Tag Archives: Teacher

Episode 80: Networking vs Working a Room with the Mingling Maven | Susan RoAne, Author of How To Work a Room

This episode I interview the Mingling Maven, Susan RoAne. She is the author of How to Work a Room. In the interview she gives great ideas on having conversations with people, how to start those conversations, and how to feel comfortable in those scenarios. One of the things she highlighted was the difference between working a room and networking. The real key to networking is in the follow-up.

Susan RoAne, or the Mingling Maven, is the best selling author of How to Work a Room. If you’ve ever walked into a roomful of strangers and felt uncomfortable, you’re not alone. According to research, over 90% feel the same way. Because it’s essential, to building our businesses as well as our personal life, we must be able to comfortably attend gatherings and meet, connect and converse with people we don’t know as well as the ones we do.

Zeb’s Take

What a great interview with Susan. She gave a lot of really great tidbits of information about how you can work a room, how you can feel comfortable in networking situations and meeting new people. I really love the advice she gave.

One of the things she pointed out that I’d like to talk about more is the difference between networking and working a room. Working a room is the initial interactions, initial discussions, and how to make sure your presence is known throughout the room. The networking side of it is through the follow-up. Networking isn’t the mingling and interacting at the location, it’s the follow-up afterwards and that is where the value comes in with networking.

I’ve seen it a lot at networking events. Business owners go wanting to grow their business and they expect outcomes the first time they show up. They walk in, they’re interacting with everybody, they are very outgoing, shaking everyone’s hand and exchange business cards. But they don’t get any business that one day and you’ll never see those people return again. I know from experience with our Chamber of Commerce that my continued presence there, the follow up I did with the people I met at the chamber, that ultimately it led to a lot of sales for me and my business down the road, as people began to trust and know me. Now that I’ve gotten better and gotten more experience at networking I have a good system set in place that encourages follow up, that promotes myself and reaching out to people. Then it’s either getting coffee with them or just connecting through email or social media networks.

The networking at the event is not the goal, it’s about the follow-up afterwards. If you are going to networking events to get the most value out of it make sure you follow up with the people you meet at those events. Because there is always an opportunity. Even if they are not going to be a customer for your business they have the potential to refer your business or connect you with people who can benefit your business. You can also help them in different capacities and build a relationship that way.

Go out there and find your success!

Find out more about Susan Roanne, The Mingling Maven

Go to www.SusanRoane.com or HowToWorkARoom.com
Email Susan at Susan@SusanRoane.com with your questions

Her Book, How To Work a Room
She says, “Please go to your local bookstore, if they don’t have it on the shelf they will order it for you. We have to support our local book stores. But of course it’s in online bookstores. The book is How to Work a Room, the Silver Anniversary Edition.”

Quotes

“I think that’s part of success, being willing to say yes and stretching ourselves.”
” If you are not re-tweeting, letting someone know you appreciated a tweet, responding, engaging, commenting then you are a lurker, not a worker.”
“I found that the people who created their own luck[…], they said yes when they wanted to say no.”
“Real networking happens over time, it’s a process. It’s not something that happens once at an event.”
“The people who I find with the most success are people that have diverse relationships with people of different ages, different backgrounds, different interests; as well as those who are in their field.”
“Some of the best networkers are people who used to be shy, but they realized there was a benefit to meeting interesting people.”
“The banquet of banter is a potluck: what are you bringing to the banquet?”
“Bring who you are to what you do.”
“At a certain point the stuff that we have isn’t as important as the stuff we’re made of.”

More from the Interview

Susan was a former public school teacher in Chicago and San Francisco. In San Francisco they had massive layoffs, Susan was one of them. She was then able to help former teachers find new career paths. That evolved into Susan writing books including How to Work a Room. She designed a career change workshop for teachers. Made sure it got on radio. When the editor of the San Francisco Examiner contacted her to do a local career series she said, “Yes.” She immediately got a headache because she wasn’t sure what she had gotten herself into.

“I think that’s part of success, being willing to say yes and stretching ourselves.”

