Quantum Learning® 

April 2008 - Posts

• Facilitator Training Program a Big Success

  by Steve Arrowood We just completed our Essential Elements training program for facilitators of our Quantum Learning for Teacher programs. It was a fabulous weekend in Oceanside! In attendance were 25 Quantum Learning facilitators who lead these programs for teachers and school faculty. Essential Elements was all about working on the most essential skills that a facilitator needs to create masterful training programs. I hoped it would be a good training based on the facilitators attending and the staff running the event, but I am always cautious about proclaiming "success" at a training program until it is over. So we worked the process hard. The facilitators responded by showing up with a ferocious tenacity to learn and challenge themselves. Throughout it all, there was an excitement that only comes from a group of self-motivated people with a strong commitment to work on a passionate mission. When the dust had settled and the weekend was done, there were shares from the group about a stronger sense of alignment and purpose, and understanding of both our big picture and new fine points in the curriculum and how to implement it. As one participant said, "This was exactly what I needed to make a jump to my next level." If you are interested in training to become a QL teacher or facilitator, a great place to start is with our Quantum Learning for Teachers Public Workshops this summer. We will hold two five-day teacher workshops at the QLN Campus in Oceanside, California this summer; one in June and one in July. Posted Apr 29 2008, 06:14 PM by admin - Leave a Comment Filed under: Teacher Support

• Bobbi DePorter Interviewed On FOX News

  The value of academic summer camps was the subject of a FOX News interview this morning with Quantum Learning Network president, Bobbi DePorter. The interview, carried by FOX6 in San Diego, addressed education budget cuts in California and how parents are turning to academic summer camps such as SuperCamp to augment their children’s learning needs. In the interview, Bobbi explained that SuperCamp develops the whole person over the course of the 10-day program. She said that the greatest takeaway for most SuperCamp graduates was their greater sense of self, an awareness of their capability to accomplish anything they put their minds to, combined with increased confidence and motivation. This outcome is the result of SuperCamp’s carefully orchestrated sun-up to lights out Quantum Learning methodology. The full interview can be viewed at the FOX6 website. Posted Apr 23 2008, 11:25 PM by admin - Leave a Comment Filed under: News Release

• Bobbi DePorter to Interview a Child Prodigy

  Quantum Learning and SuperCamp are committed to unleashing the genius in all of us. Please join QLN president, Bobbi DePorter, next Tuesday, April 22nd, when she has the opportunity to interview an amazing child prodigy whose genius was unleashed at the age of four. Akiane Kramarick, now 13, is considered to be among the most accomplished artists in the world. Fox News said, “She is a genius and a spiritual young lady with an amazing gift who is changing the lives of all who have come in contact with her.” To get a preview of her life and her work, go to www.artakiane.com. You will be both amazed and inspired. After viewing, we know you’ll be sure to be on this call! To reserve your space on this Healthy Wealthy -nWise teleconference where you’ll hear Bobbi’s interview with Akiane, click on the following link: http://www.healthywealthynwise.com/cmd.asp?Clk=2321988 You’ll hear Akiane talk about: How she found the source of her creativity Why she is moved to share it with the world Her own inspirational moments How she writes her poems and why Akiane is considered the only known child binary genius in both realist painting and poetry. She has appeared on many television shows, including Oprah, World News Tonight and Good Morning America, discussing her art and poetry. She is a best-selling author of two books: Akiane: Her Life, Her Art, Her Poetry and My Dream is Bigger than I – Memories of Tomorrow. Akiane wants to be an inspiration for others … she wants people to find hope in her paintings. Akiane knows the importance of listening and having moments of quiet. When we recognize that this moment is it, we’re open to the gifts it has to offer. Please spend this moment next Tuesday with Akiane and Bobbi. Posted Apr 18 2008, 11:44 PM by admin - Leave a Comment

