#took. an engineering class in high school and everything. taught me some good foundational skills in modeling

[orcelito]

Actually it is SO weird to me to remember that I was an engineering student and that later on I had been pursuing a minor in statistics

I may be a IT & com person in the end, but I do have the foundations of engineering and statistics in my brain too. Wild !

[robertjameshomeservices]

The Story behind “The Ultimate Guide to an Extraordinary Service Business”: From Idea to Best Seller

If anyone told me back in high school, that by the age of 27 years old, I would be the owner of a home services franchise network, I never would have believed them. Honestly, I would have thought they were completely out of their minds!

I hated school, couldn’t wait to get out, and truly didn’t see myself as a business leader. I had absolutely no desire to go into the “corporate world.”

I could never have imagined that I would take my part-time, one-man band car cleaning business into a national brand, James Home Services. Or that it would grow into a 400-franchisee strong network supplying over $20 million in professional home services annually, for nearly 20 years.

I was just a kid with a horse obsession—I dreamt of being a world-class horse trainer and escaping to beautiful Queensland to pursue a business career in the racehorse industry.

At 16 years old, I was off chasing my dream and learning as much as possible about the training, breaking, and education of horses; I lived to be around these beautiful creatures! I had natural horsemanship skills that very few possess and went searching for the adventure of a lifetime.

By the age of 21, I had my professional trainers’ license. I had focused on learning absolutely everything about horses and the skills needed to get the best out of them. I was very good at what I did; I was a gifted horseman.

I could read the animal and understand what they needed. In addition, I was lucky enough to have excellent mentors that taught me all about preparing horses for racing.

Unfortunately, what I didn’t learn was how to run a business. I was naïve, and thought good horsemanship was all that mattered. If I was the best in the business, then people would be begging me to help them train their horses. What I didn’t know was that it was much more about running a business—a racing stable business.

I had not learned any actual business skills and I really, honestly did think that if I was good enough, if I worked hard enough, it would all just miraculously come together.

Most business owners think exactly the same way I did—that it is all about the technical skills. If you are the best horse trainer, mechanic, house cleaner, lawn mower, lawyer, accountant, engineer, or a pet groomer, then obviously your business success is guaranteed. Right?

I could not have been more wrong …

This is the first mistake made by most business owners. Good technical skills are only a part of the foundations that create an extraordinary service business.

My horse business started out alright. I had some contacts that became some of my best clients. In the early days, I had some big milestones and was certainly living my dream. I loved it, but the problem was, I also had a young family to feed and the horse business could be up and down. I needed to find a secondary income.

So, I took an “opportunity” I was offered at a local pub to do some shifts. It was a nightmare; I was terrible at it and I resigned at the end of my first shift.

I was stunned by how rude customers could be. To this day, I have huge respect for those working in these areas. No way was I going to work in that environment.

A friend then randomly recommended that I consider starting a car cleaning business. He said the guy he usually used was so busy that he couldn’t fit him in and, that I could work in the middle of the day around my horse training business.

He would be my first client, actually. I respected his opinion, I knew I could learn to clean a car professionally, much easier than training horses. So, why not?

And with that conversation, my car cleaning business was born. It filled my days and helped to feed my young, growing family. I was 23 years old, had a wife (who also worked), two young sons and two businesses. But you know what? I still hadn’t figured out how to run a business.

I still thought it would just happen, how hard could it be to get people that wanted to get their car cleaned? There were heaps of dirty cars around, and I was going to be the best! Easy, right?

Well … I did do a few things right though. First, I found a guy who sold car cleaning chemicals and equipment and really knew his stuff. Darren, who would end up being the main supplier to the whole James Home Services network.

Darren taught me how to use his products and equipment and was always available for technical advice. He was a good guy and a huge help.

Secondly, I knew I needed to look professional, so I invested in a trailer, 500 brochures, uniforms, and business cards. I was off and running and looked the part to prove it. I had all the gear, but no idea what to do with any of it.

With that, I started my first ever marketing campaign. I took my 500 brochures and marched into all the local businesses. I was thinking, this won’t be hard, I’ll be flat out by next week. Boy, I could not have been more wrong!

The problem was that I had no sales skills. And I mean—None. At. All.

I was terrified as I walked into each business. I would literally throw my brochure on the front desk and run back out the door before they could say “no,” or anything else for that matter.

I got one $10 car wash out of those first 500 brochures; not quite what I had planned. Luckily, I finally realized that I was the problem. More importantly, I realized it was my lack of skills in this area that was the problem in both of my businesses.

I decided to learn: I found there were hundreds of sales books in the library and you could borrow them for free. So, I read … and read … and read. I tested the skills, measured the results, and wrote my own fool-proof rules.

I remember reading a great book called The E-Myth by Michael Gerber. I am not exaggerating when I say that this book completely changed my life.  It taught me that long-term success in any business is all about the systems you put into place.  I set about the systemization of both of my businesses, and it changed everything!

My car cleaning business went through the roof. The systems were so good I could have had an 18-year-old run the business.

Our systems were very straight-forward, easy to follow, and very, very effective. I knew I had developed something special and that anyone who followed this recipe would have a very successful service business.

And with that … the big dream was born.

I saw other service franchise systems and knew ours was better; because of the foundation that we had put into place.  It quickly became clear that we had what it would take to build a large, successful network.

Then one fateful day, I was sharing this dream with a client and he was so impressed that he bought into the business immediately.  Within 2 months we were selling franchises, and I was just 27 years old.

Robert James and James Home Services grew at a rapid rate. We quickly expanded throughout regional Queensland, and within 2 years we were the largest home services business in the state. The systems were created to stand the test of time and to grow with the business.

If anyone told me back in high school, that by the age of 27 years old, I would be the owner of a home services franchise network, I never would have believed them. Honestly, I would have thought they were completely out of their minds!

