills, education and experience and put them towards a job that will help others who could use your wisdom and guidance. Contact us now to learn about how you can become a Vocational Trainer with a TAE40116, Certificate 4 in Training and Assessment. Music provided by Dragon Chromatic and Anthem Fox…

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Motivation Series, Part 1: To Thine Own Self Be Determined 10:04

לפני 3 years10:04

10:04

MOTIVATION PART 1 The Self-determination Theory For my first episode on this series I thought I’d start with the theory which, I can say I have had deep experience with for better or worse. It is the self-determination theory. 28th US President Woodrow Wilson said 'Self determination' is not a mere phrase; it is an imperative principle of action." The self-determination theory says that humans feel motivated to change and progress when 3 innate needs are being met. Those needs are: Competence Connection (You’ll sometimes hear relatedness) and Autonomy. Starting with Competence I’ll assume that if you are listening to this, you likely have a drivers licence and feel confident driving. Think back to when you first got behind a wheel to learn. Unless you were some freak Schumaker-esque prodigy you likely felt unsure of yourself. Perhaps a bit frightened. I remember my first drive. I ran into a ditch! I learned in a manual and remember clearly the “bunny hopping” the stalling, the gear grinding, the over-revving, the under-revving, the 10 moves it took to do a 3 point turn, the thousand moves it took to do a parallel park and still end up with a tire on the curb, indicating 20 minutes before the turn… Little by little I became more competent and with that competence growth came confidence growth. I’ve been watching Season 4 of Cobra Kai. I’m loving this show on Netflix. I remember my Granddad taking me on an outing to see Karate Kid when we were living in the US in a place called Logan, Utah. 35 years later and Daniel LeRusso is about to start training his own son in the art of Miyagi-do Karate. Before he begins the physical labour he imparts these words of wisdom to his kid, who is a bit of a gamer. “Learning karate isn’t easy. It takes a lot of work. But listen, think of it like a video game. It might not be as exciting at level one when you’re learning all the controls but the more you play, the more skills you get, and before you know it, level 12. You’re hooked.” When we first start learning we are very conscious of our incompetence. That can be demotivating. That is an essential time for a Trainer and Coach to be at their most encouraging. With time and effort we become consciously competent. We are doing things right for the most part but are thinking and talking our way through it. Eventually we become unconsciously competent. Things become automatic. We can now claim mastery of a task, and we can feel confident using and developing our acquired skills. The second innate need is Connection Where do you feel most confident driving? Familiar streets or unfamiliar territory? I know every time I have driven in a foreign country (foreign to Australia that is,) – back before Covid uppercut the nose of international travel, it would take me a little while to feel as confident driving on as I do back home. Whether that’s on the crazily hectic and congested streets of Manila in the Philippines, or the quiet suburban streets in Lethbridge, Canada, where, as an added challenge I had to remember to drive on the right rather than the left side. Think about when you’ve started a new school, new job or joined a new team and how you’ve felt at the start. Have you ever walked into an unfamiliar environment, especially if you’re amongst people who don’t know and felt awkward, unsure, apprehensive? You could be a Mensa level rocket scientist who is taking a samba class for the first time. Your high-level intelligence won’t translate to confidence in that situation. Relatedness which comes with making connections and threading your life into your new environment will help you to feel more comfortable with your surroundings and those who surround you and consequently, you will become more confident. The 3rd need is Autonomy A man was leading as centre manager a high performing, award winning not for profit club. This club has a head office with many locations across the country. Year after year this particular club, (and I’m not going to give specifics because this gets a little personal,) won awards and consistently out-performed other clubs financially and in meeting other KPIs. The reason for this as I see it, was that the head office at the time, took care of the club with light administration and a little oversight to ensure some uniformity in quality was maintained, support in other ways but also allowed the club to run autonomously when it came to things like payroll, fundraising, staff hire, promotions, equipment purchase etc. They knew that this manager and the staff were entrenched in the local community and knew how best to serve that community. Then a new GM came on board. Someone who believed that the best way forward was to strip the local clubs of their in-house admin and to centralise everything but basic day to day operations. They then went about homogenising the clubs without a consideration for the different demographics that each location served. To really show who was boss the centre managers in each of these mostly suburban or rural locations now had to report their hourly tasks. Local deals for local members were eliminated. All fundraising was run through the swanky head offices located many kilometres away from the low-socio-economic streets that this local club served. The worst of it? This extremely energetic, community loving, charitable to a fault manager, was now disallowed to make any decisions for his local venue, big or small, without having to go up the chain of command and just about prostrate himself before their fat feet. How motivated do you think the staff at this club now felt having had their autonomy stripped from them? How do you feel when you are being micromanaged? Taking away the local manager and his club’s autonomy just about ruined this great man. Mentally it took him to the darkest place that he had ever been. What the heads did was the opposite of what good leaders should do. If you want to create leaders you can’t deny people the opportunity to lead. Going back to the “learning to drive” example. How annoying are “backseat” drivers? I’m in a position now where I’m having to learn to back off as our daughter learns to drive. She is transitioning from her Learner plates to Provisional plates and it’s very hard to bite my tongue when I’m in the passenger seat. Advice is okay of course. Warning of imminent danger or a reminder of rules if they are broken is part of the teaching but as time goes on and she gains in ability – to constantly tell her and remind her what to do would deny her the ability to think for herself. She would never gain confidence. As Coaches, Trainers, Teachers etc. we are leaders but there’s a common misconception that leaders must always stay up the front and that the students or followers footsteps must align with their footprints. I used to be a scout. As a scout we used to go camping in places where we would need to hike for a couple of hours to get to a site. I remember that at least 3 scout leaders would be assigned to take up certain positions in the pack. 1 would take the front and set a pace. A second would position himself in the middle to keep people on the path. The 3rd lead from...…

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Choose Freedom: 6 Tips for Making Choices 14:30

