Hello! Here’s a more personal video for you, my awesome audience. Please check it out.
What’s it about? Finally, I finished my Student Success Toolkit minicourse. It’s intended to give brand new subscribers 5 of my favorite tools. But if you are subscribed to my blog already, I want you to have access as well. I will be sending the series to you via email for the next 6 days (day 1 is the intro, days 2-6 each cover one tool/day).
I hope you like it, and I’d LOVE to get your feedback!
In gratitude and service,
Seth
Tools for student success
Regardless of whether or not a student is identified as gifted, Joseph Renzulli’s 3 ring model is an extraordinary framework for understanding learning.
In this video I explain the 3-ring conception and how it relates to executive function. It breaks down the 3 elements necessary in order to have “gifted behaviors.”
Here’s the model:
Joseph Renzulli 3 ring conception of giftednessLove my work and want to give? Click here!
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Video transcript:
Everybody this is Seth with SethPerler.com. I hope you’re doing well. By the way, if you haven’t subscribed on YouTube, you can go ahead and click the red button below and click subscribe and you’ll get updated every time I post a new video. But welcome to this Sunday’s video, today I’m going to talk about Joseph Renzulli. He’s been in the field of gifted education for about 30-40 years, he’s been around a long time and he’s been a huge influence on me in the last 10 years. Huge influence. He’s really influenced the way that I think about working with kids. It doesn’t matter if the kids are gifted it or not gifted or labeled or not, it doesn’t matter. The paradigm I’m about to show you today, which is called a Renzulli’s three-ring conception of giftedness is really powerful in terms of helping you understand sort of the potential of kids and a potential pitfall. So I’ll go into that right now.So, Joseph Renzulli, he designed this three-ring conception, I believe in the 80s, and what he said is ‘when a human being or when a student or a child has three particular components mixed together, then they have, where the red is they’re displaying gifted behaviors. So he wouldn’t necessarily call a human being ‘gifted,’ I think that’s a sort of elitist tone that that seems to give off was distasteful to him and for many people, I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to be. So people can just play gifted behaviors when these three things are present there are gifted behaviors. So people can display gifted behaviors when these three things are present. So what are these three things?The first one is called above-average ability, so you can have an above-average ability in any number of ways. You can be intuitive and be above-average in your intuition. In your creativity, in math and science and writing and reading and visual-spatial thinking, in design. You name the area. You think of something that you’re talented in or that your child is talented in that’s above-average ability. So in order to have these behaviors, these gifted behaviors, you have to have an above-average ability in that certain area. You don’t have to have above-average ability in all areas by any means by the way. What are the areas that you have above-average ability in?Then you have to have creativity. You have to have this plus this. So when you have above-average ability in creativity you’re doing pretty good, you got a lot going on. Okay, so creativity. The ability to create, to design, to invest, to think of new solutions to problems. Now if you have these two, they don’t do much on their own. If you don’t do anything with them, and let’s say you use your ability to create a cure for cancer but you don’t tell anybody about it, you don’t publish it, you don’t do anything about it, it’s just in your mind. Or if you design a car that can get 1,000 miles to the gallon, but it’s just in your mind but you have the ability of creativity but you don’t do anything with it, it’s pretty valueless. So what do you need?You need what Renzulli calls task commitment. Now to me, the task commitment part, the follow-through, the being able to do something with these things. When you have all three of these then you have the gifted behaviors. This part is the part that my students struggle with because my students are struggling with executive function issues. That’s the ability of the brain to execute tasks like doing homework, cleaning your room, studying for a test; the ability to follow through with something. And when you have it, when you struggle with executive function, whether you’re failing out of classes, are almost failing, or you have ADD or dyslexia, Aspergers or anything, what ends up happening is that thing that struggling students struggle with is task commitment, is executive function. How do we execute tasks? Particularly, how do we execute a task that we don’t want to do? So if the student has to read a novel that they’re not into, how do we execute that task. If you have to study for a test or homework you don’t care, how do you execute that task because literally any career path that anybody takes anywhere in the world is going to involve doing things that you don’t want to do. You’re going to have to learn to have the resiliency to commit to the task and to execute tasks pieces of it that you don’t like, don’t enjoy, that are not pleasurable to you. It’s not all fun and games as they stay right. So how does the brain override the resistance to not do something so that they can