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“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 popular water park in Queensland. I lost track of how many times a person (children and adults,) would get to the top of the ride and start to freak out. With the right coxing I could usually get them to get on the slide and go for a ride. What is also hard to count is the amount of times that same scared person would then be back for more. They faced their fears and found enjoyment in the thrill. Facing their fears helped them to have a much more enjoyable day than if they had never taken that first step, through the park gates. Then that next step, into the ride’s queue. Then that next step, sitting into the ride.

Action plans are about moving forward. The fear won’t diminish as you get closer to what is feared. If you wait for the anxiety and worry to simmer down, you will never confront the dread. In fact the anxiety can get even more intense the closer you get. However, an action plan followed will help you stay the course.

Verywellmind.com talks about creating an action plan by creating a “fear hierarchy”. It is basically saying that you start with small steps that knock off one portion of the fear at a time. They give the example of public speaking and using what’s called exposure therapy, share a list of steps that can help you beat that public speaking demon. *

1. Stand in front of a mirror and give a two-minute talk.

2. Record yourself giving a talk and watch it back.

3. Practice the talk in front of a partner.

4. Practice the talk in front of a partner and family member.

5. Practice the talk in front of a partner, family member, and one friend.

6. Practice the talk in front of a partner, family member, and two friends.

7. Give the talk in a meeting at work.

What is showing great promise is the utilisation of virtual reality to overcome fears. You can load up a scenario where you are facing and getting involved with your fears in a space where you can remind yourself that it is all fake.

However you decide to face your fears know that by doing so, you will live a much richer life. You will gain in knowledge and experience. You will make new friends. You will have adventures and bring home great stories to tell. You will become a more complete person.

To quote the “Lizard King” himself, the bewitching poet and Doors front-man Jim Morrison,

“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”

*https://www.verywellmind.com/healthy-ways-to-face-your-fears

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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

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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 the back. He was the one assigned to look after those who were struggling and falling behind.

No scouts were carried, all had to walk up the mountain or through the bush trail with their own 2 feet. The leaders didn’t disappear. But what they did as certain scouts gained confidence, was bring those young men into the positions where they could lead from the front, middle or back.

As human beings we need to feel that we have control of our lives. We need to feel that we are driving our goals. We need to feel ownership of our behaviour.

A person has a high level of self-determination won’t blame, won’t look for scapegoats whenever there is a failing that they caused or even just participated in. A person with a high level of self-determination will put up their hand, say “my bad. Let’s see what we can do to fix this or how we can do better next time.”

Someone with low self-determination will avoid taking responsibility and will shift the focus so far away from themselves that they won’t be in a position to fix the mistake or improve on the issue.

I’ll leave you with a short quote by Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinozer:

"Freedom is self-determination."

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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.

1. 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 –

1. 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.

1. 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.

1. 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 experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram. They measured the willingness of study participants, men 20-50 years old from a diverse range of occupations with varying levels of education, to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience. Participants were led to believe that they were assisting an unrelated experiment, in which they had to administer electric shocks to a "learner". These fake electric shocks gradually increased to levels that would have been fatal had they been real.[2]

Huck was a young boy, faced with questioning by adult authority figures. He was also in a space where he was upset at Jim because Jim had been talking about stealing his family from the plantation where they were being held. This upset Huck because according to everything that he had been taught, slavery was okay and Jim’s enslaved family were actually the rightfully owned property of some people who he considered to be good an decent people.

He was being mentally beat up by cognitive dissonance. We all face cognitive dissonance where we find ourselves holding on to 2 conflicting beliefs, values or attitudes. Often what we tend to do as humans wanting to avoid or escape this conflict, is look for the easiest out. That can mean turning off the argument and leaning into what we’ve always believed by rejecting or explaining away new information. We’ll treat it like it’s dangerous.

Well, it’s the dangerous thoughts that can often lead to escape from limiting beliefs.

Huck was faced with an “in the moment decision” plagued by so many decision making factors. The cognitive dissonance would have been super heavy.

How can we deal with these moments aside from running away from what is uncomfortable?