לפני 3 years14:30

14:30

What we are talking about today is an essential element of freedom – which is the ability to make choices. Unfortunately many of us self-inhibit and wrap ourselves up in chains by not using that ability well. So what I’ve got today is 6 tips to help you, and myself for that matter, get stronger at making choices. I was cleaning up and culling my dusty collection of books this week and I came across an old favourite that sparked some thoughts that I thought I’d share. In relation to teaching and learning – I started thinking about how much I’ve changed over the years as a Trainer and Assessor and how new information would only lead to knowledge improvement if I responded in the right way. And then that new knowledge, which is a stimulus itself, has to be responded to in order for it to truly take effect and improve my life, and the life of my students. In other words, I could only grow as a Trainer, and consequently help my students to learn and grow, if I developed abilities to respond well to such things as new information, systemic changes, personnel changes and more journey disruptions. There’s a famous quote that kind of hard to confidently assign to someone but by some records it was Steven Covey and by others Viktor Frankl but no matter who said it it’s a really sharp slice of wisdom. Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. — Viktor E. Frankl /Covey The book that I’m talking about rediscovering is Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. This book is Twain’s magnum opus. Most of us know the gist. It is his story of a runaway boy (Huckleberry) and an escaped slave’s (Jim) travels on the Mississippi. The book plumbs the depths searching for the essential meaning of freedom. The book has caused controversy and conflict in libraries and schools across the US. Author Jay Squires said “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is a dangerous book. As all life manuals are. Celebrated writer Toni Morrison (may she rest in peace,) described and even celebrated the book by saying “The hell it puts the reader through” as being exactly the point of it. Ernest Hemingway went so far as to praise Huckleberry by writing that “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.” What both Huck and Jim seek is freedom, but they have different ideas about what that freedom looks like. Jim wants freedom from literal slavery and to an existence that will allow him to be with his wife and children. Huck wanted freedom from his father’s violent abuse as well as the societal collar that he felt people were placing on him. On the journey to freedom Huck and Jim were faced with choices. Choice is an indispensable element of freedom and is the crux of this blog entry. The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers . – Amelia Earheart In the book Huck muses on this question and is faced with an opportunity to answer it as he struggles with a dilemma that would see him doing the strictly speaking honest thing or lying to authorities. In a moment where Huck is queried about his raft, where Jim is hiding, and asked by slave hunters whether there is anybody else on board under the raft’s shelter, he is thrown into a whirlwind of conflict. Spoiler alert: He chooses to lie and say that it is his sick and highly contagious father, mum and sister. That false info was enough to keep the slave hunters at bay. In the theories of psychology there is agreement that the opportunity to choose is a valued good. A valued good being something which has a high quality, quantity, or worth but is offered at a low or bargain price. But how do we make the RIGHT CHOICES? We can’t always make the right choices. But we can get better at actually making choices without drawing out the process to the point of debilitation. Here are 3 tips to help improve your ability to make choices. I’ll follow up my next blog post with 3 more tips. 1. FEAR NOT THE WRONG CHOICE Often what was the right or wrong choice ends up being arguable anyway. As humans we are not great at forecasting results. There are too many variables. So we can’t be afraid of making the wrong choices. Studies have shown that choices we make based on what we expect to be more pleasurable often come with consequences that are less grand than we had imagined. psychologist Daniel Gilbert from Harvard University said, “ The hedonic consequences of most events are less intense and briefer than most people imagine .” Wrong decisions – events that might cause pain are usually less intense than initially imagined as well. As humans we are built to be resilient. If we are sharp to it and willing to learn, the “wrong choices” can often help us to become better people. 2. CONSIDER HOW YOU ARE FEELING AND – what might be affecting or causing those feelings and emotions, that are not necessarily caused by the faced decision. For example – are you irritable because you slept badly? Are you hangry? Did you just receive some sour news? Did you just receive some wonderful news? Our can emotions affect our ability to make logical decisions. A study by the University of California, showed that men are more likely to gamble when they are angry. With that said, emotions can also help us to make good decisions but considering their role in the decision-making process is a step that leads to the 3rd tip – 3. USE GUT INSTINCTS Going with your gut – often referred to as the second brain – can be a powerful way to make decisions quickly. Our appraisal of a situation is automatic and can trigger an emotional response. This can protect us from making the same mistake repeatedly. Often when people continue to make the same mistake over and over again it is against what their gut is saying. 4. AVOID SUNK COST FALLACY Sunk C F is when we show "a greater tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment in money, effort, or time has been made." This is why you can’t decide to sell or give away that item of clothing that you bought for a gazillion bucks even though you never wear it. There are of course less trivial decisions that this fallacy can absolutely play into and buying into it can lead to absolute stupidity in our choice making. 5. SHUN AUTHORITY, SOCIAL & PEER PRESSURE I’m not talking about shunning sensible advice, direction, requests etc. but there have been plenty of studies that show how badly humans can behave and how atrocious we can act towards others when authority, social and peer pressure come into play. You may have heard of the Milgram experiment where Yale Uni psychologist Stanley Milgram was trying to figure out the psychology of genocide, shortly after the atrocities of Nazi Germany. Why had so many good people followed order that would see them brutally eliminating fellow human beings? Reading directly from the Wikipedia page on the experiment. The Milgram experiment(s) on obedience to authority figures was a series of social psychology…

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Games Students Play, Part 1: The Benefits 8:01

לפני 3 years8:01

8:01

The Games Students Play Part 1: The Benefits Game: from Old English gamenian "to play, jest, joke." We often assign the idea of incorporating play into an educational setting as something reserved for little kids but line up 100 adult students and ask the question “who would like to bring game play into our classroom settings?” and I guarantee that few if any would keep their hands down. As poet and naturalist Diane Ackerman has said, “play is our brain’s favourite way of learning.” For most of us this is true. But does incorporating games as a part of a teaching strategy hold any benefits beyond a bit of fun? Play and learning are not diametrically opposed to each other. They are in fact one sexy couple! Here are 7 reasons for a Trainer to incorporate games into lessons. 1. Utilise and Control Competitiveness It’s not like we don’t already live in a competitive world. Competition is everywhere whether that’s finding work, bidding on a house, looking for that rare, limited bargain… Sheltering ourselves from competition can do more harm than good as eventually, we’ll be handed a loss whether we were actively competing or not. Dealing with competition in a healthy way can help us become more resilient after a loss and more gracious after a win. When a person is scared of losing to a point of feeling locked up in body and brain, that person will usually avoid taking any risks, embracing challenges, and seeking new experiences. Michael Jordan said it well when he said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life-and that is why I succeed.” No trainer should encourage full-blown ‘Lord of the Flies’, Squid Games, purge mentality competition of course but healthy competition that usually involves team support is ideal. What students in team comps are aiming for is less about working against other teams, (where sabotage, dirty tricks, verbal attacks etc. might rise,) but more about working in a collaborative way with their teammates. Team support during games can transfer to support in other learning activities. A good spirit of competition can help a student to outperform themselves. 2. Enhance the Enjoyability of Learning Learning can be tough, at times boring, and sometimes frustrating, but if those negatives can be outbalanced with enjoyable activities, education can be fun. Games promote positivity and a positive attitude towards learning enhances a student’s ability to retain subject matter. 3. Minimise Stress Learning new concepts can be stressful. Stress is a killer. Literally a killer. It is the source of so many of our ailments. Why wouldn’t a Teacher/Trainer want to create a less-stressed environment. Games can help to do that. Games with challenging aspects prompt a positive type of stress called eustress to come into play. Eustress is the stress that excites us about taking on a challenge. I believe that we will rarely if ever witness a student’s true potential if they are chronically stressed. Minimise their stress and watch them level up! 4. Improve Strategic Thinking As most games require strategic thinking, including problem-solving and planning, applying a range of challenges within a game can help students to use their working memory and improve their thinking power. 5. Improve Memory There are a lot of games that help to improve memory and considering the vital role that memory plays in a student’s learning I’d say using content specific games in a learning environment can be a huge brain booster. Games made by the students can be particularly effective at improving memory. Students can improve their learning potential as they receive instruction, research and create necessary components of the game construction, teach the game and then share the game. As author Mitchel Resnick said, “As I see it, whoever's doing the inventing is also doing most of the learning - and probably having most of the fun.” 6. Improve Attentiveness How easy is it for the mind to stray during a classroom lesson? Super easy is the answer. By playing a game a student can find it easier to pay attention. The attentiveness that is developed during gameplay can transfer to other tasks. 7. Expand Knowledge Games can help a student to more easily engage with new knowledge which naturally helps expand their minds on the whole. Games can also help lock in and consolidate new knowledge when played after a lesson as a recall activity. One last quote. I doubt you’ll disagree with it. “When you have fun then you're more interested in learning.” Magnus Carlsen Thinking about becoming a Trainer? The job market is hot right now for Trainer and Assessors (an all-in-one job title). Check out any good job search tool and you’ll find thousands of advertised jobs in Australia. The TAE40116 (also known as Certificate IV in Training and Assessment,) is the essential qualification for that role. Qualify Now are the specialists in TAE. Talk to us now about how you can become a qualified vocational Trainer in Australia.…

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Free Your Mind and the Learning Will Follow 14:29

