Category: education

education, food, health, learning

Beautiful: You Are What You Eat

Christa Avampato

logoA few weeks ago I started taking a nutrition course. The Fundamentals of Nutrition is offered by Coursera and is a wonderful example of a Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC. It is taught by Dr. Kristina von Castel-Roberts from the University of Florida. I decided to take the class because I really want to improve my eating habits even further this year.

One of our first assignments involved using Supertracker, an online tool from the USDA that helps you track your food intake, physical activity, and other health-based metrics. I’ve never actually kept a food diary and the psychology behind this activity is fascinating. I have a strong sweet tooth. A very strong sweet tooth. Yesterday I was at a breakfast meeting with all of my favorite goodies – muffins, pastries, donuts, and fruit. Usually I would gobble down anything and everything that looked appealing. Now that I have to commit my food intake in writing and actually see its nutritional content, I held back. I had one very small pastry and loaded up on fruit.

If we really want to achieve a goal, charting our progress toward it in writing is one of the most useful motivators. Write it down!

books, children, education, job, science, technology

Beautiful: 2 Books from No Starch Press that Make Coding Fun for Kids (and Adults Too!)

Christa Avampato

STEM learning. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. It’s one of the hottest topics in education today and for good reason. “According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be 1.2 million job openings for computer science graduates by 2018, but current U.S. graduation rates will provide qualified workers for only one-third of those positions,” says Edie Fraser of the Huffington Post. No Starch Press is doing its part to turn that trend around with the release of 2 new books aimed at teaching kids to code.

Python for Kids: A Playful Introduction to Programming (Ages 10+) and Super Scratch Programming Adventure! (Ages 8+) are kid-friendly, carefully crafted, and eminently entertaining. They take the complex art and science of coding and turn its mastery into a game. These books break down coding into bite-sized, step-by-step lessons in a language that is easily understood by those who are not familiar with coding.

Known for its ease of use for beginning coders, Python is a powerful programming language. It’s remarkably easy to read and write when compared to other programming languages. It is free to install on all basic operating systems. Python for Kids will help your little one builds graphics and games, giving them the satisfaction of seeing their work come to life.

Scratch is a programming language created by MIT Media Lab to build video games. It is also free to install on all basic operating systems. Each chapter of Super Scratch Programming Adevnture! helps kids to design and build increasingly complex video games while teaching them the basic principles of coding.

Best of all, these books are not only valuable for kids, but also for adults who are interested in learning how to code. In my own pursuit to understand programming on a deeper level, I have started to work through them myself. Whether you just want to know a little bit more about coding or have an interest in developing a deep knowledge in the subject, these books are the perfect place to begin your journey into the wide and wonderful world of code.

Increasingly, writing code is becoming a necessary job skill and we would all do well to at least deepen our appreciation of what it takes to build the websites and applications that we access on a daily basis. Who knows? Learning to code may just make you the most valuable person around the office or it may prompt you to take your career in a completely new direction. One thing’s for sure – coders are in high demand and will only become more so as our appetite for ever-more sophisticated tech products and services continues to grow. You might as well join them and these books give you the perfect jumping off point to get yourself in the game.

books, children, education, learning, technology

Beautiful: I’ve Joined the Advisory Board of Jumping Pages

Christa Avampato

3294658_300To continue my 2013 new years resolution to make beautiful things, I am thrilled to announce that I have joined the Advisory Board of Jumping Pages. Created by Rania Ajami, Jumping Pages brings classic and modern-day children’s stories to life through tablet apps. The artistry, music, and storytelling are stunning, and a portion of the proceeds of every sale is donated to charities that help kids in need. As someone who loves children, books, and technology and is dedicated to supporting good causes, I couldn’t be happier to take up this new opportunity that combines all of these passions!

Working with Jumping Pages also fuels another resolution I made last year. Inspired by David Kelley‘s decision to forgo a corporate job because he “wanted to work with [his] friends”, I have been looking for opportunities to do the same. John Casey, Director of Marketing for Jumping Pages, has been my dear friend since our days together at Toys R Us. When he started his own PR agency a few years ago, he inspired my own leap to work for myself through Chasing Down the Muse, my creative consulting practice. Being on the Advisory Board for Jumping Pages gives me an opportunity to work closely with John again – another career dream realized.

