The New Karate Kid

I just watched the previews for the New Karate Kid movie starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith after watching the Original Karate Kid with Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita.

So, what do I think so far?

The Original Karate Kid is that rare Perfect Movie.  The portrayal of the bullies and the bullying Daniel goes through is spot-on, including the reactions of everyone around him.  The heart of the story is Daniel’s relationship with Mr. Miyagi as he mentors the boy.  This is what will either make or break the New Karate Kid.  Can they recreate that touching teacher-student relationship without making it seem derivative?  Can they interject new life into this classic story?

I can say that after watching the previews, I think Chan and Smith will pull it off.  I sure hope they do and am excited to see it when it hits the theaters.

The Original Karate Kid

I love going to the movies so turning the school into our very own private movie theater Saturday to watch the Original Karate Kid was a treat.  It took a bit of doing though.

I stumbled upon a simple way to make our our screen and Mr. Aaron and Mr. Lance put it together and set it up perfectly.  Mr. Mike came by and Helped Mr. Lance rewire our sound system for great effect.  The Thorndike family generously loaned us their projector while the entire staff, including Mr. Vincent and Dr. Karla helped me pop corn.  Sandy Sartor came to the popcorn rescue with not one, but two more air-poppers to fulfill the demand.   Thanks to everyone who made the night a huge success.

Before the night was through I already had requests and questions when the next movie night would be.  Well, I’m working on it.  Aside from The Karate Kid Part II, I’d like some help with movie suggestions.

Let me know what you’d like us to show next.

How Long Can You Live Without Breath?

The average person can hold his breathe for 2-4 minutes.  The world record is 17 minutes—recently documented and set by magician David Blaine.

How about the average 7 year-old struggling on a spelling test?  Or the average 15 year-old responding to an essay prompt? The average 17 year-old giving a speech to the entire school?

It’s time to give breathing its due.  There is no magic bullet in the world of teaching and learning, but breathing is such a tremendous tool for stress release that…..go to ScholarFit.com…….

This Saturday we’re hosting a Breathing Seminar for Families.  We’ll be teaching children (and their parents!) better breathing for Self Control, Anxiety Management, and Performance Enhancement. Look forward to seeing you there!

Dr. Karla at ScholarFit

Just want to make sure you know where to find me now….www.ScholarFit.com.  Thanks for all your encouragement.  Keep it up…your questions, additions, comments, etc.!

There’s an easy way to get updates.  Just go to the ScholarFit site and put your e-mail into the RSS Feed (in the top right corner of the site).

Thanks….and happy Spring day!

Dr.  K

I’m Sad Mommy

How can we help our kids feel loved and joyful if they don’t listen to us?  Siena tells me that she’s sad each night when I’m about to leave her room.  I look at her and sigh. Part of me is glad she’s sharing her feelings, not only having had found a word for her feelings but incorporating that word into an I-statement that does not directly blame me for her despair. “I’m sad Mommy.”  Another part of me wonders, is she really sad? Is this just something she said to me one night that got a reaction from me that she was looking for, making her say it again and again.   It’s every night now.  “Mommy, I’m sad.”

She’s supported by a collection of stuffed animals, and has started to hold onto Clausy’s paw, the foot of the Rottweiller that she got from Santa this year.  I tell her that Clausy will keep her safe.  Sometimes she beats me to it, telling me, “Clausy will keep me safe Mommy.”  Who gets to say what first – it’s always an interesting experiment.  Kids repeat what we say.  But I never told her she was sad, or did I?  Did I ask her one night when she started to cry when I said goodnight, “are you sad cutie pie?”  Maybe.  If so, it’s an indication that she does listen to me, borrowing words from my conversations with her.

When she tells me she’s sad, I suggest other things she can do. Hug Clausy.  Talk to me about happy moments from the day, the sunshine at the park, etc.  I don’t want her dwelling in an emotional space of sadness.  I want her to reframe her thoughts, control them to the best of her ability.  I point out that her sadness is temporary.  “I’m sorry to hear you’re sad right now, babes.”  I don’t want to discount her feelings and tell her that she’s not sad, but I also don’t want her to think that she’ll be sad forever.  That’s a basic principle of raising an optimistic, resilient child.

So where does the not listening come into this scenario?  Some nights she tells me about happy thoughts from the day, and even screams them to me minutes after I leave her room.  “I’m thinking of swinging like a horsey at Ms. Debbie’s Mommy!”

“Glad to hear it,” I say back, smile on my face.  One night she was even more direct, “I’m happy Mommy.  I’m not sad.”  Like all kids, that girl really wants to please the ones who care for her.  She was listening to me.

Other nights, though, like last night, she kept screaming, “I’m sad Mommy.”  “I need another kiss Mommy!!”  She wouldn’t visualize joyful episodes of her day.  She refused to tell me about what she wanted to do at the farm the next day.  “I’m sad Mommy,” she kept screaming.