לפני 3 years14:29

14:29

FREE YOUR MIND AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW Let’s talk today about open-mindedness and its sexy relationship with education. Notable researchers Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman explained open-mindedness as “the willingness to search actively for evidence against one's favoured beliefs, plans, or goals, and to weigh such evidence fairly”. Malcolm Forbes said, “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” Poet Anthem Fox said it a little differently, “There are no empty minds, just closed ones. Therefore, education is not for the filling of empty minds but for the creation of and expansion of open ones.” However you want to illustrate it in your mind, it is pretty obvious that true education, that which aims to increase a person’s growth and see them understand the world and those who occupy it, promotes open-mindedness. Before I go on to extol the virtues of an open-mind I should quickly throw in a quick caveat. That is that good open-mindedness is not about having your brain exposed to the elements and having your mind blown about here there and everywhere with every change in the wind. It comes with the responsibility to judge wisely and act quickly when occasion calls. While generally speaking open-mindedness is avoiding black and white, cut and dry answers, and searching for understanding of different perspectives I believe that there are things in this world that we can honestly see through historical lenses and common human values to be wrong and not worthy of our time. Professor Walter Kotschnig said, “By all means let’s be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.” In other words, an open mind is like a door that you can open and shut. You can invite what you want and need to invite in and keep out nefarious or ridiculous party-crashers. A closed mind is one that closes the door to any ideas that challenge a preferred narrative. We all like to consider ourselves to be open-minded, ask 10 people if they are open-minded and I’m sure most if not all will say “yeah bro!” But how close to the truth is that really? It is often the opposite of how we approach anything that disrupts our preferred narrative. “I’m a pretty open-minded person but…” How often have you heard that? The truth is that we humans prefer searching out and finding info that helps to support our beliefs. Even if we are doing it subconsciously. We do that consistently enough and those beliefs become what we consider to be facts. We keep accruing these so-called facts to bolster our preferred position. This is called myside bias and the counter is open-mindedness and an ability to think critically. Myside bias isn’t a reflection of education level, and it affects anyone and everyone from all grades of intelligence so how can education be used to promote open-mindedness? Is there reciprocation? Can open-mindedness make us smarter? Let’s start with answering that second question. Can open-mindedness make us smarter? The short answer is yes. And arguably more importantly, wiser. I’ll share more benefits soon but to get us excited, studies show that open-minded people are: - more objective in the judging of other people - less prideful as they seek not to be right, but to understand better - better performers on ability tests. - better at resisting manipulation than close-minded or myside bias affected people. - better able to identify misleading information - more able to avoid assumptions - better able to understand context and nuances and so avoid “binary” or “black and white” thinking. - better able to find empathy for people not of their inner demographic and so better understand the world and the varying economic situations, cultural differences and commonalities, geographical challenges, religious dispositions, ethnicities etc. The importance of open-mindedness can’t be overstated. So how do educators introduce, teach, and enhance open-mindedness in students? 1. Start with ourselves Here are 3 suggestions to improve our own open-mindedness. a. Do the exact opposite of what we are inclined to do. Instead of only searching for information that supports our beliefs, look for the counterarguments, the contradictions to our beliefs. b. When we form an opinion, and this is best done when that bud is still coming in but can be done even when the opinion is in full bloom, we could write down any arguments that challenge our opinion. c. From the Mary T Lathrap 1895 poem “Judge Softly” we find the now famous idiom, Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. We can use that idea to enhance our ability to be open-minded. We can try walking someone else’s path, someone who has different beliefs than ourselves, and seeing things from their perspective. Here are 4 ways that we can help promote open-mindedness in our students, clients mentees etc. 1. Promote Cultural Diversity Encourage the hearing of different accents and languages. Encourage seeing, walking with, and interacting with people who, whether it’s because of culture or even say artistic individuality, dress, think, or act differently to what someone is used to being around in their own community. Among other benefits, such as simply learning about other cultures, being around a variety of people helps a person avoid presupposing their ingrained values trump all others. The great philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said “The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.” 2. Challenge Stereotypes Differences are too often used as an excuse for discrimination. Differences can be encouraged to be placed ahead of commonalities when stereotypes and generalisation go beyond self-effacing fun. 3. Pursue Collaborative Learning When we engage in conversation and work with people of different cultures, with different ideologies, from different backgrounds to us, we can learn to value other perspectives which is a vital step to learning from other perspectives. 4. Promote Constructive Criticism This is the one I’m most excited to talk about, so I’ll spend the most time with it. This is really important. This is the greatest ally to open-mindedness. WHAT CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IS NOT It is not an attack on the person. It is not an opportunity to one-up It is not pushing someone away It is not creating greater divides It is not calling someone a failure WHAT CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IS The opposite of what I just listed. It is encouragement of the person It is sh...…

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Beast Mode Study Part IV: Weapons of Mass Distraction 9:51

לפני 3 years9:51

9:51

Beast Mode Study 4: Weapons of Mass Distraction Long, sleepless nights with mounting cans of empty Monster Energy, toothpicks strategically placed to keep the eyelids open, a blanket embracing your torso as the young morning brings a chill to the air. The cliché imagery from every university comedy montage is cliché because it’s common. Many imagine that it is long hours of study that will bring the best results. Research however tells a different story. Research shows that highly successful students actually spend less time studying than their contemporaries but study more intensely and efficiently in their shorter space of time. It starts with shredding, burning then flushing the idea that you can easily multi-task while studying. Multi-tasking has become more prominent in the digital age where weapons of mass distraction are hidden in plain sight. They have become so much a part of us that they may as well be surgically attached. According to a 2016 study funded by the National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia, more than 50% of young adult to middle-aged people carry their phones in their hands or pockets and more than 50% sleep with their phones no more than 50 cm from their heads. When a person has moments of shifting attention, even if briefly or passively, those are moments where the brain has to jump from context to context, meaning it has to waste energy refocusing on whatever it is that is meant to be receiving primary attention. This is not to be confused with the interleaving method which we talked about in the last episode, where attention is carried through to different topics and connections are made. This is having a TV show on in the background, notifications pinging, dinging and ringing while your flatmate is singing this is not bridge building, this is taking long jumps from planet to planet to the point where your energy is so zapped that you struggle to get back to where you should have stayed. If that example goes over the head you may want to jump back to our episode on interleaving. There is a formula touted by Cal Newport in his book “How to Become a Straight-A Student” which reads - “work accomplished = intensity of focus X time spent.” Actually a lot of my thoughts today (and in a lot of what I put out in fact,) are inspired by this author and so I recommend checking him out if you haven’t already. The work that you accomplish, the value that is retrieved from a study period, is a direct result of multiplying intense focus with a solid block of time. The beauty is, that that time doesn’t have to be long compared to the vision of that college studying montage we mentioned earlier. Less time but greater intensity. That needs to become a mantra for every student wanted to kill it at school. Or even if studying as an autodidact, at home or in the library. Let’s say you are studying for your final exam on Animal Behaviour and Psychology. During your allotted time you check messages and texts, you drop in on social media, you go a little wayward with a couple of videos… You could “study” for 3 hours. If even just half an hour of that is off-topic, that’s not 2 and a half hours of study value because of the in and out, here there and everywhere before coming back to it nature of the activity. Your brain is also now having to contend with multiple bits of information. It’s having to figure out where to store things, what goes with what. In studies done on why elite athletes can sometimes “choke” one of the reasons found is that distraction, not just in the moment, but prior to performance, due to the mind having to think about too many things rather than having one hyper-focus, can disable a person. Here’s a problem with simply knowing this stuff – we don’t! That is to say that, the younger generation especially, but all generations in pockets, don’t necessarily agree. You may not agree. Why? Because we are so used to these weapons of mass distraction that we feel we have a good grasp on it all. We feel immune. How many here, and/or how many here know of people who swear that are excellent multi-taskers. From the summary of a research article by the University of Illinois, published in Science Daily, Summary: “Although experts say using electronic media while doing schoolwork negatively impacts learning, many students believe they're immune to any ill effects because they're good multitaskers, according to recent research.” Continuing with a direct reading from this article, “Researchers in psychology, cognitive science and neuroscience found that media multitasking during schoolwork interferes with students' attention and working memory. Students' learning is shallower and spottier; they understand less and have difficulty recalling what they have learned and applying it in new contexts. Their reading comprehension, note-taking ability, test performance and grade point averages all diminish.” Listening to a lecture and interacting on social media draw on the same region of the brain, the prefrontal cortex. They are demanding tasks that require their own space. Rarely can the brain effectively carry 2 complex tasks simultaneously. Then there is the strong and alarming research that has found that too much time on mobile devices can inflame social anxiety including the “fear of missing out” AKA FOMO. That FOMO, research shows, will often entice students to interrupt and sometimes postpone their study in order to read and respond to posts and messages. It goes without saying that this is far from ideal for a student trying to ace their education. A student who buries the weapons of mass distraction for a time and doesn’t dig them up until purposeful study is complete, will get far more out of a shorter period of study than the distracted peer. So it’s recap: Don’t think you’re the one anomaly that can have your phone or other devices next to you, or TV on in the background etc. and still give 100% focus to the subject needing your undivided attention. Science, studies, research, hell my own personal anecdotes – and yours I reckon if you want to be honest – say otherwise. I remember listening to some Metallica while trying to study in High School. No internet back then. I had every album on cassette tape. My dad told me I’d be better off listening to something non-lyrical while studying. I knew better of course because I was a teenager and that’s the prime age for prime wisdom. So I continued singing along, “I can’t remember anything. Can’t tell if this is true or dream.” How appropriate where those lyrics? I struggled to remember anything. My recall of World War history was not as good as it could have been if in my exams I didn’t have James Hetfield’s growling vocals bouncing around in my head. The world will not crumble if you don’t check in on your friends, enemies and frenemies every few minutes. Put the distractions away and go beast mode with your study focus. I’ll leave you with a quote by author Anne Katherine. "When we clutter our lives with imagined obligations, unnecessary activities, and distractions that only kill time, we dilute the power of our lives." Host: Nate Hamon Sponsored by: Qualify Now - specialists in TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment Music by: Dragon Chromatic and Anthem Fox…