Jumping Pages has a number of exciting projects in the works and I’ll announce all new launches on this blog once they’re available for purchase. In the meantime, I hope you’ll visit the website and learn more about this amazing brand that brings reading to life.

adventure, art, creative, creativity, education, health, healthcare

Leap: We All Have to Get High Somehow

Christa Avampato
My friend, Blair, posted this picture on her Facebook wall and it perfectly sums up how I feel about getting more creative outlets to more young people.

“Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” ~ Twyla Tharp

We all want to be high. Once we feed the soul, once we know that feeling of being truly alive, we will crave it more and more often. The happy soul is a hungry beast, and eventually it will require your full attention.

It is heartbreaking to see someone, especially a young person, turn to chemical means for that high. My dad suffered with addiction for most of his life, and our family felt those effects in dramatic and tragic ways. What helped me come to terms with my father’s decisions was to feel that high – after running, yoga, writing, or creating a piece of art. It is a delicious feeling. My father didn’t have those outlets so he turned to other means. The same thing is happening with so many Americans today, particularly those still making their way through school.

We ask young people to say no to drugs, alcohol, and other habits that will eventually destroy their health, but we don’t do a sufficient job of recognizing the need to feel that high. We strip schools of art and music programs. We cut physical education. We prioritize testing over emotional and mental development. We’re creating a generation of very good test takers but we are doing a poor job of helping our young generations grow into healthy, happy, productive, and creative adults.

We need to do better. Is art the answer? For some, yes. Is physical activity the answer? For some, yes. Is a creative outlet of some kind that is supported, encouraged, and celebrated by society the answer. Yes, for all of us.

education, productivity, technology

Leap: Me and My New iPad – It Had Me at “Tap”

Christa Avampato
Phineas and iPad, both in sleep mode

Finally, I am the proud and more-productive-than-ever owner of an iPad. I fell in love at first tap.

Why did I wait so long?
Contrary to my tech loving nature and my job as a product developer (sometimes of mobile products), I am not an early adopter for 2 reasons:

1.) I never buy into hype because whatever device of the moment that is being hocked by a mass amount of people usually disappoints

2.) I’m frugal (read: cheap). If I’m going to spend my hard earned cash on something, it’s going to be worthwhile, something I love, and the very best deal I can get.

So why did I take the plunge now?
Like most big purchases, this was one that I thought through carefully, meaning I put it through my OCD checklist lovingly entitled, “Christa, why the hell do you think you need to buy this?”After several rounds of this sport, I made the sound and measured decision that this iPad is a fantastic investment for me personally and professionally for wide variety of reasons:

1.) My sister, Weez, teases me that if I could find a way to get paid a good salary to be a student forever, I would likely never leave a college library. Bingo! It’s my lifelong dream to be in school as much as possible. Learning is my addiction. Unfortunately, I haven’t cracked the nut yet on professional studenthood, but the iPad is getting me part of the way there. From Anatomy to Italian to painting to piano, there’s an app or a website with gorgeous visuals just waiting for me to show up and use it.

2.) Now that I’m working for myself, I spend a decent amount of my time in meetings at various locations across the city. I’ve been carting my Mac around with me at the expense of my shoulders to take advantage of downtown throughout the day. And that Mac is much heavier than I ever thought it was. I love being able to work remotely but I need to be able to be remote without a busted shoulder.

3.) Convenience and productivity when traveling. I hop on a plane to take a minimum of 6 round trips per year. That’s a lot of flying, a lot of packing, and a fair amount of schlepping. I find a lot of inspiration in this travel and it will be great to record this inspiration more easily in a variety of forms.

My iPad will get its first travel test run when Phin and I jet off to Florida at the end of the month for some fun in the sun with my favorite people on the planet (my fam.) Until then, we’ll be about town snapping photos, learning Italian, and making art. I’m prepared to be amazed. Off we go into a whole new age of productivity!

creativity, education, teaching

Leap: The Making of a Teacher

Christa Avampato
Image from mrsashie.tumblr.com

“Anyone can be an instructor; what you need to work on is being someone’s teacher.” ~ Mel Brasier, ISHTA Yoga Senior Teacher

“I don’t teach what I own. I own what I teach.” ~ Mona Anand, ISHTA Yoga Senior Teacher

Today, I’m halfway through my advanced yoga teacher training program at ISHTA. I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about what makes a teacher. Anyone can learn material and the words to communicate it to someone else. Anyone can stand at the front of the room and give directions from memory. But that doesn’t make someone a teacher.