actually follow-through and do it because it is the piece of the puzzle. Now, note, I’m not saying that all homework is valuable, so there are many things that schools have kids that truly are busy work and a waste of time for the student and cause more resentment and more discouragement then necessary. So I have to be taken into consideration but generally speaking, it doesn’t matter whatever we do, we are going to have to figure out what to do to override the resistance in the brain and use our executive function to execute tasks that we may not want to do.So this is Renzulli’s contribution, one of his contributions, and I just think it’s brilliant and a really helpful concept for us to think about because when you don’t have task commitment is that it threatens your long-term well-being. It is often no in the short-term of what they want, but it’s very difficult for them sometimes to see how these things might affect them long-term and what we want we want you to have an awesome life in the long term where you get to design and create the life you want. Not a life where you’re in some job that you hate, feeling like you don’t have choices in life. We want you to have choices and freedom. Okay, and that’s what it’s about. And that’s what education hopefully is able to deliver is like this ability to do anything you want in life. Craft your life, but task commitment, that’s the part where people get in trouble. So I hope this video is helpful to you if you like it, go ahead and subscribe on Youtube or visit my site and subscribe to my weekly vlogs. If you are appreciating my work, please share my blog with one person today and help me spread my work with people. Have a great weekend, take care.
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Every week I work with the most amazing group of outside-the-box learners. All are right-brained students who struggle with some combination of executive function issues. In a nutshell, they learn differently. We work on homework, organization, time management, emotional regulation, social issues, etc..
Last week, one of my high schoolers asked, “how should I prioritize my homework so I can get it done more efficiently?” This is a great question, and here’s my stock answer, “The best way to prioritize is to understand your natural prioritization style and go with it. If your style has certain limitations, be aware of them, and make adjustments to compensate for them.”
Sounds obvious, right? But what the heck is a prioritization style and how can we apply this?
Prioritization Styles
Here’s how I break it down. There are 5 major prioritization styles that people use:
1. Easiest first – Some people prioritize doing the easiest tasks first. They like the feeling of accomplishment and the sense of getting it done quickly. It also helps get the momentum going. The problem comes when these students continue to procrastinate on the more challenging tasks. They need to have realistic dialogue regarding strategies for doing these.
2. Hardest first – People who do the hardest first like to “get it out of the way.” They are often naturally good at prioritizing. My students rarely choose this method as they often want to avoid harder assignments.
3. Quickest first – People who do the quickest first like to cross as many things off the list as possible so it feels like they are getting more done. Much like the people who like getting the easiest done first, they can struggle with procrastinating.
4. Longest first – People who do the longest first feel like they are getting their time back. They feel a big sense of accomplishment and it makes the next tasks feel more manageable.
5. Most important first – Most left brained people are very good at doing the most important task first. They are great at prioritizing. My students will often do this when I help them plan their study sessions with a lot of intention.
Metacognition
When I work with students, I want them to take ownership and to be involved in articulating their preferences. I want them to build the metacognitive muscles that will help build intentionality around their approaches to learning, studying and homework.
Here’s how I phrase it to students, “So how do you like to do your homework, easiest first, hardest, quickest, longest or most important?”
Planning
While I have countless strategies for dealing with prioritization, I’m going to share the most valuable one. It consists of asking three guiding questions:
1. What’s the most important thing for you to get done today?
2. What do you need in order to get it done?
3. What’s your plan?
I then help them get crystal clear on the plan and help them get started. Once the train is going, it’s a lot easier to keep moving.
Best of luck!
ps- if you liked this post, please share it or comment below. Thanks for the support, Seth
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Odd as this may sound, students who struggle with homework aren’t just struggling with homework. They’re struggling with many things that have a lot to do with “executive function.”
Executive function refers to the brain’s ability to “execute” a complex task. In the case of homework, which sounds like 1 single task, there are actually many subtasks that must be done in order to successfully complete it.
This series of subtasks is what I call The Homework Continuum. When you understand this continuum, then you can intentionally isolate and address each specific aspect that a student is struggling with. When homework is seen in this light, we can find solutions that make a real impact.