Susan’s Book – How To Work A Room

The main premise of her book is to make it easy for any person that has to walk into a room, a meeting, a party, a reunion, a wedding, a conference, a retreat. So that no one stands at the door and feels uncomfortable walking into a room full of people they may not know. Susan’s mission is to take away that discomfort and help people prepare so they can make the most of whatever event they are going to.

In a Room

If Susan is at an event and sees someone standing alone, she’s the one that will seek them out and try to start a conversation with them. Because, she says, one of the top traits of people we really remember are the people who noticed us, came over to us, made us feel included. For the people already in the room, being cognizant of the people who are alone and welcoming them is not only a wonderful trait, it’s a brilliant business strategy.

For the first version of her book, Susan did most of her research at her local chamber. She saw things that people did that were wonderful. She also saw things that made her question how some people were raised.

Being able to work a room is a skill. To be a networker is a different skill. There are people that are wonderful in a room; we’ve all seen them, they are very conversant, they are interesting, fun to be around, but they have no interest in following up and no skill at following up. In her book Susan refers to these people as One-Night-Stands.

There are people out there with phenomenal networking skills. Networking is really the key to success. They have immense follow-up. They do what they say they’re going to do when they say they’re going to do it. They stay in touch. Those same people may feel very uncomfortable when they walk into a room full of strangers.

Those two skills together, working a room and networking, really are dramatic and they contribute to our personal and professional success.

New Rooms

Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, there are new rooms that we need to appropriately work, appropriately be social in, and behave appropriately in. Each one has a different etiquette. If you are not re-tweeting, letting someone know you appreciated a tweet, responding, engaging, commenting then “you are a lurker, not a worker.”

Twitter is the most fascinating time-suck Susan has ever experienced that does not involve the TV.

In video chats for Skype and Google Hangouts, make sure you look great. Make sure you have the right lighting and that it’s not too dark. It’s different on the camera than it is to your eyes. Look at your office and make sure it looks they way you want it to be seen. When you are doing something face to face remember that you are really in that room with them, so you have to remember the same manners you would have in a real room. It’s still about paying attention and listening. Don’t look at your smartphone while you’re in a Google Hangout.

Teaching

Susan still loves speaking at a to universities and colleges. Sharing these techniques to empower a whole new group of people so they can go to places and meet people and get the first job, or the second or third. Even at high schools; giving kids the tools so they can connect with each other and people they need to know. “I think it’s wonderful.”

“I found that the people who created their own luck[…], they said yes when they wanted to say no.”

Advice

For people that feel uncomfortable going to an event, know that if you come prepared you will feel more comfortable. There are some things you can prepare ahead of time. There’s no reason now, with the internet, that you can’t do some research on the event ahead of time so you’re not walking in cold. Prepare your own self introduction, it should be specific to the event. Susan says her introduction at her chamber of commerce meetings is very different than at a friend’s wedding. Tailor your introduction to give people context for how to talk to you. It’s not the 30 second upchucking of an elevator speech; it’s 7-9 seconds, it’s a pleasantry. Give the benefit of what you do set in an interesting fun way that engages people so they get to ask what it means. Then you are invited to speak more. Only go on a little bit. Stop, look at the other person and say, “How about you?” not, “What do you do?” how about you, it allows them to talk about their passion which could be something different than their job.

How are networking and working the room different?

Working a room, you’re really just socializing. You’re mixing, meeting, greeting, you’re having a lot of little conversations and you’re circulating. It’s a social party. Nobody invites you to hog the time of one other guest.

Networking is very specific in that it’s the follow-up. You can’t network a room. Networking is a mutually beneficial process whereby we change ideas, information, ideas, advice, laughter. The real networking happens over time, it’s a process, it’s not something that happens once at an event. When you are developing a network you are developing a group of people where there is a stronger connection and it is the beginning of building relationships.

“The people who I find with the most success are people that have diverse relationships with people of different ages, different backgrounds, different interests; as well as those who are in your field.”

Icebreakers

Just look at the room/the event you’re going to. That’s what’s happening to everyone, it’s something in common. Susan talks about the food, she talks about how long it took to find a parking space. Look for name tags. If you are at a fundraiser, ask how someone came to support the cause. Say something that’s relevant to the event at hand, because that makes sense. It’s easy, it starts the conversation with small talk and then you can move from there.