A teacher can take what she knows, discover what her students need, and then find a way to dynamically marry the two.

There’s a lot to be said for preparation, for planning out a safe and purposeful class. It requires a tremendous amount of knowledge and practice. But it doesn’t make someone a teacher.

A teacher is someone who is prepared as much as he is aware. He has the courage to take everything he planned to do and throw it away for the sake of serving his students and their needs in the moment. He can bravely change course when he sees that there is a better way forward.

Teaching has very little to do with the teacher and everything to do with the student. Teaching is service. It requires that we show up, tune in, and give freely to those around us.

education, learning, school

Leap: Leave Your Business Alone, or What I Learned from Jeremy Gleick

Christa Avampato
Jeremy Gleick. Photo by Peter DaSilva for The New York Times.

I’d never heard of Jeremy Gleick until this weekend. On a snowy Saturday, the first snowy day of the year, Phineas and I were snuggled up in our apartment. He in his bed with his favorite squeaky toy and me on the couch with the New York Times. There was a special education section in the paper and Jeremy Gleick was featured in an article appropriately titled “Renaissance Man.”

Several years ago, Jeremy instituted the Learning Hour in his life. Every day for 4 years he has set aside an hour every single day, no matter where he is or what’s happening in his life, to learn something new and completely unrelated to his school work. (Jeremy is a sophomore at UCLA.) He has just crossed the 1000th hour mark.

I read this article astounded at his dedication and foresight at such a young age. I found myself thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great to have that extra time?” And then I remembered my post from just a few days ago on finding time. I do have the time; what makes the difference is how I choose to use it. I write every day. I do yoga every day. I take care of my dog, teach yoga and meditation, run a nonprofit, and maintain a fulfilling social life. Is there another hour in there for something totally unrelated to all of my current projects? And if there is, wouldn’t it be better spent working on one of the projects I already have going on?

I settled in to my meditation to think about this idea, and from deep within I could feel an answer rise – “Christa, you can’t work on your business all the time.” Sometimes that little voice has a point so good I can’t ignore it. It was right – I need to give myself more of a break. And it doesn’t make me lazy and it doesn’t mean I lack commitment. It just means I’m human.

As we maintain a full-time job and try to build a side business at the same time, it’s tempting to use all our free time for work. This isn’t healthy or wise. We need to maintain a balance. We need time away, learning things that have absolutely nothing to do with any of our current work. Our bodies need rest; so do our brains and our imaginations.

Replenish the well by learning something new!

curiosity, education, running, safety, yoga

Beginning: Learning How to Breathe, Run Barefoot, and Ditch Conventional Wisdom

Christa Avampato
http://www.runningmetronome.com/

Last week I attend my first class at The Breathing Project with Leslie Kaminoff. I used his anatomy book as a part of my yoga teacher training, and since then have been curious about his renegade style and obsession with how we breathe. In traditional yoga classes, we learn the 3-part breath by filling up the belly, then the chest, and then the collar-bone area. Leslie flips that around, literally and figuratively. He advises students to fill up on breath from top to bottom. At this suggestion, my brain began to twist and turn, trying to rewire its thinking about breath.

Similarly, last week I began reading intensely about barefoot running after an article in the New York Times Magazine, The Once and Future Way to Run. I’m entering the lottery to run the New York City marathon in 2012 and looking for the most efficient way to complete my training and beat my time from the Chicago marathon that I ran in 2001. For a number of years, I’ve heard about these barefoot runners and mostly written them off as just a hair shy of completely insane.

Turns out I may be the crazy one. Heel-to-toe running, which most of us do, is just about the worst possible way to beat up our bodies. Making contact around the mid-foot / toe region takes advantage of our bodies’ natural springing motion, protecting the body from undue injury, increasing our speed, and making our motion more efficient. Like Leslie’s class on breathing, this idea from barefoot running sent my mind happily reeling toward new possibilities.

Both of these ideas ask us to harken back to childhood, remembering how we used to act as children and how we have been misled as adults. We pick up so many bad habits on our journey into adulthood and sometimes we forget to question the new learnings that generate these bad habits. The result of losing our courage to question conventional wisdom? Harming our own bodies and minds.