Here’s how the Homework Continuum works:
1. Clear assignment – First, the assignment must be clear. The teacher’s part is to clearly communicate expectations and the student’s part is to take in these expectations with clarity. Obviously, there are often problems on both ends and we need to get to the bottom of this issue first.
2. Accurately record – Somehow, the student has to have a system for accurately recording homework details. But these kids aren’t great with details. The right planner is the preferred method.
3. Remember – Next, the student has to remember to do the homework! Often times it’s not even on their radar, so they need to build an effective system/routine just for remembering to do homework.
4. Self-start – In “executive function terms,” self-starting is called “task initiation.” Starting homework is often very challenging for my students. They resist, avoid, procrastinate, etc.. They need tips, tricks and tools to just get the train moving.
5. Follow-through – This is called “task persistence.” Students often get derailed, and must get back on track in order to finish the homework.
6. Transport – After the homework is complete, how does the student get it into the right folder, then in the backpack and into the class?
7. Turn in – Now that it’s in the classroom, how does the student get that homework into the teacher’s hands? Sounds simple, right? Well, it’s often an executive function issue again. Students who don’t turn in completed homework is one of the most baffling things for parents and teachers. They just can’t comprehend how a student could manage to forget or accept a 0 on work they already did.
So you see, homework isn’t just one thing. It’s a continuum that requires a great deal of executive function that some students haven’t yet developed. The key is to deconstruct each of these areas to find solutions that will work to build executive function skills and help create lasting change.Love my work and want to give? Click here!
To support me, please CLICK at the bottom to share. Click here to visit my official YouTube Channel & subscribe if you want! Thank you -Seth
Reading the transcript? Great! We’re currently uploading hundreds of transcripts so you can read them asap, but they are NOT all edited yet. This is a big process. If you notice anything wrong and want to help us, feel free to click this Google Form to share it. Thanks so much for pitching in! – Seth
Video transcript:
Hey everybody. This is Seth with SethPerler.com and I’m glad you’re here. Look, this is an important day because I’m about to teach you about the Homework Continuum Deluxe. Now, you might be asking yourself, what makes it deluxe? And the answer is, absolutely, nothing. I just think it sounds cool and I have low self-esteem and I think deluxe it makes it sound cooler and makes me sound cooler, so it just helps me out a little bit. If you can accept that, we’re going to be good, all right. Here we go. How you doing? All right.I am going to tell you about something serious and it is the Homework Continuum. The reason why this is so important is because the students that I work with struggle, they’re right-brain, they’re not getting the grades that reflect what they’re capable of or their intelligence or their mind or their creativity. These students often, pretty much always, struggle with executive function. That’s the brain’s ability to execute a task. If I were to execute a task, for example, picking up this marker, that is a very simple task that doesn’t require much executive function. But to do homework, it requires a ton of executive function. And the mistake that people make, that students, parents, and teachers make, is they think of homework as one thing. “Go do your homework. I got to do my homework.” It sounds like it’s one thing, but it’s actually many things. I’m going to break that down for you right now. The value of breaking down this Continuum Deluxe is, wait that that was kind of weird, huh? Ah man, the self-esteem just went down again. Alright, back to it. The value in doing and understanding the Homework Continuum and breaking it down into small chunks is that then you can look at each chunk individually and figure out real solutions to help work with that particular aspect of the Homework Continuum. There is a beginning and there is an end to homework. I’m going to go through how you get homework done beginning to end.At the very beginning, you have the homework that has to be assigned. It has to be clearly assigned because a lot of times my students are coming into my office, I’m working with them, and they don’t understand the homework. They don’t have a good place to reference it online, a lot of teachers don’t make it clear on the papers that they hand out, what it means. I’m confused half the time! So is it clearly assigned? So if the teacher clearly assigns it in class verbally, and the student is having trouble taking it in verbally because they could be stressed, bored, or uninterested or unengaged, or they could be looking at somebody else in the classroom who’s talking. They could be engaging, talking, or writing notes. If they’re not fully engaged and the teachers trying to assign something verbally or if they have an auditory processing disorder or any of number of things, they’re not going to get it clearly. So even getting the clarity of what’s required on the assignment is one step in of itself. If that’s an area that’s troublesome, that’s one area you should address separately. It’s not just doing the work, it’s one piece right here. You have to accurately record the homework. Okay whether you memorize it, write it on a sticky note, look online to see what the teacher has written about the