Her nightlight was on, a cute yellow man that glows in the dark.  Her Clausy was nestled along her face, his soft fur catching the tears now falling from Siena’s eyes.  “Mommy, tears Mommy.  I’m crying Mommy.”

And my “job” was supposedly to make my child feel loved and joyful?!?  I’m not about to feel like a failure, or even say that I’m not fulfilling my loving duties as a mother.  Give me a break. It’s not so black and white.  Not so simple.  She’s loved.  I’m figuring out next steps. She knows she has me to whine to, for better or worse.  She was sad.  That’s okay.  We’re sad sometimes.

The operative word.  Sometimes.

Are YOU afraid of your own shadow too?

“You got to be tough or the world will get you.”

“You got to be tough or the world will get you.”

I grew up hearing those words from my father over and over again.  He’s a man of sayings.  There was the lighthearted one, “you’re alright, half left, but all right;” the thankful one, “great meal Leanne” and the pragmatic one, “I’m not cheap; I’m frugal.”  Whether we were alone in the car or with friends at a dinner party, my father found a way to interject one of his mantras into the conversation.  Just after my first daughter’s birth, I overheard my dad talking to our newborn by the bedroom window, rocking the crying baby to sleep in his arms.  “You got to be tough,” he started.  I knew what was coming next, and stood at the doorway, astounded by his persistence.

“You got to be tough or the world will get you.” What does that mean anyway!?  To my dad, it means that you’ve got to survive the world no matter what it throws at you.  My father lost his parents when he was fifteen years-old.  He was in the backseat of the car when it was struck by a drunk driver – so were his twin brother and younger sister, Suzanne.  His mom died on the spot, and his father died soon after of heartbreak – the moment when he asked about the status of his wife, and a doctor answered honestly.  “You got to be tough,” he learned – and sought to cement that point into the brains of his children over and over again.

While I don’t full heartedly embrace my dad’s tough-mantra, I can’t help but hear it when I run into difficult situations.  On the surface, the saying is empty and crass – devoid of context and dismissive of healthy alternatives for moving through emotionally taxing experiences.  But I didn’t critique the saying as a child.  My siblings and I simply heard it – again and again.   We never learned to analyze it; that would have been like analyzing my dad’s arm.  His sayings were a part of him – an appendage to life.

When is it acceptable to stop and think about what we hear over and over again?  How do we best do this, especially in terms of our own, inner dialogue?  Humans talk to themselves, and that inner speech is a powerful tool of self-control.  Negative self-talk such as “I’m never going to finish this” or “no one ever helps me” can stop someone in her tracks, preventing her from reaching a dream.  Positive talk, on the other hand, can free someone of undue obstacles, offering her an open door into a promising possibility.  Psychologists and educators alike have created ways to help people observe and take charge of their self-talk.  My father has never had the privilege of working with someone to guide him in this process.  I wonder what such a self-talk coach would say to him.  What would you ask him?

Being “tough” is my father’s way of being optimistic, but not naïve.  You have to know my father to know that he’s not just about “toughing it out.” He seeks support and talks through his emotionally taxing situations with friends and family.  He is one of the sweetest people I know.  But he’s acquired this saying that he repeats again and again – and, for better or worse, allows him to get through whatever it is that is standing in his way.  He recently bought a bike, pedals the few blocks to my sister’s house, and plays with his grandkids in Virginia each day.  He just walked a half marathon, and sent pictures of himself in the paper to all his four children.  He was beaming with pride.  His favorite saying might not capture all there is to know about my father’s zest for life, but it does remind me of something extremely important about parents: they, too, talk to themselves and that self-talk lives on in their children.

So, what is it that you say to yourself over and over again?

Work “Smharder!”

Last weekend Dr. Karla and I had a slight, I wouldn’t say disagreement, more like a differing perspective on the popular, well-worn saying, “you have to work smarter, not harder.”

I must say that I am guilty of too-often forgetting that most people do not have my experience and area of expertise, which precipitated the “disagreement.”  Not that Dr. K doesn’t (she does), I mean non-educators.

The offending article was from the Atlantic Monthly about what makes great teachers, the “work smarter, not harder” quote was from a successful teacher to his class.  Before I begin my explanation let me say that Dr. K is right, we DO have to work smarter and students need to know that often there “is a better way,” and doing poorly usually is not a product of inability.

I agree 100% on the “work smarter” part of the quote.  I’m stumbling my way through setting up and improving our school websites right now.  I know that “there’s an easier way, I just have to find it.” (I have that quote taped to my computer screen)   My last conversation with our web designer confirmed this.  She laughed and, after showing me the easier ways, said that I’ll be a pro before too long.

Kids DO have to be told that there is an easier, smarter way–and great teachers show them.

I take umbrage with saying because of the “not harder” part.  As I said, I understand the point of the saying but rail against the cliche for the sole fact that we MUST work, and work hard, usually harder than we are working now to progress and succeed.

I say we have to work both Smarter and Harder.

Great teachers show us how to work smarter, how to get results faster, and how to use effective strategies and tactics we don’t know about.   We students have a responsibility to also work harder to implement their advice.