I hated school, couldn’t wait to get out, and truly didn’t see myself as a business leader. I had absolutely no desire to go into the “corporate world.”

I could never have imagined that I would take my part-time, one-man band car cleaning business into a national brand, Robert James and James Home Services. Or that it would grow into a 400-franchisee strong network supplying over $20 million in professional home services annually, for nearly 20 years.

I was just a kid with a horse obsession—I dreamt of being a world-class horse trainer and escaping to beautiful Queensland to pursue a business career in the racehorse industry.

At 16 years old, I was off chasing my dream and learning as much as possible about the training, breaking, and education of horses; I lived to be around these beautiful creatures! I had natural horsemanship skills that very few possess and went searching for the adventure of a lifetime.

By the age of 21, I had my professional trainers’ license. I had focused on learning absolutely everything about horses and the skills needed to get the best out of them. I was very good at what I did; I was a gifted horseman.

I could read the animal and understand what they needed. In addition, I was lucky enough to have excellent mentors that taught me all about preparing horses for racing.

Unfortunately, what I didn’t learn was how to run a business. I was naïve, and thought good horsemanship was all that mattered. If I was the best in the business, then people would be begging me to help them train their horses. What I didn’t know was that it was much more about running a business—a racing stable business.

I had not learned any actual business skills and I really, honestly did think that if I was good enough, if I worked hard enough, it would all just miraculously come together.

Most business owners think exactly the same way I did—that it is all about the technical skills. If you are the best horse trainer, mechanic, house cleaner, lawn mower, lawyer, accountant, engineer, or a pet groomer, then obviously your business success is guaranteed. Right?

I could not have been more wrong …

This is the first mistake made by most business owners. Good technical skills are only a part of the foundations that create an extraordinary service business.

My horse business started out alright. I had some contacts that became some of my best clients. In the early days, I had some big milestones and was certainly living my dream. I loved it, but the problem was, I also had a young family to feed and the horse business could be up and down. I needed to find a secondary income.

So, I took an “opportunity” I was offered at a local pub to do some shifts. It was a nightmare; I was terrible at it and I resigned at the end of my first shift.

I was stunned by how rude customers could be. To this day, I have huge respect for those working in these areas. No way was I going to work in that environment.

A friend then randomly recommended that I consider starting a car cleaning business. He said the guy he usually used was so busy that he couldn’t fit him in and, that I could work in the middle of the day around my horse training business.

He would be my first client, actually. I respected his opinion, I knew I could learn to clean a car professionally, much easier than training horses. So, why not?

And with that conversation, my car cleaning business was born. It filled my days and helped to feed my young, growing family. I was 23 years old, had a wife (who also worked), two young sons and two businesses. But you know what? I still hadn’t figured out how to run a business.

I still thought it would just happen, how hard could it be to get people that wanted to get their car cleaned? There were heaps of dirty cars around, and I was going to be the best! Easy, right?

Well … I did do a few things right though. First, I found a guy who sold car cleaning chemicals and equipment and really knew his stuff. Darren, who would end up being the main supplier to the whole James Home Services network.

Darren taught me how to use his products and equipment and was always available for technical advice. He was a good guy and a huge help.

Secondly, I knew I needed to look professional, so I invested in a trailer, 500 brochures, uniforms, and business cards. I was off and running and looked the part to prove it. I had all the gear, but no idea what to do with any of it.

With that, I started my first ever marketing campaign. I took my 500 brochures and marched into all the local businesses. I was thinking, this won’t be hard, I’ll be flat out by next week. Boy, I could not have been more wrong!

The problem was that I had no sales skills. And I mean—None. At. All.

I was terrified as I walked into each business. I would literally throw my brochure on the front desk and run back out the door before they could say “no,” or anything else for that matter.

I got one $10 car wash out of those first 500 brochures; not quite what I had planned. Luckily, I finally realized that I was the problem. More importantly, I realized it was my lack of skills in this area that was the problem in both of my businesses.

I decided to learn: I found there were hundreds of sales books in the library and you could borrow them for free. So, I read … and read … and read. I tested the skills, measured the results, and wrote my own fool-proof rules.

I remember reading a great book called The E-Myth by Michael Gerber. I am not exaggerating when I say that this book completely changed my life.  It taught me that long-term success in any business is all about the systems you put into place.  I set about the systemization of both of my businesses, and it changed everything!

My car cleaning business went through the roof. The systems were so good I could have had an 18-year-old run the business.

Our systems were very straight-forward, easy to follow, and very, very effective. I knew I had developed something special and that anyone who followed this recipe would have a very successful service business.

And with that … the big dream was born.

I saw other service franchise systems and knew ours was better; because of the foundation that we had put into place.  It quickly became clear that we had what it would take to build a large, successful network.

Then one fateful day, I was sharing this dream with a client and he was so impressed that he bought into the business immediately.  Within 2 months we were selling franchises, and I was just 27 years old.

Robert James and James Home Services grew at a rapid rate. We quickly expanded throughout regional Queensland, and within 2 years we were the largest home services business in the state. The systems were created to stand the test of time and to grow with the business.

During this time, we not only grew the business, we also expanded into different services. Our services included car cleaning, house cleaning, external house cleaning, carpet cleaning, pest control, lawn and garden care, pet grooming, laundry and ironing services, as well as window cleaning.

James Home Services grew at a rapid rate. We quickly expanded throughout regional Queensland, and within 2 years we were the largest home services business in the state. The systems were created to stand the test of time and to grow with the business.

During this time, we not only grew the business, we also expanded into different services. Our services included car cleaning, house cleaning, external house cleaning, carpet cleaning, pest control, lawn and garden care, pet grooming, laundry and ironing services, as well as window cleaning.