assignment, if they’ve even done that, look at the paper that the teacher gives you if it clearly states it, or use a planner. Using a planner effectively, the right planner, the right way, for right-brain students is very important. So that in itself. Some method of accurately recording clearly assigned assignment is a step in of itself.Moving on, the student has to remember to even do the assignment. They have to even remember to look in their planner or to know that the assignment exists once they’ve left school. We begin with all of these, these deal with their prefrontal cortex, these deal with executive function, the brain’s ability to execute a complex, and this is a very complex, task. To remember to even do it, your brain has to use what’s called work memory which is like juggling balls, it’s keeping the things that are important in your mind. They have to use working memory to even remember to do it.Next, we have self-starting. Now in executive function speed, this is called task initiation. To initiate the task, to start, to get going, to get the train moving. The train that stands still is very difficult to get started. It requires an enormous amount of energy, and for these students, it requires even more energy to get started. So just to start is a huge issue or 99% of the students that I work with, self-starting is an issue. That in of itself is one piece of the puzzle.Then, they have to follow0through. They have to not only start, but they have to, if they get derailed, get back on track. That’s a great metaphor for the train, and people usually are able to get derailed and get back on it. My students tend to get wayyyy derailed and have a lot of trouble getting back on track. Follow-through, that’s a part of task persistence, which is executive function also. The task persistence is the EF term for follow-through or stick-to-it-evness. Now you have to follow-through until completion. A lot of my students don’t complete everything 100% and then they don’t turn it in at all. So, that can be problematic because they just need to get in the habit of getting it in even it’s 80% done. So complete follow-through isn’t always necessarily necessary, especially when we’re building habits. But this is a huge part again of executive function. So that’s a piece that needs to be examined and broken apart. How to just deal with the follow-through aspect.Then, you have to worry about transport. Transport means, how do we get it from home, the kitchen table or the desk, or wherever they’re doing their homework, into the folder, into the backpack, into the bus or the car or whatever, back to the school. How do we even transport it? That in of itself is a system that a lot of students really take time to craft and families don’t understand, parents are often baffled at how can this piece of paper not make it back to school. Transportation, that’s an executive function thing too. Dealing with systems and details, getting it from point A to point B, that’s something that needs to be looked at.
Finally, it’s got to be turned in. So the student has to be in the class, use executive function to say to themselves, “Hmm, I need to get that out of my backpack and hand it in to the teacher.” Now, I think that my students are generally very well-intended, they often legitimately forget. The teacher can even be saying, “Everybody turn in your homework right now.” I have teachers who say, “Well, I ask for the homework at the beginning of every period,” well a lot of the times these students with executive function have difficulty with transitions. So they’re just transitioning into a new class, their mind is still in the other class or the social thing that happened in the hallway, or whatever. Turning it in is a real challenge for even more reasons than I mentioned. I often will be doing a backpack overhaul with a student and we pull something out from the bottom of the backpack, the bowels of the backpack, we find a paper that was due 3 weeks or 3 months ago, and they say, “Oh, that’s where that is. I thought I turned it in.” A lot of the time students even literally, envisioned themselves with the visual part of the brain turning in the work. But they didn’t do it. But they often will misremember. Anyhow, the point is that the Homework Continuum Deluxe has a beginning and an end. It is not one thing, do your homework, it is many things. When you break down these pieces and look at them individually, then you can help a student problem solve and come up with solutions to each one of them to help increase their independence so that they can better succeed at doing the homework. Now this video doesn’t even consider whether or not the homework is valuable. Some homework is completely meaningless, complete BS. I see that a lot here and I have strong opinions about this, but that this video doesn’t even look at that. That’s a whole issue altogether. I really am just a nutshell don’t think that homework should interfere with self-care time and family time. And there are sometimes legitimate reasons for homework, sometimes there’s not. You really have to look at that as well.
Anyhow, here you go, here’s the Homework Continuum, I hope this helps you look at the areas that you can break down to work on more specifically to problem-solve with so that you can increase independence and success in whatever you’re doing. Good luck to you, I hope you’re having an awesome weekend and I’ll see you in a week. Take care.
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Today I’m going to teach you exactly how and why I teach students to do a regular “backpack overhaul” and why it’s a critical tool for student success. Trust me, this is one of the best game-changers.
