Dynamic Meetings with More Brainpower

Discover new strategies to make your meetings dynamic. The Lead Change Group is sponsored a free teleconference, May 25, 8-9:30 pm.

Join Susan Mazza, author of the Random Acts of Leadership blog, as she interviews Dr. Ellen Weber and Dr. Robyn McMaster from the MITA International Brain Center to learn how to apply brain based strategies to meeting effectiveness.

Here's more about what we'll be talking about...

People constantly complain that “meetings suck” where they work, and surprisingly few feel they can transform these fiascos. Yet since meetings continue to be one of the primary structures we use for having the conversations that support us in communicating and working effectively together, can they be transformed to be satisfying, productive uses of our time and energy? We say yes!

We'd welcome your questions at this interactive session.

Education - Power to Fight Inner City Poverty - Blog Action Day

School systems disenfranchise youth in the inner city. Without a good education most will be unable to earn a good wage or find a rewarding job field. Students realize when they don't make the grade, they are at the bottom of the heap and soon give up trying. Others are bored and don't see a relationship between themselves and what they're expected to know. The dropout rate in this nation is increasing at an alarming rate. What can each of us do to stem this problem, which leads to a life of poverty for so many?

Dr. Bill Cala, former Superintendent of Fairport Schools and Interim Superintendent of Rochester City Schools, shows poverty's linked to the inner city. The question he asked is, "How can we de-concentrate poverty?"

His answer - create a Metro School so inner city youth can learn outside a poverty ridden environment. "Metro Schools provide both economic and racial integration," Bill asserts. He will establish a lottery system so that all learners obtain equal opportunity to be selected. Special needs and top academic students gain equal access.

How will a Metro School differ from charter or private schools?

Metro Schools provide:

Stimulating quality education for inner city residents alongside suburban youth. Can you envision this culturally rich environment?

School, for Dr. Cala, means humanity for all.

A thinking and problem solving environment.

Random selection of inner city students rather than creaming the top and ignoring problems.

Dr. Cala's Metro School will be built on an Education is Democratic foundation, with 20 key principles:

• Education as knowledge - the organizing system
  
  
• Curriculum as tool to make sense of the big world
  
  
• Internships and shadowing - Learning by real life situations
  
  
• Music for all - all kids will have instruments
  
  
• Teacher "fires" and empowers students and works more as an advisor
  
  
• Parent and community involvement
  
  
• Service to society - Expeditionary learning [Big Picture - Cala]
  
  
• Evaluation by demonstration and exhibition
  
  
• Learning is purposeful - not simulated. Tap individual skills.
  
  
• Teachers and students engaged intellectually, emotionally and physically
  
  
• Self-discovery - many are evaluated only by test scores and that must change
  
  
• Curriculum without borders [MITA]
  
  
• Creating healthy learning environment
  
  
• Student ownership of learning
  
  
• Relationship building - love the children. Intergenerationally
  
  
• Social Justice
  
  
• De-concentrate poverty by including 40% inner city students [tipping point for a stable learning environment] with suburban students
  
  
• Cultural competence and diversity - Schools need to reflect world
  
  
• Brain-based learning [MITA]
  
  
• Understanding motivation [Self Determination Theory]

Bill believes that education should not be about short term memory. Short term memory's at work when students memorize quickly before major tests and within a few weeks can't remember it. When "content is king," many students "learn everything that's required, but don't have a clue who they are"(Cala). Bill's antidote is to make schools "As human as they can be" (Hunter).

Bill Cala's vision is that each of the nineteen colleges in the Rochester, New York area will eventually build a Metro School. He's supported by a board of area school superintendents. Daan Braverman, President of Nazareth College welcomed and supported Bill's vision so has opened the door for Nazareth to host the first school. The Metro School will begin with K-1 and 7th grade classes and each year will add one each in the primary and middle/secondary area until they eventually build a separate Metro School.

What Bill needs now, in spite of a stalling economy, is business and community support behind the school. All who are intersted in stemming the tide of poverty in upstate New York are invited to contribute to this stimulating, culturally-rich learning environment. Hopefully that includes many people in the Rochester area.

This blog is a part of Blog Action Day against Poverty. Over 9,000 bloggers will reach a total of ten million readers in this major effort today, October 15, 2008.