One answer is also my final tip:

1. KNOW YOURSELF

Know yourself and prepare to be faced with any and every decision. Don’t wait to be in a personally unprecedented moment. Getting to know yourself can help you to realise your prejudices. It can help you to know your strengths and weaknesses.

Self-knowledge can help you to base your decisions on facts and on wisdom and on human values rather than the opinions of others. Social theorist Thomas Sowell said,

“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”

As we truly get to know ourselves, we gain confidence in ourselves and in our ability to make decisions that affect us. There is a lot of room for self-doubt when you don’t know yourself.

The book is all about Huck getting to know himself. He had to face some hard truths through his interaction with the escaped slave Jim. I think that it was this knowledge of self that was enough to help Huck make what most sensible and life-valuing people would say was the right one even if it was strictly speaking “dishonest”.

I’ll finish with a quote by the great wizard Dumbledore from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

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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.

1. 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

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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 sharing space and levels

It is drawing someone closer

It is healing divides
It is helping someone to overcome failures and succeed

I have a saying that I try to live by. Admittedly, I don’t always follow my own advice, but I try my best. It is “Take it to mind, not to heart.” I have always been determined to avoid “tick and flick” training and assessment as I want my students to feel confident stepping into the field after graduating. So, at the beginning of any course, when I have fresh new faces and eager minds raring to go, I start by telling my students that we will be a class that isn’t shy of constructive criticism. I say I will give it and we will actively encourage peer-review. I will even have the students give me constructive feedback. At first it hurts. Of course it does. We are only human. We have feelings. But if we are prepared for it, it gets easier and then eventually welcomed enthusiastically. So, for example, after a student would lead a group exercise class as part of an assessment, we would then sit on the floor in a circle and everyone would give their thoughts, tips, criticisms, ideas for improvements, what they liked and might themselves employ etc. The student being assessed was given instruction not to defend themselves. They were allowed to explain their thoughts behind doing something a certain way but for the most part all they could do was listen – taking it to mind, not to heart. I would say, by doing that, they could then go away, think about things, throw off any critique they didn’t want to utilise and use what they considered could help them improve.

Benefits? Here are just 3.

Benefit 1 – Makes You Better

I’ve heard it said that constructive criticism shines a spotlight on fixable issues and concerns. That’s one way of looking at it. In other words it helps you to see things more clearly which is great for the intrepid, eager to learn mind. I would say it’s more like putting the concerns out in the sun. Some people react very negatively to spotlights and immediately run back into the wings of the stage. The sun feels natural and so should constructive criticism. The sun not only sheds light but it feels good and is a great detoxification tool.

Benefit 2 – Strengthens Connections

Constructive criticism done right shows a high level of care. When you feel that someone cares it is easier to make connection. This can be of great benefit to a workplace, a school, a club, a home etc. Constructive criticism should be given only because you want someone to succeed. It feels right when it is given in a way that the criticiser is declaring “I don’t want you to fail,” rather than “You are a failure!” So, if this is felt by the receiver, a union, a bond and stronger, trusting relationship is formed.

Speaking of trust;

Benefit 3 – Improves Trustworthiness

In whatever space constructive criticism is accepted and is felt to be a natural and productive part of the environment, the people feel that they can be more open and honest and that those around them are being open and honest with them. I remember when my now wife and I first decided to get married, we asked each other what we thought would be important in our marriage. We made a list and near the top was an ability to give and accept constructive criticism. The first time I took that to task and answered honestly the question “Does this look good on me?” it didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped. And of course, it worked both ways as criticism was directed towards me. However, over time we have accepted and really found value in constructive criticism. We value each other’s opinions and then make our own decisions after consideration.
Compare that with recent constructive criticism that I directed towards a certain politician. I questioned aspects of a “system” not the person involved. By their reaction you would have thought that I had just stolen his dalmatian puppies to make a fur coat. Constructive criticism accepted stops people keeping their mouths shut for fear of hurting someone’s feelings. Constructive criticism accepted leads to transparency. In a classroom that helps students to really understand the “whys” of questions, assignments etc. In a workplace it builds trust between peers and management. In general society it helps build community and a sense of belonging which in turn leads to more proactivity in sharing ideas, thoughts, concerns and more and in what world is that a bad thing?

