Posts Tagged ‘active learning’
“Learn to solve problems by expanding your definition of thinking.” ~ Doc Meek
October 23rd, 2011 | 
Author: Sunday, October 23, 1939. Today I was born, and I am so grateful for my mother, who suffered much and long to bring me into the world today. ~ James Collins Meek III 
Sunday, October 23, 2011. Today (my Natal Anniversary!) I am so grateful to be an active learning participant in Paul Scheele’s transformational learning workshop. I wish with all my heart that my wife Jeannette were able to be here with me! ~ Doc Meek
Or access Paul Scheele’s latest book, Drop Into Genius, at:
Or watch Paul discuss his book, Drop Into Genius, on YouTube:
| Paul Scheele introduces his new book, Drop Into Genius. – YouTube | |
| www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nIwRmIc6qIJun 2, 2010 - 3 min - Uploaded by ReclaimYourGenius Paul Scheele, CEO of Scheele Learning Systems, shares an overview of his new book, Drop Into Genius. He explains how … |
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More videos for drop into genius by paul scheele »
Thank you, Paul Scheele, for bringing to all of us greater awareness of the genius within!
Doc Meek, Sunday, October 23, 2011 (my Natal Anniversary), Oakridge Hotel, Chaska, Minnesota, USA, and the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chanhassen, MN, USA
Pond adjacent to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum’s Iris Garden, Chaska, Minnesota.
Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Landscape_Arboretum
P.S. For more information on Paul Scheele’s “Ultimate U Retreat”:
Posted in Learning Difficulties, learning, learning differences, learning solutions, overcoming learning problems | 
Tags: active learning, brilliance, Doc Meek, Drop Into Genius, genius, grateful, learn, Natural Brilliance, Paul Scheele, solve problems, thinking, transformational, transformational learning, transformative, transformative learning, Ultimate U Retreat | 
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“I was in Tonga as a Learning Specialist.” – Doc Meek
Tuesday, September 13, 2011. Today I am so happy and grateful for my good connections with Tongans and the Kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific Islands. ~ Doc Meek, Neurological Learning Specialist
Beautiful Tongan sunset
Tongan sunset image from:
http://photo_artist.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=6231056
Watch a gentle Tongan sunset-time video at this link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKbnBHlUM4M
Lucky me! I got to see the Tongan culture and lifestyle first-hand, and for more than two years, thank heaven!
I was appointed as an Adjunct Professor of Education out of BYU-H (Brigham Young University-Hawaii) in 1999, and sent to the Kingdom of Tonga with my beloved wife Jeannette. Both of us were appointed to participate in the ITEP (International Teacher Education Program) sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The teachers and students and the administrators all worked together to raise the student achievement dramatically.
Way to go Tonga educators!
They helped the students get higher marks and they also helped them change attitudes, behaviors, and cooperation with other students and teachers.
The results? Happier students and healthier students (and wealthier students, wealthy of mind).
They took the meaning of active learning beyond expectations.
And they took my “heads-hearts-hands-hope” inclusivity to a new high.
The Tongans taught me more than I taught them.
Tongans are generous of heart and mind, non-judgmental, and they loved and respected me.
And Tongans loved and respected my wife Jeannette even more.
Naturally! She’s better looking than I am! 
And we loved and respected Tongans.
Forever.
Jeannette was a real hit with the students and their parents. She directed a 150-voice Tongan choir, mostly youth, and learned to appreciate the saying, “When Tongans sing, the angels sing with them.”
Tongans can sing 7-part harmony a capella, with ease and grace.
And they can dance too! Sometimes wildly. Wow!
Jeannette also taught an English class for young adults who had all failed to pass their “big English Test” in high school. Thus their gateway to higher education was closed to them (at least in their minds, and in the minds of their parents).
Permanent “doom.” No hope.
Until Jeannette showed up and pointed out (dramatically):
“I don’t care how others have graded you. I am going to grade you up!”
She added (as some of the students thought this palangi [Caucasian] teacher might give them all an easy “pass”):
“We are going to study and write that exam again; then we are going to study and write that exam again; and then we are going to study and write that exam again!”
The students were stunned.
The thought of writing that dreaded exam again and again was not part of the cultural norm at that time.
If you flunked, you flunked. That was it. You were an “educational failure for life.”
Jeannette faithfully taught a class of 32 students (who came from far and wide when they heard about her famous English class).