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Beast Mode Study III: The Roar Power of Interleaving 7:50

לפני 3 years7:50

7:50

INTERLEAVING Interleaving is the art of moving from one topic to another in a set block of study time. The word broken down describes inserting additional pages (or leaves,) into a book. While it may seem counterintuitive to move away from one subject while you’re in the thick of it, it’s less about moving away from a subject and more about connecting it with other subjects. It’s about finding the commonalities as well as the differences and using those revelations as bridge builders. Actually, continuing with the “bridge” analogy, it’s a way of connecting worlds. For those who are into Norse mythology or the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s like the Bifrost or Rainbow Bridge that allows Asgardians like Thor to travel to different realms. Using the interleaving method essentially opens up your world and by making connections, expands your understanding. Research into this method is particularly favourable towards this being effective for the subjects that ask for problem-solving. Cognitive psychologists that have studied the effects of interleaving feel that the method improves the brain’s ability to differentiate between concepts. They believe that interleaving helps to strengthen memory associations. It is harder at first that blocked practise and study but, as we’ve spoken about in past episodes, the short-term pain leads to longer term gains. If you haven’t listened to our episode on ‘Desirable Difficulties’ please go back and check that out. It’s the podcast episode with the bear in the image. As part of the interleaving process, it is important to remain conscious to those links and not forget to find the connections. The recommendation is to vary the order that the subjects are studied. This helps the mind to avoid going into cruise control. It keeps the mind actively learning. I’ve used physical workouts as an analogy for study or “mental workouts” before because that’s the world I come from being an educator for health and fitness certifications, and it works in this example as well. So, when we work out our muscles, we are using main muscles in any given, isotonic exercise such as, let’s say, biceps curls, that’s an easy one to imagine. So we perform the action by contracting our biceps or “curling” our biceps. Imagine a main topic that you are studying or focused on building as your biceps in this example. The thing is, without stabliser muscles and antagonist or opposing muscles, as well as healthy tendons and ligaments that assist with levers, that biceps curl would fail. And so we also train those supporter muscles and give them their own time and space. Then it all comes together. To get the most out of learning a particular topic or subject, ensure that you are “training” on other subjects and then connecting those other subjects and topics. A bonus is that you can go longer and stronger by not wearing yourself out on the one “exercise” or study lesson. If you’ve set aside a big chunk of studying time, perhaps as you draw close to exams and assessments, this becomes even more important. Share the load. Of course the warning is that if you jump around too much, and don’t give enough time to each topic, then that can of course become detrimental. What you could do is clearly define beforehand, how much time you will spend on each subject before moving to the next one. Make sure that you stand up, stretch, walk, have some water, a bit of chocolate, pet your cat whatever in spaces. Thinking back to the physical training relation, you have to take breaks between sets or blocks of sets (super-sets). There’s a technique that actually ties in perfectly with this. It’s called the Pomodoro From the shape-shifting encyclopedia of the world wide web, Wikipedia, “The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. It uses a timer to break work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. Each interval is known as a pomodoro, from the Italian word for 'tomato', after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer Cirillo used as a university student. The technique has been widely popularized by dozens of apps and websites providing timers and instructions.” The idea behind the Pomodoro technique or any other technique that you want to self-design and prescribe, is to reduce the negative impact of interruptions that can come from within or without, on your ability to focus and allow you to get into a groove. So to recap: Interleaving is essentially mixing multiple subjects while you study and making connections. The difference between "slow learners" and "quick studiers" often comes down to the way they study. Memorising is one thing but it doesn’t always improve understanding. Making connections is contextual learning. The beauty is that as human beings with our own experiences we can connect with subjects and topics in a way that they don’t have to feel separated from us. We can connect not just subject to subject as if they were external to us, but interleave subjects into our own life experiences. I’ll leave you with a quote by American Paleopathologist, Arthur C. Aufderheide “All knowledge is connected to all other knowledge. The fun is in making the connections.”…

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Beast Mode Study Part II: Wrestle the Bear 8:28