I’ll finish with a quote attributed to ancient playwright Aristophanes - “Open your mind before your mouth“

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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."

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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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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.

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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

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 JourneyThese 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 a weak link in a chain that we could strengthen, thereby strengthening the chain as a whole. We were learning to enjoy discovering issues as part of our journey. Looking for dopamine hits by finding weaknesses? That’s a radical thought.

Once discovering a weakness a person has 3 options and only 1 of those options leads to progress.

Option A – pretend the weakness doesn’t exist.

I recall when I was playing rugby. I loved playing Flanker, which, for the uninitiated is position where you have to be super fit and willing to chase the ball from side to side and end to end. I had all the skills necessary – fitness (I just missed by a fraction level 16 on the Beep Test,) speed, strength etc. but I was about 15-20 cm shorter than the average elite player. As I continued after High School, I was told by a rep coach “Look Nate, you’ve got the goods but not as a Flanker. You’re simply not tall enough. Focus on a position in the backs or perhaps halfback and you’ll do quite well I believe.” I was prideful however. I was determined to be the “shortest All Black Flanker ever!” Yeah, I actually spoke those words out loud.

It didn’t happen.

If Cyndi had said “screw this I love singing like Janis Joplin and there’s nothing you can do to stop me!” well, we would not be hearing Time After Time, or True Colours or Girls Just Wanna Have Fun on the radio.

Instead of realising that I had a limitation in one position that could actually be an asset in another position like say, halfback, I chose pride over change. Of course, even if I had changed my attitude and programming who’s to say I would have reached that ultimate goal anyway, right? The point is that by pretending our weaknesses don’t exist, we are also ignoring opportunities that might come our way if we were consciously and pro-actively dealing with them.

Sometimes a “weakness” and I say this with quotation marks, is really just a limitation unrecognised. Don’t believe the inspirational memes that there are no limits. Of course there are limits! Ask let’s say, Dorian Yates, the OG of massive bodybuilders who dominated the 1990s with 6 Mr. Olympia titles. At almost 60 years old do you think he’s still growing? Eventually he peaked. We all peak in different disciplines. Otherwise we’d have 80-year-olds that started benching in their 20s hitting 1000 kilo presses. Thankfully, while there is a peak to every mountain, there is more than one mountain we can climb.

Option B – Whinge and moan about its existence and let it damn your growth potential

Sure, wallow around in a muddy quagmire of self-pity until your light goes out and the vultures of misery pluck the flesh from your bones OR…

haha – morbid? I’m trying to paint a picture here – make sure we visualise how abominable Option B is – because the only good option is…

Option C – Fix it or work around it

If a weakness is fixable or not so damning that it can be worked around then we can keep working towards our goals with the right mindset and proactive approach to the concern.

So for example, our 15-year-old son, who plays basketball has been complaining about knee pain when playing. I used my own fitness knowledge to analyse as best as I could but ultimately knew (and this actually ties into Lesson 1,) that I needed someone else to help me find to find the source of the problem. I took him to a friend, a very good physiotherapist (Shout out to Brendon Pidgeon,) and after going through a number of tests for meniscus damage, hamstring tightness and so on, ultimately we discovered a couple of things which largely had to do with a rapid growth spurt that he had recently gone through that his patella/knee joint ligaments weren’t prepared for. It was all good news. We were able to give him some mitigating exercises to prep for hard training and games as well as some exercises to stabilise the knee, strengthen the pertinent muscles around the knee as well as teaching them to “fire” when needed.

Cyndi Lauper and her coach got excited about the discovery of her weakness. She could have been “stuff it – I love my rock music and I’m going to bloody well power through anyway.” Or, she could have said “I can’t sing rock belters? Woe is me all hope is lost!”

Instead she saw her weakness, looked at what she could fix, what she could work around, and what she needed to discard, and went from there.

3. Knowing Our True Self is Essential to Becoming Our Best Self.

Healing her larynx and re-training Cyndi’s voice was a matter of urgency.