Complement a tie, a nice scarf, an interesting necklace. It’s okay to compliment someone as long as it’s sincere. Notice things: pins, ties, jewelry; then you are in an easier conversation.

If you want to have something interesting to talk about make sure you know what’s going on in the world. Get it from a newspaper, online, TV, anywhere. Know what’s going on and you can always talk to other people.

For the Shy

In 1980 about 80% of people considered themselves shy, by 2000 it jumped to 93%. If you think you are shy, know that at least 90% of people in that room also feel shy sometimes. Some of the best networkers are people who used to be shy, but they realized there was a benefit to meeting interesting people. So they approach it as, “Oh my goodness, isn’t this great! I’m going to meet interesting people therefore I’m going to learn new things.” and it’s that attitude that gets them over the shyness.

“Some of the best networkers are people who used to be shy. but they realized there was a benefit to meeting interesting people.”

Susan suggests that if you walk into an event with someone that you don’t stay with them for the whole evening. Decide to split up and talk to other people then come back and introduce people to each other. Even for couples. Don’t stand face-to-face talking to each other; stand side-by-side facing room.

Susan’s Top Tips for a Great Conversation

Number one: Listen. Listen. Listen.

Two: “The banquet of banter is a potluck: what are you bringing to the banquet?” Be sure to bring your favorite stores. Listen to other people’s stories. Susan does this thing where she barrows other people’s stories, you can relate to people with kids even if you don’t have any. If you listen and pay attention to their stories that’s another story you can share to someone that has similar interests.

For conversation it’s listen, participate, don’t be afraid to ask questions, and don’t ask only questions. Share something of yourself.

“Bring who you are to what you do.”

On Success

“Can you look in your own mirror and feel comfortable with the person you are, how you treat people, how you’ve walked around this planet; and what your contribution has been?”

“It’s how you treat people.”

“I have a wonderful network of people around the world that I’ve stayed in touch with that has made me have the most wonderful life.”

“I want to know that when you’ve listened to me that you’ve got something that you can do to make your life just a little bit easier, better, and that to me is success.”

“At a certain point the stuff that we have isn’t as important as the stuff we’re made of.”

Episode 76: Gamification Makes Learning The Golf Swing Fun | Nancy Dunn Kato, Published Author and CEO at SwingPlay.com

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Nancy Dunn-Kato is a very well respected golf instructor, one ot the top junior golf instructors in the country. In our interview she talks about the gamification of teaching the golf swing; how she makes these simple little games to help kids learn the golf swing. There’s a movement in education about gamification, working to make the learning experience more fun and enjoyable.

Nancy Dunn-Kato has been a Certified Class A LPGA Teaching & Club Professional Member since 1989. She has played and taught golf for over 24 years.

Nancy’s company SWINGplay and its concepts are a direct result of her dedicated work with junior golfers and a real, practical, understanding of what works best. SWINGplay’s unique programs are specifically designed to focus the learning needs of young and adult golfers at all levels from beginner to advanced players. The SWINGplay systems and methods reinforce the play in golf – to keep the learning experience fun, positive, and filled with success that grows naturally out of children’s play. Skill and ability grow quickly through the game-play!

Zeb’s Take

It’s obvious that Nancy really understands the golf swing, and how to teach the golf swing. She made a lot of good points; young golfers teaching other young golfers how to play the game and how young kids can teach parents and how valuable that can be and how you can bring the family together.

The thing she talked about that I want to expand on is making the golf swing fun. She talked about breaking it down into little smaller components, and then teaching that in a fun game type of way – gamification. She’s talking about making rainbows, knocking out shark’s teeth, dragons, Leprechauns, shooting spray guns. I’ve actually had a chance to see some of the stuff she is talking about and it’s very cool. I can see how young people can accept and understand it all very quickly because of the way she sets up these little games.

In education, we get so much information from so many different resources. Before the internet, teachers were more on their own. Now, there’s someone like Nancy who creates this killer program about how to teach the golf swing to young kids. She can take that and give that to golf instructors across the country and they can understand. I think this gamification of learning coincides with our social culture and the way that we are able to share knowledge today. It really enhances the learning experience, I think education needs to go that way. Having a teacher that stands in front of a class and lectures is like if Nancy were a golf instructor that stood there and just tells you what you’re doing wrong. Versus, talking about rainbows and dragons, you can imagine the difference that would have on a little child. You can teach the golf swing, just like you can teach anything else, through this gamification process.