“Hard (& Smart) Work ALWAYS Beats Talent
When Talent Refuses to Work Hard”

Be sure to read Dr. Karla’s blog entry about one of her father’s favorite sayings…

Let’s Talk About Food Part 1

Let’s Talk About Food pt. 1

Today we’re going to talk about a delicious subject–food. I know, “now you’re talkin’.”

Our Bootcamp classes are all about “ramping up” your metabolism, burning fat, building lean muscle mass and cardiovascular health.  But we need to fuel our activity properly…

…Yes, FOOD IS FUEL.

Let me relate a story from late great motivational speaker Jim Rohn about his friend who owned a racehorse, an exceedingly beautiful animal.  This horse was kept on the strictest of diets.  Everything that the horse ate was closely monitored and kept within certain limits to insure he raced at his peak.  The pinnacle of health and fitness…

…But you should have seen the owner.  He could barely walk up the stairs at the racetrack without being out of breath and having to sit down immediately.  He ate like he was purposely trying to kill himself through food.

That’s called a Disconnect.

Aren’t our bodies worth MORE than a racehorse’s?  (at least to us)

Over the years I’ve gotten to know my eyebrows to the hair with all the eye-rolling I’ve done hearing about fad diets and ridiculous weight-loss schemes disguised as healthy eating.  I also have scars on my tongue from all the biting of it I’ve done to keep from screaming at people.

In this and the following letters, you might find nothing new under the sun (or you just might).  But getting you to follow-through on the wisdom of the ages takes some repetitive pounding over the noggin’ for it to sink in.

Let’s start with the Big Picture and move on from there.

If weight-loss is your primary goal you must memorize and follow the Iron Law of Weight Loss:  you must burn more calories than you take in (over time).  Weight Loss and weight control is not about fad diets; it is about energy.  There is no way around this.  More calories burned than calories consumed equals weight-loss.

The Energy Equation

Weight Loss: Calories burned > Calories consumed
Weight Maintenance:  Calories burned = Calories consumed
Weight Gain: Calories burned < Calories consumed

I like to put the principle a bit bluntly if not a little un-PC,”There are no Overweight POW’s.”  Obviously, longtime prisoners of war are put on severe calorie-restrictions with no chance to cheat on their diets.  They ALL lose weight, No Excuses.  Now of course just because POW’s lose weight doesn’t mean they are at all healthy.  Exactly the opposite.  Starvation isn’t good for anyone, this includes insane starvation diets!

So this is Rule #1.

Yes, Rule #2 is to refer to Rule #1!

What this means for you my Bootcamper….

Simple, though not easy.

You MUST learn how to count your daily caloric intake and discipline yourself to do it on a regular basis.  Everything starts here.

Fortunately for you Dr. Karla and I are on the verge of having a fantastic resource that will help you available soon.

In the meantime, DO THIS.

1.  Write down everything you eat. (EVERYthing)
2.  Check the package, or go to mypyramid.gov for calorie estimates
3.  Total it up.

Sure this doesn’t mean much without your Daily Caloric Target.  I’ll get that to you shortly, but for now use this estimate:

Weight Loss:        12 to 13 calories per pound of bodyweight

Weight Gain:        18 to 19 calories per pound of bodyweight

Weight Maintenance:  15 to 16 calories per pound of bodyweight

Example:  A 182 pound person who wants to lose weight would require 2,184 calories each day  (182 x 12 = 2, 184).

This should give you some GOOD HABITS to develop and get you started.

I (too) Have a Dream

I (too) Have a Dream

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national holiday, celebrating the freedom of opportunity and civil equality of all people.  MLK Day is a BIG Deal in Chicago, my hometown.  In fact, every year at our Speech Contests there was at least one I Have a Dream Speech.  I’ve heard this speech more than any other and its message of FREEDOM resonates with me to this day.  I just watched it on YouTube again, as I do every year this day.

I too have a dream of Freedom.  My dream is to free as many people as I possibly can from the bonds of Negativity, Failure and Despair. Not Institutional Oppression, like Dr. King, but Personal, and at times Self-Inflicted, Oppression.

My vehicle is not the National Stage, but through my martial arts classes, a more intimate environment but a powerful platform nonetheless.  It is not one grandiose speech but daily, consistent short speeches to our students and parents.  The kind of speeches that do more than inspire, through constant repetition they move students to ACT in countless small ways that make a Big Difference in their lives over time.

Based on the boxes of letters I’ve received over the years, I’d say my dream too has become and is becoming a reality each day.

But my work is not done. Far from it.

I have a dream to free AS MANY PEOPLE AS I POSSIBLY CAN from the bonds of Negativity, Failure and Despair and to live a GOOD LIFE FULL OF PURPOSE.

For that, I need your help.

My Dream is to help others fulfill THEIR Dreams, however big or small, so if you know anyone who would benefit from fulfilling their dreams and living a Good Life Full of Purpose through our martial arts programs, please invite them to come talk to me.

Thank you Dr. King.

Next Page »