Katie Agresta reflects on the time as something that went beyond simply healing a broken voice. They weren’t rebuilding it to be used in the same way it had been before - Covering aggressive, rocking belters. She discovered that Cyndi had an incredible voice in her own right but it was a pop, blues, even jazzy voice – not a rock belter. So to become who she was meant to be, Cyndi had to throw out the imitation game.
Cyndi explains in her memoir that her coach made her realise “what I was aching for- To sing my own songs, in my own voice".

She says of that night when her voice quit on her "I couldn't hit the high note, because I didn't have my music."

"To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom." Socrates might have said that. It’s often attributed to him. It’s true. Cyndi getting to know herself helped her to wisely correct her course. As her innate quirkiness was allowed to escape through her pores we witnessed the birth of an icon. It’s an impression that remains 40 years on. You won’t ever attend an 80s fancy dress party where the Cyndi Lauper style isn’t on display by many partygoers.

Sometimes it’s hard to get to know ourselves. While the first tip is about seeking and valuing help from other people it should be balanced with alone time. A great way to begin the education of knowing oneself is to find moments of solitude.

One of history’s raddest philosophers, Nietzsche, said of solitude;

I go in solitude, so as not to drink out of everybody's cistern. ... When I am among the many I live as the many do, and I do not think I really think; after a time it always seems as if they want to banish myself from myself and rob me of my soul.

Regularly finding time to be alone is essential. It’s time spent with oneself to get to know oneself. We should take that time without distractions. Forget the phone at home. Get off social media for a while or in the least see what is posted by others for what it is – idealised lifestyles. Otherwise we’ll spend our time wishing for what others have, wishing to be like others are.

To recap!

1. One Person Entering Our Lives Can Inspire Course Correction

2. Weaknesses Can Be Catalysts

3. Knowing Our True Self is Essential to Becoming Our Best Self

What ties this all together is the idea that opening ourselves up to discovering ourselves, our strengths and weaknesses, is essential for improvement. So with that in mind I’ve got to finish with a quote by the great writer, philosopher, poet, abolitionist, Ralph Waldo Emerson:The only person you are destined to become, is the person you decide to be.Thank you for being with me today. We are sponsored by the TAE experts (TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment,) Qualify Now. Ask them all of your questions, they have plenty of answers to give.

Music by Dragon Chromatic, Anthem Fox, Cyndi Lauper and www.Bensound.com

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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.

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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 a method that she was using that had been passed on to her by one of my students. So damned rad. I love it!

The great philosopher Seneca said “While we teach, we learn” and science fiction author Robert Heinlen took it another step by saying “When 1 teaches, 2 learn.”

So there you go! 3 steps to supercharging your learning abilities.

Passionize, Apply, Teach

Thanks for being with me today you beautiful creatures.

My name is Nate Hamon, this is Educate This and we are proudly sponsored by the super excellent TAE40116 (Certificate IV in Training and Assessment,) providers, Qualify Now. That’s who I went through for my qualifications and if you are looking for more than a tick and flick but rather high end, trainer supported learning, Qualify Now are the go to. They helped to inspire and reignite my love of education. Check out qualifynow.com,au

Let’s talk again soon.

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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.
Sponsored by Qualify Now (www.qualifynow.com.au)
Music by Dragon Chromatic

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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 Roxanne), 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 the work itself, opportunities for development is the next most important factor in workplace wellbeing and happiness.

Spike Lee works hard at improving himself and refuses to fall into comfort traps.

He learns from his students

We may be the “sage on the stage” or the “guide on the side” but we too are in a position to learn even from those whom we are educating. It is the height of hubris to consider that we cannot be taught by those whose education we have stewardship over.

Spike Lee has said that one of the reasons that he loves to teach is because it gives him an opportunity to exchange ideas with his students. It’s not about handing over control of course. The authority remains with the expert but sometimes fresh perspectives help broaden the understanding.

“Spike has seen every short film that I’ve ever made,” says Green. “And I know he’s done that for hundreds [or maybe] thousands of students during his tenure.”

It’s only my assumption but I bet that he not only watches his students work in support of them but also to learn from and find inspiration in their creations.