What do you think about this gamification process?

Find out more about gamification of the golf swing, Nancy, and SwingPlay

Visit SwingPlay.com or email Nancy at Nancy@SwingPlay.com

Quotes

“It was really frustrating. I never wanted anyone to feel that way. I believed in my heart that I could find a way to make it much more easy for other people.”
“Golf has been made too hard to understand and it doesn’t have to be that way; it could be easier.”
“I love teaching teachers.”
“They’re learning and they don’t even know their learning. That’s the fun part.”
“I really really wanted to create something different.”
“People helping people and using golf as a way to get the community together.”
“I just wanted to make something that makes the world a little better.”

More From the Interview

Nancy got involved in golf in college when a couple cute guys invited her to play at Torrey Pines. She borrowed a pair of clubs that morning and finished the day with a couple pars. When she told her golf buddies it was her first day, they were impressed. She checked out the golf scene and had the idea to become a pro in one year. She found a golf instructor, worked hard and reached her goal in a year and a half. She made several mini tours and was on the top ten list.

After her swing, put a coke can on her pitching wedge and she had to balance it, that was the start of all the games she began creating. It was about finding a way to make it fun after the lesson so she could understand it.

“When we were on the mini tour, none of us could afford golf lessons. So whoever would go get a golf lesson they would come and teach us what they learned.”

She got to train with Derek Hardy, who taught her a lot, she could have gone on and qualified for the tour, but she wanted to get better and shoot under par more often, but that wasn’t happening. She changed her path.

She wanted to become a teacher, so she could understand why the lessons were so confusing. “I would cry in front of Derek Hardy all the time, because I couldn’t understand what he was saying. It was really frustrating. I never wanted anyone to feel that way. I believed in my heart that I could find a way to make it much more easy for other people.”

She joined the LPGA, started as an apprentice, and was able to move up. She was lucky to be able to study under Chuck Hogan. He was part of the LPGA teaching them how to become better teachers. He was all about making things fun, and to do it through games. When she asked him how to be a better teacher, he said don’t just tell people what to do, they need to know why they should do it.

She started on a path where I broke down the whole game.

“It’s just taking old terminologies and making everything easier and something that people can put their thoughts around and understand really quickly and it’s kind of amazing if you can use games or sensory perceptive play, which is what I love to do.”

What is SwingPlay?
She took every part of the game and separated it into modules. Then broke it down into simple understandable sensory perception with a skill game, a sound game or anything with the senses. She uses story telling. With young kids she teaches them how to make rainbows and their club is the paint brush; there’s all kinds of different rainbows for the different golf swings. She is telling them how to make rainbows, but they’re learning about a golf swing.

Kids have hands-on experiences and they become more self aware. They get to experiment all through play and self discovery. The kids have a great time. They’re learning and they don’t even know they’re learning. That’s the fun part.

She says, the educators of the world, they get it. It’s the 21st century of learning; it’s more hands on and discovery, let the people figure it out for themselves.

I’ve had high school kids and college kids help mentor these younger kids with table top projects. These kids get to be mentors and as they are helping the younger kids they are learning too.

What do you enjoy most about teaching golf?
Watching people’s reaction when they get it.

What life lessons and values do you think golf teaches?
Patience, love, respect. One thing about a golf course is, it’s like a park, it’s green and beautiful. Teach them to pick up trash and take care of the golf green. It’s a place where kids can go and be in nature.

Her book, Golf Greenland, is a 4 hour lesson all about putting, through story-telling and games. The fundamentals you learn in putting just go larger as you go up the game.

She wants to find a good home for her program. She’s really excited that Newport Beach YMCA is excited about it. She’d like to see it at more places libraries, schools, and places like restaurants. Maybe even try to standardize golf using everything she has created, make it more fun and get more people involved.

