5 Uncommon Summer Learning Ideas for Teachers

July 02, 2019 / Oskar Cymerman

Many people have the wrong idea that teachers spend their summers traveling and sipping mojitos on the beach or by the swimming pool. While those are attractive options we sometimes partake in, there’s no denying that teachers love learning. For myself, I sometimes wonder whether I love learning more than I love teaching because once the first week of the summer break passes I get a learning itch that needs scratching.

Thus, in the last few years, I’ve endeavored to do these 5 things to learn new things in the summer months and noticed that my creativity and expertise in teaching has improved as a result. Take a look and see if you can use any of these suggestions for yourself.

1. Listen to a podcast or take an online class unrelated to education

Innovation is not something that happens as a sudden spark of genius. While the final idea that makes the innovation possible might come suddenly, the entirety of it is a result of multiple, often unexpected connections the brain makes as it acquires and uses new information. Thus, if you want to increase your chances of coming up with original teaching ideas venture outside of the education realm. Start listening to a podcast (or two) you would have not previously considered and try to apply its ideas to your teaching.

2. Write a nonfiction book

As a teacher, you already know that one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it. This is why each year you feel better – more competent and more confident - about your knowledge of the subject you teach.

Writing a book on a topic is one of the best ways to become an expert at this topic. This is especially true if you find the topic interesting. As you already possess some knowledge about it you have a starting point, which is a great motivator to get going on writing a book on this topic. In the process, you learn in greater depth because you are tasked with explaining to the reader the specifics and provide examples of the things you write about. The book does not have to be long. It can be a short 20- to 30-page e-book you use to teach a difficult concept in your classroom or help your building colleagues use game-changing technology tools.

Take it from someone who loves the neuroscience of learning. Each time I write a book I learn significantly more about how to teach and learn effectively and efficiently because the book-writing process calls for full immersion in the topic and detailed explanations of the concepts. This allows me to fill any knowledge gaps I have. For example, while I dabbled in using the memory palace technique in learning, I only became an expert on how to build, fill, and rehearse memory palaces after I tasked myself with writing 4 lessons on this memory technique in my recent book Crush School Student Guide: Learn Faster, Study Smarter, Remember More, and Make School Easier.

3. Do something you fear

This will serve two purposes - becoming more innovative and facing your fears – both of which help you achieve better performance. Your fears may be the very things that prevent you from achieving your peak performance and assuming a leadership role in your classroom or school building. Before you decide, consider how reasonable your fear of something is. You might discover that while some fears are legitimate, many are anxieties conditioned by our evolution and are in fact things we can face and grow from.

4. Make something new

Build a tree house with your 12-year-old or a cardboard spaceship with your preschooler or find another DIY project online to involve your entire family in. Many people don’t do things they don’t feel competent in and that’s precisely why they don’t learn! To learn, you must go through a period of struggle but it is during that period that you learn the most. It’s the first step that presents the biggest hurdle.

5. Fix something you know little or nothing about

If you own a house, chances are you have a few projects to attend to during the summer months. Pick one and instead of outsourcing it, do it yourself. Much like creating something you might not be familiar with, fixing something you know nothing about is a big challenge. However, facing challenges and solving them is a great way to learn. Thus, pick a project that won’t lead to your demise or the destruction of your house and find a YouTube video or a blog about it and fix it yourself.

I fixed a dryer once knowing nothing about fixing dryers. It was daunting! I actually had to take it apart and put it back together after changing a heat sensor that broke. It works to this day. This year, I’m fixing the sprinkler system and mudjacking a concrete slab. Wish me luck!

Conclusion

Some activities on the list above are easier than others. However, you probably learn the least listening to podcasts compared to more difficult activities. On the other hand - if you take the information you hear during a podcast, expand on it, and write about it in a book or use it to face one of your fears or apply it to fix or make something - you have truly learnt it. This is because knowledge is not what you know but how you use it. The key to learning and retaining more is to apply new information as soon as we receive it. Happy learning!

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Criticize Me Please

June 25, 2019 / Oskar Cymerman

“Criticism is something you can easily avoid — by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.”

— Aristotle

Atta boy! You were the best! Awesome job! Such positive statements regarding a job well done or a performance gone right feel good. But, are they helpful?

There are two answers to consider.