To do this we have to allow the students to have a voice. Not an uncontrolled, all consuming voice. We’ve all had those sort of students who end up blanketing the whole classroom with their opinions but enough space for every voice, even if it’s pre or post class for the shy students.

We also need to create classrooms where fear of speaking and asking questions is eliminated. That’s a classroom where we will hear big. Bold, ugly, ridiculous, crazy, impossible ideas. That’s a classroom where both students and the teacher can learn together.

He studies the masters

I was once talking to a young woman and in conversation it came out that she wanted to be a novelist. “Great!” I said, “What genre?” “I’m not sure.” “Well what’s you’re favourite genre?” “I don’t have one really.” “That’s okay, neither do I. Or at least I have a few favourites. Who are you reading at the moment?” I‘m not really a big reader. I haven’t read a book for a long time.”

It was a head scratching moment for me.

Associate Dean of Strategic Initiatives Sheril Antonio said of her filmmaking friend “Spike Lee is a true auteur (oh terr) whose expertise in filmmaking and knowledge of cinema combined with his cultural awareness enable him to offer audiences new perspectives on American life,”

Martin Scorsese, who lists ‘Do the Right Thing’ as one of the top films that film students should study, said of studying classic cinema

“I’m often asked by younger filmmakers, why do I need to look at old movies -- And the response I find that I have to give them is that I still consider myself a student. The more pictures I’ve made in the past twenty years the more I realize I really don’t know. And I’m always looking for something to, something or someone that I could learn from. I tell them, I tell the younger filmmakers and the young students that I do it like painters used to do, or painters do: study the old masters, enrich your palette, expand your canvas. There’s always so much more to learn.”

Can you imagine being a modern philosopher and not having studied Plato, or Aurelius or Aristotle?

Can you imagine being an architect who can’t be bothered studying Frank Lllyod Wright or a wannabe songwriter saying “Dylan who? The Beatles? Nah too old!”

As educators we can not only learn from our own successes and failures, from our students perspectives and ideas but also from those who have gone before us.

From Confucious to Maria Montessori to Jaime Escalante who many may know from the book “Best Teacher in the World” or it’s adapted 1988 film “Stand and Deliver” – we have a wealth of historical influences to draw from.

So to recap:

We can become better educators by humbling ourselves to constant development through learning and we can learn, as Spike Lee has given us an example of, through the study of our own work, listening to our students and studying the masters.

Maya Angelo said

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

End quote – and think about it – it goes both ways in constant motion – at least it does for the truly great educators. We are catching and throwing, catching and throwing – teaching and learning and teaching and learning.

Thank you for joining me today. My name is Nate Hamon, this is Educate This and once again I’d like to thank our sponsors “Qualify Now”. Qualify Now are the TAE experts and it was through them that I was able to progress from being a Personal Trainer, to a Trainer of Trainers. Check out the links in the description or simply search Qualifynow.com.au

Intro and outro music provided by James Doyle AKA Dragon Chromatic

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Good morning, good afternoon, good evening – whatever the time of day it is always a good time for learning. This is Educate This, the podcast for Teachers, Trainers, Coaches, Mentors and Students – Anybody in the world of education and beyond which lets face it – should be all of us all the time. We learn to teach and we teach to learn.

My name is Nate Hamon and Educate This is sponsored by TAE Specialists, RTO Qualify Now. Check them out for all of your TAE questions and needs. Link in the description.

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The story of Helen Keller and her teacher and friend Anne Sullivan is one of the most endearing, enduring and life affirming stories around. It has particular lessons and inspiration for Teachers, Trainers, Mentors, Coaches – anyone that finds themselves in a position of having to guide and direct learning.

Helen Keller said that the most significant day of her life was the one in which Anne Sullivan came to her.

As a kid our family used to have on the bookshelf a collection of picture book biographies called “The Value of” series. They would take a historical figure that displayed a certain attribute worth learning from and tell their story. For Helen and Anne’s story it was called the Value of Determination.

I recently rediscovered some of these books at a Garage Sale and theirs was among the ones I found so I bought them and brought them home for our kids.