• THIS IS IT! - LIVE IN THE NOW

  Continuing on with our 8 Keys of Excellence, the next one is THIS IS IT! Make the Most of Every Moment Each moment, each task, counts. The amount of attention you pay to now determines the quality of your tomorrow. This is IT! means focusing your attention on the present and giving each task your best effort. Making the most of each moment can make each day exciting, productive and fulfilling, but it takes some effort. Life is full of distractions. When they come, sweep them away and jump back into the present moment with a This is IT! attitude. When you have this attitude, you make the present IT—and you often discover joyful moments you missed before. Don’t miss "the best time of your life" A friend of mine told me she used to have trouble living in the now. She was always focused on what was down the road or around the corner. When she was in college, she couldn’t wait to graduate and tackle the “real world.” When she was starting her career, she couldn’t stop obsessing about getting married and starting her family. Then when the kids came, she was forever daydreaming about life after runny noses and Little League games. Her kids couldn’t grow up quick enough to suit her. Then one day she was standing in line at the grocery store thinking about some future plan and nearly oblivious to her two grade-school children bantering cutely beside her. She half noticed an elderly woman standing in line behind them, smiling at the children’s antics. As my friend finished checking out, the elderly woman stepped toward her and, with a twinkle in her eye, whispered, “You know this is the best time of your life, don’t you?” My friend felt a tug at her heart. She knew she’d been told something valuable. She thought, “My kids are with me now, but they won’t always be. I'm wishing away these wonderful years—some are already gone and I’ll never get them back.” Are you like my friend, always looking toward next week, next month, or next year—and while you're looking ahead, letting the present moment slip away unnoticed? We all struggle with this tendency. We get bored, distracted, anxious. We fall victim to the “grass is greener” syndrome, thinking what’s coming has to be better than what’s here. We’re always looking ahead for something more exciting. But when we do this, we pay a price. We miss out on the only part of our lives where we can actually make a difference, the only part of our lives where we actually live—now, this moment. Each moment contains magical opportunities The only moment that counts is the one that’s already in your hands. This is it! When you’re fully engaged in the now, life is more exciting and fulfilling. You’ll enjoy what you’re doing more—when you put more into each task you'll get more out of it, and others will, too. Every moment presents a chance that may never come again, whether it’s an opportunity to praise, apologize, say thank you, make a friend, or make a difference. These little magical opportunities can come and go in a twinkling. You’ll miss most of them if you’re not living in the moment. And sometimes, when you take your focus off the future and put it back onto the present, you’ll find that the things you were daydreaming about are not in some far-off other time, but right there under your nose. When you recognize that this moment is IT, you’re open to the gifts it has to offer. Some of the best memories I have are about being fully present in simple moments. Eating lemon meringue pie with my dad and talking about how airplanes fly. Telling stories with my grandkids in their hideout under the basement stairs. Watching orchid blossoms open with my husband, Joe. Little moments contain great magic. Focus on the NOW, and you’ll seize opportunities to learn, love, connect, and transform. Affirmations for THIS IS IT! — Live in the Now: I'm focused on my goals and objectives. I make every moment count. I acknowledge and accept where I am in good and bad times. "Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry—all forms of fear—are caused by too much future and not enough present." —Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now   Posted Apr 15 2008, 08:12 PM by admin - Leave a Comment

• SPEAK WITH GOOD PURPOSE

  Speak With Good Purpose Speaking with good purpose, our third Key of Excellence is about giving positive, honest and direct communication Words have the power to build people up and bring them down. They can uplift and enlighten, or depress and destroy. You have complete control over the words you use, so choose them carefully. The first step is awareness. Think before you speak. Focus on communicating positives: strengths, praise, encouragement. Handle negatives carefully. Your intention is a powerful tool. Why Speak with Good Purpose? Communication is the bridge between people—it’s the glue that holds all relationships together. It’s what forms the link between husband and wife, between parent and child, between teacher and student, between friends, siblings, partners, and co-workers. Your relationships thrive or wither depending on the quality of the communication that serves them. Speaking with good purpose can be a challenge—it takes courage, effort, and practice. But when you master this skill the quality of your relationships will change and you'll find the satisfaction of deep, meaningful connections with others that may have eluded you before. Words are powerful. They can build or destroy. A few cutting words, let loose in a moment of anger, can wound someone for a lifetime. Remember when your best friend in high school said you had a “retarded smile,” or when your teacher discouraged your progress in math ability with “you’re no good at numbers”? I remember to this day the pain I felt hearing my mother snickering to her friend in the stands at the ice skating rink while watching me flounder. Hurtful comments can stay with us a long time. Words matter. I don’t know who came up with that phrase about “sticks and stones,” but they were wrong. Words can hurt. They can also heal. What you say has an impact. On the other hand, there are times when a few kind words make all the difference. Have you ever had someone whisper, “I believe you can do it,” just when you needed to hear it the most? Catch yourself—why was I going to say that? How can you make sure you’re speaking with good purpose? How do you make it happen? How do you direct your speech to forge strong bonds and create safe environments? We begin by thinking about our words... we think before we speak. Ask yourself, “Am I going to say something useful right now? Will my words be encouraging or damaging?” Positive communication is a habit. It’s a matter of training yourself to monitor your thoughts before they become speech. With practice, you’ll learn to focus on giving words to positive thoughts, to recognizing people’s strengths, and to offering praise and encouragement.> Don't stop expressing negative thoughts, just be careful with them We don't have to avoid expressing negative thoughts, feelings, and experiences, but it's best to recognize them for what they are and decide whether or not we need to say them. Treat a negative thought like a wasp that gets into the house. Don’t overreact; don’t throw lots of energy at it. Simply think, “Okay, what am I going to do about that?” If it’s simply a random unpleasant thought—you don’t like a person’s whiny tone or wish another person wasn’t so pushy—acknowledge the thought and let it go. Choose not to give it the power of spoken words. But if it’s something that needs resolution, you may need to express it. Handle these times carefully. Think about the intention of your words. Are they meant to support the person and build a stronger relationship? Are they focused on finding a solution? Speaking honestly—without the masks of sarcasm, condescension, or disdain— requires you to state your true thoughts and feelings, even if they’re not pretty, even when they’re not what the other person wants to hear. Honest speech is about revealing the true you. The power of Speaking with Good Purpose Speaking with good purpose allows us to harness the awesome power of our words. When we speak positively, honestly, and directly, with the goal of keeping relationships strong, words cease to be a random force and begin to show their positive power in our relationships and in our lives. In our teen summer camps at SuperCamp, we delve into this point because all teens have experienced the opposite side of this key: hurtful words directed at them or delivered by them.< Affirmations for SPEAK WITH GOOD PURPOSE: I speak with good intent—no swearing, put-downs or gossip. I am honest and direct. I walk my talk. "The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives." -Anthony Robbins Posted Apr 03 2008, 04:02 PM by admin - Leave a Comment Filed under: 8 Keys of Excellence

