Tag Archives: The Tutoring Solution

Episode 57: Blog Writing to Learn with Zeb Welborn

I started my tutoring business back in 2009.  I was very fortunate because my sister was learning how to build websites at the time and she built a website for The Tutoring Solution.  6 months of blog writing opened up my world.  What many people don’t understand about social media is that it’s not just a sales and marketing tool, it’s also a learning tool and a communications tool which can make or break a business.  Learn how you can use blog writing to learn.

Blog Writing to Learn by Zeb Welborn from The Tutoring Solution, Welborn Media and the Defining Success Podcast

The Tutoring Solution’s Blog

Erin Klein started her blog Kleinspiration with the intention of keeping her students and parents updated about her classroom.  As she began to blog she started learning more and more about her profession because she was looking to create content for her blog.  As her blog grew, she had a better understanding of the needs of her students and started to develop a reputation as a forward-thinking educator.  Her blog eventually led to her being recognized by her school, then her district and has now been educating others on multiple subjects as it pertains to education.  Erin was able to use her passion for blog writing and education to build a strong personal brand for herself.

Several years ago, I implemented the The Tutoring Solution’s Blog-Based Learning Program, designed to educate students by creating daily content for their own blog.  While the blog-based learning program wasn’t successful, I still think the implementation of such an approach could have a great impact on those students who are passionate about a subject or a topic.  The one student we had who enrolled in the program was thinking about becoming a veterinarian.  Through her blog she was able to learn and discover what it took to become a veterinarian and learned some fascinating things as a result.

My recommendation to anyone looking to start a business would be to write a blog or create content (video, podcast) that will give them an opportunity to educate themselves on the topic and share what they’ve learned with others.  By working to become an expert in the field and sharing new things you’re learning you can help create buzz for your business and establish and develop meaningful relationships which will help you along your career path.

The blog I started back in 2009 set the foundation for everything I have done since I started my business.  My ideas have grown and I have been recognized as a thought leader in the industry.  In education I began to be contacted to give presentations on motivation and helping to motivate students who were unmotivated.  And I continue to learn through my blog writing through my various websites.  For anyone who is looking to change careers or who is looking to do something they love writing a blog is an excellent place to start.  If you’re not doing what you love, start creating content that will help you to develop an appreciation and an understanding of your field and learn along the way.

Learn more about how you can use blog writing to learn by listening to Episode 6 of the Defining Success Podcast titled, Blog Writing to Learn with Erin Klein from Kleinspiration.

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Sushant Misra from TrepTalks.com Interviewed Me!

I was recently interviewed by Sushant Misra from TrepTalks.com.

Sushant Misra Trep Talks TrepTalks.com Zeb Welborn Welborn Media Defining Success Podcast How a High School History Teacher Started a Successful Social Media Business

Sushant Misra

“Sushant Misra is an entrepreneurship evangelist, accomplished serial entrepreneur, dynamic speaker, published author, syndicated columnist, and philanthropist. Sushant is best known for founding and hosting Trep Talks, a web based video interview show featuring successful digital entrepreneurs. Sushant is also an experienced eCommerce professional. He is the founder of Yogamatstore.com and has helped Canadian retail giant Hudson’s Bay grow their eCommerce business. Sushant is a seasoned Yoga and Energy practitioner and has lived in 4 countries on 3 continents. – See more at: http://treptalks.com/about/#sthash.0lOJivHD.dpuf

I had a great time being interviewed by Sushant as he asked me how I made the decision to get into business for myself and my progression as a business owner to where I am at today.  Sushant has interviewed many successful entrepreneurs, including Tim Ferriss, author of the 4-Hour Work Week.

I’d love for you to check out the interview and leave your feedback for Sushant and share your thoughts on the article with us on the Defining Success Podcast Facebook page!

Check out TrepTalks.com, tell Sushant Zeb sent you and listen to my interview with Sushant titled, How A High School History Teacher Started A Successful Social Media Business? – Zeb Welborn 

 

Zeb Welborn is the President of Welborn Social Media and The Tutoring Solution.  He helps passionate business owners become successful by harnessing the power of the Internet to reach more potential customers and develop stronger relationships with current customers. Zeb is also the founder and host of Defining Success Podcast.