Twenty-eight (28) went on to higher education. And the rest carried their newly-found self-confidence into other great opportunities.
We are forever grateful to the first student in Jeannette’s class: Uini, whose dear father asked Jeannette if she would help his daughter with English.
Thank you Tongans for the greatest two years in any land!
A special salute to the parents and teachers and students and administrators in all the Tongan Islands.
And a dozen “high fives” for Mele Taumoepeau, who was Principal of Liahona High School on Tongatapu during my time in the Kingdom of Tonga.
Mele made the hard work sing! Thank you, Mele!
Kindness, Doc
Doc Meek, Tues, September 13, 2011, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA
P.S. My beloved wife Jeannette is now building her new health and wellness business, which is giving new hope and health and wellness to people with heart disease and diabetes:
Posted in Learning Difficulties, learning, learning differences, learning solutions, overcoming learning problems |
Tags: active learning, Brigham Young University-Hawaii, BYU-H, Doc, Doc Meek, expectations, grateful, happier, happier students, head heart hands hope, health, healthier, healthier students, higher, higher education, higher marks, http://www.amiraclemolecule.com/themeekteam, inclusivity, Jeannette, Jeannette Meek, Kingdom of Tonga, learning specialist, Mele Taumoepeau, neurological learning specialist, new high, student achievement, themeekteam@gmail.com, Tonga, wealthier, wealthier students, wellness |
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“Music empowers people with LD.” ~ Pang Hin Yue
Friday, August 26, 2011. Today I am so grateful for those who are inspired to teach those who don’t learn as easily as others. Brian John Lim is such a teacher. ~ Doc Meek
Music to empower people with learning
disabilities [Learning Differences]
By PANG HIN YUE, published in The Star Online, Wed, Aug 24, 2011
Former child prodigy Brian John Yim reaches out to the learning disabled and helps autistic teenager Umar Hasfizal realise his potential as a singer with his debut album.
WHEN he was four years old, Brian John Yim’s father left him and his younger brother with their mother and took everything away except an organ. The very object of his sadness became his source of comfort and inspiration. “The organ was the only connection I had with my dad,” says Yim. With no money for piano lessons but an ear for music, he would listen and play the organ as his mother and grandmother sang along.
By the time he turned eight, his mother, Gan Lee Yong, an insurance agent then, had saved enough money for him to take up piano. He was so good that he leapfrogged to fifth grade. Within two years, he completed the final eighth grade. But the child prodigy wanted more – to pursue a course on Electone (electronic organs produced by Yamaha).
But staying in Mentakab, a small town in Pahang, did not help. “There was no organ teacher in Mentakab,” recalls the 28-year-old. Undeterred, he decided to learn it at a Yamaha school in Kuala Lumpur. So for one year, every Sunday, he would faithfully take a two-hour bus ride on his own to KL to attend a 45-minute lesson and then hop on the next available bus to go back home.
By 12, he passed his Electone exam, an achievement few can boast of.
To make sure he did not lose out academically, Yim poured his heart into his studies – just as he did with music – scoring straight-As. When he wasn’t studying, the brilliant boy could be found performing at social functions in his hometown.
Image and text above from: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2011/8/24/lifefocus/9325519&sec=lifefocus
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Thank you, Brian John Yim, for inspiring us to help those who need help to be successful learning in their own right! Active teaching and active learning are a winning combination!
Doc Meek, Fri, Aug 26, 2011, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA
Posted in Learning Difficulties, learning, learning differences, learning solutions, overcoming learning problems |
Tags: active learning, active teaching, Brian John Yim, disability, docmeek, grateful, inspired to teach, learning disabilities, music empowers learning, Pang Hin Yue, successful learning |
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“Many paths to learning success.” ~ Doc Meek
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 . Today I am grateful for all the educators who strive to reach youth wherever they are, with active learning approaches. ~ Doc Meek
GRACE Nasha Thomas-Schmitt, right, national director of AileyCamp, in Newark.
Alvin Ailey’s Mission Inspires Dance
Camp
By TAMMY LA GORCE, THE NEW YORK TIMES; Published: August 5, 2011
NEWARK
Since then, she has been spending weekdays teaching creative communication to 11- to 14-year-olds as part of AileyCamp, a full-day summer program offered by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and financed, in Newark, entirely by the Prudential Foundation.