לפני 3 years8:28

8:28

DESIRABLE DIFFICULTIES Surely that’s an oxymoron. Surely only a deoxygenated moron would desire difficulties. Life is about finding the easy routes right? Tell me the right route requires relatively relaxing rambling. Desirable difficulties? Damn Daniel! Surely it’s a joke. Let’s break this down to its foundations. Desirable: wished for as being an attractive, useful, or necessary course of action. Difficult: needing much effort or skill to accomplish, deal with, or understand. Desirable – I suppose if the outcome or goal on the other side is attractive even if the initial study is as ugly as a drunk Blobfish. Useful, necessary… Difficult – needing much effort etc. Well I guess that’s the hang up word? Can’t we just find the easier trail? Maybe a travelator like the ones at the airport? Desirable simplicities. It may not be an alliteration but it rings okay I reckon. There must be a reason difficult study is desirable. Looking up the definition to ensure this isn’t a misread. From the Wikipedia definition: A desirable difficulty is a learning task that requires a considerable but desirable amount of effort, thereby improving long-term performance. ... Research suggests that while difficult tasks might slow down learning initially, the long-term benefits are greater than with easy tasks. So it’s not a joke and the truth is, as plenty of research, study and I dare say your own anecdotes say, the most difficult learning periods yield the greatest results. This term Desirable Difficulties, was coined by Robert A. Bjork , a UCLA psychologist in 1994. I’m not sure of he is related to the beautifully weird Icelandic avant-garde pop icon Bjork. So we’re talking about “beast mode study” methods. How does this apply? Last episode we talked about active vs passive recall. Just as passive recall methods may help with temporary performance but it is the active recall that really helps lock in learning and improving long term performance, the same can be said of easy vs difficult tasks, concepts, learning material etc. Sometimes we can be tricked into feeling like we are learning because things are coming easy. Like re-reading a text book. We’re familiar with the words and so we’re all “yip, yip, knew that, yip.” This form of popular study has however been shown to be less effective than say, flashcards where you have to reach, sometimes quite deeply, into the squishy mind matter to retrieve learned information. The process is way more complex than simply looking at a familiar word or term. The thing to look forward to when you first start a hard topic, is that once you get through that tough initiation, studying similar topics, tangential topics and even, if you can make connections, what may be considered unrelated subjects, becomes easier. In physical training, any amount of effort tends to be hard at first if training is new to you. However, once the body has been adequately prepped, there is really only one way for it to grow and that is to overload the muscles progressively. It is to challenge them. No challenge no growth. Something happens when a person trains. At first it is very difficult. That is why many people give up early, before they ever reach any set goals or see any results. But if they stick it out through the initial launch, it gets easier not just on the same program but to learn and work through new programs. In other words, starting a completely new exercise is easier to adapt to once someone has already begun a program and pushed through the catalyst stage. Even though you are learning new exercises you learn and adapt more quickly than if you were completely new to exercise as a whole. The point is, when it comes to learning, adapting, and retaining difficulty is desirable. It has to be balanced of course. I’m not talking throwing someone who has never swum before into the Mariana trench. It’s about challenging the mind – making the concepts reachable but not making it too easy. Researchers at Princeton University conducted an experiment to determine if different fonts had an effect on learning and memory improvement. The group of 18 to 40-year-olds were assigned to memorise information given to them in writing. At first they had to memorise information given to them in the easy-to-read font Arial. They had 90 seconds. The test that followed yielded a 72.8% average score. The same students went through the same process but with a more difficult-to-read font, Comic Sans MS. This time they scored 86.5% correct! In another study conducted by Indiana University researchers studied text font in classroom settings. The researchers used differing fonts in worksheets and PowerPoint slides across 6 different high schools among over 200 students. Proceeding test performances were markedly higher when students were given material in difficult-to-read fonts. The researchers felt that the results were brought about by forcing the students to use, in their own words, "deeper processing strategies." Because the text was harder to read, the students had to think harder to work through the work. The last point that I’ll make on ‘Desirable Difficulties’ is that by encouraging the brain to work through difficult challenges you can also broaden its ability to become more innovative and creative especially with problem solving. We create many memory retrieval pathways making it easier to figure out different routes if one is blocked. Winston Churchill said “Difficulties mastered, are opportunities won.” End quote Don’t run from difficult study and experiences; embrace it. It may be like embracing and wrestling a big grizzly bear but this bear ain’t gonna eat you unless you let it. If you hang on tight and not tap out you will eventually gain dominion over the grizzly. It will become your powerful ally. Imagine having a grizzly bear as an ally. Nobody would mess with you. Thank you for listening. My name is Nate Hamon and this episode has been sponsored by RTO Qualify Now. Check them out for your TAE needs. TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment Music provided by Dragon Chromatic and Anthem Fox…

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Beast Mode Study Part I: The Power Duo 8:33

לפני 3 years8:33

8:33

Beast Mode Study Just as study is a way to remember topics, concepts, lessons the art of effective study, study itself, is also something that can be learned. And just as every new challenge has a learning curve, which is sometimes excruciating, so does learning how to study have its own exhausting trials. Once you get it though, – once it all clicks - look out world! There are tons of tips out there, but we can narrow it down to science backed, provably effective methods. Over the next few episodes I’ll share the most powerful methods of study, divided into bite sized chunks. The point of this is that, like course study itself, to try and consume everything at once will only leave us feeling bloated, heady and ready for a nap. Method 1: SPACED REPETITION Psychologist Herman Ebbinghaus was famous for studying his own memory and concepting what is called ‘The Forgetting Curve’. After we form a memory, over time we forget bits and pieces of the information used to create it. This is the Forgetting Curve. We can retain information by working on retrieving it at first often, then every once in a while, just as we begin to forget it. The problem of course is that we consume so much information that to use fact repeating exercises for everything would cause our heads to explode. Possibly literally. This is where the ‘Spaced Repetition’ steps up to the plate. A few years ago my Training Provider was being audited by an auditor who, when in conversation I mentioned how I used the concept of spaced repetition (I hadn’t come across that as a named, researched method at the time,) to help my students to lock in knowledge of individual units and concepts, was taken aback and not in a good way. She actually scolded me believe it or not! To paraphrase her, “If you are having to repeat your lessons then I guess you didn’t teach them well enough in the first place and you shouldn’t have passed the student the first time!” I explained “Just because they pass an assessment the first time doesn’t mean that the knowledge is now locked in forever. Revisiting lessons is an excellent way to retain memory of the learning.” She still didn’t get it sadly. Still, I refused to be a tick and flick Trainer and I continued to successfully employ this method. Spaced repetition is a very effective learning method. It is about increasing the intervals between memory retrieval. It’s not tautology or broken record rote learning. It’s basically checking back in on a lesson every so often (shorter intervals at first and then longer intervals as the cemented learning sets). How many parents have been asked by their kids for help with their homework only to discover that a lot of what they themselves learned in High School, is know a struggle to recall? Cramming is the antithesis to spaced repetition. Yes, some students will swear by it but often, if not an anomaly, it can’t actually be compared to the superior method of spaced repetition, if you haven’t given that a proper crack. By proper crack I mean to the point where a student hits and breaks past that painful learning curve. Beyond that learning curve is a sun-soaked beach where dancing unicorns serve beverages and tasty morsels. I promise. Studies show that studying for 8 hours over a 2-week block generally produces superior performance and results compared to one 8 hour study session. It’s also better for retention beyond any exams and final papers. TIPS: - In your study schedule, make time for purposefully reviewing (and not just re-reading which I’ll talk about in a moment,) older material even if you have already been assessed on it. -Check out study Apps that can help with review. Try Anki. That’s A-N-K-I. Anki is the Japanese word for memorisation. It’s a great free, open-source App for this purpose as Anki was designed around the method of spaced repetition. -Simply re-reading notes is a less-effective strategy. Re-reading will just remind you of what you believe you already now. You’ll switch off in no time. What can be done instead is to test yourself. This is called ‘Active Recall’ and when combined with spaced repetition creates a power duo. So let’s go there now. Method 2: ACTIVE RECALL Active recall is using what’s called the Testing Effect to its full potential. Straight out of Wiki of the pedia it says: “The testing effect is the finding that long-term memory is often increased when some of the learning period is devoted to retrieving the to-be-remembered information. The effect is also sometimes referred to as retrieval practice, practice testing, or test-enhanced learning.” Again, while wary of sounding like a broken record, not the Michael Phelps kind but you know, the lp kind, it is important to bang on about this; there WILL be a learning curve. An ugly, discouraging learning curve BUT the improvements in your learning power will make it all worth it. As the name suggests, active recall uses active learning methods as opposed to easier, passive methods. There are many ways that you can utilise active recall and it’s an opportunity to get creative. For example, you could study something, then put away your notes and; - Record yourself recalling everything that you remember -Sketch out things that you recall from said topic - Write down as many bullet points as you can Then pick up your notes and compare for accuracy. This is an important step. Accuracy of recall must be verified so that the wrong info isn’t reinforced. Clustering the different components of the studied topic is also important. If you isolate points then comprehension can be lost. So to recap! Spaced repetition and active recall! What a power duo! Revisit lessons and use pro-active methods of recalling what has been taught. Albert Einstein has been attributed with the quote that I’ll leave you with today: “Never regard study as a duty, but as an enviable opportunity to learn.”…

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Educators Just Wanna Have Fun 17:14