This questioning of how to breathe and how to run, two very basic actions that we all do all the time, got me thinking about all the other “truths” that I may have accepted to easily. Business is loaded with them. “Experts” tell us that we MUST have a fully baked business plan, perfect products, and so much market research that we scarcely have time to look at all of the findings, much less make sense of them. Phooey!

What if we try this: go against the grain. Go ahead and put some kind of business plan in place, and then be prepared to change every blessed word of it. Launch good-enough products as quickly as possible to get real-time input on design from a live market, and then commit to iterating future versions just as quickly with real feedback. Forget market research composed of focus groups and other traditional methods. Make the business one giant market research experiment.

Here’s what would happen: our rate and level of innovation would increase, more people would create things of value to others, more people would take their futures into their own hands through entrepreneurship, and we’d all learn more. Oh, and we’d have a greater rate of jobs creation – quite possibly the biggest hot-button economic issue in our country today.

What do we have to lose by ditching conventional wisdom? Bad habits – we’ll breathe more fully, run with greater ease, and have a healthier economy. The value of taking conventional wisdom at face value? Staying right where we are.

Which option sounds better to you?  

discovery, education, learning, politics

Beginning: The Opportunity of Us

Christa Avampato
From johnpicacio.com

“Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.” ~ Immanuel Kant

A couple of years ago, I took Michael Sandel’s online class Justice. (See also wrote a book by the same name, and it takes the basic principles discussed in his class and applies them to today’s economic, social, political, and spiritual debates.) Dr. Sandel is a Political Philosophy professor within Harvard Department of Government and his class is among the most famous in the world and one of the largest and most popular in Harvard’s history. The class is free and open to all.

Sandel is a master lecturer. He opens each class with a provocative and polarizing moral dilemma. Perhaps not surprising to any of you, I immediately have an opinion. Then somehow in the most elegant and subtle of ways, Dr. Sandel has me on the fence and in each class I am reminded that the opinions I think I am the most sure of are actually the ones I am not sure of at all. Suddenly, he has me questioning every moral decision I have made. Of course, this is his objective. As my 9th grade English teacher, Mr. Warren, once said, “Judgement stops thought.” Sandel’s trick is to get us to think again after we’ve judged – a mighty difficult feat.

It’s been such an interesting exercise to take the class again and see how my opinions and ideas have been changed by the last couple of years of experience. The one lessons that he continues to alight in me more than any other is that our minds have such an incredible capacity, a capacity beyond our own comprehension. In his lectures, I can actually feel the physical and metaphysical aspects of my brain stretching, reaching, and ultimately growing. As Kant, the subject of Dr. Sandel’s dissertation at Oxford, alludes to in the quote above, we are in awe of the stars above. Who or what made them, and why are they placed just so? And if their placement, and even their very existence, is all a random and perfect accident, then what triggered it and how sustainable is this situation? What’s the meaning of it all? Big, heady questions.

But there is another chance accident that is just as intriguing, personal, knowable, and close-to-home: the ability to change our minds. Yes, to change our opinions and points-of-view, but also to literally change our minds – the biochemistry, the actually wiring that makes our daily activities possible. We have an extraordinary capacity to believe and then alter our beliefs based upon new information, new experiences.

When we take a step back, we really must recognize that we are remarkable beings with unlimited potential, this vibrating mass of possibility. Just to think of this and begin to approach the full comprehension of the miracle that is us, I choke up. It gives me so much hope to understand that whatever ills we face today can all be changed tomorrow if we are willing to change. The state of the world very much depends upon the state of us, each and every one of us. A new beginning is only a thought away.   

education, learning, teaching, yoga

Beginning: Is It Time for Yoga University?

Christa Avampato

New York is blessed with a lot of wonderful yoga teacher training programs. It’s also home to some yoga teacher training programs that are put in place with the intention of helping studio owners pay the rent. The trouble is that it can be difficult to discern between these two groups. In the past, I’ve posted some advice on how to choose a yoga teacher training program and I think that advice is valid now more than ever.