Two weeks into the camp, Ms. Amenii, 31, recalled, “I used humor” to counteract uncooperative attitudes. “Then all that hardness starts to fall off,” she said, and the camp’s mission, which is not just to teach dance but also to help campers navigate adolescence, can take center stage.
(Read more about AileyCamp in the P.S. to this post, below.)
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
A student reads her poem in creative communications class. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Thank you, Nehprii Amenii and Alvin Ailey, and hundreds of others who bring to youth healing and hope!
Doc Meek, Wed, Aug 10, 2011, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA
P.S. AileyCamp (continued)
The camp is free to its 96 participants, who were selected after personal interviews this spring from a pool of 250 candidates in Newark public schools. It will end Aug. 12 after a performance on Aug. 10 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, intended mainly for campers’ friends and families.
AileyCamp is new to Newark and to New Jersey. The program was introduced in 1989 in Kansas City, Mo., by the dance company in partnership with the Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey. By 1999, when Nasha Thomas-Schmitt of Maplewood became director of Ailey’s Arts in Education program as well as national director of AileyCamp, it had spread to Manhattan, Chicago and Bridgeport, Conn. During Ms. Thomas-Schmitt’s tenure, camps have been added in Atlanta; Kansas City, Kan.; Berkeley, Calif.; Boston; Chicago; Miami; and now Newark.
“This program is my baby,” Ms. Thomas-Schmitt, 48, a former Alvin Ailey dancer, said during a news media tour of the camp in mid-July. “When we open a camp, we’re looking for a partner that can sustain us. Hopefully this is staying in Newark for a long time.”
Stops along the way in the bustling high school, which was hosting two other summer programs for children at the time, included classes in ballet, jazz, modern dance, West African dance, percussion and personal development.
Seven instructors — all but one have experience teaching other Ailey Arts in Education programs — lead the classes. In West African dance, children traversed the dance floor flailing their arms and stamping their feet to live accompaniment on a djembe drum; in ballet, a pianist played through a series of ports de bras and leaps.
Not only did AileyCamp Newark get financial support from the Prudential Foundation, but it also received help from the high school, which donated its dance-ready spaces and classrooms, and from the performing arts center, which is providing its 514-seat Victoria Theater for the performance.
Despite the absence of professional dancers, that performance is likely to have plenty of Ailey flavor.
“One of the first things we did here is show the kids Ailey history,” said Felicia Swoope, 42, of Brooklyn, the director of the Newark camp. “We showed them videos of Ailey performing and explained the reason why he created the company.”
Alvin Ailey, who died in 1989, founded his troupe in 1958 to promote African-American cultural expression and American modern dance. AileyCamp welcomes children of all races.
Though dance experience is not a prerequisite for campers, several children applied to the program because of their interest in becoming professional dancers. By the end of camp, as many as a dozen may receive scholarships to dance with Ailey’s Junior Division at the Ailey School this fall.
As for the camp, Ms. Swoope said there were no “real criteria for getting in.”
“What we want them to understand most is that Ailey was a remarkable person, but he was also a person just like them,” she said. “He created work from his own experience, and we encourage them to do that also.”
That may be more of a challenge in Newark than at the other AileyCamp sites, Ms. Thomas-Schmitt said. Though it is the camp closest to her home in Maplewood, and the easiest for her to visit, “I was a little nervous when we started here,” she said.
As Ailey’s Arts in Education director, she has led several residencies in Newark’s public schools. “I knew about the negative hardships a lot of these young people are dealing with on a daily basis,” she said. “We don’t have as many daunting situations in other camps.” Those include incarcerated parents and drug-addicted ones, as well as unsafe neighborhoods, she said.
“When we did our interviews for this camp,” Ms. Thomas-Schmitt said, “one of our questions was, ‘If you could change something in your life, what would it be?’ Ninety percent said, ‘Where I live.’ ”
By the end of camp, they may feel differently about that. As part of Ms. Amenii’s creative communication class, campers are taking pictures of their neighborhoods and writing poems about them; the poems will accompany a show of the photographs as part of the performance.
“When I think about them getting up on that stage, how important it makes them feel, it makes me teary-eyed,” Ms. Amenii said. “It will be one of the biggest moments of their lives.”
By mid-July, some campers were already showing signs that the camp had been an enriching experience. “What they want us to remember is that all kids can dance, and no one is special or more important than anyone else,” said Briana Thomas, an 11-year-old from Newark who will enter Newark Early College High School as a sixth-grader in the fall. “I used to catch an attitude, but not so much anymore. It takes two to argue, and I have to think about being responsible for myself.