לפני 3 years17:14

17:14

EDUCATORS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN Hey! Thank you for being with me today. I’m going to get a little personal here. A little real; and reveal my childhood crush. She came on to the music and cultural scene like a kaleidoscopic whirlwind with a vibrant and effervescent attitude in fashion and song. Her name was (still is actually,) Cyndi Lauper. Icon of the 80s. Today’s episode is a lesson on the growth that we can achieve by rising to our personal challenges. Through tough beginnings, which included a father who abandoned the family, a perverted stepfather, eating squirrel and other scrounged up food with her impoverished boyfriend, being raped by a bandmate, a court battle with her manager and more Cyndi Lauper fought through it all and rose to the heights where she could let her unique, chromatic style of music and fashion breathe. There was though one trial that could have been the ultimate ending to any aspirations that she had of making it as a singer. For a little while in the mid-70s she found that she had damaged her voice and could barely speak let alone sing. It was a years-long warning that she didn’t heed or completely recognise the implications of. There was a night for example, in 1974, where her voice, like her father, just up and left. She was going for a high note which with her 4-octave range she should have hit easily but it just wouldn’t come. She carried on though and kept booking gigs, mostly cover gigs where she would smash out versions of the growling, sandpaper, guttural voices like Janis Joplin and Rod Stewart. Eventually, her vocal cords gave out on her and collapsed. Doctors told her that it was time to put her voice to bed. She wouldn’t sing again. Definitely not professionally. Distraught but never beaten, Cyndi Lauper was recommended a vocal coach by the name of Katie Agresta. It was no easy fix but through long, patient training Cyndi was able to regain her voice and make an indelible mark on the 80s particularly and create a legacy with music, theatre and fashion that lives on to this day. Here are 3 Lessons That Educators Can Learn from Cyndi Lauper’s Journey These are lessons we can both share and also self-apply. 1. One Person Entering Our Lives Can Inspire Course Correction There’s a quote out there, probably a few actually, that speak to the idea that there is only one person who can change your life and that person is… drum roll please… You! While ultimately true in a generally free society, we can all benefit from the wisdom, experience, expertise etc. of others. No person is an island. We all do and can continue to benefit from the help of others. Of course, while sometimes it takes another to give us a shove, it is then up to us to spread our wings and fly or retract our wings and plummet. A story that I came across recently helps to illustrate this. American Brian Flemming was a hyper-morbidly obese (weighing over 280 kilos,) depressed, alcoholic, 30-year-old college drop-out who spent his days gaming. He said he would drink a fifth of vodka mixed with a litre of soda every night and junk food was his main diet. Then he met someone online through a Pictionary-like App called ‘Draw Something’. That someone was 50 something year old Jackie Eastham, who lives in Paris and suffers from Myotonic Muscular Dystrophy, lives a hyper-conscious healthy lifestyle as a way of mitigating her condition. The Draw Something game has an option to write comments to someone you are playing with. This opportunity to communicate and get to know Jackie may have saved Brian’s life and in the least, definitely catalysed a tremendous change that would alter his course for the better. Because of her own experiences with health issues, she was able to pick up on signs that he was not living an optimum lifestyle health-wise and so prompted, Brian confided in Jackie about his weight, depression and drinking issues. Long story short, Jackie determined to help him and Brian accepted that help knowing that he wanted her to inspire the change he desperately needed. In the last update I could find Brian had lost 180 kilos and was preparing to run a marathon. He also flew to Paris to meet his “Coach” and self-appointed Trainer. If Anne Sullivan hadn’t teamed up with Helen Keller how might their lives have turned out? Would John Lennon and Paul McCartney have been as successful without each other? Bernie Taupin & Elton John? Timon and Pumba? Rick and Morty? As Educators we might find ourselves, by nature of our very jobs, in that Jackie position often. We are the ones to Train, Coach, Guide, Mentor etc. however we also need to allow ourselves to be open, to also being trained, coached, guided, mentored. Teachers need coaching, coaches need teaching - Sometimes that guidance is purposefully sought for and professionals are employed and sometimes, it can come from the most un-likeliest of places. I have a friend who owns a highly rated and award-winning Indian restaurant. She told me not too long ago about a young staff member who she took on as a kitchen hand. I can’t recall exactly how she described a certain interaction but she explained how she saw him peeling an onion in a way that here was far less waste than she normally would create and so she complimented him and adopted that method herself. Contrast that with a time many years ago when as a young adult I was working at a mattress making factory where I figured out a way to alter a template in a way that we could get an extra few millimetres from each foam roll – less waste and though it was tiny, with thousands of mattresses being made I could see it all adding up. My manager-supervisor was one who hated any idea that wasn’t his and so raked me over the coals (to the point where he was ranting and raving,) for having the audacity to suggest such a thing as a change to the template. A few years later, after I had left the factory, I was talking to someone who was still working there. Apparently, my template had been adopted and that manager had been demoted. Not that the 2 were directly connected but that prideful manager was obviously seen as a Luddite who couldn’t accept ideas for progress and improvement if they didn’t come from his own head. As educators we can find plenty of learning opportunities not just from those above us in a work or qualification sense, but even from those who we have stewardship over. By the way, that 20-year veteran of restaurant ownership still attends regular cooking classes as a student. 2. Weaknesses Can Be Catalysts Weaknesses can be catalysts for decline or progression. It all depends on 3 things: 1. Whether we find the weakness 2. Whether we pay it attention 3. Whether we do something about it As a long-time Personal Trainer who has moved on to education, I still keep a couple of clients on hand to keep my axe sharpened. When I was taking on new clients, I would tell them from day 1, “We will start with discovering weaknesses and when we find them, we’ll celebrate.” I didn’t mean balloons and a bouncy castle of course. We would just flip the usual reaction to finding a weakness. I know that sounds odd, but it worked for us as the celebration was not for the fact that there was a weakness, but that we had discovered ...…

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You're the Voice: 3 Tips to Improve Vocal Delivery 5:10

לפני 3 years5:10

5:10

YOU’RE THE VOICE CAN THEY UNDERSTAND IT? You don’t have to make it loud but it must be clear! If when it comes to public speaking you need a little help, you feel the pressure down, you’ve got to have a little faith because learning to publicly speak – that’s freedom! Okay – no more John Farnham puns – non Farnsey fans will be like “what the hell is this guy on.” I had my reasons – okay done – that was the last time. As educators, at many times of the working day, we are the primary speakers and the importance of what you have to say, and therefore what the congregation should be hearing, cannot be underestimated. So it stands to reason that a celebrant shouldn’t just know the right words to speak, but should be able to deliver them in an impactful way. The art of public speaking comes naturally for some while many others struggle. Even if it does come naturally however, there is always more to learn, additional skills to acquire and practising to be done. Here are 3 tips to get you started. 1. Project With Clarity That doesn’t mean shouting. That just gets irritating. It does mean articulating well and raising your volume to level that is audible for people from front to back. You can improve this with a few tricks. - rather than just practising your speech in your bedroom to a mirror, take a friend, head out to a busy area of town (shopping mall, food court, bar etc.) and practise your speech with them in that noisy environment. - Practise speaking to people from further away than you normally would. You could even set up your phone to record you from 2 metres away, then 4 metres etc. Listen back and see how well you do at ensuring your volume and clarity is maintained at further distances. - Breathe! Well duh. Controlling breath and making sure that you have plenty of it is the trick. Get fitter. Have you ever tried to talk after an exhausting bout of exercise? Try and shout after an all-out 200 metre sprint. 2. Destroy the Ums! A few will slip in for sure. Ums and ahs. It’s natural. However, they can show lack of confidence and lack of professionalism. 2 ways to avoid the dreaded “ums and ahs” are to: - Pause. Simple. When you are umming it is because you are verbalising in your mind. There’s nothing wrong with pausing to think so just do that without the gap filler. It’s also a chance to refill your lungs which ties into breathing well and enabling better projection. - Know your material. If you are prepared and know your speech inside and out and back to front there will be less chance of moments where you are wondering “what should I say next?” 3. Vary Your Vocal Delivery Vary the delivery’s pace, pitch, and volume. Hands up who enjoys a monotone speaker? If you do it’s probably because you see an opportunity to nap. Monotone speakers are great in place of lullabies. If you want to keep your audience awake however, practise alternating your speaking speed, the highs and lows of your vocal tone and, though we are generally aiming to speak loudly, looking for intense moments when your audience is silently hanging on every word, to speak softly.…