The foundation we built transferred beautifully into each division of the business; just as it was designed to do. Our foundation was tested repeatedly and never failed. Now, all we had to do was to develop “technical” skills.

We went on to national expansion and eventually reached across Australia. We had a turnover of $20 million worth of services across the country each year.

After 20 years in the business, the network was sold to a commercial cleaning company. In those 20 years, I saw thousands of families have successful home services businesses, with our proven systems at their core.

In this book, I am going to introduce you to my 9 Foundation Steps.  These basic rules will show you step-by-step how to build an extraordinary home service business. These rules will help you duplicate the foundation we built when we created James’ Home Services.

The only catch is that you must use all of them if you want to be successful. Like all great recipes, they have to be followed rigorously if you want to get a consistent predictable outcome.

I hope this book can give all services business owners the tools to build an extraordinary service business. Running your own successful family business is the best game in town, have a fair dinkum go and enjoy the journey.

Originally Posted:-http://www.robertjameshomeservices.com/the-story-behind-the-ultimate-guide-to-an-extraordinary-service-business/

[zipgrowth]

All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Playing Video Games

From high school valedictorian to game company CEO to computer science instructor, all I really needed to know, I’ve learned from video games. With lessons ranging from time management to algorithmic graph search, here are three of the games that have influenced me the most, and what I’ve learned from playing each of them.

Final Fantasy

Min-maxing is a resource-management term used often in terms of gaming strategy. It is the process of maximizing results while minimizing resources spent.

In Final Fantasy games, the key resource is time. Your character starts out weak and ill-equipped, but every monster you defeat grants a small amount of experience points, ability points, and gold—which can be used to power up your character, learn new skills and purchase superior equipment. There are endless streams of monsters to fight so a common strategy is to simply wander around for a few hours, slaying everything in your path until you are strong, talented and wealthy enough to overcome the challenge before you. This process is known as grinding.

This meant I had to be efficient and plan ahead.

Although I enjoyed the grind, these games take about 40-50 hours to complete and in high school, my gaming time was limited to only a few hours on weekends. This meant I had to be efficient and plan ahead. I would only grind as much as I needed to, and only against the enemies with the greatest reward to difficulty ratio. I spent time powering up early in the game and only periodically thereafter, which let me progress efficiently. Better to spend an hour or two grinding early than waste hours stuck on a difficult challenge later. Once I acquired growth multipliers like EXP plus in the mid/late game, I would visit zones with high experience yield and grind in earnest until fully powered up. It may seem mindless on the surface but grinding efficiently actually takes a good amount of planning and strategy.

I grinded a lot in high school, eventually graduating as valedictorian and principal oboe of a small arts magnet in Los Angeles. I like to think I maximized my experience gained in both the arts and academics during this time.

Of course, this minimized my experience with, say, hanging out with friends or having a girlfriend. Once I got to college, I was determined to turn this around.

Legend of Zelda

With these classes, I was able to graduate by the skin of my teeth and even land an internship at Pixar.

At UC Berkeley, I chose to major in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science before learning it was notoriously the hardest major. I also participated in a ton of student clubs and activities, ranging from playing oboe with the orchestra to dancing hula with Cal Hawaii Club. My evenings and nights were quite active but I would rarely wake up in time for lectures the next morning. As you might imagine, I didn't do to well in class.

By senior year, my GPA was low enough that I was in danger of not graduating. My academic foundation from high school was enough to get through lower division classes but I struggled in upper division classes covering operating systems, databases and digital components design. It wasn't until senior year, when I took classes in artificial intelligence and computer graphics, that I finally excelled. It's no coincidence that these courses covered gaming concepts like path finding, texture mapping, and keyframe animation with which I was intimately familiar from a lifetime of playing games like the Legend of Zelda. With these classes, I was able to graduate by the skin of my teeth and even land an internship at Pixar.

After Pixar, I developed a prototype for a math adventure game based on the Legend of Zelda. This in turn helped me gain admission into the Learning, Design and Technology Masters program at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. Studying education was a deliberate decision meant to maximize my abilities through meta-cognitive learning, i.e. learning to learn, functioning as a growth multiplier for my own development.

TempusMUD

In college, I also spent a lot of time with the text-based, role-playing adventure TempusMUD. In this massively-multiplayer-online (MMO) world, I grinded and socialized my way up the ranks to clan leader and was eventually invited to do some code and design work for the game itself. This was my first ever game development experience.

I went on to spend much of my twenties in positions ranging from game designer to game coder to game company CEO, from gameplay prototypist to soundtrack composer to game server architect. (In retrospect, even my database class made sense once I made the connection to games.) For my professional game development services, I have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In retrospect, even my database class made sense once I made the connection to games.

In my current role as a computer science instructor at Lambda School, text adventure games are a key part of our curriculum and are used to illustrate concepts and technologies such as object-oriented programming, graph theory, WebSockets and more. Students build their own text worlds using the Python programming language and learn to interact with them using algorithms like depth-first search and breadth-first search. Our CS curriculum moves at a blistering pace and can be quite difficult so we use games to make the material more approachable and hopefully, more fun.

Video games have played a key role in every part of my life, from childhood to academia to career. If my time at Lambda School is any indication, that will not be changing anytime soon.

Runners Up: More Games—and What They’ve Taught Me

Super Smash Bros: The difference between casual and competitive play

Equatia: The challenges that come with implementing educational games in the classroom

Super Mario: Beat the boss, get the girl. (Yes, I had to unlearn that last one the hard way.)

All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Playing Video Games published first on https://medium.com/@GetNewDLBusiness

[perfectzablog]

The Six Must-Have Elements Of High Quality Project-Based Learning

Elizabeth Vega teaches pre-kindergarten at Loma Verde Elementary in Novato, California. Her school and district leaders want to do more project-based learning and have invested in getting teachers like Vega some training. That means she took one workshop on project-based learning, got excited about the possibilities, and then was sent back to her classroom to try it out.

