education, teaching

Step 278: Teaching and Learning As Two Sides of the Same Coin

Christa Avampato

Last night I taught my first yoga class at Columbia Law School. A new space for me and all new students at a very wide variety of levels. I had prepared a sequence though had to quickly change on the fly to accommodate abilities and experience. A word to the wise: bring more tricks in your bag than you think you will need. Life surprises.

On my way home, I was reminded how much we learn by teaching, yoga or any other subject. We test our true understanding when we’re asked to teach someone else, particularly if that other person has no experience. And while we may take on these roles of “teacher” and “student”, the two are always interchangeable depending upon the lesson being conveyed.

Learning and teaching are both gifts and guides in their own right.

business, marketing, nostalgia, product, simplicity

Step 277: Mad Men Commercials – A Celebration of the Quality We’re Looking For

Christa Avampato

Have you seen these retro vignette commercials interspersed throughout Mad Men? I was curious about them so I did a little hunting around. The Smith Winter Mitchell Agency, the agency featured in the commercials, is the brainchild of Rocket XL in New York. These vignettes showcase how a fictional 1960s ad agency, SmithWinterMitchell, develops campaigns for six iconic Unilever brands (Dove, Breyers, Hellmann’s, Klondike, Suave Hair, and Vaseline), combining witty historic parody with modern ad footage. They also showcase these iconic brands and celebrate their heritage on a hit show that is culturally and contextually relevant.

The artistic direction of the commercials is interesting, thought there was something else about them that grabbed my attention. I was drawn to the risk that Rocket XL took by building story with their commercials. They didn’t see this campaign as 30 – 60 seconds spots that happen in isolation. They gave the audience credit for their intelligence; they trusted us to connect the dots across the decades, as well as from Sunday night to Sunday night. They have a distinctive look and style that make them memorable, but they don’t take themselves too seriously, allowing us to laugh a little at the ad guys we spend an hour with every Sunday night.

Our country is craving simplicity in the midst of this economic downturn. Somehow, we glorified complexity for far too long and it got us into dangerous territory. We lost our way when we started to throw around phrases like derivative pricing and sub-prime mortgages, without fully realizing how low their downside could take us. Rocket XL is portraying simple products with a simple message – they have stood the test of time and they’re still here with us with the same quality they’ve always had. Sounds simple, but it’s hard to fulfill on.

On the surface, these are just commercials for ice cream a shampoo. But they’re making us smile for a much more profound reason – we’re looking for reliability and stability in a time when all the ground beneath us is so uncertain. These products have stood the test of time and they’re proud of that. I’m not suggesting that a Klondike bar can take all of our cares away. I am suggesting that products and people alike should flaunt what they’ve got – and if what you’ve got is a track record and history of fulfilling the brand promise you made, then that is no small feat.

Learn more about Rocket XL and they’re cool brand blueprint here.

goals

Step 276: September Accomplishments and October Goals

Christa Avampato

I’m a few days late on this post because I wanted to write a week-long series about public education, though I’ve been mulling it over in my mind for a few days. The list of October goals is short. October is always a rejuvenating month for me. It always comes as a relief after a busy / hectic / frenetic summer that lasted well into September. October is my take it easy and take good care of myself month, and so it is my favorite of the year.

September Accomplishments:

1.) E-book marketing and expansion continues for Hope in Progress.
I’ve been working on the new formats and spoke with my brother-in-law about a new cover design. It took him about 5 seconds to think of something brilliant, and my sister, Weez, also had some good adds. I’ll post it when the cover is complete and the new formats are ready to roll.

2.) Secure some more sub or regular teaching gigs and private clients for Compass Yoga.
This one worked out better than I expected. This month I start teaching at Columbia Law School and New York Methodist Hospital in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I’m exploring some other avenues as well and will continue to track that progress here. I also made some decisions about Compass Yoga to really follow my passion of teaching to under-served populations who can benefit greatly from a regular practice. More to come on that front, too.