For more information about Zeb Welborn, visit Welborn Social Media, or email him directly – Zeb@WelbornSocialMedia.com

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Episode #15: Exposing People to Their Passions | Principal Collin Miller from Sparks Middle School

Teaser: Collin Miller is extremely hard working and extremely passionate about education and works hard to improve the lives of his students. His passion shines through in Episode 15 of the Defining Success Podcast as he shares what he’s doing to improve the lives of the students that step foot in his school.

Thank you for visiting the Defining Success Podcast.  Please download, subscribe and rate our podcast on iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-success-podcast/id619459909 Thanks for listening!

 

Exposing People to Their Passions Collin Miller Sparks Middle School

Principal Collin Miller from Sparks Middle
School

Recap:  At 33 years old, Collin Miller is one of the youngest administrators in Southern California and was recently nominated as a new administrator of the year by the HLPAA. He started as a teacher at Sparks Middle School and he’s now the principal at the school he originally started working at.

Collin graduated from California State University, Fullerton with a degree in TV, Radio and Film and got a job with a multimedia company and he wasn’t sure if that wasn’t his passion.  The only way he knew he would go anywhere in the industry, he knew he would have to move to Los Angeles.

He had a friend who was a second grade teacher who gave him the opportunity to teach a five-step lesson plan on soccer and he knew he found his passion.  He then took all the necessary steps to become a classroom teacher and quickly moved into the classroom and up the ladder to administration.

When you’re young you have people you look up to and Collin had some great mentors who helped guide him to become an administrator.  Collin loved exposing people to their passions and building relationships with them.  He teaches in a low income area.  As a teacher he saw how resilient many of his students were.  As an administrator the same goes for building relationships with students and growing them.  Collin now feels like he has the same opportunity to work with teachers and help them become better in the classroom.

One of Collin’s goals for Sparks Middle School is to help get more parents and partners involved with the school.  Collin works really hard to get his students college ready. One thing Collin stresses to his students is that “Success is the only option.”

Principal Collin Miller from Sparks Middle School - Exposing People to Their Passions

Principal Collin Miller from Sparks Middle School

I was actually fortunate enought to attend a career day put on by Collin at Sparks Middle School where I taught students how they can use the Internet to achieve their goals.  Collin worked really hard to put on the event in order to show students how many job possibilites there were out there.  Too often students don’t understand what options they have when it came to a career choice and his career day was designed to open the eyes of many students at his school.

One of Collin’s favorite things is to get a yearbook and have student’s sign his yearbook and his personal reflection is reading what student’s say and is his best evaluation of himself for that year.

One of the challenges Collin faces is that you’re always looking for what’s in the best interest of the students.  And that’s challenging because we have feelings and mistakes are made and he always tries to learn from his mistakes and not make the same mistake twice.

Collin considers himself to be a great motivator and is very passionate at what he does which sets him apart from some other educators.  Learn how Collin works tirelessly exposing people to their passions.

Engaging Discussion Questions:

  • How do we work on exposing people to their passions?
  • What can we do to help our schools and educators?

Links to Great Stuff:

  • Sparks Middle School – Sparks Middle School is located in Hacienda – La Puente in Southern California.  Collin Miller is the school principal.
  • The Tutoring Solution – The Tutoring Solution tutors students in Corona, Chino, Ontario and across Southern California.  Visit our website to learn more about our Share Your Passion scholarship gven to students who complete an essay about their passions and how they are using their passion to help others.
  • Welborn Media

Success Quotes:

  • “Success is being involved with something . . . and seeing a greater result.”
  • “Living every day like you couldn’t have done anything else.”
  • “We want students to own their future.”

Special Requests:

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Episode #6: Blog Writing to Learn | Erin Klein from Kleinspiration

Erin Klein discusses how she uses blog writing to make her a better educator, to continue her learning, to share her learning with others and to communicate with other leading educators and education professionals. Pay attention to how Erin has used her blog to make positive change in her community and her classroom.

Thank you for visiting the Defining Success Podcast.  Please download, subscribe and rate our podcast on iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-success-podcast/id619459909 Thanks for listening!

Erin Klein from Kleinspiration

Erin Klein from Kleinspiration

Recap:

Erin Klein has been a classroom teacher and has developed her own blog which has been successful in its own right.