Dr. Ellen Weber and I support Bill Cala's and other leaders' vision for the new Metro School. The Metro School adds a knockout punch to fight against poverty!

Thanks for your leadership, Dr. Bill Cala!

Give a Lift to EduBloggers in the F-meme!

Learning makes a difference - whether we're in business, health and medicine, education or anywhere. Angela Meyers decided to begin an F-list to highlight education bloggers. Angela noticed that few educators link out, extending the conversation. So by linking to EduBloggers, bloggers can bolster good ideas educators share in blogs. "The intent is to recognize the unsung blogger and model the power that linking to one another can bring," Angela says.

By giving to others, we actually build more dendrite brain cells in two of our own multiple intelligences. You see, our brain has great plasticity and the more we actively do something, like giving, the more dendrites we build for that activity.

Here's more about the two intelligences you'll strengthen:

Interpersonal Intelligence - This is our social intelligence and researchers have located a specific area in your brain which activates and can be observed using MRI's. In fact, the New York State Standards for Education, list the social standard as one of the most highly important indicators of learning. When you process an idea and can discuss it, relate it to your experience, and ask and answer questions on it with a group, shows that you have learned a concept well. Interpersonal intelligence works well for students who may have difficulty in reading but are more highly gifted in processing ideas as they communicate with others. When we as bloggers, exchange ideas and information with others in many different fields, we build more dendrite brain cells.

Intrapersonal Intelligence - Deep emotional, spiritual and mental well-being resides in this intelligence. In fact, when we give more of ourselves rather than grasping more for ourselves we build many dendrite brain cells for intrapersonal intelligence. In addition, every time you do something positive for others, you release serotonin in your brain, a brain chemical of well-being. I'm hoping to rewire for more dendrites in this intelligence than ever this year... Want to target that along with me?

Incidently, Dr. Howard Gardner of Harvard University, originator of multiple intelligences, names Dr. Ellen Weber's work with the MITA learning and assessment model in his book, Intelligence Reframed.

Angela has listed the following bloggers on the F-list for educators:

Are We Doing Anything Today?
Timely Teacher Talk
Three Standard Deviations to the Left
Eide Neurolearning Blog
Speaking of History

I'm naming:

Mindset Matters: Leading and Teaching with Smart and Heart
The Principal's Office
Curious Cat: Science and Engineering Blog

Here are instructions to add to Angela Meirs' F-List:

"What YOU can do is simply create a new post on your blog, but CUT AND PASTE the list above, and then ADD any blogs you feel aren't getting their due either. It can be one blog, or a hundred (or none if you simply want to repost the same list), but the idea is, find those great blogs that, for whatever reason, you feel aren't getting their due, link-wise.

Then after you leave your post, the next blogger will do the same thing, cut and paste YOUR list, and add THEIR blogs to the list, then repost it. Add the same instructions in your post that the next blogger should cut and paste YOUR list, and add any blogs they feel should be on it to THEIR list. The list will get increasingly long, and all the blogs will get a sort of reverse 'pyramid-affect' of link-love."

Join me and step up to Angela's challenge... Who would you like to add?

My Opi - A Future Day Right Now!

Opi comes from the Greek word opiso and it refers to the future you... Hmmm... How do I envision the future me? To answer is rather enjoyable because I can choose to be imaginative... So here goes for my response to the OPI meme which is to be written in present tense as if the future's taking place in this moment...

Today, I'm checking in to discuss new ideas with scholars currently retreating at the MITA International Brain Based Center, now headquartered in a three story building adjacent to the Lodge at Woodcliffe. Dr. Ellen Weber and I are working with 35 international brain based scholars, currently completing Executive MITA Brain Based Certification.

We're right on our toes daily with stimulating sessions that go deep, with phenomenal leaders from many fields who are developing new solutions for change in many different work and learning environments. Currently we're working on book chapters for one very significant book to be published in this century. These leaders provide tactics for all people to achieve genius status and use their talents to the optimum as they draw from more of their brain. What a thrill to be part of this exciting work. Since many important innuendos are missed in books, we're also creating videos with examples of their many experiences of change in the making.

Tomorrow, when we wrap up the session with our scholars we'll be hosting invited guests from around to world to see what they've developed. The interactive session allows guests and media to ask questions and to gather even more ideas from other major players.