3.) Online writing portfolio needed.
I did some investigation into this with a variety of platforms. All of them had their pluses and minuses. Ultimately, I decided to set up a WordPress blog with just my writing as the center stage. I really like Michael Pollan’s website and started to use it as inspiration for the design. When the site is complete, there will be a link on this website and I’ll announce it in a post as well.

4.) My apartment needs a makeover.
It’s amazing what a little paint and some new soft goods will do. My home feels a little more homey now with some color and more personal touches.

5.) I need to put some more time into my new book idea around yoga and personal finance.
I started to sketch out a structure finding inspiration in a lot of how-to guides and workbooks. It’s a fun project that has my mind making new connections all the time between yoga and personal finance. The two are even more linked than I originally suspected.

6.) Continue to grease the skids of Innovation Station.
This one needs some work that I didn’t get to in September. I’ve got lost of notes and ideas scattered about but not the action plan I need and want. And I also want to do some more work on the actual contact. I’ll turn my attention toward that in October, speaking of which…

October Goals:
1.) Continue work on Innovation Station content and action plan.

2.) Spend some quality time with my new pup, Phineas. I adopted him unexpectedly in September, which was a huge surprise goal that has brought so much richness to my life in a very short time. This month I’ll take him in for an evaluation to become a therapy dog. I’d love to get us into the Reading to Dogs program.

3.) Continue working on yoga and personal finance book. Now that I’ve got a loose structure in place, I can start to fill it in with the fun stuff.

That’s it – 3 goals. Short and sweet, just like the glorious month of October. It will be gone before we know it, so I intend to enjoy it while it’s here.

education, teaching

Step 275: Teachable Moments

Christa Avampato

As my week of blogging about education winds down, I debated how to close out this mini-series. Many people have sent me links and story ideas, and in my research I found enough hopeful stories in education to fill this blog for a year. The thought that has stuck with me all day is that learning is everywhere. Every social situation, relationship, job, event, errand, book, movie, person we encounter has something in it that can cause us to make a change, subtle or drastic, temporary or permanent. Teachable moments are everywhere, all the time, provided we can maintain our awareness.

In Buddhism there is a belief that life gives us exactly the teaching we need at the exact moment when we need it. This idea helps us further celebrate the good times and persevere through the difficult moments. There’s an opportunity for all of us to learn at every moment – whether we’re young or old, rich or poor, regardless of our experiences or where we live, work, and spend our time.

If I could give one message to kids everywhere it would be this: every moment there’s a chance to improve our lot and to grow. Sometimes its hard and painful to grow. Sometimes it’s the best feeling in the world. It’s all valuable. It all matters. Just keep going. If we can live this one principle everyday, the journey we take will eventually lead to blessings beyond our wildest dreams.

children, education, school

Step 274: Help Donorschoose.org Seal a $1M Deal to Fund Public Education Programs

Christa Avampato

It’s understandable that some people are skeptical about nonprofit organizations. We work hard for our money and when we give it away, where does it go? There are organizations like Charity Navigator that provide objective ratings of nonprofits, though in this economy ratings agencies of all kinds have drawn criticism. I’ve always found that restricted giving, donations that go to a specific nonprofit program designated by the donor, are a good avenue for people who want more control over where their donations go.

Donorschoose.org takes restricted giving to an even more personal level. With their platform, donors select the specific classrooms and classroom projects they want to fund at public schools all over the country. Fine art in New Orleans, Spanish in Chicago, basic kindergarten skills in Topeka, reading in Anaheim. It’s your money; you decide what initiatives to fund at Donorschoose.org.

