Summer Skiing: Overcoming Lizard Brain

For years I have tried to use what I call "circular thinking" to examine decisions from as many different perspectives as possible to make sure I have considered all aspects of it.  One of the key components is to try to see it from the perspective of my future self. Because of the myriad of factors in every decision, it is almost impossible get it perfectly right.  Will my future self wish I had asked more questions?  have done the thing anyways? consulted with someone more knowledgeable about the topic? done more research?  Often what it comes down to is "what will make the better story?"

Maybe I am wrong in thinking this because is can lead to paralysis by analysis, which I believe can be caused by the lizard brain or "the resistance." One example I use with my class in describing how I overcame lizard brain, at least in this instance, was skiing on Mt. Hood outside of Portland, Oregon.

While we were visiting my brother in the Portland area in late July, he asked my son if he wanted to snowboard Mt. Hood. He also asked me if I wanted to go.  My son eagerly said he wanted to go. My thinking was much different than his. I thought "I'm not that good at skiing. I know it will be difficult, probably too tough fo

r a person who skis the green runs, even in Wisconsin." and "I don't have equipment; how can I ski?"  After much hemming and hawing, I thought of Seth Godin's writings and talks about the lizard brain and I decided that my future self would not be happy if I missed the opportunity to ski a big mountain in the summer. I decided to rent equipment and go skiing.

For what seems like my whole life I have seen pictures and videos of people skiing in shorts and T shirts and wondered how they could do it since my experience skiing was mostly in temperatures below 20 degrees.   On this day I found out.  It was 70 degrees and many of the good skiers did not wear cold weather gear. I was finally going to live the warm weather skiing experience!

It took two lifts to get to the top, which really freaked me out. When we got to the top, it was like nothing I had seen before!  Blue sky, peaks of other volcanoes in the Cascades--then I saw the black diamond signaling this would be a difficult, if not impossible, outing.  I had never skied a black diamond anywhere before and now I was going to ski one from 9000 feet!

I took it easy and made a hundred turns and wiped out on purpose when I got going too fast, but a half hour later I made it to the bottom to find my brother and son waiting for me. I don't know how many times we did the run that day, but because I conquored my lizard brain, I had an experience I had always dreamed of and will never forget.

If I had chosen not to ski, my daughter and sister-in-law spent their day picking blueberries.

A Video Game About Playing Outside?

Kids control the family--at least in many families.

That is one of the driving forces behind the summer school class I created 9 years ago. I came up the idea for my outdoor summer school class, set in a public school, when my niece was about three years old. Upon getting in the car, if anyone failed to put on their seatbelt, she would begin the shrill repetition of  "Put on your seatbelt or you are going to die." Everyone obeyed her.

My thinking behind creating an outdoor class was that if a kid can get such immediate action from adults through such minimal means, then I could harness that ability for the health and enjoyment of their family.  I decided that kids should be the leaders in their families in getting outside to hike, bike and camp.

The other event which swirled around in my head occurred in the winter of 2008, way before Pokemon Go.  In Wisconsin it was a beautiful winter day, sunny and in the upper 20's Fahrenheit. I was teaching at a middle school that had an attached elementary school and was going outside to do lunch duty on the playground when I encountered a dawdling elementary schooler.  I said, "Wow, what a beautiful day!" To which he responded, "I would rather have a video game about playing outside."

I was shocked that any little kid wouldn't love making a snowman, making and throwing illicit snowballs or any other activity that kids do during recess.

Knowing that no such class existed in my district, I was unsure if the district would accept a course of that nature for summer school.  But, as Seth Godin always encourages, I did not wait to be picked. I did not hope that someone would magically find out about my idea.  I proposed and sold my idea of the Survivor class to an audience that didn't know they needed what I was offering.

I am not sure how many other ideas I have made excuses which cause them not to be put into action, but this one stands out for me because, but pursuing it I have taught hundreds of kids outdoor and leadership skills which have caused families to go to state parks, ride bikes, camp and go outdoors.

I Matter and I Pledge to Choose Myself

In Tom Rath's excellent book Are You Fully Charged, he made a point about self confidence based on the work of Timothy Judge and Charlice Hurst about the life long health and monetary benefits of self confidence. One way I try to instill self confidence is for students to take control of their lives. Instead of telling kids don't do this or that, I created this document I call, "I Matter and I Pledge to Choose Myself" which is based on psychological, educational and leadership readings. My thinking behind this document is to give kids mental ammunition to push forward when encountering something they may find to be difficult.