Before talking about the teacher student relationship I just want to talk a little about Anne’s biography because it is blood fascinating and shows a powerful example of someone rising through intense trials and tribulations and finding success by helping others to be successful. Which to my mind is a good Trainer’s goal. A Trainer, Teacher, Mentor etc. success can be measured by how well they help improve their student’s existence.

Anne, sometimes called Annie Sullivan was Born on April 14, 1866 in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts, to Irish immigrant parents, Alice and Thomas Sullivan. Anne was a nickname that stuck. It was derived from her given name, Johanna. She was the oldest of five kids. 2 of her siblings died during infancy.

**At the tender age of five, Anne contracted Trachoma. This was an eye disease that would left her partially blind and had to be treated to ward off full blown blindness. At the same time her brother Jimmie became disabled with a Tubercular hip.

Then when Anne was 8 her mother died from Tuberculosis complications.

Not long after that the kids were abandoned by their Dad.

They had no other family who would adopt them and so, Anne and Jimmie were sent to live at the Tewksbury Almshouse. This is said to have been a disgusting, horrible place for a child. Jimmie wouldn’t last long and soon died from diseases that spread in the decrepit, deplorable alms house.

In the novel Devil May Cry, author Sherrilyn Kenyon writes ““Strength through adversity. The strongest steel is forged by the fires of hell. It is pounded and struck repeatedly before it’s plunged back into the molten fire. The fire gives it power and flexibility, and the blows give it strength. Those two things make the metal pliable and able to withstand every battle it’s called upon to fight.”**

The fires of hell could have reduced Anne to ashes but she was made of tougher stuff. Instead these fires refined her and strengthened her.

In a time where being a woman was a heavy challenge on it’s own and the burden of a disability plus the lack of social status made it even more so, Anne became fiercely strong and driven to beat the odds that were stacked against her.

She not only became one of history’s most renowned Teachers due to her work with Helen Keller, but she fought for others, particularly the disabled, who were oppressed and discriminated against.

**As for the story of this famous teacher student powerhouse, Many know a little of the story that spanned the late 1800s into the 1900s which contains characters including Kings and Queens, Presidents and Celebrities, and even people like Alexander Graham Bell and Mark Twain!

But I’ll do a quick retell.

Due to an illness, Helen Keller lost her sight and hearing before she reached the age of 2!

She struggled to find her equilibrium in the world, in the community and even at home despite having patient and loving parents.

In 1887, a 20-year-old Anne Sullivan, had recently graduated from the Perkins Institution for the Blind, was commissioned to teach Helen in the young girl’s Alabama home.

When Anne arrived Helen was at first super angry, threw explosive tantrums and fought against any help. Many teachers would have thrown their hands up and walked away in exasperation.

Sullivan persisted and used innovative methods to reach what every Teacher hopes for with a difficult student, a “breakthrough.”

Once that catalyst was achieved, learning, while still a tough road, became more enjoyable for Helen as did the teaching for Anne.

Anne would remain with Helen as a friend and guide for life and they would experience higher education, world travel, fame and more together.

Here’s the really heart-tugging part of the story that wraps everything in a nice bow. Eventually Anne’s partial blindness became a complete blindness in her older years. It was now the younger Helen’s turn to guide her teacher and friend.

So Why Was Anne Such an Effective Teacher and what qualities did she possess that we can apply to our own teaching and training efforts?**1. She was a Strong and adaptable Communicator.

When Helen was initially acting obstinate and refusing to take lessons from Anne, Anne considered her students issues and adapted the traditional methods she had been taught to reach through to the young firecracker. She of course couldn’t talk or use sign language. One day Anne grabbed Helen’s hand and put it under flowing water. Then she spelled out the letters WATER on Helen’s hand. She kept doing this until eventually Helen had a moment of revelation. The sensation of WATER being written on her palm was related to the feeling of literal water on her palm.

This moment was the unlocking of Helen’s abilities.

Every person, even those “old dogs who can’t be taught new tricks” has a lock that can be opened. A good Teacher is one who either discovers or creates the key that fits.

Some teachers will testify that breakthroughs came by communicating to students how certain subjects and lessons that don’t seem applicable, can actually transfer into aspects of the student’s life that they are passionate about.