How long the overhaul takes:
1 hour the first time you do an overhaul. 15 minutes once a week after that.
Age:
I teach ALL of my students to do this, elementary through grad school.
About my students:
The students I work with are notoriously outside-the-box thinkers who struggle with organization, overwhelm, remembering details, homework, studying, time management, planning, prioritizing, focusing on one thing at a time, and thinking things through. They need outside-the-box solutions, not cookie cutter fluff. The overhaul is key since they aren’t natural “maintainers.”
I always say that my students are “overhaulers”, not “maintainers”. They tend to do occasional overhauls, but aren’t the type who naturally maintain systems on a regular basis. In other words, they tend to be pretty disorganized. They’re the classic start-a-million-projects-but-finish-none type of people. Once in a while they overhaul something (their bedroom, hobby area, papers, etc.), rearrange it, go through everything carefully, and make it awesome. A couple days later it may be mayhem again for another year.
As far as backpacks are concerned, these students tend to have a knack for losing very important papers deep in the abyss of the backpack. The backpacks fill with papers, electronics, trash, books, clutter, etc.. Papers get compressed into bizarre shapes as the ink fades from weeks of friction in the backpack. Sometimes the backpack appears organized, sometimes it looks like a volcanic explosion. Either way, when it comes to having an effective system for managing the minutiae, their system isn’t cutting it.
How to do the backpack overhaul:
I start by telling them we are going to do a backpack overhaul, that we will go through every single thing, even gum wrappers, and get the backpack fully reorganized. I ask if this sounds like a good idea because they have to take ownership and have buy-in or it’s not going to do much good. Once I have buy-in, we move on. Do not underestimate the importance of honoring this discussion and getting the buy-in, even if it takes a half hour to talk! It usually takes me a couple of minutes.
I always ask if there is anything personal that they don’t want me to see, and I let them get rid of it before we start. You must honor their privacy, so make sure to create that sense of safety and respect.
We find a big area, a huge table or an open floor space.
We grab a recycle can, a trash can, a box labeled “archive”.
Now we pull every single thing out of every pocket on the backpack. Consequently, I like the simple 2 pocket backpacks, not the 100 pocket backpacks that things get lost in the most. Either way, empty it out, shake the remaining debris outside if necessary.
Next, we literally go through every single thing in the backpack and start making piles. Trash goes in the trash can, paper in the recycling, we start a math pile, an LA pile, a science pile, a pile of supplies, etc.. They often need a lot of help with figuring out how to categorize their piles.
I ask a lot of questions that are designed to make them think about their organizational choices. This is how I help them develop “metacognition”, or how I help them become more mindful, aware and conscious of their choices. I ask things like, “why are you keeping that? Do you really need it? Why? Why are you getting rid of that? Are you sure it can’t be turned in?Where is the best place for that? Why? Do you have a “home for that? Where? Should we write your name on this? Would it help if this had a label?”
Sometimes I go through the piles once again to see if there is a special order they want the papers in, to see if everything has a name or to see if there is anything that is must be turned in. All papers that must be turned in are flagged with a post-it or are put in the queue (see post).
Finally, we put everything back in the backpack very intentionally. Usually the load is considerably lighter, literally and figuratively.
Why weekly overhauls?
Now that the initial massive overhaul is complete, I do a quick overhaul with clients every week for several weeks. As they get better at managing things, we can back off to every 2 or 3 weeks. I keep this up on a fairly regular basis for the rest of the school year because even when these kids say that everything is in place, inevitably, we end up finding things that were misplaced. They say things like, “oh yeah, I forgot about that. I was wondering where that was.” It never fails. These kids aren’t usually being dishonest or lazy, they just tend to have an unrealistic perception about things. Don’t worry, as the brain matures, and as they go through a reflective process like this over and over, it slowly gets more realistic. Keep at it, the brain will respond and you will see changes!
Note: Help your students do the overhaul, don’t do it for them or they won’t gain the skill.
Finally: If this is helping you, please help me by sharing my site with someone today. You can share on social media or just email my site to a friend.
Thanks for your support,
Seth
This won’t come as a surprise to you, but the students I work with aren’t exactly great with planning. In fact, they usually resist it. But here’s a problem, because learning to plan is absolutely essential for every single student in order to prepare for independence in life, regardless of the type of work they eventually go into.