“It sounded all great when they talked us through it,” Vega said, but when she got back to her classroom, and only had her notes for pointers, the whole endeavor became overwhelming. That didn’t stop Vega from trying, but the first project she and her team teachers implemented didn’t go at all how they’d planned.

‘One of the most common things that’s missing from what people call projects is that it’s not intellectually challenging.’Bob Lenz, Executive Director of the Buck Institute

The team noticed the school’s garden was dying and they thought it would be neat for students to design a new watering system. But the kids didn’t care about the project at all. They just said, “use the hose.” Vega wasn’t entirely sure they even fully understood the problem, but she could tell they weren’t engaged in solving it, so her team ended up dropping the project.

“I think it was eye-opening for us,” Vega said. It was a clear example of why students need a voice in the design process, something Vega remembers from her training, but that somehow got glossed over when the teachers sat down to plan. “We need to have that conversation with our students first and ask them what problems we’re having at Loma Verde. That way they have voice in that process,” Vega said.

This first hiccup hasn’t deterred Vega. When she’s had success she can clearly see students are engaged with projects. She does wish she had more support as a way to check the things she’s trying against best practices. She’d really like to have a project-based learning coach, but if she can’t have that, she’d like tools to help her reflect on how to improve.

“I think teachers crave resources,” Vega said. “Right now they feel like they don’t have the tools, and we don’t even know where to start.”

There are a lot of teachers in the same position as Vega. Interest in project-based learning has exploded, and the practice can now be found in some form or another all over the United States. But while interest in projects is high, a deep understanding of what makes project work meaningful and impactful to students is less ubiquitous.

“People are calling a lot of things project-based learning that aren’t necessarily high quality learning experiences for kids,” said Bob Lenz, executive director of the Buck Institute for Education. That’s a concern for many educators, like Lenz, who have worked on project-based learning for decades and know there’s danger in an education trend that goes wild, but isn’t implemented well.

“It could be just another wave of PBL that came and went,” Lenz said. That’s why the Buck Institute convened a broad range of teachers, education leaders, policy groups, foundation representatives, international stakeholders and others to design “A Framework For High Quality Project Based Learning.”

The Buck Institute for Education convened a steering committee of project-based learning stakeholders to write a framework for high quality PBL. (Courtesy/HQPBL)

To write this document, a core group of educators who have taught with projects for a long time wrote a draft and got feedback from the convened stakeholders. They made revisions and then put the new draft out for public comment. They got a few thousand comments within the U.S. and globally, which they used to revise once again. The third iteration went back to the steering committee for final sign-off and touch-ups.

“It wasn’t too hard to find consensus, but some of the challenge was, ‘are we describing what teachers are doing or are we describing what kids are doing?’” Lenz said. Ultimately, the steering group decided that there are plenty of existing materials focused on teachers, but few that describe what student learning looked like in a high quality project-based learning environment. Lenz hopes that by focusing on students, parents can also use the framework to hold schools accountable.

The framework is built around six basic elements that the framers believe must be present: intellectual challenge and accomplishment, authenticity, public product, collaboration, project management and reflection.

“One of the most common things that’s missing from what people call projects is that it’s not intellectually challenging,” Lenz said. He acknowledges that progressive educators often criticize the Buck Institute for coaching teachers that projects should be standards-based, but Lenz said that’s one way to make sure the projects aren’t disconnected from content.

The Mission Project — which until recently was common for fourth graders in California schools — is a good example of “project” that doesn’t hold up under this framework. Usually students learn a lot of history about how the missions in California came to be, and then as an afterthought they build a model mission. The “project” part could be completed by a parent or bought off the shelf. It has very little connection to the learning. This is what some educators call a “dessert project” — it comes after the learning. And according to the new framework, it’s not really project-based learning.

“The big ah-ha for a lot of teachers in our workshops is that projects can be about academic content,” Lenz said. “It’s often seen as something after kids have learned their academic content.” But there are other misconceptions as well.

“A lot of new models are oriented, and have as part of their espoused design, that they want to use personalized learning and skill-based work so kids can do project-based learning,” Lenz said. He’s describing a strain of the “personalized learning” movement that uses online playlists to move students through content, but also tries to blend projects in as demonstrations of learning.

“I don’t think they’re very clear on what makes high quality PBL,” Lenz said. That’s where the authenticity and public product standards come into play. If the project doesn’t mirror the ways people work in the real world then it isn’t authentic, according to Lenz.

“When PBL is done really well the context engages kids and then teachers can apply the same strategies they might have used out of context to kids who are a little more engaged,” Lenz said. He emphasized that teachers have to give students structure and support to get good outcomes, especially when students haven’t experienced projects before.

“The process is what it should be all about,” Lenz said. But in order to move beyond content, teachers have to be clear about teaching skills like setting goals and making action plans, and then teachers have to assess those skills as they would content. As with anything else in the classroom, project-based learning teachers can’t assume kids already have the skills.

DEEPENING PROJECTS

Telannia Norfar teaches high school math at Northwest Classen High School in Oklahoma City — where she was also a student. She’s had a few careers before teaching, but since she entered the classroom 11 years ago she’s been using project-based learning. Norfar is on the steering committee that worked to create the High Quality Project Based Learning Framework.

“With so many practitioners who have been in the project world — and did it even when it wasn’t popular in education — for all of them to come together and come up with common language will be really helpful,” Norfar said.

Norfar’s district isn’t big on project-based learning and for a long time she didn’t have any colleagues who were interested in collaborating with her. But she has continued to use projects to teach the most important math concepts, the ones she really wants students to nail, for one simple reason — she says it works.

“When I think of what is the magic sauce for me, it’s the public audience or public product piece,” Norfar said. “It happens every time, no matter what the project is, as long as it’s outside our four walls, they do amazing stuff.”