It’s about helping students to see a bigger picture – beyond the short window of hard study time. It is about communicating opportunities whether that is personal development, professional development, job upskilling, employment opportunities…

She nourished a trusting relationship

Trust is rarely at automatic give. It has to be earned. For a child who lived in a world of darkness and absolute silence to give trust must have been an even harder ask. Anne had to work hard for it but by becoming a friend she made that pathway easier. Trust follows comfort which follows genuine friendship. It is very hard to live a life uncrowded by fear without trust. The great writer Anton Chekov said “You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.”

She was patient

We all know the old quote said to have originated in the 1360 poem Piers Plowman, by English poet William Langland, about a man in search of faith. One line in the “patience is a fair virtue.” He states. We hear it thrown around more simply “Patience is a virtue”,

and it absolutely is – especially in the world of teaching.

Teaching a deaf, blind child to read, write and speak etc. was no easy and speedy task.

Every student is different. Some adults are hard and fast in their ways and that in itself is the challenge to overcome. Every student will show different levels of learning aptitude.

Patience includes pausing and considering best methods of guiding as every student, no matter their level of understanding, education, experience, social nous, whatever, has the ability to develop and progress.

Patience leads to adaptability and that is not only good for the student but also the Teacher.

I’ll finish with Helen Keller’s own thoughts regarding her great Coach.

"By the vitalizing power of her beautiful friendship she has stirred and enlarged my faculties. She has held me up to the ideals of the great and the good. She has opened my eyes to find my fellow men that need help, and it is the dearest joy of her life to have me do the most that lies in my power for them."

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3 lessons from 3 1980s Teacher Films

Lean on Me (1989)

The late 80s/early 90s was truly a time for inspirational educator films. There were plenty in competition but Lean on Me stands shoulder to shoulder with the best and is in the running for dux. This is one about a tough-love educator.

I remember talking to a principal of a low-socio-economic demographic High School near me which has come along in leaps and bounds academically, behaviourally and in other markers since he took over about a decade ago. He told me that after his first day on the job he was near broken. Fights, kids telling him to F off now coz he wasn’t going to last long anyway etc. Exhaustedly he spoke to his wife. She said to him “You’ve got 3 options. 1 quit. 2. Just go in, keep your nose down and ride it out until you’re transferred or get a better offer. Or 3. Go back in there carrying a big stick.”

He said, “metaphorically I took the big stick approach. I showed tough love but made sure it came with respect and lenience for the things that didn’t matter. A kid’s wearing a non-regulation hat? Who cares? A kid disrespects a teacher or fellow student. Get in my office I’m about to lay down the law.”

Morgan Freeman is Joe Clark — a “take no crap” ex-teacher who is brought in by a school superintendent to take on the role of principal in the worst school in New Jersey. Joe immediately sets himself up as an unlikable guy. Like the local principal I mentioned he started with the big picture issues. Drugs, gangs – get the hell out of here – I run the school now. He also did all of this with passion and the passion came because he had a vision. It wasn’t pride or delusions of grandeur or power tripping. He wanted to make the school a better place for the students and for the wider community.

LESSON: Strong leadership requires a strong vision

The leader, in this case the principal, needs to also sell that vision in order to get others on board. Many are averse to change especially if it pushes them out of a comfortable, couch groove existence. There can be push-back when bold leadership steps on to the scene but the quicker the leader can show and prove respect, the quicker they will get it in return with vital support in

Educators are not just classroom leaders, they are leaders and builders of leaders for the community beyond the classroom.

Stand and Deliver (1988)

This one is based on a true story,

Directed by Ramon Menendez's S&D is a 1988 drama that tells the story of Jaime Escalante, played by Edward James Olmos, a science wiz who gave up a well-paying and upward moving career in electronics to teach math at a low-socio-economic East L.A. barrio school called Garfield High. A barrio is basically a neighbourhood or ‘quarter’ where Spanish is the predominant language.

In 2011, the film was deemed "culturally historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Olmos was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 61st Academy Awards. He would have been a worthy winner but That was taken out by Dustin Hoffman’s for his Rainman character ‘Raymond Babbit’

This is a super inspiring true story that feels almost too good to be true.