1
Supercharge Your Learning Abilities 9:12

לפני 3 years9:12

9:12

SUPERCHARGE YOUR LEARNING ABILITY IN 3 STEPS Okay – where were we? Where are you? Where am I? Who knows? I guess it depends on whether you’ve taken the blue or red pill today. What I know is that there is no great secret to life despite plenty of argument and round-a-bout musing. It’s pretty obvious, I think. We are here to progress, and we do that through learning. Learning through study and experience. But what if we find learning difficult? Or what if we simply want to boost our ability to learn, especially about the things that we feel are important but have no love for? Here are 3 steps for supercharging your learning ability. Step 1 - Passionize No, it’s not an accepted word according to well, Microsoft Word (I’ve got the nice wavy red underline staring at me,) and while I thought I had done a Shakespeare and created a word that generations later might be attributed to me, I see with a quick search that somebody else, a notable consultant called Armers Moncure, has also used it. I’m not sure if I got in first but someone else may have uttered it years ago. Who knows – do we care? What do I mean by it? That’s the point. Learning is always easier when we have a passion for a subject that we are studying. So, what if we don’t have a passion for the subject but find it necessary or compulsory? How can we become willingly fervent? Can we passionize it? Can we inject passion into it? Can we get excited by what we have little interest in? Can we inspire education? Inspire our own education that is? I believe so. How? Here are 2 ways. Passionizing part A - ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT Yes, the brilliant Zig Ziglar paraphrased quote which is now cliché – the one found on the front page of “Memes That Inspire!” – You know it - the one about Attitude determining Altitude - is growling and trying to break the cage I’m keeping it in. It’s there because I fear sounding like a cookie cutter coach. But hard truth – tough lovin’ truth – It’s sound truth. Sometimes we need to open the toolbox, get out the mental spanner and give ourselves an attitude adjustment. I’ll find a better quote to inspire attitude change for the end of this section. I’m sure there are plenty of others around. Positive perspective is needed. Easier said than done? Yip. But within every broad subject there are elements that we can latch on to that are more aligned with our tastes. Start there, and often everything else will sneak its way in. It’s the old trick of hiding veges in the burger patties. Or crushing up your dog’s tablet and mixing it into her food. Maybe you have to study biology. You have a distaste for it. But you do like working out – pumping iron – You want bigger legs - Start with checking out what makes up the hamstring group. Wait – hamstring isn’t a muscle? Nope – it’s just a term given for a group of muscles working in harmony to help you jump and sprint and stuff. There are 3 muscles in the “group”. Really? In-ter-es-ting. So focus on what you like or are keen to know about first and let everything else pertinent attach itself to your brain organically. Another trick to attitude adjustment is to consider ways that the subject will help contribute to your future. Career, income, date-ability (smart is attractive!) I found a quote - The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That’s the day we truly grow up. – John C. Maxwell Passionizing part B - BE CREATIVE If book to brain is not working for you consider other ways to get excited about what you are needing to learn. Find someone who is already passionate about the subject and have a sit down with them. Or a stand up. Or a walk together. Whatever – get with a subject specific mentor. If you can’t find one in person I guarantee you can find one presenting a Youtube channel or hosting a podcast. Cast yourself back to kindergarten and primary school. How did you learn as a kid? Pictures, charts, songs, activity, games, mnemonic devices … Adults can use those same methods. Why do we stop using those methods? Is the periodic table song too good for us? We’ve all got smartphones with recording apps. Sing a little ditty about the order of the planets or whatever it is you’re learning and listen back to it on repeat while driving. Creativity is not just about art. Creativity is about divergent thinking – looking for avenues, new pathways to solutions. Something that has been discovered in scientific studies is that our creativity levels and our mood are connected. If we reflect back to Step 1 where we talked about attitude adjustment – we can see how one thing leads to another – positive energy can help boost our creative abilities and our creative thinking can help us to figure out better ways to explore subjects we may not have natural love for. Einstein said – at least I think it was Einstein but he does get a lot of misattributions – quote “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” Step 2: Apply Step 2 and 3 can be flipped but I’ll run with Apply first. It is said that knowledge is power but we know that it is actually the application of knowledge that is the true power. For starters, it’s a powerful way to retain learning. You can’t become a good driver by reading books on driving. Michael Jordan didn’t become the GOAT – or of you want to have that argument – one of the Greatest players of all time (basketball not baseball,) – by reading an encyclopedia entry on basketball. Quick note – for those born after early 90s an encyclopedia was basically a hardcopy Google . Application of knowledge brings about competency, ability, understanding. If you don’t have the opportunity to apply newfound knowledge early, imagine its application. I love going to a weekly trivia night with my wife and a couple of friends. When I hear an interesting fact I’ll often imagine being asked a question around that fact. “One learns from books and example only that certain things can be done. Actual learning requires that you do those things.” ― Frank Herbert, Children of Dune Step 3: Teach We can teach to learn by learning to teach. And vice versa. I honestly believe that this is a super pill. Teach those around you. If you don’t have anyone to speak to, speak to the mirror, video yourself – if you like it use it – Youtube it for example. Start a notebook as if you’re taking notes for a future text book, start a blog or a podcast, or a blog and a podcast. I mean, I started this podcast not just to share what I have picked up over the years but what I hope to pick up in the years to come. Of course, If the subject really starts to lock in and you find a passion for teaching it, consider getting a TAE40116 (AKA Certificate IV in Training and Assessment,) or other teaching qualification. Teaching is not just great for enabling repetition – making rote learning more fun – but it can domino and improve the lives of others – not just your own. I love hearing stories of my students now working in the fitness industry using some of the methods that I taught them. I had one Trainer come up to me the other day, who wasn’t an ex-student of mine, telling me about ...…

