Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

In this episode, Hannah Frankman and I continue our conversation.

Check out episode 1 here.

Hannah is the boot camp advisor (education associate) for Praxis, a year-long apprenticeship program that places young people at startups for a fast-paced learning experience.

This episode is an insight into Praxis through the eyes of one of its talented advisors.

What Hannah does: 

“I coach young people. I help them identify their desires and turn them into concrete reality.”

During the boot camp, participants:

• build a portfolio that signals their value to business partners and the world in general
• hone their critical thinking skills
• learn how to be their own credential
• build soft and hard skills that are useful in a startup

Hannah helps each participant tailor the existing curriculum to his or her individual goals.

Mentorship vs. Teaching

A teacher tends to have the goal of giving a person a certain amount of information. A mentor is more of a role model or a coach, who can give direction and advice to someone’s individual journey.

Hannah mentions “drawing out the fire” in an individual, which is a beautiful picture of a mentor.

Some teachers are mentors, some are not. Mentorship is a method of teaching that I believe anyone who teaches should adopt, In fact, if you expect to build strong relationships at all, the mindset of a mentor is invaluable. 

Stories

Hannah shares a couple stories of her early mentorship/teaching experience.

Everyone loves stories. That’s why movies and comedians are popular! We talk about the importance of how stories connect to the heart.

This episode was such a pleasure. I can personally attest to Hannah’s skill as a mentor, and I can’t wait to see what her career holds!

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I was young, my mom taught me to count to 10 before I reacted to anything that aroused extreme emotion in me.

This has been extremely useful in my relationships. Even 10 seconds of thought and conscious breathing can change your perspective drastically.

So when I read Give it Five Minutes by Jason Fried, the concept hit home quickly.

What if everyone consciously took time to think before they acted? We are told to consider our actions, but no one takes the time to consider.

Make a note to count to 10, especially in the moments when you feel most like you have to lash out.

Give it 5 minutes, when you feel the need to defend yourself or criticize another.

The mere act of stepping back for a short period of time can revolutionize your perspective. Give it 10 seconds, and a cutting remark makes little sense. After 5 minutes, hasty criticism doesn’t seem so important anymore.

Make choices that will impact you and others positively in the long run. An argument won is never worth a relationship dissolved.

This month is going to be awesome.

• Module 4 with Praxis is chock full of content consumption. I’m going to be listening and reading to my heart’s content, interacting with new ideas, and creating content surrounding the things I learn.
• I’m releasing one new episode of my podcast every week. Educationeering is one of the most interactive, amazing projects I have ever undertaken, and I can’t wait to see how I grow this month.
• I’m practicing football with my brother. Making my siblings’ dreams come true is one of the happiest things in my life.
• I’m taking tennis. One day a week, I wanted something different and active to do. Tennis at the local university is going to be the outlet for the pent-up energy inside of me this month.
• I’m finishing up several projects with my siblings’ school. Coaching my brothers and sisters is incredibly rewarding, and my favorite thing is to watch them grow. Currently we are working on research papers about subjects each child is interested in.
• I’ll still be writing every day. By the end of April, I’ll be close to 140 days of putting content out every single day.
• I’m setting a goal of 15 minutes of a day of piano. I’m not sure what piece will be my focus yet, but I will spend focused energy every day learning a specific piece of music.

That’s a couple points for the next month. Here’s to April!

A passionate man

Finding that time never stops

Takes a deeper breath.

Not sure what this means yet. But it reflects the concept alive in my mind right now. I’ve been realizing that if I don’t have a gnawing inside of me that is longing for more, deeper life, then I’m probably not living.

Spring break for everyone else is still school in a homeschooling household.

Today, Pensacola’s Blue Angels were practicing at the NAS Museum. So we took the kids out to watch the show.

It’s always a treat. The sheer thrill that runs through you as those F-18’s soar over your head is incredible. After watching the show, we hopped over to the old lighthouse and ate lunch by a shade tree there.

I was impressed by the teaching moments we had.  Even though the kids were not reciting Math facts and studying philosophy, they were spending time in the top school called the big wide world.

• We learned the art of navigating crowds. Thousands flock to the base even if it’s only a practice event. Keeping a big family together and safe is no joke. It takes a lot of concentration on the part of the parents, as well as focus from each child. We worked on watching the leader of the group, keeping our eyes focused on our surroundings, and never losing sight of our family.
• We built the mindset of sticking out a situation till the end. We parked half a mile away from the runway. In Florida’s direct sunlight, it’s a challenge for young children to carry a camp chair the whole way to a destination. But we focused on one step at a time, and got to the runway with color in our cheeks and determination in our eyes.
• We honed our observational skills. On the way home, we stopped by the local Advance Auto Parts. It was empty, and the kids amused themselves by hiding in the aisles and finding each other by the use of the convex mirrors on the wall. Child’s game? Maybe. A learning moment? Absolutely.

It got me to thinking. These mindsets are key to life. But we don’t think about them in our overview of school.

Qualities like observational skills are often overlooked in traditional education. Yet we are as lost without them as we would be without the ability to read.

Many times, experiences are the best tools for learning if you only open your eyes. Make every moment a teaching moment!

If losing my dad did anything for me, it taught me empathy.

It’s not like I didn’t understand others before. Tragedy has simply given me the ability to understand another’s pain.

But it goes beyond understanding. Personally, empathy is also the ability to stand beside a hurting person as they heal. True understanding of another requires you to walk through the gates of hell with them. It’s not just pity or even sympathy. It is the willingness to be the rock of healing that brings another soul out of the waters of pain.

This kind of empathy has to be birthed. It’s not like one day you can suddenly understand what others are feeling.

How does empathy grow? It’s through travail. You have to experience pain before you can have the ability to help another human navigate the pain they feel.

If you allow the hurts of your life to teach you to be balanced, you have the beginnings of empathy in you. Walking beside others will help you develop the skill even more.

The challenge: to allow hardships to mold you into a healer. Don’t let your heart be hardened because there is evil and pain in the world. Be an example of empathy in this broken universe.

Why do kids struggle with math facts, but quote movies perfectly?

Take away the factor of the addictiveness of screen time, and you are left with one thing that makes movies much more memorable than random facts: storytelling.

I’ve been thinking about this concept a lot. We connect to other humans through the use of stories. They imprint concepts into our heads, and give us a mental picture for what we are learning.

It’s this concept that can help change the way we teach new ideas. Instead of trying to acquaint another person with abstract ideas, give them something that paints a picture in their mind.

Reach a person’s heart first; their mind will follow.

This is what makes stories so important. They connect to a key part of us: our hearts. And it’s always worth gaining a heart, not?