After we wrap up and send in the films and manuscripts to our publisher, we're heading to Kenya, Africa, where we'll be contributing major funds to bring new initiatives to higher education connected to Dr. Bill and Joanne Cala's Joining Hearts and Hands. Kenyan academic leaders requested our help to advance education throughout their leading universities. We're looking forward to working with faculty from a variety of fields to develop brain based curriculum and assessments.

Though I'm now advanced in years, my life is very fulfilling and happy because I give to others daily. I'm learning to give in the moment... and my mind is sharper than ever! No matter how long my life is, by living every day as if it were my last, and giving of myself to others, each day's better than the last.

Thanks, Rick Cockrum of Shards of Consciousness for your OPI meme tag. In the spirit of giving, I'm tagging:

Rita Perea of Rita Perea Consulting,

Cam Beck at Chaos Scenario

Dave Olson at live the GREAT life you desire!

Kare Anderson at Moving from Me to We

Karen H. at The KISS Business

Scott McArthur at McArthur's Rant

Peter at I Will Change Your Life

I challenge you to be imaginative with April Grove's OPI meme as I was! It'll kickstart your thinking as to where you'd like to see yourself in future and what kind of legacy you want to leave.

Photo Credit Flickr: Give Hope. Give a Hand

What I Learned from Ellen Weber

Dr. Ellen Weber lives by risk, adventure and surprise. To work with her and witness her amazing brain in action's a challenge and fun wrapped in one bundle. Here's a few gems I've learned from Ellen...

1. Question... take nothing for granted. As I began to question, follow curiosity and see new possibilities, the quest for answers helped me learn and grow in ways I never thought possible.

2. Target... Ellen often asks me where I see myself five years down the road. If you get stuck in daily details, life can carry you along with no real purpose... Since I want to be a contributor to others, I see the big picture and set the plans to get there. By daily targets, and organizing priorities, I jot daily plans without losing sight of the overall vision...that you see in your mind's eye.

3. Expect... Dr. Weber often asks, What do you expect, anyway? Most people don't really have a clue so they can't guide others. Yet to expect is to see your finished product in living colors, shapes, sizes and animations. It offers the brain an advanced organizer and invites the mind to leap forward, to fill in the dots, and to create art and science for quality outcomes. At the MITA International Brain Based Center we often expect the moon, for instance, and it tends to come to our daily roundtables, in fine blue cheese pieces. What do you expect, anyway?

4. Move... Each person's born with eight intelligences. What we do with our gifts and talents can pave the way for a rich and satisfying career. Ellen encouraged me to ask, "How am I smart?" My first response was that I was not smart... I made that decision since I was not Valedictorian or Salutatorian of my class. Ellen helped me to see that intelligence involves so much more than what we previously thought and what a billion dollar test taking industry wants to keep in place. Intelligence is evidenced through problem solving skills, creativity, ability to organize and analyze, many of which are not truly tested because much ambiguity is involved and intelligence crosses disciplines. IQ's not fixed as "experts" once thought at the end of the 19th and early part of the 20th century when IQ tests were first formulated. Because of current neuroscience research, experts now view intelligence differently. The question is not "How smart are you? As Ellen saw through her university research, the question is... "How are you smart?"... and additionally, "Where are you headed with your gifts?"

5. Reflect... What worked and what didn't work... as I consider outcomes of my work, learn from mistakes and try new strategies, I continually grow and change. To reflect takes time and a positive approach to be the person I want to be - one who uses God-given gifts to the fullest extent.

When I visited Robert Hruzek's Middle Zone Musings today I was challenged to take on his mantra to share "What I learned from...." Since I keep growing and learning from Brain-based work experiences with Dr. Ellen Weber globally, it seemed natural to share nuggets of gold with Brain Based Biz community and visitors.

I've learned to live Ellen Weber's five MITA steps for growth and productivity for both work and personal life. Change happens as you live what you learn, not just nod your head and agree with an idea you read or hear. Learning takes courage and risk. Are you up to it?

So, where do you see yourself in five years?

Challenge Your Brain for Productivity - 5 MITA Steps

"How do you get more productive with your creativity or stay productive and creative?"

My immediate answer's quite simple... Challenge your brain because the brain leaps to the adventure of unraveling puzzles and problems.