On one hand, researchers such as Carol Dweck suggest that specific, process-oriented praise (the three statements above are non-examples) leads to increased effort, builds confidence, and motivates students to learn.

On the other, this study suggests praise may in fact impair skilled performance. It may be because praise does little to help one become an expert - it targets what went well, not what can be improved.

Deliberate Practice

I recently did a TEDx Talk. The audio of the upload stinks so if you choose to check it out you’ll really have to focus to make out my rambling-ons. But it’s deliberate practice I want to focus on here.

Teachers know that mindless repetition of words or facts does little to improve understanding or long term retention. This is why we preach deliberate or smart practice - any strategy involving repeated manipulation of new information in a mindful way to comprehend it better and remember it for potential future application.

When practicing my speech, I tried to be mindful of the places I was getting stuck on and mistakes I kept repeating. I did not practice from beginning to end each time. Rather, I’d pick up in different places. I created a memory palace to help me remember both the sequence of the talk but also its main themes. To accomplish this, I imagined my friends, famous scientists such as Einstein and Michio Kaku, superheroes, and Renaissance men such as Leonardo, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk. I imagined them in specific parts of my house performing actions related to the topics of my speech. I think it worked pretty well because the talk went smoothly.

But I’d like your opinion.

I’d like your criticism.

Constructive Criticism

So far, I’ve gotten only positive feedback on my TEDx. And… it feels good. But…

I have not learned how to improve.

This was my first large talk. I’m typically an anxious freak when it comes to doing this sort of thing so it wasn’t easy. But I’m also someone who want to live to the max. This means facing my fears and overcoming them to become a better person and a more successful professional. There are two things I need for this to happen. One, I need to keep leaping repeatedly into the abysses of my anxiousness. Two, I need feedback that helps me grow. The “atta boys” don’t help.

Criticism can. It can offer perspectives and ideas we have not thought about ourselves. Taking an honest look at someone’s negative feedback allows us to examine our often flawed assumptions about ourselves and our environment. This in turn promotes critical thinking and problem solving. Even the harsh feedback is an opportunity to practice resilience. And all of the above equals growth.

So criticize me please! Do me a huge solid and watch my talk here and tell me what was weak and where I can improve. Rip me a new one if you will but tell me how I can get better too.

I promise to be a good student. In fact, in the spirit of deliberate practice and using the feedback I receive I will apply to present on Flexible Learning in High School at the 2019 Impact Education Conference (formerly TIES) in December in Minneapolis. I will gladly share all the resources and methods I talk about here as well.

Go ahead punk, make my day. Give me a 1-star review. Just tell me why.

My TEDx

References

Baumeister, R. , Hutton, D., & Cairns, K. (2010). Negative Effects of Praise on Skilled Performance. Basic and Applied Social Psychology , 11, 131-148.

Dweck, C. (2007). The Perils and Promises of Praise. Educational Leadership, 65, 34-39.

Ericcson, A & Pool, R. (2016). Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise.

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Actions vs. Outcomes

April 24, 2019 / Oskar Cymerman

I recently did a TEDx Talk. Don’t worry I’m not about to say I was honored to do it. Honored is the wrong way to describe it. It would be an insidious way to say: “Hey I did this TEDx and I want you to watch it to increase my YouTube view count.” And don’t get me wrong - I want people to watch it. I want you to watch it. But it’s not out yet so you can’t.

My participation in TEDx Woodbury High School was an accident. Doing a TEDx Talk was not a bucket list item. I did not do any of the things required for it. I did not apply nor create an entry video. And while I did not “wing it” when the time came you could say I cheated the system. I was asked by Michael, the leader of this student-organized event to do it. I don’t remember how the conversation went exactly but he claimed I “do some interesting things” and “have this unique foreign experience.” My guess is he heard me blasting Iron Maiden in chemistry.

But I wasn’t honored. Rather, I felt ambivalent, apprehensive, and anxious.

What was I scared of?

Not having something important enough to say.

Not being ready in time.

Forgetting what to say.

The audience.

Why was I scared?

I’ve never done anything like this before. It seemed enormous and important.

I’ve never spoken to a crowd of 100-200 people. What if they hate me?

I’ve never tried to convince a crowd of professionals to consider my views. What if they hate what I have to say?