“I learned that from AileyCamp,” she said.
“The world breaks . . . ” ~ Ernest Hemingway
Tuesday, July 12, 2011. Today I am grateful for the knowledge that obstacles and crushing defeats can be a means of greater strength and character. It’s just that I can’t feel that in my heart right now. Maybe later, eh? ~ Doc Meek
VIDEO: Water breaking on rocks, from YouTube: http://youtu.be/LhZUiIg3uJc
“The world breaks everyone
and afterward
many are stronger in the broken places.”
- Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961); novelist, Nobel Prize winner
Quote from: http://www.values.com
Thank you Ernest Hemingway for your universal insight for all of us!
Doc Meek, Tues, July 12, 2011, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA
Posted in Learning Difficulties, learning, learning differences, learning solutions, overcoming learning problems |
Tags: active learning, brain rules, changing your behavior, changing your mind, Doc Meek, docmeek, Dr J Collins Meek, Dr Meek, Ernest Hemingway, grateful, gratitude, happiness, head heart hands hope, Hemingway, hope, humility, J Collins Meek, J Collins Meek PhD, self-involvement in learning, success, world breaks everyone |
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“A gondola and a taste of Italy.” ~ Doc Meek
Wednesday, July 6, 2011. Today I am happy and grateful that I was able to spend my 17th Wedding Anniversary with my beloved spouse Jeannette. ~ Doc Meek
A gondola and a gondolier
Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice
I didn’t have the money to take my spouse Jeannette to Italy for our 17 Wedding Anniversary, so I rented the Venice Room in the Anniversary Inn in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
We slept in a gondola in the Venice Room at the Anniversary Inn, and that gave us a nice taste of northern Italy. The gondola was anchored to the floor so we didn’t get seasick!
Image from: http://www.anniversaryinn.com/fifth-south/room/7-venice
Doc Meek, Wed, July 6, 2011, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA
Posted in Learning Difficulties, learning, learning differences, learning solutions, overcoming learning problems |
Tags: active learning, brain rules, changing your behavior, changing your mind, Doc Meek, docmeek, Dr J Collins Meek, Dr Meek, grateful, gratitude, happiness, head heart hands hope, hope, humility, J Collins Meek, J Collins Meek PhD, self-involvement in learning, success, Venice, Venice Italy |
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“Learning we are loved, even when we don’t feel it.” ~ Doc Meek
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Posted in Learning Difficulties, learning, learning differences, learning solutions, overcoming learning problems |
Tags: active learning, brain rules, changing your behavior, changing your mind, Doc Meek, docmeek, Dr J Collins Meek, Dr Meek, grateful, gratitude, happiness, head heart hands hope, hope, humility, Ivan Panin, J Collins Meek, J Collins Meek PhD, self-involvement in learning, success, Values.com |
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“Changing from Empty to Emotionally Rewarding Relationships.” ~ Doc Meek
Thursday, June 23, 2011. Today I am grateful for those who have defied personal hopelessness, and learned how to bring dead relationships alive again, and enjoy life. ~ Doc Meek
Image above and text below from: http://www.amazon.com/Love-Languages-Secret-That-Lasts/dp/0802473156/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1308878470&sr=1-1
The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to
Love That Lasts
Gary Chapman (Author)
One Customer Review:
Where’s The Needle On *Your* Love Tank?
How’s your relationship with your mate? Your children? Your parents? Your siblings? It may be a matter of the state of the “love tank”.
Author Gary Chapman in his book The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate believes everyone has a love tank, and that tank is filled by different love languages. These five languages are Gifts,…
Doc Meek, Thurs, June 23, 2011, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA
Posted in Learning Difficulties, learning, learning differences, learning solutions, overcoming learning problems |
Tags: 5 Love Languages, active learning, brain rules, changing your behavior, changing your mind, Doc Meek, docmeek, Dr Gary Chapman, Dr J Collins Meek, Dr Meek, grateful, gratitude, happiness, head heart hands hope, hope, humility, J Collins Meek, J Collins Meek PhD, rewarding relationships, secret to lasting relationships, self-involvement in learning, success |
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“Girls think boys . . . ” ~ Reader’s Digest
Tuesday, June 21, 2011. Today I am grateful for common sense. ~ Doc Meek
Image from:
http://www.greatnotions.com/pr/embroidery/Machine+Embroidery+Designs/1/14870.aspx
It must have been 60 years ago (at least) that I read in the Reader’s Digest one of those famous one-liners that I love so dearly:
“Girls think boys are rude and uncouth when they stare at what they are trying so hard to display.”