Episode 50: Bring Yourself Into Your Career | 4th Grade Teacher Karen Krupnick

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As a 4th Grade Teacher Karen Krupnick was an excellent teacher who always brought something of herself into the classroom. Her passion for teaching transferred itself to her students and, as a former student myself, know she changed the lives of her students. Learn how you can bring yourself into your career in Episode 50 of the Defining Success Podcast!

Karen Krupnick

Karen Krupnick was my 4^th grade elementary teacher. Karen Krupnick has been a teacher for 40 years and has taught over 1,200 students, including myself. She fostered the creativity of her students by teaching lessons that were outside of the box.

Karen had no idea she was going to be an educator. She graduated college as a French teacher and it took a while before she made a decision to become a teacher. A friend of Karen’s began teaching preschool and Karen decided to give it a try.

Teaching has changed completely from 40 years ago. When she first started, there was a lot of experimentation in the classroom. It was a time when you tried new things and when she left teaching it became a test-oriented environment.

State standards have changed the classroom many times over. The new common core is looking to change the way teaching is done. The one thing Karen enjoyed about teaching was that she was able to bring something of herself into the classroom (bring yourself into your career) and could teach her classroom in creative ways and now that is definitely not encouraged.

When Karen went into teaching most teachers said they went into education because they could share their passion with their students.

One of the most valuable things Karen learned about teaching was the never-ending progression of students. Because of their different gifts, Karen came to appreciate people in a whole different way. She found the uniqueness of the human being to be very interesting.

Karen loved teaching math and she learned many things she could bring to her students and she loved doing integrated units and bringing all subjects into these units.

The Great Race to Nome

The Iditarod is a sled-dog race in Alaska where somewhere around 100 dog-sledders make this long trip along Alaska and it was immediately fascinating to Karen that human beings do this. At the time Karen was first introduced to the race, there wasn’t a lot of stuff out there. Students could calculate averages, do mathematical equations, read on the subject, and communicate with participants in the Iditarod. As a result, Karen created curriculum and wrote a book on the subject which 1,000’s of teachers were using in their classrooms. Recently; however, the state standards have forced administrators to say that this was not important and were discouraging teachers from using it in the classroom.

As technology evolved, students could do live chats with the mushers. And students could also chat with classrooms that were located at checkpoints along the Iditarod trail.

Karen wishes people outside of education understood that the teacher’s job never stops at 3pm. And that they’ll never understand how much time teachers put into their job over the summers. It’s painful as a teacher that so many other professionals diminish the efforts of teachers and it would be nice if they only knew how much time, effort and commitment most teachers put into their job.

Being a member of the team to educate your child is extremely important. Making sure they’re doing their homework and understanding what goes on in your child’s day is very important. Good, quality parenting is always part of the education process.

One of the things Karen missed was picking up her kids at her line in the morning. She loved seeing their energy and feeling their energy and loved questions.

Karen Krupnick

Engaging Discussion Questions:

Should teachers bring a piece of themselves into the classroom?
What do you think is the best way to educate children?

Links to Great Stuff:

Iditarod.com – “It takes so much more than a field of willing mushers and anxious sled dogs to run the Iditarod Trail Race. With an annual budgetof almost two million dollars, the Iditarod Trail Committee depends on a hard working force of volunteers and supporters to raise the necessary money all year around. An annual sweepstakes isheld. Various items are sold at fairs and benefits. Banquets are planned in both Anchorage and Nome. This volunteer force and the loyal supporters from both the private and business sector make the race possible each year.”

Success Quotes:

“Success is being able to get up every morning and be glad that you’re going to your job.”
“If you love where you’re going and what you’re doing than you’re a success.”
“Be yourself and study the things that you love. Don’t choose what you study because of what anybody else tells you.”
“Be yourself. Bring something of yourself into your classroom.”
“A career goes home with you. A job, you leave behind at the office.”
“Good, quality parenting is always part of the education process.”

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Episode 39: Liberating Genius | Angela Maiers from AngelaMaiers.com

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Angela Maiers has a lot of experience teaching students and educators on how to build systems and environments that promote learning and education. She has many educational goals, but one of her favorite is liberating genius. Listen to Episode 39 of the Defining Success Podcast to learn how Angela Maiers is helping to liberate the genius of others.