I put a lot of pressure on myself to absolutely kill it. What opportunities can doing this create for me?

Focusing on the Outcome

If you’re one of the few who never experience fear and anxiety stop reading now.

But if you do then it’s entirely possible you often look ahead and visualize what could come to pass as a result of you taking a leap.

The TEDx was a leap for me. Perhaps it’s human nature or perhaps it’s just me but even before agreeing to speak my head filled with grandiose alternate futures in which I was more - more accepted, more recognized, more respected, more expert, more in-demand etc. The problem was that for those grand futures to happen I had to absolutely crush my talk. The topic had to kill it. I had to be funny, smart, and informative. Most of all, I had to murder the other speakers with my delivery. In my mind, the event was a competition I had to win.

Looking at it now I’d be lying if I said I stopped caring about being seen as the best speaker at TEDx Woodbury High School. I am ambitious and push myself toward peak performance and one of the best ways to measure it is by comparing your performance to those of others. This is just as true in the corporate world as it is in sports. But my TEDx journey taught me that focusing on the outcome (or delusions of grandeur) increase anxiety and kill productivity.

Focusing on Actions

As you dream and scheme more neurons wire together and completely forgetting your grand plans that bring on the pressure to perform becomes futile. In fact, forgetting isn’t necessary nor advisable because goals motivate. Getting rid of all anxiety is impossible as evolution outfitted the human brain with the ever threat-detecting, fear-perceiving, and survival-seeking amygdala.

As a result, focusing solely on actions is difficult when you decide to take a big leap into the unknown. But it’s possible. The usual stress-relievers such as sleep, exercise, meditation, deep breathing, and reducing caffeine help but I found two things especially useful: accepting the anxiety (or feeling the fear) and mindfulness.

Feeling the Fear

Fear is an unwanted and unpleasant emotion but it can be understood. Theo Tsaousides Ph.D., a neuropsychologist and author of Brainblocks: Overcoming the Seven Hidden Barriers to Success explains that when fear is real we tend to act immediately, but when it’s imagined, such as in the case of my public talk we often worry a lot and do little.

Thus, to avoid procrastination it may be best to simply accept anxiety as a human condition but realize that most fears you experience are figments of your imagination.

I found asking myself What’s the worst thing that can happen? and imagining it to be a good strategy for controlling anxiety and preventing the procrastination it induces. For example, I was able to (correctly) convince myself that my audience would be very receptive and the chances of it hating me were slim. This motivated me to keep improving my talk, to practice it every day, and to create a memory palace as a memory fail safe in case I froze or got stuck in the midst of my talk (which never happened).

Conversing with your future self and asking If I were to fail at it, how much will this perceived enormous endeavor matter a week, a month, a year from now? is very helpful toward realization that the actual outcomes are never as bad as you anticipate.

Mindfulness

Integrative Medicine defines mindfulness as the awareness that emerges by way of paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment.

As such, being mindful includes focusing on the moment and completing the task at hand. When preparing for TEDx Woodbury I alleviated a lot of the self-induced pressure by reminding myself of the purpose of my talk which was to inspire parents, teachers, and other education professionals to consider a few different, non-traditional views on schooling. I simply wanted to show others that changing the school culture to help students be more successful in the future isn’t all that tricky. Shifting focus in this way allowed me to focus on writing a better presentation and gave me more confidence.

Evidence-based research shows mindfulness as an effective prescription for anxiety.

It is also important to realize that looking at the possible outcomes in advance can lead to making emotional decisions or decisions driven by the excitement of the moment.

The Outcome

I killed that TEDx Talk. I haven’t seen it yet but I felt it. It wasn’t perfect but it felt really good. I don’t know if mine was the best presentation but I got a lot of positive feedback afterwards.

I was anxious for two weeks prior to it. I was anxious the day of. I got there three hours early and I was anxious still. I was anxious in the green room. When they asked me to run through my speech to time myself I was so anxious I kept stumbling through it and forgetting. I was anxious and breathing deeply when waiting in the queue behind the curtain to go on next.

Then I was introduced and given the clicker. I came on stage. I stepped on the big red dot.

And… I wasn’t anxious any more.

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tags / teaching teens, parenting teens, deeper learning, independence, lifelong learning, simplicity, skills, success skills, learning, making life easier, kids