Norfar doesn’t want to simplify the many important pieces of quality projects, but she also doesn’t want interested teachers to feel so overwhelmed they never start trying. She finds a lot of her math projects by talking to people outside of education. In social situations, on airplanes, at networking events for other professions, she asks professionals how they actually use math in their work. She builds projects from there.

“You can start with your friends, especially if you didn’t come from a family where everybody is a teacher,” Norfar said. Many math teachers, she said, haven’t used math in a profession; they were just good math students. To help students see relevance in math, and to empower them to make a difference with the knowledge they are gaining, Norfar wants them to use math in authentic ways.

Norfar has done financial planning projects, architectural design projects, aerospace engineering projects (inspired by a conversation about matrices with an engineer on a plane), and she’s currently exploring a chemistry related project with a professor friend.

Norfar says every year it’s the projects that change students’ minds about their future in mathematics. She remembers one student in a pre-AP class who was struggling. As a class they worked on a project to design a new house for a family that was outgrowing theirs. The student’s father worked in construction, and he helped her draw plans that were blueprint quality. “And it inspired her to become an architect,” Norfar said.

One misperception Norfar sees among many colleagues who are skeptical of project-based learning is the belief that everything has to fit into a project. Norfar says she only spends time on projects for the standards that are most important. To decide, she used the book “Power Standards” to get at the heart of her content standards. She breaks out the six most important units and spends a month on each of them.

“It looks like we’re covering a lot, but even inside of it we intentionally said we really need to introduce this to help them understand, but it’s not the diehard thing,” Norfar said. She’s finally got an algebra teaching team interested in collaborating and it is intentionally spiraling back to the idea of the line, what it is and what it isn’t, because it’s a foundational algebraic idea.

“I could either pretend that I’m really getting through it or I could really care about a few things. And less is always more,” Norfar said. A good example is vocabulary words like domain, range, independent, dependent, discrete and continuous. These words help students talk about the performance tasks Norfar gives them, but they aren’t the “diehard thing.”

Norfar admits that it has been a long journey to get to a place where she’s comfortable owning her content in this way; and she’s still improving. Right now, her focus is on improving how she works reflection into her classes. She says teaching with high quality projects means always believing you can improve.

“I would never say I’ve got this down. That’s not possible. There’s always room to grow,” Norfar said. She’s surprised sometimes about how resistant her colleagues are to change. “I’m like, ‘the world changes, you have to change too,’ “ she said.

That’s why as much as Norfar wants all projects to involve all six of the elements set out in the framework, on a practical level she just wants people to try something new. And she’s worried that unless the value of project-based learning is assessed with more than just tests many educators will abandon it.

“I’m so concerned that we will be the next fad for education,” Norfar said. “I’ll be honest, I have some of the same test scores as the teacher next to me who does not do PBL.” But she doesn’t think the tests reveal the ways students are growing as people and thinkers when they’re engaged in projects. She wishes there were other metrics for the type of growth she sees.

“My students are so much more prepared once they leave high school than the teacher next door who got the test results, but his kids don’t know how to work together,” she said.

The Six Must-Have Elements Of High Quality Project-Based Learning published first on https://greatpricecourse.tumblr.com/

[evnoweb]

An Interview with Mary-Ann Fuduric

Mary-Ann Fuduric is the Executive Director for the Learning Difficulties Association of Windsor-Essex County (LDAWE).  She was good enough to take the time to participate in this interview.  Read on to find out more about this interesting educator.

Doug:  Thank you for taking the time to do this interview.  First question I always like to ask – do you remember where and when we first met?

Mary-Ann:  We first met in cyberspace, Twitter specifically!  I was a relatively new educator and I joined twitter to develop my own Professional Learning Network and to learn more about the trends in education. I started following you and to my delight you followed me back! It took off from there.  We officially met in person a few years later at an edCamp in Tilbury.

Doug:  That was an amazing day and it was so much fun to make and renew connections with folks again. Do you remember any specific takeaways for yourself from that event?

Mary-Ann:  I loved the vibe and the enthusiasm in the room.  It was motivating to meet so many awesome educators and to learn new things in an unconventional way.

Doug: edCamps have appeal to a certain learning style for educators. There really isn’t a specific theme.  In your work with LDAWE, I’m wondering – would an edCamp targeting the goals of your organization have a place and be successful?

Mary-Ann:  I think it would!  If you look at the numbers, 1 in 10 people have a learning disability.  Some experts argue that  the number is closer to 1 in 5 people.  This means that an educator has the potential of having 4 or 5 children in their classroom with a learning disability. There is so much to learn about how to teach individuals with learning disabilities including using assistive technology in the classroom and moving towards a UDL (Universal Design for Learning) model.  Equally important is how to support these individuals not only through the school years but how to prep them for the world beyond school.

Doug:  With your experience in the auto industry, as an engineer, and as a Mathematics teacher, you just have to be inclined towards using the “making experience” with your student clients.

Mary-Ann:  All of our children’s programs are strength focussed.  Meaning we don’t focus on what the students cannot do. We concentrate on what they can do and what their interests are. We have spent a lot of efforts and funds over the last year and a half examining our programs and trying to understand how to better help our student clients.  Engagement is everything and naturally people are more engaged with what they know and what they like. With that engagement comes the ability to truly help whether it’s improving literacy and math skills or focussing on social skills or providing social opportunities with peers. We do try to offer opportunities for STEM activities. Based on the research, individuals with disabilities are underrepresented in STEM careers despite advances in adaptive technology. So we really try to incorporate science and technology in our programs as well as that hands on experience.

Doug:  Can you give us an example?