“Quit bugging me! I know what I’m doing”
These students want more and more independence but still lack the tools to manage independently. They also tend to be very unrealistic about this and they like to think they can remember everything. They are also quite good at wearing parents down with their arguments. Needless to say, this is often a messy situation to handle that leaves us with the following question: How do we help someone learn to “plan” when they’re so resistant to planning?
Answer: Make planning as simple and powerful as possible. Tailor it to their unique needs. Use babysteps.
Today I’m going to teach you one of the best ways I do that with my students. I’ll show you exactly how and why I teach students to make a “daily plan” (I also teach other essential planning ideas, like; backwards planning, desk calendars on the wall, monthly planners, etc.. Unfortunately these are outside the scope of this article, but you will learn about them through my blog.)
More about the students
To clarify, the students I work with are notoriously outside-the-box thinkers who struggle with organization, overwhelm, remembering details, homework, studying, time management, planning, prioritizing, focusing on one thing at a time, and thinking things through. They need outside-the-box solutions, not cookie cutter fluff. So this simple method has been created just for them.
The brain
Fortunately, it’s nice to know that difficulty with planning has everything to do with executive function, the brain’s ability to “execute” complex tasks form beginning to end. And fortunately, this part of the brain (the prefrontal cortex) continues to develop until we are about 25 years old. So, yes, there is hope!
Step 1: Discussion, ownership and buy in
I usually begin with a discussion about planning and hold a space for my student to tell me what she doesn’t like about it and why. I really listen. Usually I hear that it’s overwhelming, it takes too much time, they can remember it, they forget to write things down, it feels like busywork. I listen and ask them how it’s going with their current approach. I try to get them to take ownership, to tell me that it’s important to them to have a system of tracking assignments and such, that it’s not going as well as it can. I seek to get buy in from them, so they take ownership in the desire to gain more independence. I then tell them about how and why it’s important to make a daily plan and how easy it is and how much it can help. This can be a lengthy discussion, but it pays off.
I also discuss the different types of plans, daily, weekly, monthly, annual. Then I bring it back to the daily plan, because that’s the only one I will focus on for now. To clarify, yes we do make a quick daily plan in addition to their planner. They need to be able to use a planner as well. This just helps plan the night or teh study session.
Step 2: Make the plan
Now I teach my student specifically how to make a daily plan. This takes a few minutes but is really simple and straight forward. Interestingly, the magic is in making the plan, we don’t even have to follow it exactly. The act of making it helps us go from being abstract to concrete about what needs to be done. We must learn to get it out of our head and onto paper! Here’s how the plan works:
1. Write the date. This helps them gain a greater sense of time because many of my students are not very aware yet.
2. Write an intention for the study session. This could be anything, it just depends on what one needs at the time. Examples; focus on 1 thing at a time, take my time, work on quality, just finish, don’t be perfectionistic, have fun with it. The point is that writing the intention helps the brain actualize that intention!
4. Write down your #1 priority. I want kids to think, if nothing else gets done, this is the one thing that will!
5. Write the rest of the to do list: Study for history test, read chapter 3, math hw, etc..
6. Anything else that pops into your head, but that can wait should go on the backburner list: Clean bedroom, buy a b-day gift for someone, make dentist appt, etc..
7. Put the plan in the best possible place where it will be in your face.
Again, you do NOT have to follow the plan, just make it.
Below is a template you are welcome to use any way you wish. I print large stacks of these for my students. Whenever I begin a session with them, we start with a quick plan. It’s one of those little things that makes a BIG difference. Good luck.
Seth
Today’s Plan template
Here’s the gist. I usually make 4 of these in a table on google docs, print a bunch and cut them out. Feel free to cut, paste, modify and print!
Today’s Plan Date: ______
Intention _______________
#1 Priority ______________
To do:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Backburner:
Before you go
If this is helping you, please help me by sharing my site with someone today. You can share on social media or just email my site to a friend. Thanks for your support,
Seth
I have practiced various forms of meditation for many years and I began to experiment with it after I was in a coma that nearly killed me.