1
That's Edutainment Baby! 10:35

לפני 3 years10:35

10:35

That’s Edutainment Baby! It’s not a neologism, a new word, though it is a portmanteau and though it’s not used much outside of the education industry – not enough that you won’t find argument around a scrabble game – trust me – I’ve had the argument - If you type it into Word you won’t get a red underlining so yeah, it’s legit even if not common on the street. It is edutainment Edutainment = Education + Entertainment. This is a concept that has existed for hundreds of years. Current technology has heightened the ability for edutainment to be used by teachers. This is great in my opinion however does the exponential forward movement of tech perhaps give us pause for thought? Are there any cons that we need to be wary of? Are there risks to mitigate? I think that’s a worthy discussion to be had which will make for a great deeper dive podcast in the near future. The Renaissance and Enlightenment movements presented this combo of education and entertainment to students with great success. Learning is fun! Or it can be. Good old Benjamin Franklin, with his Poor Richard's Almanack promoted edutainment, by combining entertaining and educational content such as puzzles. Uncle Walt of Disney fame developed the idea of edutainment event further with the short educational film Tommy Tucker’s Tooth , which was commissioned and shot in 1922 for the Deneer Dental Institute. Side note: My wife and I were commissioned a few years back to write children’s songs for a Dental campaign. The kids got to enjoy singing about not fearing the dentist, avoiding lollies for breakfast, that sort of thing. That’s edutainment baby! As the USA stepped their red white and blue feet into World War II a relationship between Disney and the U.S. government was created. That was when Disney really started to experiment with educational and nonfiction films which continued after the war, with series such as True Life Adventures which was a series of 14 documentaries. The 70s ushered in an explosion of informative short films for students and if there was a health or social issue, you know it had a film, often animated, to educate the masses. It’s become the stuff of parody. So edutainment isn’t new however, what we have is a whole new world of edutainment that tech advancements have facilitated. I remember back in the 80s when my primary school bought a couple of Macintosh computers for the library. It was mind blowing. Now many classrooms or individual students have Ipads. When it comes to edutainment – business is booming. For example, when it comes to game-based learning products or the gamification of learning. The gamification market size in 2020 had a global value of $9.1 billion. According to analysts MarketsandMarkets it is predicted to register an massive growth rate of 27.4%, reaching $30.7 billion by 2025 Now there’s another whole episode for the near future – gamification. Speaking of games, edutainment can also include everything from puzzles to Lego. There are also wildlife reserves, museums, art galleries. Near my town we have the Gallery of Modern Art and they are constantly refreshing the exhibitions and bringing in wonderful interactive learning activities for all ages. Today I thought I’d focus on one, relatively new but excellent source of information and opportunity for knowledge building. Here are 5 of the best Edutainment Youtube Channels. Best is always arguable I guess if it can’t be quantified but they are definitely 5 of my favourite. Crash Course This is One of the most-watched educational channels on YouTube with, at the time of this recording, almost 13 million subscribers and over 13 hundred videos Crash Course delivers short, snappy, witty and highly engaging lessons on pretty much every main topic you might traditionally study — physics, philosophy, economics, politics, media studies, anatomy, history, biology, literature, psychology, and more. I love crash course. Presented by John Green, a easily likable, witty, dry-humour type of guy, he can tend to talk fast and zap through things really quickly but as it’s not a hard watch or a long watch repeated viewings aren’t a chore if you miss something. The Infographics Show The is a sharp, easy viewing general knowledge show which is quite fun and engaging. It’s animated, it’s colourful, it’s animated infographics with voiceover. Good stuff. It's Ok to Be Smart This has similar caffeinated energy to Crash Course so can be a bit hyper for some but it provides fascinating info about science and the universe we are a part of. It was created and is guided by Joe Hanson, Ph.D. Titles include “How Much of You is Alive?” and “These Butt Tickling Ants are Endangered Butterfly Bodyguards.” TED Ed If you go to their website you can find easily navigable ways to design lessons that include their instructional or educational videos. If you jump straight into their pool of Youtube videos you can find yourself wonderfully lost in the many subjects on offer. I find a lot of the videos cruise more than Crash Course and is less reliant on graphics like the Infographics show so this one is great while your driving and can’t watch the screen. Experts and like-minded educators from around the world get to throw their ideas in and speaking for myself it helps me to feel a real affinity. Jason Silva's Shots of Awe You may know Jason Silva as the host of Origins and Brain Games , which is (or was the last time I checked,) the most popular show on the National Geographical channel. In this weekly series which has been appropriately described by DIYgenius.com as philosophical “shots of espresso” focuses on helping us to pause and consider, think, meditate, ponder, ruminate – I’m just synonym babbling now – but basically he helps us to reflect on the possibilities of human ingenuity. I’ll finish with a quote by Albert Einstein “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. —"Old Man's Advice to Youth: 'Never Lose a Holy Curiosity.'" LIFE Magazine (2 May 1955) p. Thank you for being with me today. Educate This is sponsored by Qualify Now – a damned awesome training provider specialising in TAE. They are not one of those short cut, cheap and nasty providers. They offer a streamlined, easily navigable course but one that is also comprehensive and then some. They will give you tools that will exceed expectations of potential employees. My name is Nate Hamon – let’s talk again soon. Spon...…

1
Spike This! 12:21

לפני 3 years12:21

12:21

Spike This There is a horrible saying that I abhor. If it was personified I’d probably kick it over a cliff. Actually that sounds a bit violent. But maybe you’ll agree. Let me know. It’s from George Bernard Shaw’s play “Man & Superman” and without context it’s just – ugh – no words. Of course quotes do get passed down without context and in this case it became a mock of teaching. “He who can does; he who cannot, teaches .” Nope. I mean, I’m sure there’s cases of that as this is of people who “do” without knowing but the best teachers are those who are industry weathered. Aristotle said it better. He who knows, does. He who understands, teaches. The person I want to talk about today perfectly proves the Aristotle quote. For 4 decades, since the 1980s, Spike Lee has being creating and releasing excellent film after excellent film. He’s not only prolific but his standards are relatively consistent. Movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has 19 of his films hitting over 90% favourability with critics with many more 80% plus. From his 1986 breakthrough film “She’s Gotta Have it” to Oscar snubbed Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, 25th Hour, When We Were Kings and one of my favourites from the last decade Black Kkklansman, he has earned the title of not just director, but auteur. The film She’s Gotta Have It launched Lee's career and he not only directed it but he also wrote, produced, starred and edited the film with a budget of $175,000, It was shot in two weeks and went on to gross over $7 million at the U.S. box office. New York Times film critic A.O. Scott wrote that the film helped "usher in “the American independent film movement of the 1980s. It was also groundbreaking media for African-American filmmakers and a welcome change in the representation of blacks in American cinema, depicting men and women of color not as pimps and whores, but as intelligent, upscale urbanites." In 1989, Lee made what many consider his most seminal film, Do the Right Thing ,. The film told a story of bubbling racial tension on a scorching hot summer day. The film's ensemble cast was a who’s who looking back but were relative unknowns back then. They included Spike Lee, Ossie Davis ,, Rosie Perez , John Turturro , Martin Lawrence Samuel L. Jackson . It earned critical acclaim and was considered by notable critics as one of the best films of the year. Roger Ebert ranked the film as the best of 1989, and later in their top 10 films of the decade Spike Lee is an artist. He creates socio-political art that plays within stories of race and politics that anyone sharp to the tones of the climate of the day can pick up on and understand. Despite being at the top of his game as filmmaker, and despite being an incredible artist who makes a fine living from those pursuits there is also another title and role that he values and holds dearly. Spike Lee, is a teacher. By literal title he is a teacher. To be exact he is a professor. Spike was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Brooklyn, Lee headed back south as a young adult to attend Morehouse College. After he graduated, he returned to New York to continue his education at NYU Tisch School of Arts in Manhattan, This is where he would receive his Master of Fine Arts Degree in Film Production. Soon after the success of the Oscar-nominated Do the Right Thing in 89, Spike taught his first course on filmmaking at Harvard and 2 years later he officially joined the faculty at NYU Tisch. Since 2002 he has served as artistic director of the Graduate Film Program. Professor Spike Lee comes from a line of teachers. His grandmother and mother were both educators. It’s in his blood. What is often said about Lee by his colleagues, students and actors is that he allows himself to be available for people and offers himself as a willing resource. He is also pro-active in finding learning opportunities for his students. For example, while making his Emmy-winning documentary series When the Levees Broke , brought in 15 of his students as interns so that they could all receive direct, first-hand experience. In the last two decades alone, Lee has mentored many who have gone on to create and/or direct critically acclaimed films. the likes of Dee Rees ( Pariah; Mudbound ), Michael Larnell ( Cronies; Roxanne Roxann e), Stefon Bristol ( See You Yesterday ), Paul Dalio ( Touched by Fire ), Reinaldo Marcus Green ( Monsters and Men ), and countless other grad film students. Here are 3 applicable lessons that we can draw out from Spike Lee’s teaching career. He learns from his own work. One of Lee’s grad students, Reinaldo Marcus Green whose feature film debut Monsters and Men earned a special jury prize at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival commented, “There’s nobody like Spike Lee. He is the epitome of originality… He’s relentless in his work ethic and in his output. He remains a student of the craft after all these years.” It is important that we don’t fall into the trap of getting the job done to get the job done and then walk away without having considered any lessons that can be taken away. What mistakes were made? What did I do well? Is there anything that I can and should replicate again? What skills were developed? How did I solve a particular problem? And so on. “I’ve been so busy working that I haven’t had a chance to study. Now that I’m retired I can finally complete my education!” An older aged student of mine once said that to me. I replied “That’s great to hear that you are ready and willing but the truth is, education is something that can never be completed. And that’s not a daunting thing. It’s exciting. There is always more to learn. Second, I guarantee that you have been learning on the job.” I then tied those 2 truths together by asking him to talk about a few things that he had learned over the course of his 40-year career in construction. What technological advances have been made in the industry? What role has that played and how much has that changed from the time he started until now?” and so on. AI, automation, new job models, more efficient tools, 3D printing so many things have been and are being developed within most industries that even if we stuck with the same career from high school to retirement we would need to be learning in order to keep up. The continual pursuit of learning has become accepted and lets face it expected, as an imperative to the economic health of a business. Not only that, but many studies show that after the nature of...…

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