When folks mine rich resources of their brain to solve problems they'll be more productive! How so? They use more gifts and talents at work. Why then, doesn't that happen more?

Interestingly, one barrier is bosses or CEO's who see themselves as boosting productivity, while in reality they stifle job satisfaction. Misplaced efforts to improve worker morale tend to lessen productivity according to research at University of Michigan. The secret is to empower peoples' gifts and talents.

Amazingly, MITA strategies worked to increase my personal productivity in ways that changed who I am. Here's a brief overview with links to provide deeper insights for the five MITA steps that jumpstarted my brain and led to productivity in career and more satisfaction in personal life as well...

Question... Ask questions that connect you personnaly to problems. That process guides your brain to solutions or new opportunities. Such questions might begin "What if I..." "How might I change..." "What would happen if I tried..." You get the picture.

Target... Make a plan that initiates solutions or strategies for the outcome you have in sight. I began to work smarter and not harder by using short term benchmarks and jotting them in my weekly calendar so I kept progressing toward the overall target.

Expect... What do you expect anyway? Your expectations must be clear and not foggy or nothing gets done. I wrote down exact descriptions for best end results. Do you seek excellence as I do?

Move... What personal resources contribute to the target you have in mind? Most people automatically dip into one or two intelligences used on the job. Some leaders compartmentalize gifts and talents used at work. For instance they use verbal and logical intelligences to tackle tasks day in and day out, so they miss seeing a project through bodily-kinesthetic or interpersonal lenses. To look at your job differently is often to draw on new talents. When you tap into new intelligences to tackle old projects, watch for rejuvenated results!

Reflect...Reflection leads to growth and change that steps you back to see what's working and what isn't. That leads to adjustment opportunities along the way. Without reflection, each new flight you take traverses the same path and engages the same components. Ellen Weber, who created the MITA model, claims if reflection is left out, stagnation results. How does reflection guide your productivity?

Many folks want research evidence to know that MITA strategies work. Recently, PhD University lecturers in Ireland, began using MITA strategies as they taught and assessed university students in medical settings. Research conducted in 2006 showed that professors using MITA strategies had 5% increase in student motivation and achievement. Similar results hold true in business settings.

Whether blogging, writing articles, having fun with grandchildren, or keynoting to university faculty, I discovered MITA strategies bring productivity in all facets of my life.

Ben Yoskovitz is the originator of The Ultimate Guide to Productivity - What's your secret? He's nearing the 100 posts that he hoped to receive and I hope mine makes the list!

As I read productivity posts on Ben's web site, some of the interesting tips I took note of are:

Best Productivity Tip: Disable Your Inner-Critic by David Wahl

Ultimate guide to productivity: My tip by Julie Fleming-Brown

Choices Are Made Long Before You Decide - Productivity Tips by Jonathan

Ultimate Tip To Reach GTD Nirvana by Andrew Flusche

Productivity Hint? NO! by Annie Boccio

Chris Brown tagged me... I'm tagging

Paintsmh

Appollomemories

Dan316

SNoel

Jsbi in India

Here's Ben's guidelines to enter:

Write a post on your best productivity tips.

1. Challenge yourself by picking your single best productivity tip (although this isn’t a requirement; you can give us more if you want!)

2. Include links to other people that have written posts, or include their tips in your post with proper attribution. And be sure to tag me at Brain Based Biz.

Note: Ben's not asking that you link to everyone in the group writing project meme; pick the ones you want to connect with. You certainly can link to everyone, but it’s not a requirement. Ben likes leaving more decision making power in your hands so this isn’t just a link grab, but you’re thinking about what your audience & community wants to read about.

A link back to Ben's post is appreciated though, to help spread the word!

3. If you use Technorati Tags then tag your post “ultimate guide to productivity”.

4. Tag others in your post to spread the meme. Tag as many people as you like!

5. If you link back to Instigator Blog Ben’ll make sure to include at least 2 links back to you. But this isn’t a requirement, it just helps him keep track of what’s going on. And be sure to tag me at Brain Based Biz.

The question "What guides my productivity" was a fun challenge, Chris. Thanks! Now it will be interesting to see how the folks I've tagged add to Ben's big pot! And, if you'd like this challenge, too, just jump in!