After the coma, I began having panic and anxiety attacks that grew in frequency and intensity. This happened because during the coma, my lungs shut down, I couldn’t breathe, so I was on a respirator for 9 days. My brain was storing important information about how dangerous it was to “lose my breath”. My anxiety was part of how my brain and body were trying to protect me.
But my brain took it too far, I began to have obsessive fears that made everything worse. When I began to settle back into my routines again, my panic attacks grew. They were always related to a sense of suffocation and fear of death.
I didn’t want to take medication for the anxiety and I ended up meditating with a therapist. She also turned me onto a particular book that helped a lot. I have since read many such books, taken classes on meditation, etc.. I literally don’t have panic or anxiety attacks any more, and that’s a direct gift of the meditation.
The practice was so transformative for me that I began guiding meditations with students, and they loved it. In this video I share a true story about one of the students I currently work with. I guided him through some meditations and something crazy happened… The stomach pain he’d been living with for 10 years stopped while he was meditating. Anyone who has a child with chronic pain, knows how big this is. It means there is hope that he doesn’t have to live with this pain. Enjoy the video…
Links:
The first type of meditation I explored: Vipassana style meditation
Amazon link to the first game changing meditation book I read: The Miracle of Mindfulness
For those of you who know me, you know I am an extremely mission driven human being. I’m deeply committed to education, to my belief that it is the key to a great life. And I’m cynical, I become very disturbed by anything that I feel gets in the way of education (like massive testing, textbook and curriculum companies who place profit before kids). I seek to help change education so it does a much better job of meeting the real needs of ALL children, including outside-the-box thinkers.
I spend countless hours immersed in my mission and I’m constantly striving to refine my ideas, to share them through blogging and speaking, and to work with complex students to help them transform their educational experience from one of frustration to one of confidence.
I follow A LOT of ed bloggers and read A LOT about unconventional approaches to education. I perpetually research anything and everything I can in order to learn more and become better at what I do.
Over the years there have been a good handful of people who have greatly inspired my work. They are people who are movers and shakers, renegades, disruptors, instigators, people who have dedicated part of their lives to helping children, regardless of how unpopular their views might be. Today I want to share some of these people with you because I think their work may help you on your journey. Without further ado…
1. Seth Godin
Seth is not an educator in the traditional sense, he’s a well-known “marketer.” However, I see him as a great teacher and as someone who is making a significant dent. He gives generously of his ideas to help the world, and his ideas about education are first-rate. I read his blog daily and I want to encourage you to sign up for it. Each day he sends out a quick and pithy article that makes me think.
Stop Stealing Dreams is a big picture manifesto that examines the purpose of education. I’ve read it a couple times and it’s a must-read for parents and educators.
Here’s the Stop Stealing Dreams TED talk.
2. Diane Ravitch
Diane is an intense and passionate personality who completely shifted her views on education. I’ve been following her blog since early 2013 and I’m blown away by her knowledge and dedication. She blogs like mad and writes deep, heavy articles clearly articulating her views of education reform. She dives into immense detail about any issue you can think of relating to education. She is relentless and cares about what’s right for kids. I suggest you sign up for her blog and check out one of her books, like Reign of Error(I’m well into it right now. Awesome.)
3. Alfie Kohn
Alfie does a phenomenal job dissecting the problems with our grading systems and standardized testing. He also looks at how many of the approaches parents take are counter productive and what to do about it. He is passionate and his writing is easily digestible.
Alfie on Amazon
4. John Taylor Gatto
John taught for 30 years, resigned and did a great deal of work to change education through looking at the history of education and the consequences that our system has on our children. I have read his book, “Dumbing Us Down: the Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling” a few times and recommend it highly. I have also watched and read just about everything I could get my hands on from him… I love his work. It’s important and he doesn’t hold back.
What about you?
I could name many others who have inspired me, like Joseph Renzulli, Howard Gardner and Benjamin Bloom. But what about you? Who are your favorites? Who has influenced your thinking about how we can best educate our children? Share with us below in the comments. We’d love to hear your thoughts.
Procrastination.Dragging your feet.Putting it off.Avoidance.Resistance.
Motivation is overrated
We like to think that if we can just figure out how to motivate our kids properly, a mental switch will flip and they’ll realize how much easier it is. But it doesn’t happen that way with a lot of kids. Learning how to walk through resistance tends to happen painfully slowly.