Mary-Ann:  An example is our summer camp which is created around some really cool themes.  This year we ran a full Lego week after seeing a huge interest in lego during STEM week last year. We ran a fully individualized math and literacy program incorporating lego building and design. We also received an amazing grant from We Care for Kids to purchase iPads for our literacy program. This offered us an opportunity to individualize the student’s reading while still engaging them in the process. The STEM too was a huge success as the students used robots to learn to program.  This required collaborating with peers and using their literacy and math skills in the process. Focusing on interest and individual strengths allows for a better experience for the students and staff.

Doug:  Most of the readers of this blog post will be educators.  What services do you provide your student clients beyond that offered by local school districts?

Mary-Ann:  We provide a variety of services that span the school years and beyond.  For our children’s programs we offer individualized math and literacy tutoring in small groups.  We also have a popular social skills program which focuses on foundational social skills, dealing with emotions and friendship.  This fall we have added a class in Leamington so we are very excited about that. In January, we are piloting a LEGO-Based Social Skills class which is a collaborative play group in which children work together to build LEGO models. The goal of this program  is to provide the opportunity for social communication, social support, problem-solving and conflict resolution skills.

For our youth we offer Brainology which is a program that focuses on understanding the brain and how it works. The students are taught how to apply this knowledge in the classroom and develop strategies for tackling learning challenges. Having a growth mindset and being mindful are important elements for everyone. For students transitioning to middle school and high school we offer SOAR which offers tools for success (strategies, support, and accommodation), and making choices for the future. Moving to high school and high school life is a huge transition and many students will struggle with this change.  Our goal is to help students with learning disabilities and ADHD transition smoothly. We also offer a youth group that provides an opportunity for socializing in a positive environment.  We have outings and activities that the participants choose collaboratively.

For individuals 16 and older we provide employment supports. Our employment counsellors work with the individual on resume and interview prep, job search and filling out application forms.  Once employment is achieved our dedicated counsellors provide job coaching, help explain accommodation needs to the employer if needed, help fill out forms, and have meetings with the employer if needed.  They are there for the client and will support them.

We also offer a transition program for individuals that are transitioning from high school to employment, college or university pathways.

One-to-One assistive technology is available to anyone and is individualized to what the clients needs are.  We sometimes have parents who come in and want to learn more about the technology so they can help their children.  Sometimes we have students who need a bit more practice using their assigned school technology.

Doug:  You have an impressive list of supporters.  http://ift.tt/2x4167b  Are there still areas in Windsor/Essex County that could use your services?

Mary-Ann:  The needs are huge in the community and we are always working to secure funds to expand our services and to expand to more locations.  This year we are going out to Leamington for our social skills program and I am sure we could offer many more programs out there.  The issue comes down to funding and we are always trying to stretch our dollar while providing great services and programs.

Doug:  Since you’ve worked both in schools and with LDAWE, you have insights to both systems.  What services do you provide that schools are unable to?

Mary-Ann:  I like to think that we complement the services that are provided in school.  We offer students the opportunity to receive additional individualized learning opportunities. What we can offer is a non-judgemental learning environment.  All of our participants are diagnosed with a learning disability and ADHD. We find students are much better able to understand their learning differences and connect with peers in a safe learning environment.

We are staffed by OCTs and support staff who not only have their professional credentials but they understand the unique challenges that individuals with learning disabilities and ADHD have. They are also amazing at knowing how to help these clients.  We don’t want to be seen as a continuation of school but rather as a compliment.  We want our students to be motivated and excited to attend our programs after a long school day. We are also there to support the parents of these students who are navigating the world of IPRC’s and IEP’s.  They worry about what the future holds for their kids and through 1:1 conversations and through participation in our PACE Parent’s program we try to help them too. I am always available for any parent who wants to come in to talk or wants to speak on the phone.

Doug:  Supporting parents is so important and may not be the first thing that comes to people’s minds.  Thanks for mentioning it.

Is funding for your student clients sufficient?

Mary-Ann:  It’s non-profit – There is never enough money!  There is so much need in our community and only so much that we can do.  We could provide four social skills classes at a time and it would not be enough. We are very fortunate that our community is so giving – we receive many donations from so many different organizations.  We are so thankful for their support because it’s what allows us to help these individuals. It’s what helps us grow.

Doug:  Your Twitter handle is a regular on my “FollowFriday” lists.  That’s an indication that you’re very active in your use of the service.  Do you have a specific personal use for social media?

Mary-Ann:  I use social media to feed my passion which is special education. I am also passionate about all things related to education especially math and educational technology. I love everything non-profit and am always trying to learn how to be a better leader not only for my staff but for the organization and the people we serve.  It’s my platform to learn and to engage with like minded individuals.  It’s an an opportunity to learn from the best of the best. I hope that by sharing my knowledge and experiences I can help others learn. It’s also a platform for me to engage in conversations about causes I believe strongly about including our community and the challenges we face as a society.

Doug:  If someone asked you who they should follow on Twitter, who would you recommend?

Mary-Ann:  Wow – my list is so long and diverse. For all things non-profit Joan Garry(@joangarry) is a must. For assistive technology and UDL definitely Karen Janowski (@KarenJan) and Mike Marotta (@mmatp). For learning disabilities the whole #LDchat crew with @UnderstoodOrg and Amanda Morin (@AmandaMorin) at the helm.

Doug:  Do you promote social media internally at LDAWE and with students?

Mary-Ann:  We do with the staff and right now I am playing around with using Workplace by Facebook.  For students whose parents have given their permission we feature good news stories and showcase their great work.  We find a lot of our clients are engaged through social media.  They love when we post about the behind the scenes work we do which really makes me proud.  We have an incredible group of staff who are passionate about our organization and about helping individuals with learning  disabilities and ADHD.  I find myself incredibly lucky to be leading them.

Doug: On your website, there’s a very comprehensive and useful list of resources.  http://ift.tt/2fyvECP  I think that this is a very insightful list for all educators.