Edward James Olmos performs with great energy and does justice to the story of Escalante who motivated through unorthodox techniques, a group of Latino students who were dragging academically, and turned them into high achieving performers.

A young Lou Diamond Phillips plays one of the lead troublemaker students Angel.

The story goes that the change in the kids was so incredible that the SAT board didn’t believe it could have happened and accused the teacher and students of cheating on their tests. There is more to tell from that part of the story alone but suffice to say the students repeated their exams and proved themselves by acing the testing.

This is a beautiful film telling a beautiful story of underdog triumph and how the power of 1 person’s attitude and energy can transform lives.

LESSON: Expectations Matter.

The head of the maths department in this film had low expectations set for the teens. Until Escalante came along those expectations were being met. High or low expectations are both self-fulfilling prophesies.

High expectations can feel like a demotivator to some, particularly during a learning curve but if high expectations are coupled with high level support, the student can push through the pain.

Imagine if a Personal Trainer set low expectations for a client who wanted to get into shape. Or a house builder told his apprentice to aim for birdhouses rather than mansions.

Very rarely is the hill to climb a constant, smooth walk. There will be dips, there will be falls. Our outwardly displayed confidence that a student can do it is crucial. Even if we are not feeling it and are doubting. Until a Student becomes independently confident a teacher’s confidence can help support them and stop them from giving up. The critical reason that confidence is a must is because without it, students will avoid anything challenging and they won’t progress.

Dead Poets Society (1989)

“O Captain My Captain” has become such an iconic scene that it is now the stuff of parodies. That’s how you know you’ve made something memorable.

Directed by Peter Weir, who hasn’t done much lately but has a slew of awesome films including Gallipoli, Master & Commander, The Truman Show… this best-picture nominee is a high benchmark for inspirational movies about educators. Robin Williams starred as John Keating, a prep-school English teacher who stirred the hearts and minds of his students with his passion for literature. Unlike the barrio raised kids from Stand and Deliver these kids were from well-to-do families but had their own mental battles that their inspirational teacher helped them to rise above. These kids led dictated lives. Every choice was not theirs to consider. From the path they had taken to that point to what was expected of their future. Keating encouraged them.

“Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, ‘Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.’ Don’t be resigned to that. Break out!”

Set in the conformity loving 1950s where status quo was all the rage Keating was able to break the lockstep monotony of his students and get them to discover and embrace their true colours.

There’s a great scene where Ethan Hawke’s character hasn’t done his assignment of writing and sharing poetry. Keating knows this kid and this type of kid and understands that it’s his reservations, his fear of looking stupid, his lack of belief in his own imagination that is holding him back, so he forces him to the front of the class to create poetry on the spot.

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LESSON: To encourage fearless learning, we must become fearless educators

Sometimes all a student needs to fly, is for someone to shove them over the edge.

It’s not about encouraging the loss of inhibitory control. There will always be those students who will run and jump off a cliff before they’ve sprouted wings. It’s about encouraging those students who are holding back their potential. Why do they hold back? Individually these are all points we can cover in future episodes but in a nutshell, as multiple studies have shown, these are some of the main reasons why students, or anybody really, keeps potential bottled up.

1. Fear of failure
2. Fear of looking stupid
3. Fear of humiliation
4. Fear of society’s criticism
5. Fear of the unknown
6. Fear of inadequacy

FEAR is what keeps potential incarcerated. FEAR disables a student from releasing their true potential on the world. How can we as educators help our students to release their true potential?

One way that Keating did it was by putting himself in positions where he could come off looking foolish, or vulnerable, or setting himself up for societal criticism. He led by example and faced and fought the fear right there in front of his students.

To recap!

We are not just educators, we are leaders and as leaders we must have a vision.
We set expectations that have to be reached up for not reached sideways or down for.
We can show students how to be fearless learners by being fearless educators.

We are not just teachers, we are students. We are not just coaches, we are participants in life. Engage in a way that can be reciprocated. Teach in a way that can be felt, not just heard.

Thank you for joining me today. My name is Nate Hamon and this is Educate This

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