A Quick Share

   

     Things have been very busy in my work these days, and the results I am getting with students is, well, amazing.  For example, regarding a college student I worked with Saturday... felt MUCH BETTER on her tests today! She thought it was "wierd" that her auditory track was no longer self-defeating. Told her it would stick :)  Tapped tonight on test anxiety directly, now that I cleared the other aspects (negative self-talk). The best was, though she was sick tonight, she didnt want to reschedule, because for the first time, she tried something that actually worked!

     SAT jumps of 300 points, passing standardized tests, and so much more... I couldn't be happier these students are getting the help the need.   

The Mission

 

      I was reading some interesting facts the other day about illiteracy. One that stood out was that 2/3 of those who don't read at grade level by 4th grade will either be on welfare or in jail.  After all, over 60% of inmates are illiterate.  This was mind blowing to me.  How do students even get so far behind? In a system in one of the most advanced countries in the world, we still have MILLIONS who are illiterate.  I don't understand it.

     Then I went on to read about stress, anxiety, and negative beliefs, and their negative impacts on academic performance.  I have to admit, I was upset. I was upset because countless students are literally suffering in their school experience. Oh, sure, there is always a new method or curriculum du jour that promises the next academic miracle, yet none address these core issues.  Budget cuts always hit the "non-academic" areas first: school psychologists, guidance counselors, SAFE co-ordinators and the like.  Yet, these are perhaps the MOST academic, in that they play vital roles at foundational levels.

     After reading things like the above, my passion, my mission, stirs even more inside of me.  I want to shout from the rooftops that I KNOW how to address these things, I use tools and techniques that can make all of the difference!  I can teach people how to read in just 2 1/2 hours with the awesome Universal Reading Method.  I can help students transform at the core level with a synthesis of techniques I call Academic Alchemy.  I want to help them ALL!  I want to change lives, and change the world in the process.

     For all of you who have supported my work, THANK YOU!  For all of those with whom I have worked with, THANK YOU for letting me have the honor of doing so.  For those of you who have a child who is struggling, or maybe you are a college student struggling yourself,  contact me, let me help!

EXCITING NEWS!!!!

      I am very pleased and excited to announce the addition of a technique the will make a tremendous difference in the world!  
     Millions of students have difficulty reading. Millions of adults are illiterate.  Prisons populations are upwards of 60% illiterate.  This is a huge problem! This doesn't count those who are learning and reading English as a second language.
     I am always open to adding tools to my tool box, ones that I consider to be quantum leaps ahead of what is out there in main stream education.  As chance would have it, I saw a post on Facebook one day for something called the "Universal Reading Method".  It intrigued me, so I reached out to the person, Craig Collins.  We made contact and spoke.  His passion and enthusiasm for his method was contagious, and I made up my mind to look into it further.  What really hooked me was his claim to teach and/or improve reading in just 2 1/2 hours!  I had to know more.   Eventually, I made the decision to bring this amazing technique on board, as it fits perfectly into the framework with which I operate.  
    It is an honor for me to be affiliated with Craig, his team, and this amazing process.

Here is more information:

Universal Reading Method


     If your child is having difficulty with reading, I urge you to contact me and we can speak about how I may be of service to you with the Universal Reading Method. 

Ease of Learning Contact

The "Disconnect"

   

     I was recently at a school meeting, and being discussed was how to improve student performance and thus the school grade.  At one point, in frustration, the principal says, " I don't understand where the disconnect is. The teacher are working hard, and so are many of the students, but the results just aren't coming."  Yes, teachers, most anyway, work VERY hard, as do, in my opinion, most students.  So where, indeed, is that disconnect?

  In my opinion, it is internal.  In this demographic of students (this is an urban school), the challenges, as I see them are:

1) Identity : The "Who Am I" level of thought, the self-image.  In the estimation of many of these students, who they are doesn't do well in school. There parents maybe didn't graduate high school, most friends and family haven't, and they have adapted that identity as well.  The Identity is the next to the top level of what NLP calls the "Logical Levels".   They influence from the top down, in theory, so what "disconnects" are happening at the upper levels influence all the others.

2) Beliefs:  The next level down has to do with beliefs, in this case, negative beliefs. More and more peer reviewed research is showing the correlation between negative beliefs and low academic performance. As the old adage goes, "Whether you believe you can, or believe you can't, you're right. "

3) Capability: This is the "how".  Question, when you were in school, I'm sure you were told by more than one teachers, "Go home and study such and such".  Do you remember any teacher teaching you HOW to study? Or HOW to learn the subject material? I sure don't!  The educational process largely stands on assumption...it ASSUMES the student knows HOW to learn!  As we can see from the data, many students do not.

     So, students work hard trying to learn the material, without knowing exactly how. This is not to mention any other factors getting in the way. (i.e.-stress. More and more peer reviewed research in this area as well show correlations between stress and low academic performance.)   Teachers do their best to hit benchmark and other criteria.  However, the most fundamental factors, as I have thumbnailed above, is a crucial missing piece.  Since I work at those levels when working with clients, it is why I see the improved academic results I do.

     For more of a deeper explanation, be sure to get my free report available on the front page of my website, www.easeoflearning.com.  Until next time....

The "Why"

   

     I am often asked why I do what I do.  So here is my "why"....

     I HATED school.  Oh, K-2 were kind of ok, but after that, it was all downhill.  Middle school was awful, High school was even worse.  Math was torture. The system did a great job on slamming my self-image into the ground.  Even in college, I found it tedious at best.  I was a "C" student in high school, barely.  Yet, when I got to college for my A.A.S. degree, I was on the Dean's list my first semester.  I always kept in the back of my mind the question.."Why was I able to do that in college, and not in high school? After all, it's the same brain!"  More on that in a minute.