Angela Maiers

Angela Maiers is a teacher, educator, author and consultant. She has spent the past 22 years working diligently to help learners of all ages succeed by recognizing their powers as readers, writers and global communicators. Whether she’s addressing an auditorium full of educators or sitting on the floor helping first graders find their way through the pages of a good book, Angela’s message is the same – literacy changes lives.

Angela got in education because she knew she was destined to be an educator. She was on the path to become a doctor and was working four different jobs, all of which had to do with children and someone asked her why she didn’t choose education. Angela realized that education was her calling and took up the cause.

She has always been passionate about learning, how the brain works and how to promote learning. It compelled her to never look back and pursue how to help others learns.

Angela’s background was in linguistics, reading and writing and social media was just an extension of that to her. She began blog writing to explore her own writing and eventually began using her blog for educational purposes. She encountered a very passionate online writing community and social media and Twitter have always help her to increase her literacy.

Social media has revolutionized communication and it’s fascinating to see how our world has changed. One thing that Angela suggests is that, for educators, we constantly promote the tools when we should be promoting the people. Social media allows for conversation and discussion on a wide variety of topics and creates new ideas for people moving forward.

By communicating with others on social media tools, you not only get to learn from passionate, highly-qualified educators, but you get to learn with them and that process is a “game-changing” process. When you talk about learning it doesn’t matter how you do it, but once you’re in the communities you don’t really talk about the tools, you talk about the community.

Angela Maiers

Angela Maier’s passion and her main goal in life is liberating genius. It doesn’t matter what room she is in or who she is speaking in front of, Angela works hard to unleash the potential of not just the individuals in the room, but in the room as a whole. Your job is not just to unleash the genius of the individual but to unlock the genius that exists collectively in the room.

Right now we see individuals that are doing amazing things, but are we liberating genius in our collective intelligence, which is the wisdom of the community. The only way you can leverage the collective community is to have someone who can lead the community and we are just on the edge of unleashing this potential.

Several years ago, Angela wrote a book on how to create an innovative, passion-based culture, where she used models like Google, FedEx and 3M, companies that have created a culture of innovation. Many of these companies give their employees the opportunity to work on something they were passionate about for 20% of the time they were at work.

Angela applied this system in the classroom and first began teaching students about passion and learning about a cause, project or subject. Once students began to connect with other communities to focus on learning a topic, she then introduced ways to create collective action in order to make changes for the better. These changes were usually associated with empathy and compassion for the cause.

One question they would ask is “What breaks your heart about that?” And then they would take collective action to fix the problem and change the world. As a result, Angela started a non-profit called Choose to Matter to help change the world. She would then help students use social media to connect with organizations that could help them accomplish their goals.

Twitter is Angela’s favorite tool to get more of the information she needs and she also is able to use it to connect with other people. Twitter has so many different functions for Angela. It’s her news source. Her way to see what’s going on in her industry. Her way to connect with experts, family and friends. And her way to engage others more authentically in her cause.

When kids want to learn something, kids are not necessarily learning in the classroom anymore. They are taking their learning online. One great example of this is NASA, who has created a tool kit which students can go on to learn and get information from NASA on a wide range of topics. Schools that don’t take advantage of these resources than they will become obsolete.

Right now, Angela Maiers is working on a new partnership to provide students with access to real-time information and mentors which will help to inspire the young generations to pursue their dreams. Angela has just solidified a partnership with what she calls living legends to help mentor young students who have made the decision to matter. It’s an exclusive network of four and five-star generals and medal of honor winners and they want to be able to pass their experience and expertise onto the next generation.

Last year, Angela Maiers wrote a book called Habitudes and wanted to share and show that these habitudes matter. There are classrooms all over the country are adopting these habitudes. And this is a common language of habitudes.

Angela feels like every day is a wow day. Being passionate as a learner and having platforms to share her learning out loud has attracted amazing individuals into her room. She’s learning from educators, students, and leaders and every single day is an exciting adventure.

There hasn’t been one day since Angela started working on the web that she hasn’t had a wow moment. For Angela, a wow moment means worthy of the world and it’s when you encounter something that makes you stop and take notice. That is something worth sharing with the world.