Our children often want to convince us that they need to wait until they feel motivated. They claim they have to be in the right mood for it. Yet this is just one of the many defaults our brains attach to in order to continue avoiding. If we wait until we feel motivated, it’ll never happen.
“Don’t wait for your feelings to change to take the action. Take the action and your feelings will change.” ~Barbara Baron
Getting started doing something you don’t feel like doing can be so difficult, especially when there doesn’t appear to be much value in the task, or when it’s overwhelming (both of which are all too common in school). A train at a standstill requires an enormous amount of energy to gain momentum, but once it gets going, its’ a lot easier to keep going.
So, we might ask a different question: Rather than, “how can I get them motivated?” consider, “how do I help them learn strategies to get started?”As adults, we have somehow learned ways to trick ourselves into starting, yet it’s such a subtle step, we often don’t even acknowledge it as such. Kids need a lot of help with this. Don’t give up – your guidance is making a difference, regardless of how frustrating it can be. Trust the process and pick your battles wisely.
Sometimes kids get “derailed” and it’s so hard to start up again. Sometimes it’s good to get them “back on track” to “complete the work.”
But sometimes it’s best to leave well-enough alone. Sometimes it’s best to let go, call it a day and enjoy some much needed downtime with family, friends or just taking care of oneself.
What’s your highest trump today?
Welcome to 2015. I want to start the year off by stepping back to take a look at what we’re doing with education.
As I reflect on my past year, I keep coming back to why I do what I do. I help kids because I believe deeply in the power in education to open doors. Not “school,” but education. By this, I mean to give learners what they need to have a great life now, while preparing them for a great future.
How well are we doing this?
Too often we miss the boat. Kids fall through the cracks as we push them to fit the mold rather than empowering them to build upon their inherent strengths, interests and talents. They often go “unseen” as we push them towards standardization. We rely heavily upon metrics that are concrete and easily measured, yet these can offer little more than a fuzzy snapshot. There is so much more to the picture – our kids are extraordinarily complex human beings equipped with gifts that can’t be measured using this data.
A great life isn’t defined by scores, grades, income or material wealth. Success is being able to intentionally craft a life of joy, peace and purpose. It is crafting a life full of experiences that are personally meaningful and valuable. This clip of Alan Watts reflects this sentiment beautifully and is one of my favorites. Enjoy.
Here’s the transcript:
What makes you itch? What sort of the situation would you like? Let’s suppose, I do this often in vocational guidance of students: they come to me and say well, we are getting out of college and we haven’t the faintest idea what we want to do. So I always ask the question: What would you like to do if money were no object? How would you really enjoy spending your life? Well it’s so amazing as the result of our kind of educational system, crowds of students say ‘Well, we’d like to be painters, we’d like to be poets, we’d like to be writers’ But as everybody knows you can’t earn any money that way! Another person says ‘Well I’d like to live an out-of-door’s life and ride horses.’ I said ‘You wanna teach in a riding school?’
Let’s go through with it. What do you want to do? When we finally got down to something which the individual says he really wants to do, I will say to him ‘You do that! And forget the money!’ Because if you say that getting the money is the most important thing you will spend your life completely wasting your time! You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living – that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing! Which is stupid! Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing then a long life spent in a miserable way. And after all, if you do really like what you are doing – it doesn’t really matter what it is – you can eventually become a master of it. It’s the only way of becoming the master of something, to be really with it. And then you will be able to get a good fee for whatever it is. So don’t worry too much, somebody is interested in everything. Anything you can be interested in, you’ll find others who are.
But it’s absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don’t like in order to go on spending things you don’t like, doing things you don’t like and to teach our children to follow the same track. See, what we are doing is we are bringing up children and educating to live the same sort of lives we are living. In order they may justify themselves and find satisfaction in life by bringing up their children to bring up their children to do the same thing. So it’s all retch and no vomit – it never gets there! And so therefore it’s so important to consider this question:
What do I desire?
-Alan Watts
With that, I want to wish you a tremendous 2015. I hope it is filled sharing great experiences with the people you love most, with people who raise you up, who bring you joy and who empower you to live authentically, manifesting your deepest desires.
Here’s to not losing sight of what we’re trying to do through education.
In gratitude and service,
Seth Perler
Tools for student success