Mary-Ann:  Thank you.  We are working on revamping our website this year so stay tuned for an improved resource list.

Doug:  Thank you so much for taking the time for the interview.  I appreciate it.

You can follow Mary-Ann on Twitter at:  https://twitter.com/MaryannFuduric She is a rich supporter and retweeter of stories dealing with Learning Disabilities.

The LDAWE website is at:  http://www.ldawe.ca LDAWE is on Twitter at:  https://twitter.com/LDAWE1  and Facebook at:  http://ift.tt/2x3w1AP

  An Interview with Mary-Ann Fuduric published first on http://ift.tt/2gZRS4X

[alanlazarosllc-blog]

How I Let The System Destroy Me

Back in high school and college, I used to be hyper focused on results. I remember specifically that all I really cared about was the letter grade; and if I learned along the way; great, but somehow that was never really the main objective.

This notion feels so unreasonably short-sighted to me now. The main objective was always to get an A; and I mean via any means necessary, and learning was secondary. In fact, I specifically remember times when I would literally not go to a single class during an entire course at WPI. I’d only go in for the tests, and then I’d legitimately pride myself on the fact that I still got an A.

It was simple: If attendance wasn’t required, I just wouldn’t go. If homework wasn’t required, I just wouldn’t do it. It even got so bad that I would literally seek out classes that didn’t require participation, and then I’d deconstruct the syllabus regarding the grade breakdown and percentages so that I could do the bare minimum necessary to get the grade that I wanted…

Instead of focusing on learning the material; and on accepting new challenges with a burning desire for personal growth, I would just slack off all semester until the night before the exams; pop an Adderall with a buddy, and then pull an all-nighter to cram for the exam.

Even worse, I would actually avoid all difficult courses and professors. If a course appeared to be difficult on the first day, I’d immediately drop it for an easier one. If a person told me that a particular professor was difficult, I would actively avoid all of their courses from then on; irregardless of my passion about their subject matter.

Full disclosure… It’s honestly hard to admit and acknowledge just how fucking stupid I was back then. Knowing what I know now, this approach to learning is pure lunacy. Even just typing this article right now has been extremely difficult for me. My entire focus in life back then was to take the easiest route possible.

“Do not go where the path may lead; but go where there is no path, and leave a trail.” — Les Brown

Rather than taking life head on: Facing my fears, finding my uniqueness, harnessing my personal power, and cultivating inner strength and courage; I was unconsciously sneaking out the back door in life. I took the coward’s approach without even knowing it, and here I am writing this article in a hope that you don’t do the same.

Not only was my approach to life and education wildly unhealthy back then, but it’s also just not how human beings learn. The brain is an incredibly complicated and complex organ; and most importantly, repetition is the mother of skill. In hindsight; with what I know now, my old “late night cram sesh” approach to learning couldn’t be worse…

“The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it; but in the end, there it is.” — Winston Churchill

Here’s the truth… All of the material that I crammed so desperately into my brain the night before an exam was only to be regurgitated the following day, and never actually retained for long-term use. A or not; degree or not, it doesn’t matter, because not learning doesn’t fucking help anyone…

I always wondered why the more advanced engineering courses were so difficult for me. Rather than accepting responsibility for my actions, and taking a good look into the proverbial mirror; instead, I just told myself a bullshit story of how I just wasn’t as smart as the other “nerdy” kids at WPI.

This wasn’t true at all though. It was all just me copping out and making excuses as to why they did better than me; when in reality, it was just because they weren’t getting blasted every other day, skipping class, and always waiting to the very last minute to learn the material…

Ladies and gentlemen; I had so many bad habits cultivated from my result-oriented childhood. Learning is; and always has been, a cumulative practice, and I’m just grateful that I finally woke the fuck up. Better late than never right!?

Bottom line… If we never master the fundamentals of any discipline; and build a strong foundation first, any advancement in the mastery of that discipline will forever seem impossible to us…

And even worse… Now we’ll sit back and look on in the awe of others who are more capable than us as if they’re some sort of superhero. We’ll wonder why they’re so blessed; we’ll make excuses and bullshit rationalizations as to why we can’t also do those things, when in reality, all we’re missing is the simple understanding of how learning and self-mastery actually works.

Why!? Because… For some unfathomable reason, we aren’t ever taught about mastery in school. We aren’t taught about the importance of process-orientation, rather than results-orientation; and if we are, it certainly isn’t focused on enough to really sink in.

All of my mistakes in high school and college are SO OBVIOUS to me now, but as always, hindsight is 20/20 right!?

As a kid; I just didn’t get it, and nor did I care. I had what appeared to be way more important things to worry about: Like my popularity, women, a kickass social life, binge drinking, drugs; and worst of all, seeking external validation regarding my reputation and what others thought of me…

Guys and girls… If I could go back, I would do things so differently. Did I pass all of my classes; yes (mostly, haha). Did I get both of my degrees from an incredibly reputable institution; yes, but at what cost!?

Here’s the thing… I am truly blessed. I was born into a free country, and in a town with a solid public education system. So many people in this world aren’t born quite so lucky. Even more importantly, the universe has provided me with this massive and powerful brain of mine; and honestly, how dare I squander that gift any longer…

I am so incredibly thankful that I finally woke the fuck up. There are people who would kill for the educational opportunities that I’ve had. I mean hell, I got to go to one of the best Engineering schools in the entire world for christ sake; and instead of being grateful and taking full advantage of that opportunity to maximize my potential, instead I partied my face off and squandered my greatest gifts…

“You’ll never solve your problems; you have to learn how to outgrow them.” — Wayne Dyer in Excuses Begone!

Who am I to squander my blessings!? Who am I to have taken my countless opportunities to learn and grow so lightly!? Who am I for drowning my powerful mind and body in constant toxins, vices, and useless distraction!?