One thing that Angela would like to instill upon our listeners is that there is genius everywhere. Every person has some form of genius and as individuals we need to recognize what genius each person possesses and incorporate that into our network and our room to make our communities smarter and better at solving our problems.

According to Angela, if you have a discussion with 5 year olds and ask them if they think they are geniuses and have something to offer to the world, every student raises their hand. Every year past the age of five, the percentage drops dramatically. Every Google employee believes that they are essential because they have used the skill set of their employees and they celebrate those successes. In order to make change, it’s a culture-shift, not a mind-shift.

There are strides and major efforts made to change the dynamics of the current classroom. The idea of being child-centered and the idea that every student needs to learn everything at the same rate are two completely different narratives. Angela thinks we need to shift the conversation and right now the conversation is around standards and directives and it’s changing.

Angela gave a TED Talk back in 2011 on You Matter. And when everyone realizes that they matter, the world changes.

Angela Maiers

Engaging Discussion Questions:

If you went into every interaction and discussion as if you had the potential to change the world how would you act?
Have you had a WOW (Worthy of the World Moment) lately? If so, share it with us.

Links to Great Stuff:

AngelaMaiers.com – “My life path has always been about teaching and communication. My twenty years as an educator and my passionate pursuit of literacy and learning, gave me the healthy dose of courage and skills that have led me through a wonderful variety of experiences, including classroom and University teaching, instructional coaching, research, writing, publishing, corporate training, and starting my own business.”
Google – “Since the beginning, we’ve focused on providing the best user experience possible. Whether we’re designing a new Internet browser or a new tweak to the look of the homepage, we take great care to ensure that they will ultimately serve you, rather than our own internal goal or bottom line.”
FedEx – “FedEx Corporation provides customers and businesses worldwide with a broad portfolio of transportation, e-commerce and business services. With annual revenues of $44 billion, the company offers integrated business applications through operating companies competing collectively and managed collaboratively, under the respected FedEx brand. Consistently ranked among the world’s most admired and trusted employers, FedEx inspires its more than 300,000 team members to remain “absolutely, positively” focused on safety, the highest ethical and professional standards and the needs of their customers and communities.”
3M – “3M is a global innovation company that never stops inventing. Over the years, our innovations have improved daily life for hundreds of millions of people all over the world. We have made driving at night easier, made buildings safer, and made consumer electronics lighter, less energy-intensive and less harmful to the environment. We even helped put a man on the moon. Every day at 3M, one idea always leads to the next, igniting momentum to make progress possible around the world.”
TED Talks – “TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference and TEDGlobal — TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.”
NASA – “NASA’s vision: To reach for new heights and reveal the unknown so that what we do and learn will benefit all humankind.”

Success Quotes:

“Good is the enemy of great.” – Jim Collins
“When you know that what you are doing is what you were meant to do, not what you like to do.”
“Passion and purpose leads you to significance.”
“The greatest fear we have is the fear of insignificance.”
“Success is the intersection of passion and purpose.”
“This is the most extraordinary time in human history to be alive.”
“I am fearless and I am courageous and I am more passionate than I’ve ever been.”
“I have a network that will not let me fail and I have never felt that in the 25 years of teaching.”
“The smartest person in the room, is the room.”
“If you keep putting people first, there is no difference between online and offline interactions.”
“The people who have always led us offline and online have always been readers and writers.”
“The extensions of social media was never a technology thing to me, it was just a natural progression of reading, writing and literacy.”

Special Requests:

Please sign up for the Defining Success Podcast Newsletter for information on upcoming interviews, reminders of previous interviews and updates on the guests we’ve had on the show and Welborn Media.

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

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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

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:

Share The Tutoring Solution’s Share Your Passion Scholarship with any passionate individual in grades K-12 who is willing to share what they are passionate about with others.
Download, review and subscribe to the Defining Success Podcast on iTunes.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter – @DSuccessPodcast.
Sign up for the Defining Success Podcast Newsletter.

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

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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.

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:

Share The Tutoring Solution’s Share Your Passion Scholarship with any passionate individual in grades K-12 who is willing to share what they are passionate about with others.
Download, review and subscribe to the Defining Success Podcast on iTunes.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter – @DSuccessPodcast.
Sign up for the Defining Success Podcast Newsletter.