The other day I read an article in the daily newspaper wherein a woman was decrying a policeman’s warning women that it was in their best interests not to dress like “sluts” because it gives the wrong kind of message to men.
Since this was after a rape horror story, the woman was upset that the policeman seemed to be blaming the victim for her rape, that the policeman should have been blaming the rapist.
Never Blame the Victim
Of course we should never blame the victim of any kind of crime. Never.
Something is missing here however in the public dialogue on serious criminal matters.
If women go into dark alleys at night alone, if they hitchhike, if they wear really provocative clothing, they will generally, sooner or later, come to unwanted grief of some kind, minor or serious. Or really serious.
Of course women have the right to go anywhere they want, behave any way they wish, and wear anything they please.
And be safe.
However, they do need to use their common sense. They need to notice that we are living in a society where it is unsafe (generally speaking) for women to advertise their defenselessness or their sexual assets.
Women Should Rebel
Women should rebel. Yes, they should rebel against a fashion industry that puts incredible pressure on women to display themselves purely as sexual beings, instead of displaying themselves as good personalities or intelligent beings.
We are all sexual beings. To display this as a front-runner is simply unwise if sexual safety is desired.
This does not, in any way, excuse rape or rapists! Nor does it excuse any kind of sexual predators or “unwanted-remarks” from men!
It is just common sense to dress modestly and display your intelligence instead!
Doc Meek, Tues, June 21, 2011, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA
Posted in Learning Difficulties, learning, learning differences, learning solutions, overcoming learning problems |
Tags: active learning, brain rules, changing your behavior, changing your mind, Doc Meek, docmeek, Dr J Collins Meek, Dr Meek, girls think boys are rude, grateful, gratitude, happiness, head heart hands hope, hope, humility, J Collins Meek, J Collins Meek PhD, Reader's Digest, self-involvement in learning, success |
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“Learn When to Reverse The Golden Rule.” ~ Doc Meek
Saturday, June 18, 2011. Today I am grateful for people who are able to treat others as they themselves would like to be treated. ~ Doc Meek
“The Golden Rule” in 5 different philosophies/religions
Image from: http://photobucket.com/images/%22golden%20rule%22/#!cpZZ2QQtppZZ24
As a general rule, The Golden Rule is a great yardstick for our behavior and our mental/emotional health.
However, in the specific case of a specific individual, we need to remember that our particular “language” of receiving what we want may not be the same “language” that the other person recognizes.
Here is a simple example:
I, Doc Meek, love books and reading. Applying The Golden Rule as a general rule, I would want to make sure that others had access to books and reading. I might even buy a book and give it to someone.
Here’s the catch.
And here’s why we need to learn when to reverse The Golden Rule.
What if the other person hates books and reading? And loves action-oriented things, with which I am miserably unacquainted.
I probably wouldn’t even think of action-oriented things!
So in this case, I would have to try to see the world through the other person’s eyes, to try to treat him/her as they would want to be treated, not how I would want to be treated.
Reversing The Golden Rule
Reversing The Golden Rule (by saying, “Do unto others what they like, not what I like,” or something like that. ), I would give the other person a pair of skates or a hockey stick, say, or a basketball, or a baseball, or a kite.
Or a tree to climb.
I would give the other person whatever action-oriented item that I knew (or could find out from his/her friend) would “warm the cockles of their heart.” I would definitely not give them “some dumb book!”
Lesson learned?
Doc Meek, Sat, June 18, 2011, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA
P.S. Here is a reminder that “The Golden Rule” is present in more religions/philosophies than just the 5 shown above:
Click on image to enlarge
“The Golden Rule” in 13 different philosophies/religions
Image from: http://photobucket.com/images/%22golden%20rule%22/#!cpZZ2QQtppZZ24
Posted in Learning Difficulties, learning, learning differences, learning solutions, overcoming learning problems |
Tags: active learning, brain rules, changing your behavior, changing your mind, Doc Meek, docmeek, Dr J Collins Meek, Dr Meek, grateful, gratitude, happiness, head heart hands hope, hope, humility, J Collins Meek, J Collins Meek PhD, self-involvement in learning, success, The Golden Rule |
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