Who am I for not locating and cultivating my talents to help others; and most importantly, who am I for not helping others to be allotted the same opportunities that I’ve had..!?

Nobody, that’s who… But never again!

“Talent is god given, so be humble. Fame is man given, so be grateful; and conceit is self-given, so be careful.” — John Wooden

And so here’s the million dollar question:

Why was I so short-sighted back then!?

As I always say; we must know better to do better, but what was it exactly that I didn’t know?

They say it isn’t what we don’t know that kills us in the end. What we don’t know hurts us a lot; yes, but what really kills us in the long run is what we don’t know that we don’t know…

First off, I take full responsibility for who I am; who I was back then, and who I am working to become, but that said, here’s my best analysis of the real issue:

Our American culture puts an insane amount of emphasis on results over process, and it’s right out of the gate during our childhood. The letter grade system itself is an indoctrinated method that forces us to focus on grades rather than on learning. Generally speaking, parents, teachers and colleges only really care about grades, and so kids inevitably do too. Grades are fine. They are an objective measurement that can be indicative of learning, but to think even for one second that grades paint the whole picture of a kid is pure ignorance…

Also, look at sports. The emphasis on win-loss records, trophies and championships appear to matter far more than the discipline, mastery and enjoyment of the process required to get there; but the process is really where the game is won, and not just in sports, but in all facets of life.

Kids are smarter than we think. They pick up on what we care about; and they look up to us, so they’ll value what we do. They pick up on everything we do and don’t do; and they see exactly what we value most, and so I’d argue that we are often valuing the wrong things in most cases:

"No written word, no spoken plea, can teach our youth what they should be; Nor all the books on all the shelves, it's what the teachers are themselves." - John Wooden

How can we expect our kids to want to be healthy when we aren’t? How can we expect our kids to get off the couch and exercise when we don’t? How can we expect our kids to want to read, learn and grow when we’re binge watching Netflix marathons!?

And most importantly, how can we expect our kids to focus on enjoying the process of self-discipline, when we barely have any ourselves; and even if we do, we’re still only looking at their grades and trophies, rather than on the process, enjoyment and necessary disciplines that it took to get there!?

In other words, we need to lead by example: A true leader doesn’t just point the way. A true leader leads the way, and learns how to provide guidance without causing distrust or resentment.

If we want to change this results-oriented culture, we first need to change ourselves. It needs to be consistently reinforced in our children that learning should be the top one, two and three priorities in school, and that self-discipline, fun and mastery are EVERYTHING. And not just once either; but rather, this notion must be constantly reiterated and emphasized in our own actions and mentalities too!

Honestly… A strictly results-orientated society just makes no sense at this point. If you’re in college right now; or planning to go to college, please don’t fall for this bullshit mentality. Please don’t piss away your hard-earned money and priceless time for A’s and a piece of paper (a degree) like I did. The degree honestly doesn’t matter in most cases. It doesn’t mean shit in comparison to what you learn and your ability to grow and expand as a person. What matters is what you know; and even more importantly, who you are.

And another thing… No one needs to tell you that you’re successful, or that you are learning. You know when you’re successful; and you know when you’re giving it your all to maximize your potential. You know when you are challenging yourself, learning and growing; and you know when you’re not…

“What we give is what we keep. What we fail to give is the only thing that we ever really lose in this life.” — Tony Robbins

Bottom line… Give your all in everything that you do; and remember, grades really don’t matter that much in the real world. Life doesn’t give out letter grades and pats on the back. Life doesn’t give us what we want or what we need even; like an A+ or a degree, life gives us who we are as individuals, and who we are is only predicated on our desire and ability to learn and grow each and every day. That’s what really matters in the long run.

Please please please… Don’t just avoid challenges like I did. Don’t just try to skate by on your intelligence and your talent. Don’t run away from difficult classes and strict professors. Don’t skip classes; take drugs, and cram for exams only to forget all the material later that night with shots of tequila. Don’t worry so much about girls, guys or popularity; and most importantly, forget once and for all about what others think of you. Only you can decide whether or not you’re good enough.

“The moment that you start living your life based on others people’s opinions of you, is the beginning of the end.” — Tyrese Gibson

The truth is that what we do, how we do it; and why we do it, all matter… So don’t fall prey to a system that unconsciously teaches us to focus only on one of the three…

In school; and in life for that matter, learning and growing should always be our main priority. Learning and self-development is the goal; and report cards and degrees should remain secondary, not the other way around!

Having big goals, dreams and designing a bright and compelling future is wonderful; and necessary by the way, but not at the expense of the moment. We must never cease to, nor forget, that it’s the process which brings happiness and fulfillment long-term — not the result.

“The road is better than the end. It is better to travel hopefully, than to arrive.” — John Wooden

We mustn’t forget that the journey, the climb and the process is where joy really comes from. I don’t care how great the result is; if you despise what you’re doing to get there, you simply aren’t living.

Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare!?

The tortoise focused on the process and calmly enjoying the race. The hare was shortsighted, arrogant, and all about the end result. Always be the tortoise. He’s the real winner!

It’s just so critical that we finally take back control. We need to re-learn how to keep our much-needed focus; and now more than ever with infinite distractions, on enjoying the process where it belongs. After all; as I’ve said many times: I’d much rather walk slowly and consistently in the direction of my dreams; than to do what most people do, and sprint in circles…

I hope you enjoyed this article. Thanks so much for reading, and please don’t hesitate to reach out on social media or email anytime (alan@alanlazaros.com). I look forward to meeting you all as soon as possible at a Live Talk (AlanLazaros.com); and never forget:

There’s a Superhero in all of us. Keep chasin’ dreams and bettering yourself every day. Humanity needs your uniqueness. After all… This world ain’t gonna save itself!