To choose myself, I will make the time to finish anything that needs to be finished before class starts.  Meaning, I will come to class, on time,  ready to learn.

People like me do things...we are ready, we work,  we finish and we encourage others do the same. One way to ensure this is by appropriate uses of my electronic devices.

One thing I will do to finish is to change “should have” to “did.” I will no longer say “should have” to talk about my list of things to accomplish. Done. Next point.

I will get rid of excuses. Every time I think or say, “but,” it will become “and” in my thoughts, words and actions.  Embrace the power of “and.”

Time out for a quote from Seth Godin:

“People don’t believe what you tell them.  They rarely believe what you show them.  They often believe what their friends tell them.  They always believe what they tell themselves.”  

The last sentence in the quote is why I will fire my old boss (the pre 2016 me).  My old boss used language which cut me down.  I am the boss of what I do and I do not want to work for or with someone who uses language which cuts me down.  If I worked for anyone else who talked to me like that I would hate it.  I will not talk to or think of myself using belittling terms.  Instead of thinking or saying: “stupid,” “idiot,” or “moron,”  I will think something such as:  “How smart am I to figure it out?” or  “I bet there are a lot of people who wouldn’t have solved that!” Come to think of it, I will not use language tearing down others either. No meanness.

When I have a problem I will ask myself,  “Can I do it?  Yes I can, because I have solved a problem like this already.“  I will answer the question...everyday.

My signature below is evidence of my promise to myself, my family, my classmates and my teachers that I will choose myself everyday and that I agree with the points above.  

____________________________________    ____________________________________

student parent/guardian

Art, Books and Connections

The last few years I have been reading business, entrepreneur, psychology, leadership and education books almost exclusively.  Daniel Pink, Seth Godin, Robert Cialdini, Sir Kenneth Robinson, Malcolm Gladwell are among the many different authors whose books I have explored.

With each book I read, I start by putting a 4 x 6 inch post it note inside the front cover to keep track of interesting words, concepts, people, websites and books as I read.  I also take notes in the books and use colored coded post-its to mark the pages.  For whatever reason, I use orange to mark ordinary notes. I feel they are the ones I want to be able to refer to later, but are not mind blowing.  I use yellow for the mind blowing ideas.  Pink are specific quotes I want to be able to use in the future and blue indicates connections between ideas. 

Before I started to use different colors, I noticed that many authors refer to each other's books or at least to the same books during their discussion of ideas.  In fact, it happened often enough for me to specifically mark those incidents.   

One of the things I have long thought is, with all of the connections between books I have read, is there a theme that winds through all of them that ties them together?  

Today as I was doing my Austin Kleon Steal Like an Artist Journal, I chose one which is an unlabeled web. with the instructions "Start in the Middle."  For lack of a better term at the time, I chose "Art" as my central word. I am using the definition of art I derived from reading Steven Pressfield's book The War of Art. To me Pressfield is saying that art is beauty created through someone pursuing their passion.

After I chose my word, I started placing names of authors and books I have read in the last few years in the circles in the web.  Unfortunately, the names I put in the list do not always come from the circle which precedes it. I think my best bet is to take my books and go into an empty room and examine the blue post its to attempt to determine which books inspired the others and how they fit together. Possibly then I will finally be able to create  a singular idea that each book explored to some level.  

Summer Reading: Be Inspired

Inspirational and useful books to consider reading this summer:

1. Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink is my favorite book ever. His assessment of bonuses, rewards and their counterintuitive effects is shocking. He breaks motivation into easy to understand explanations using vignettes.

2. Stop Stealing Dreams by Seth Godin (pdf) This book is incendiary.  Godin examines what is needed for success in the 21st Century and how schools, as currently structured, are irrelevant.

3. Poke the Box by Seth Godin  Have you ever had a personal cheerleader encouraging you to pursue the idea that has always captivated you?  Now you have one.

4. Writing the Standard for Project Based Learning by John Larmer, John Mergendoller & Suzie Boss discusses Gold Standard PBL practices with examples of how they are used.

5. Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess  Use creative and consistently great ideas to generate enough interest that you have to sell tickets to your class.

6. Learn Like a Pirate by Paul Solarz Restructure your classroom environment to put the kids in charge of their learning and daily operations of the class.