• Failure Leads To Success

  The second of Quantum Learning's 8 Keys of Excellence is "Failure Leads To Success." At SuperCamp, we tell campers that our failures provide us with valuable gifts—they give us the information we need to learn so that we can succeed next time. The only path to success is stepping out of your comfort zone and being willing to risk. What keeps us from taking risks? It’s the view that failure is a negative and the fear that failing will cause us shame and guilt. How would you act if you knew that failure is virtually your only path to success? We know this because nearly all successful people failed a lot. But they learned, tried a new way, and went on to succeed. Think about the meaning of "failure" If I say the word “failure,” what emotion does it evoke in you? Guilt? Shame? Inadequacy? Not a pretty picture. Failure is the label we stick on unsuccessful ventures. It’s practically synonymous with incompetence. The word alone brings up feelings of shame and humiliation. When we fail, we automatically send ourselves bad messages. We discourage ourselves from trying again, because if we try we risk another failure. It’s true that when you give up trying, you don’t have to face failure anymore. But you’ll have close to zero chance of achieving success. In order to really succeed, you’ve got to be willing to fall on your face a few times. You didn’t start out being afraid of failing or hating to fail. When you were tiny, failure didn’t weigh you down with emotional sludge. When you failed as a toddler learning to walk, you had a good cry then you stood up, dusted yourself off, and kept on going. But somewhere along the way you learned that trying and not succeeding was bad. That it meant trying was bad. That it meant you were bad. Your failures by themselves aren’t so terrible, for the most part. It’s how you think about them that gives them the power to shut you down. When you fail, you experience two types of consequences: internal and external. The external consequences are what happen in the world as a result of your failure. The internal consequences are what happen inside you: the emotional impact of your failure. That math exam you botched your sophomore year? The external consequences were a bad grade and maybe a stern lecture from your parents. The internal consequences were those persistent little demons that whispered, “You’re no good at math. You’re too stupid to do this.” The bad grade came and went—the little voices stayed. Because our society views failure in a negative way, we learn to avoid trying new things. Instead of risking failure, we fall back into the comfort zone of the familiar, the tried and true. In order to avoid humiliation, we let fabulous opportunities pass us by. But if you’re going to harness the power that lies within your failures, you’ll have to change the way you think about them. Learn to see them for the gifts they are. Failure is not just one possible path, it’s practically the only path to success. It’s necessary. It’s required. You can’t succeed without learning. And in order to learn, you have to risk failure. Learning doesn’t happen in an atmosphere of fear. Why not? Because fear shuts down the experimentation process. People don’t take risks when they’re afraid. They won’t try something new. And what is learning if not trying new things? You can’t succeed if you can’t grow. You can’t grow if you can’t learn. You can’t learn if you can’t fail.   Of course, there’s a huge difference between appropriate and inappropriate risk. Not all risks are of equal value; not all risks are worth taking. Deciding the value of a risk is a skill like any other. Weigh the rewards of each risk against its potential outcomes, and look at the circumstances in terms of its impact on your inner vision. Treat Failure as a Learning Process You have to risk failure in order to learn anything. Whether you fail or not, risk-taking alone is a powerful learning tool. But the actual experience of failing is the fastest way to learn. Failure vastly improves your odds of success, particularly in the long run, because it tells you what to do—and what not to do—next. When you diagnose your failures and figure out where you went wrong, you’re teaching yourself, literally by trial and error, how to go right. Failing is a great way to learn and grow. Mobilize Your Failures: Turn Defeat into Victory Treat your failures as gifts. Whenever you fail, the universe has just handed you a piece of wisdom. Don’t let it go to waste. Mine it for all it’s worth. Ask yourself: What happened? What did I learn? What will I do differently next time? “Life is a series of outcomes,” says Simone Carruthers, psychologist and business consultant. “Sometimes the outcome is what you want. Great. Figure out what you did right. Sometimes the outcome is what you don’t want. Great. Figure out what you did so you don’t do it again.” The only time you’ve really failed is when you fail to learn from your mistakes. The only real failure is not learning from your mistakes. Ask yourself: What have I learned from this experience? What value can I find in it? What will I do differently next time? Affirmations for FAILURE LEADS TO SUCCESS: I’m not afraid to make mistakes. When I make them, I take the time to learn from them. I believe failures are opportunities for growth. “Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” -Henry Ford Posted Apr 03 2008, 03:46 PM by admin - Leave a Comment Filed under: 8 Keys of Excellence