     Fast forward....I'm teaching PE in a Catholic school in Brooklyn, NY, and LOVING IT!  The energy from the kids, it was awesome. The sense of fulfillment was amazing!  I did that for 4 years before I moved into sales work for the next 12 years.  Eventually, I came back to it, in a public school setting, and that's when it really hit me.

     My memories of how traumatic school was for me were triggered by seeing it in student after student.  I began by substituting with ESE (Exceptional Student Education) classes. These were special diploma students in a high school, the group noone really wanted to deal with. I found I had an almost instant rapport with them.  I have stayed in this niche in the high school setting ever since.

     What really hit me was how these student suffered so much in the system.  Angry and over the whole school thing.  It touched me, motivated me to pour out my heart for them, to learn ways to help them as much as I could.

     My biggest challenge, and it still is, is to keep my balance, when I see the system trying to be more important than the child.  Yet, day after day, I fight for them. Both in the system, and in my private coaching practice, I fight for them.  I delight in the possibilities of changing the world, one student at a time.

     My second niche was a natural offshoot of the academic one, self-image work.  It came from the repeated work I had to do with these students because of the harm the system and their labels did to their self-esteem.  I then extrapolated that to work with adults, and again, using my own "suffering" how much I was was held back in life due to my own low self-image.  I couldn't let that happen to others if I had the tools and skill to prevent it.  So I launched into it with the same passion I has with the kids.  Accepting second best is so unnecessary.  Being sad or anxious all the time isn't what we are created for.

     My purpose is to change the world, to contribute to it wonderful becoming. My purpose is to save as many students as I can from the pain of school.  There shouldn't be any, nor does it have to stay that way for students of ALL ages who are experiencing it.  There are easier ways to learn. There is an amazing person that is YOU.  There is no higher purpose to suffering with a low self-image. Nothing meritorious about it.  Every day, I rise with joy and anticipation of who I will help that day.  To that, gratitude is always added.  Gratitude that I was able to find my way out.  Gratitude that I learned tools so effective, I wish I knew them when I was a kid.

     I know this may seem a bit like rambling, but it is my hope it gives a glimpse into my heart, and into my "why".

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

     I was coaching with a teacher recently about how I can support her in teaching students with learning disabilities.  I asked to see her class roster, and as I was going over it, I recognized a name.  I asked her how this particular student was doing. She said, "At the beginning, he was doing well, low B's to high C's.  But lately, he is failing. He doesn't do his work, he is missing assignments, and he is starting to skip class".

    I wish I was surprised, but I wasn't. Sadly, it was bound to be happening.  You see, when I had my first interaction with this students about two months ago, I asked him to fill out a belief survey. I always do this, because it is a foundational step in the work I do. I MUST know what the student believes about themselves as a person, as a student, about school, etc.  I remembered one of his responses in particular. He believed he was dumb, and a poor student.

   Now the really sad part is, according to the teacher, he had the capability. He showed it.  To him, though, that didn't matter. His "thermostat" was set to dumb.  So once he saw the good grades coming, his thermostat kicked on. "I can't be doing this well, after all, I'm dumb!".  So the self-sabotage begins, as the teacher described its manifestation.

   Beliefs, motivation strategies, and the like are the foundation of my work for one very important reason, they are fundamentally VITAL! This is where the rubber meets the road, right here.  The number of peer-reviewed research regarding beliefs and academic performance is growing.  Students such as this HAVE to have those negative beliefs changed, and the sooner the better.

  In my private work, I use tools such as Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) to address this because they are extremely effective and rapid.  Only once such negative beliefs as what this student is experiencing are eliminated, only then can tutoring and other academic interventions have any chance of succeeding.

More next time....

The Difference That Makes The Difference

 

   

   


     I am often asked, "What is the difference between what you do and ordinary tutoring?"  While that is a multi-layered question in my opinion, I will attempt to address it to some degree here.

    A key distinction in my approach is to seek the answer to the question, "What is the difference that makes the difference?"  In other words, why are some students so successful, while others are not.  Assuming for the sake of the discussion all things are equal (no organic or physiological issues, etc), the students all have, by and large, the same brain.  So why such a difference?  This achievement gap is the subject of MANY studies, and all sorts of things are seen as the answer. Here, however, I wish to offer a simple answer.

    To me, to seek the true source of this difference, we need to look at each student as an individual.  This means looking to unlock the potential in each student.  If I look at two students, one great in Math, the other terrible in Math, I GUARANTEE a large portion of the difference is how the subject is communicated TO THEMSELVES, namely, how the information is PROCESSED.

    In NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), their essential foundation is in something called "modelling"  Modelling is looking at a desired skill or attribute seen in another person, and getting "in their head" to discover the recipe for how they do it, then install that in yourself or someone else who desires it.

    A key component in my work with students to to elicit how they are processing information. How do they process what they are good in, and compare and contrast that to how they process what they have difficulty in.  Once that is determined, the work begins to "alter" the processing of the difficult thing with processing strategies of what they are good at.  Follow that?

     Therefore, the difference that makes the difference isn't in a magical curriculum, not in luck, not in "I guess Johnny just isn't a good student", or anything else. It is in the student's own self-communication, his/her own processing. There is no where necessary to look but within. This is, perhaps, the most hopeful message ever told to students who are struggling, and their parent who suffer emotionally with them.

      Until next time......

To get a free report that describes the foundations of this work, go to my website, www.easeoflearning.com