Now, we have the chance to help public school children across the U.S. to get the programming and materials they need to succeed. And it won’t cost you a dime – only a few seconds of your time and a couple clicks of your computer. American Express will donate $1M to Donorschoose.org if 100,000 people like you and me pledge to help public education in the one of the following ways by the end of the day today, October 1st:

– Donate school supplies to a local school
– Host a foreign exchange student
– Tutor a struggling student
– Volunteer time at a local library (that’s the one I chose!)
– Help a child learn to read

American Express will then email you to let you know about opportunities to fulfill your pledge to volunteer on behalf of public education. Click here, and let’s help Donorschoose.org make a difference in our communities.

children, education, environment, school, science

Step 273: Environment Science Gets Its Due in Maryland Classrooms

Christa Avampato

My friend, Michael, author of Like a Fish In Water, sent me a link about environmental education in the Maryland Public School System. Previously, the system only required a single lesson on environmental education some time between kindergarten and 12th grade. Now, environmental science must be woven into the curriculum, covering specific topics. Originally, the mandate was to establish a separate environmental science as a graduation requirement. That original mandate didn’t pass but getting more environmental science into the curriculum within existing subjects is a start.

It still shocks me that many people don’t see the connection between caring for the environment and public health, that they don’t understand that there is no such thing as an unlimited natural resource. There are limits to the stresses that our environment can withstand, and we are running up against those limits at a frightening pace. Kids have to know how their actions impact the environment, and it’s our responsibility to teach them how to care for our shared world.

Additionally, the environment is a practical, truly tangible platform that can be used to enhance learning opportunities across a variety of subjects, physical and chemical sciences, math, history, and design to name a few. It opens the door to discussing higher education and career planning. It makes the facts we learn in school relevant and applicable in the world that surrounds us.

Nature is an infinite, wise, and patient teacher if only we will sit with her a while to hear what she has to say and see what she has to reveal to us. It’s a living, breathing lab for us to explore and wonder at It’s the closest thing we have on Earth to divinity, and I’m glad Maryland students will finally get the chance to learn more. Hopefully, other states will hop on board, too.

For a link to the full article, click here.

children, education, school

Step 272: Class Size Isn’t the Be All End All of Education

Christa Avampato

An article appeared in the New York Times yesterday showcasing a Massachusetts school that didn’t let large class sizes stop them from improving test scores. By bringing writing and reading assignments into every school subject (gym included!) The school is now outperforming 90% of other schools in Massachusetts. Reading and writing bring to bear creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, and enhanced language capabilities. They foster independence, making class size less of a factor in academic success.

The debate about size has raged on in a number of areas: raising kids in the country versus the city, large university lecture halls versus small seminars, big corporations versus family run small businesses. Each has its pros and cons. For the past several years, small classroom size in public schools has been a hot-button issue. The example of the Massachusetts school doesn’t give us a definitive answer one way or the other, and maybe that’s the point. Any circumstances can breed success – it’s the individuals that comprise the group that can truly make the difference.

To read the full article about the school in Massachusetts, click here. What do you think? Is class size as big an issue as we make it out to be?

children, education, family

Step 271: Parents May be the Most Important Piece of the Education Puzzle

Christa Avampato

The airwaves are bustling and bristling this week about education. Our U.S. school system is making front page news like never before. Sadly, sometimes it takes a crisis to raise awareness.

Yesterday, one of my readers of this blog who has decades of experience in education voiced his opinion about one way to repair the system: parents. Get them interested and engaged, and the system has a far greater chance of turning around. Yes, teachers are important, critically important. Though consider how many hours a child spends with a teacher versus a parent. Consider that parents are responsible for a child’s living conditions, what they eat, where they sleep. Parents are largely responsible for their children’s emotional and mental well-being. Combined, all of these “non-education” factors come to bear in a big way in the classroom. If a child is hungry, sick, or lacks confidence, how can they focus on math, science, and reading? Social programs can only do so much.

My reader’s comment about parents being involved in public education made me consider how involved my own mother was in my education. Sometimes, we didn’t have enough to eat. We were part of the free lunch program for as long as I can remember. We almost lost our house a few times. We had trouble paying bills. For a good portion of my childhood, we didn’t have health insurance. Our childhood had a lot of instability and sadness and fear. But the one constant was my mom. She served on the school board. She went to every parent teacher conference, every sports event, every band concert. More than anything she cared about our education. She didn’t have time to help us with our homework – she always worked 2 – 3 jobs so we could get by. I came to value education and where it could take me in large part because my mother valued it. I wanted to make her proud of me, and I knew my high grades made her proud.

