Monthly Archive for November, 2009

Nov 21 2009

Art Supply Pep Talk

lbrainartsupplies

Today I got to meet Leah Piken Kolidas! Leah is an artist who sells her fabulous work online, coordinates the Creative Everyday Challenge, blogs, and a bunch of other cool stuff.

She and I know each other from twitter, but we live on opposite sides of the country. When I realized I would be travelling to Boston to attend the Learning and the Brain conference, I contacted Leah immediately. This morning after a fun breakfast  sharing stories, Leah took me to an art store to give me an art supply pep talk.

See, I’m intimidated. By art supplies especially. A quick walk around an art store by myself and I usually turn into gooey, disempowered mush. “Look at all this cool stuff that I don’t know how to use,” I think to myself. “I’m probably not artistic enough to use any of it anyway.”

Under the tutelage of sweet, supportive, fun Leah, though, I was confident. Happy even. The main message I got from Leah is this: even the best artists play around. They buy supplies they don’t know how to use. They experiment and get messy. They learn what they like and don’t like.

Oooooooooh. You mean, I’m not supposed to have it all figured out already? I can simply play around, notice what I enjoy, and go from there?! Huh.

So thanks, Leah, for the encouragement. And for being juicy, experimental, messy you. Inspired by your inkblots I created my own.

lbraininkblotTo me it looks like two birds kissing from afar.But I got too scared to try and draw beaks and feathers and eyes. So I just wrote words instead. I like how the words look like a heart.

Filed Under Creativity & Edges | 3 Comments
Nov 19 2009

Organization 101 for Teens: The Mothership

MotherShip

Have you seen how much paper teenagers these days have to process? Way more than I ever did in high school, that’s for sure.

A trick I learned from my academic coaching mentor Beth Samuelson is the Mothership, a filing system that transfers all relevant papers out of binders and into a safe spot at home. In this case “relevant” refers to any papers that will help a teen study for his or her — Gasp! Noooooo! — final exams.

Motherships come in all shapes and sizes. Today my client Alice brought in hers — all hail the mighty accordion binder! — and we cleaned out more than half of the papers in her binder. What a load off! Here’s what we did:

MotherShipSort STEP 1: Sort.

First, Alice goes through her big binder and pulls out anything she wants to save. This includes tests, study guides, and other graded work. She makes a pile for each of her classes.
MotherShipRecycle STEP 2: Recycle.

Alice recycles anything that she doesn’t need any more. Check out how full this recycling bin is getting!
MotherShipTestStudyGuide STEP 3: Staple.

Alice staples all her study guides to her tests, so she’s all set for final exams studying (two months early, in fact!).
MotherShipAccordion STEP 4: File.

Alice files them all in her new accordion folder. Notice the two sets of tabs. This was Alice’s choice: she decided she wanted to a row for any graded work that needs to be saved but won’t necessarily help her study for exams. The second row is where she’s keeping all study materials, like old tests and study guides.

As Alice left the Learning Center, her backpack was lighter and so was her step. That sounds dramatic, but it’s also true! It actually feels good to be organized! Next time we meet, Alice and I will talk about building her Mothership filing into her regular routine. Next time, it should take 5 minutes to organize her papers, not 40.

Do you have any experience with the Mothership concept? If so, please comment! I’d love to hear.

Filed Under Academic Coaching | no comments
Nov 17 2009

Academic Coaching Where You Least Expect It

kwikemart

On the way home from InterPlay San Francisco, I swerved into the local convenience store parking lot,  Ben & Jerry’s calling my name.

The cashier was puzzling over a photocopied handout.

“Whatcha readin’?” I asked, as I handed him my icy cold pint of Banana Split.

Sad eyes greeted me. “Just something for English class. I hate English. I don’t speak it well. I don’t read it well. I don’t even want to graduate anymore.”

My heart went out to this big, burly Asian guy. Lucky for him, I’m an academic coach with a penchant for meddling. And encouraging.

“Your English is great! I understand you perfectly,” I reassured.

A darker shadow crossed his face. “Tell that to my roommates. They complain they can’t hear what I have to say. I guess I talk too rough, they say. Like I’m mean. I know I should be more gentle, but I just don’t know how!”

He went on to explain that he’s 37 years old and going back to school. This prerequisite class feels hard and useless.

Turns out that the reading in question was a Langston Hughes story. “What you need to do, ” I finally suggested, “is figure out what you have in common with the characters. Then maybe you’ll know what to write. What’s the story about?”

“A guy who keeps on trying to be friends with folks, but then can’t find ways to connect with them.”

My eyes lit up. “But that’s exactly your problem with your roommates! You’re trying to communicate to them, but for some reason you can’t. You feel stuck! Just like the character in this story.”

“That’s true,” he said incredulously, as another customer approached the counter. “I can write about that?!”

“Sure,” I replied as I hustled out the door. “Compare and contrast your stuckness to the character’s stuckness. You’ll do great.”

Who knows whether this convenience store clerk will take my advice when he writes this paper. But I saw hope in his eyes when I left, and hope counts for a lot. Tomorrow night I might just have to buy another pint, just to check in and see how the paper is going.

Filed Under Academic Coaching | 5 Comments
Nov 16 2009

MuseCubes & the Right-Brain Business Plan

RBBPCubes

“I want me some of THAT!” was my reaction when Jennifer Lee showed me her business plan –  a hand-made, collage-covered 3″x5″ accordion book all about Jenn’s business Artizen Coaching. That was a year ago.

This weekend I finally GOT me some of that, by attending Jenn’s workshop on The Right-Brain Business Plan. She provided all the art supplies, and led us seamlessly through visualizing, brainstorming, and collaging, and now I have the beginnings of my very own fancy-schmancy business plan. (Still need to add a lot to the plan, but how great to have the draft!)

RBBPdraft The picture above is a close up of one of my favorite pages on the plan. There’s a woman with wings, and a hot air balloon flying high over a map.  Over the next month I’ll be adding words and numbers so that the creative vision is bolstered by a practical plan.  I’ll blog about it here so you can watch the businesses unfold — quite literally! Stay tuned for more info about how I plan to grow academic coaching and the MuseCubes.

Speaking of MuseCubes, did you notice them in the pictures? What a joy and an honor to have Jenn infuse “MuseCube Moments” into the workshop. Jenn sensed when the rest of us were hyper focused on our art-making and needed a little shaking up.  She rolled the cubes and got the entire group bouncing and howling, twisting and groaning.  Although I originally invented the Cubes for individuals, they’re clearly a perfect tool for groups too.

In fact, do you know any group facilitators who’d love a new tool to get their groups to shake things out? They make an inexpensive yet unique (and practical!) holiday gift! Order sets at  www.MuseCubes.com.

Filed Under MuseCubes | 4 Comments