Erin has taught 1st grade, junior high school and now 2nd grade and she loves it.  She used a website for her classroom highlighting her students work and her website became so successful in her school that she got recognition by her district.  And then was asked to give presentations to other teachers and she began to blog as a resource sharing site to share her students work and share resources with other teachers.

As a teacher, Erin feels that the blog helps her become a better teacher and gives her an opportunity to share, get feedback, and offers an opportunity for self reflection.  She knows that maintaining her blog has helped her become a better teacher and by sharing she has helped other teachers become better.

A recent activity Erin Klein did in her classroom that she shared with others is  “If Our Characters Had Instagram,” where students are encouraged to act as if they were a character and then encouraged to think of what types of pictures they would take and share on Instagram which has taken off and teachers all over the world have been downloading her If Our Characters Had Instagram lesson plan.

Erin uses Twitter and Facebook to connect with educators.  She loves using Twitter more so than Facebook because, to her, Twitter is more of a professional outlet.  She loves the ability Twitter gives her to connect with different types of educators all over the globe.

Blog writing is important for Erin because she uses it to share resources and reflect on what she’s doing in the classroom and it also gives her a way to connect with the parents as to what’s going on in the classroom.

One thing Erin didn’t expect when she began blogging is the amount of businesses that would contact her asking her to use their product in her classroom.   Some products she’s recently used in her classroom is the Sifteo Cubes and the Sky Livescribe Interactive Pen, which she says her students love.

Erin would like to see a lot more student choice in the classroom, more teacher-driven content, more creativity, more student voice, more projects, more top-level blooms taxonomy, more mobile and technology apps (used less by particular district approved apps).  Ideally, she would like to put the curriculum in the students hands and having them create it and teach each other.  Putting teachers in a more facilitative role and putting the learning into students’ hands.

Learning is a priority to Erin as she’s always looking for opporunities to learn and grow.  She encourages teachers to ask administrators for things and don’t take no as a final answer.  If she feels something is in the best interest of her students then she wants to ask why and that new teachers are so often told no and that that kills the creative process.  Erin does recommend being professional, but still challenging administrators to accomplish goals that she feels would be in the best interest of her students.

Erin equates success and happiness to each other.  Monetary value doesn’t mean success.  Many people she knows who some people would deem successful are often very unhappy.  She thinks if people are happy doing something they love, regardless of money than they are successful.

Engaging Discussion Question(s):

  • Where do you see the future of education going?
  • Where would you like to see education going in the years to come?

Links to Great Stuff:

  • Kleinspiration – “Erin Klein the technology chairperson for the Michigan Reading Association, a national A Plus Workshop Presenter, SMART Technologies Exemplary Educator, Really Good Stuff Monthly Blogger, Edutopia Guest Blogger, Edudemic Guest Blogger and Magazine Contributor, National Writing Project member, and award-winning EduTech Blogger.Klein has most recently appeared in the Scholastic Instructor Magazine and co-authored Amazing Grades with experts from 13 countries around the world.”
  • If Our Characters Had Instagram – A lesson plan designed by Erin Klein which can be used in classrooms from Kindergarten to High School – If a character/historical figure had Instagram, what kinds of pictures would they take?
  • Sifteo Cubes – “Sifteo Cubes are a magical new interactive game system built on the timeless play patterns of legos, building blocks, and domino tiles.”
  • Sky Livescribe Interactive Pen – “Record everything you hear, say, write and draw. Wirelessly sync notes and audio to your personal Evernote® account where you can replay, organize, search and share your interactive notes any time and anywhere.”
  • The Tutoring Solution’s Share Your Passion Scholarship – The Share Your Passion Essay Contest is open to all High School students. For students to be eligible for one of their scholarships they had to write an essay from the prompt:  “What are you passionate about? Why are you passionate about it? How do you plan on using your passion to help others?”
  • Welborn Media
  • #EdChat – Join the Discussion on Twitter.

Success Quotes:

  • “Put the curriculum in the students hands and having them create it and teach each other.” – Erin Klein

Special Requets:

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Episode 1 – An Introduction to the Defining Success Podcast by Zeb Welborn

Welcome to the Defining Success Podcast with Zeb Welborn. The Defining Success Podcast will be an interview style podcast, but for this episode, learn about Zeb Welborn, the man behind the podcast.