I went to Penn because of my mom. She wouldn’t let me lower my standards of the college I could get into. She wouldn’t let me stay home and go to school. She wanted to me to go away to the very best school I could go to. It was hard. I struggled for my first two years at Penn. I had a hard time adjusting to a place that seemed so out of reach to me. Everyone else around me seemed to have means beyond anything I could ever dream of. I worked several jobs and put myself through school with the help of lots of financial aid. I studied all the time just to catch up. Eventually, I found my bearings, largely because I got involved in theatre, but even more importantly because I’m stubborn and proud. I couldn’t give up and go home. I had to keep trying to live a better life. That’s what my mom wanted, and so that’s what I wanted.

I had good teachers, in public school, at Penn, and later at UVA, where I got my MBA. Those teachers inspired me, pushed me, challenged me to be better than I thought I could be. And with just those teachers, I would have built a decent life. But my mom’s involvement and concern for my education helped me strive for more than decent – it keeps me working for something extraordinary. And as I think of it now, my blog reader was absolutely right – parents have the ability to turn around the whole system just by showing their care and concern for what their kids learn. I’m living proof of their power.

children, education

Step 270: Sounding the Alarm on Public Education

Christa Avampato

This week NBC is running a special in-depth look at education in America, Education Nation. It is a loud, profound alarm – our schools are in trouble, and by association our nation is in trouble. Not because of the financial system or the housing crisis or the erratic Dow. Our nation is in trouble because we are failing our children, an entire generation of them, before we’ve even given them a chance to succeed. We are letting them down and counting them out before they even get in the game.

I care deeply about public education. I am a product of it and I’m hoping to turn my career towards it in the not-too-distant future. As a way of shining a spotlight on it and raising some more awareness of the many and varied challenges, I will feature a story every day this week about public education, a reason for hope, a cause in need of support, an inspiring person or organization. I hope this week of stories will inspire you to get involved.

Education doesn’t need some of us, it needs all of us. Without a system that functions effectively and efficiently, nothing else we’re doing matters. And if we can successfully find a way to educate every child this country in a way that helps them grow up to be productive members of society, we have more benefits to reap that we can even imagine. Every social issue – health care, the environment, public safety, foreign affairs, the economy – has a greater chance of success if we can improve our education system. It’s the root challenge, and therefore the root remedy, that heals every one of our other ills.

We are past the point of voluntary involvement. Our children need us. All of us.

choices, creativity, decision-making, determination, passion, patience

Step 269: Stubborn Persistance Pays

Christa Avampato

“Stubbornly persist, and you will find that the limits of your stubbornness go well beyond the stubbornness of your limits.” ~ Robert Brault

Phin and I head out early every morning for an hour-long walk, and I use that time to hang with him, get my own bearings, and meditate on where I am in life at that very moment. This often sends my mind just out over the horizon, into my not-so-distant future. What is it I’m really trying to do? What really matters?

These morning walks often have me thinking about limitations: financial, personal, professional. Sometimes these limitations really grab a hold of me and just won’t let go no matter how much I try to shake them off. I try every trick in my bag to make my limitations vanish (or at least my perception of them) and very often they just hang on, unabated. They are stubborn to say the least.

This morning I tried a different approach. What if I didn’t try to completely bust my limitations but instead just sat and talked with them? What if I could show them that my dreams and I are even more stubborn and will not be dissuaded? I will work around them and do what it takes to get where I want to go. And what if I could see my limitations as gifts, as teachers, rather than roadblocks. What can I learn from them, and more importantly from my fear of them?

As I considered this idea, I could feel my breathing loosen up and the creativity started to seep back in. Limitations exist to give us some bumper lanes, to actually heighten our creativity and provide some structure in which to build the life we want. It’s easy to get bogged down by them, to wish that that they would just melt away giving us complete and total freedom. The truth is that there will always be some kind of limitation on us. No resource is entirely unlimited, except creativity. Limitations may be stubborn, but they’re nothing compared to the creativity we can amass and put to good use to get where we want to go. Persist. Just persist, and see where that takes you.