A hunting we will go…
As I’ve gone hunting for programs to complete my 500-hour certification, I’ve become even more skeptical about the claims made on fancy brochures and websites. I start asking questions of some studio owners and I can literally feel their nervousness rise into their faces. I’m sure that they’d just prefer I choose to pay the fee (or not) and just go with it. This is yoga, right? Aren’t we training to go with the flow and the best of a situation? Well, yes, but this next phase of my teacher training situation is going to cost me something to the tune of $4K. That’s a lot of money and I want to make sure I’m getting as much value as I can and the right value for me. I’m asking as many questions as I’d like to ask. I’ve found two programs that were overjoyed with the number of questions I’ve asked and they’re extremely responsive so they are the ones I’m considering: ISHTA and Yoga Sutra.

What training do I really want?
In the last couple of weeks I’ve been tossing around some ideas of the kind of teacher training program I really want rather than just comparing the options to one another. Truthfully, what I really want is a masters degree in yoga, particularly because my interest is in using yoga in the medical field. I’m not trying to teach at my fancy neighborhood studio; I’m focused on getting yoga to people who aren’t going to walk into studios, people with critical illnesses. And to top it off, I want to be part of a team of healthcare professionals who collaborate and provide a patient / student with a holistic plan that includes yoga. I’m not sure a 500-hour teacher training program can completely prepare me for that kind of work.

LYT (Licensed Yoga Teacher)?
A few years ago there was a push in New York State to license all yoga teachers and studios. Right now, all we have are fairly flimsy certifications from the Yoga Alliance which basically amounts to us sending in a check, Yoga Alliance sending us a cardboard card with our name on it, and then making sure they have our address right so they can mail us a renewal notice a year later. In other words, if you can pay, you can play. (See Yogadork’s excellent article entitled, “Make Up or Break up: Yoga Alliance What Have You Done for Us Lately?” for more info on this subject.)

For the yoga instructor who wants to teach students who are in relatively good mental and physical health and who go to traditional shiny studios, licensing seems a bit excessive. Does NYS license sports coaches or personal trainers? No. The State’s argument is that yoga borders on physical therapy and physical therapists are most certainly licensed. I sort of understand that argument, but I question their ability to put true standards in place at shiny yoga studios. The state can barely attend to the workload they have now. And to be honest, I think it was just a play by the state to get more tax money rather than a real concern for people practicing yoga.

The State Has a Case In Me
Here’s where I think the state has a very strong case for licensing: instructors like me who want to be part of the healthcare network of providers. I would be more than happy, thrilled actually, to sit for a licensing exam if it meant that my students’ yoga classes would be covered by their insurance. I’ll prepare reports, stay in touch with their PCP, and secure their personal info in my systems. That’s the trade-off I’m willing to make. Give my students a way to be covered and I’ll do whatever I have to do on my end to make that coverage possible.

Insurance Is Going to Have Its Say
This leads me to my next conundrum – now insurance companies are going to weigh in on the kind of training that a teacher needs to have to legitimately qualify as a healthcare provider just as they do with therapists, acupuncturists, etc. Now things get really interesting. They don’t cover doctors, nurse practitioners, therapists, or social workers who get a few months of training and a flimsy certification. Licenses are the result of rigorous, multi-year study at accredited schools and then the students sit for licensing exams (often a series of them). If yoga teachers like me want to play in the healthcare space, why would they let us lower those standards? And if they did lower the standards for us, why would medical professionals see us as equals?

MY (Masters of Yoga)?
Maybe what some brave university needs to do is create a yoga curriculum within their existing graduate school structure. Some of you might cringe reading that. There’s been a lot of talk about the traditional education system going by the wayside in favor of more innovative forms of learning made possible by better technology. I don’t agree with that line of argument for medical professionals. I can’t yet imagine a world where a doctor does all of his or her learning remotely from an iPad. I feel the same way about learning to be a yoga instructor. It’s important to be in a class and working with students face-to-face because so much of yoga teaching is about a one-on-one connection. It can’t be engineered; it needs to be fully experienced.

There are so many pros and cons of this formal education in yoga; many times they’re one and the same. The oversight from a university could be both a blessing and a curse. Yoga programs may become even more expensive at a university, though there would be the opportunity of financial aid. A university could put the muscle behind more robust yoga research, perhaps heightening the controversy over its benefits and perhaps legitimizing it as a viable form of treatment.

Still, I think this idea has potential for teachers like me. I’m going to kick the tires a bit and reach out to my own alma maters to see if there’s interest in exploring the topic. The time and effort it would take would be  worth it if I could be a part of building the kind of program I’d like to have and if more people (teachers and students) would benefit.