Recap:

This is the introductory episode for The Defining Success Podcast with Zeb Welborn.  My goal with the introductory podcast was to introduce myself to future listeners. . . (aka YOU!)

In 2007, I thought I had become a success.  I achieved everything I wanted to when I was younger, I found a career, got married and bought my first house.  Just two years later I found myself divorced, jobless and living at my parents.

After some time, I found a job tutoring one student in Norco, CA.  I found tutoring to be so fulfilling that I decided to make a business out of it, while at the same time my sister, Lacey was learning to design websites.  She helped design the website for The Tutoring Solution and we never looked back.

Tutoring to me became very fulfilling as I was charged with helping to motivate students who seemed to lack motivation.  In the process of helping students achieve their goals, I became much more aware of my own belief systems and began changing my habits which helped me become more and more successful.

A year after starting the tutoring business, Lacey and I started a new business venture, Welborn Social Media.  An interesting fact, the mother of Nick, the first parent who hired me for tutoring was also the owner of Scrapbook Expo who became our first client.

Lacey and I loved working with business owners, because business owners were some of the most passionate people I have come across . . . and even more so with successful business owners.

It has become my mission to help business owners become successful because I’ve found that business owners are, more often than not, passionate individuals.  They are passionate because they feel they are providing a valuable service to others.  This passion and service to others has made them happier as a result.

As a student, I performed adequately in school.  Mostly A’s and B’s with a few C’s thrown in for good measure, but I mostly just floated through life with no clear direction or purpose.  Becoming a business owner has helped me develop a clearly defined purpose and I am happier as a result.

I want to share that happiness with others.  I want to encourage people who are passionate about something to pursue their dreams.  The road will not be easy, but if it is something you truly desire than nothing can stop you but yourself.

Thank you for listening to the Defining Success Podcast with Zeb Welborn.  If you are passionate, and excited about what you do, please let me know how I can help you.

Engaging Discussion Questions:

  • Define Success . . . Are You Successful?  Why or Why Not?
  • How Are You Sabotaging Your Success?

Links to Great Stuff:

  • The Tutoring Solution – A Fond Farewell from Zeb Welborn – Zeb Welborn passes the reigns of The Tutoring Solution into the very capable hands of Cynthia De La Torre
  • Welborn Media – The Story of Welborn Social Media – The first blog post of Welborn Social Media
  • Scrapbook Expo – Welcome Scrapbookers! – Because of our strong relationship with Scrapbook Expo we’ve been able to work with numerous local and national scrapbooking companies.
  • Mike Jiminez – If you’d like more information on podcasting or podcasting equipment, Mike Jiminez is an excellent resource.  You can email him at slightreturn@gmail.com

Quote of the Episode:

“Looking forward to better things to come.”

Special Requests:

  • Please download, review and subscribe to the Defining Success Podcast on iTunes.
  • Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
  • If you are a business owner who wants to unleash the power of the Internet please visit the Welborn Media website.
  • Sign Up for the Defining Success Podcast Newsletter to keep you updated on new episodes, upcoming guests and exciting opportunities.

Special Thank You’s:

  • Mike Jiminez – Thank you for conducting our podcasts and for getting us started.  We’re excited to be working with you for the duration of the podcast.
  • Richard McKinnon – Thank you for adding the intro music to our podcasts.  Thanks for using our services at Welborn Media for your acoustic ceiling removal business, System 1.  And thanks for being a great friend.
  • Brian Roberts – Thank you for the amazing introductory skills you’ve lended to the Defining Success Podcast if anyone out there needs voice work for anything I encourage you to contact Brain.  Brian is also the owner of In-Store Radio which creates a customized radio station for any retail shopping environment.  Please visit In-Store Radio for more information about Brian Roberts.
  • Jennifer Davis – Thank you for hiring me to tutor you son and for hiring my sister and I to jump start our businesses.  Thank you for your guidance and support.  And thank you for being a great friend.
  • Nick Cianflocco – Thank you for the work you put into becoming a better person.  Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with you.  And thank you for teaching me as much, or more than I taught you.
  • Cindy De La Torre – Thank you for being the most amazing woman a guy could ask for.
  • Lacey Welborn – Thank you for being awesome!
  • Rocky Welborn – Thank you for being a good brother.
  • Annie & Larry Welborn (aka Mom & Dad) – Thank you for being there for your oldest son when he needed you most.
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