7. Most Likely to Succeed by Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith A companion to the documentary of the same name, Succeed builds the case for examining the guiding principles of education and gives necessities, suggestions, and examples of how a forward minded education must operate to give students a school career which truly prepares them for the future.The final two chapters provide teachers, principals and superintendents with specific ideas and actions which will transform their classrooms, schools and districts immediately.

8. Creating Innovators by Tony Wagner This book should be read by every parent and teacher.  Wagner uses examples of Millennials who used their passion to create something extraordinary and how their parents planted the seed to pursue their passion.

9. Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon Funny, creative look at how being creative is not limited to coming up with ideas no one has ever thought of before. In effect he says, “Steal them,” meaning apply and combine ideas from varied sources in a new way.

10. Creative Thinkering  by Mike Michalko From one of the leaders on creativity, Creative Thinkering contains many exercises to boost creativity.

11. Creative Schools by Sir Kenneth Robinson This is my favorite of Robinson’s books.  A departure from some of his other books, he gives some specifics as to how schools should be run.

12. Role Reversal by Mark Barnes  Ditch grades and encourage students to learn for learning’s sake and the rest will work itself out. Barnes teaches English Language Arts in the middle school and gives many of the tips and tricks as to how he pulls off not giving grades, but giving grades (at least on report cards)

Inquire by Rob King Do you love the 4 C’s?  King breaks down Collaboration, Communication, Creative and Critical Thinking and so much more into this handbook for students.

PBL and The Matrix

"Let me tell you why you are here. You have come because you know something. What you know you can't explain but you feel it. You've felt it your whole life, felt that something is wrong with the world. You don't know what, but it's there like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?" While speaking to Neo, Morpheus obliquely describes the feeling Neo has had through the first quarter of the 1999 film, The Matrix, and the one I had for years as a teacher.  

For the longest time I was unsatisfied with the way school was being run.  Something wasn't right, but I wasn't exactly sure what it was or how to fix it. It would wake up at night only to catch a fleeting glimpse of the idea disappearing the more awake I became.  In 2010 or so, I read Daniel Pink's (@DanielPink) book Drive (which I highly recommend) and followed its ideas to see where they went. As I combined Drive with Seth Godin's (@thisissethsblog)  Stop Stealing Dreams, suddenly it all became so clear. It was as if Daniel Pink and Seth Godin had spoken collectively to me with the sentiment expressed by Morpheus. It was too late for me to turn back, I had taken the red pill.

And I began my journey down the rabbit hole of Project Based Learning. I then knew it is the true path for education. Everything else in education I had seen is a fake world created by an oppressive force which has been in place for over a century. The whole time the solution was so close, but I was not able to see it.  I am far from being "The One," but it sure felt like I was when I first recognized the truth of what education and learning should be.

Education was so contrived.  "Mary has a red dress. If she is walking 2 miles per hour and Agent Smith starts .5 miles behind her and walks 3 miles per hour, when will he catch her?" It is obvious that the teacher has come up with the problem of the lady in the red dress and can easily find the answer, which doesn't matter anyway. 

Whether it was math, science, social studies or any other subject, concepts did not transfer between them. Even though a student may have learned about reading a line graph in Math class and then immediately walked 40 feet down the hall to the next class classroom and used line graphs in Social Studies, students either replied, "This isn't math class," or "How am I supposed to do this?" Obviously students weren't learning.  To me, once one "learns" something, it means they know it and can call upon it when necessary. That wasn't happening. 

Fortunately, the rabbit hole has led Lynn Heyn, Tara Meinke, Suzy Weisgerber, Emily Bennett and I to found the Arete PBL Academy at Neenah High School (@nhsarete).   Our  two years of experiences have shown that real learning is happening now.  By combining English, Math, Science and Social Studies in a regular public high school, Arete PBL  allows students to participate in a meaningful, authentic experience which drives their learning everyday and not solely in our four classes. One of the most surprising revelations from our students is that they take the interconnected way of thinking we teach everyday in our classes and even connect their learning to their non-PBL classes.  Our students are now so passionate about their learning, they are looking to rescue as many students as possible from the Matrix of regular education. They figuratively hold the two pills, and say, "This is your last chance (at our school). After this, there is no going back. Youtake the blue pill and the storyends. You wake in your bed andyou believe whatever you want tobelieve. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you howdeep the rabbit-hole goes."