Lessons

Lessons

Lesson: Questioning and Remembering


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Questioning and Remembering

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Maybe your teaching can be mostly about the heart.

If it can - if you can stay tuned into your heart while you are teaching, magic can happen. I like to see a teacher having fun! I love it when you present yourself as a model of someone living a good life - because you actually are. I believe that this speaks more loudly than any set of memorized actions you could take.

Let's face it... You can teach from your head, but it might get intellectual and stiff. You can teach from your will power, but you may predominantly appeal to students who are body types. Or, you can, as the saying recommends, "let the heart decide". If your heart rules your mind and body, you have the chance of a lifetime. You can go beyond giving information; you can cause transformation.

I like to call it 'Heart Thought'. Sure, there are techniques to teaching. And there are some definite tips to follow. There are even indispensible parts to lessons and units that a good teacher should be sure to include. But if the teacher misses this first, most important ingredient - all else might fail. It's like the 80/20 rule of Juran's Managerial Breakthrough that revolutionized America's auto industry; 80% importance is on you being fully present and enjoying yourself, and all other technique is only worth about 20%.

So, begin with this one simple step. Learn by observing yourself to find out what you love, then teach yourself to do that when you are in front of your students.

Remember, the best learner is one who is one's own teacher.

Lessons is a course in how to teach yourself.

It is a blend of History, Science, Literature, and Mathematics, with a strong emphasis on Biography. Let’s start. Just do whatever I tell you.

Questioning what you have been taught
You must take control of your life. So, let's start by taking control of what you learn!

When you teach someone else a lesson, model to them with your own life as an example, that you listen first to yourself. And as a matter of fact, you report only to yourself in the end, also. If someone else tries to teach you something, you question it! You check in your heart whether or not to accept it. If it passes your test, you take it. You don't eat every food that is given to you - and you don't believe every idea that is put out there.

Remembering what you know
But how can you test whether or not to believe what is being taught? After all, sometimes life brings false lessons in the disguise of good advice. You ask your heart. Your heart does a kind of thinking, too. Heart thought is more like remembering. It gives you a feeling about what you know, already. Just like you can ask your gut what your body wants to eat, and your mind what you can comprehend; you can ask your heart about the big ideas that are good for you to hear more about.

When you find ideas you love - follow them to the ends of the earth. This is how to teach.

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There is a great program for writing your own quiz questions called reMember Mate®. In a second, you’re going to start it.

TASK: Open reMember Mate®. Register yourself, then choose Create to make your first quiz. Name your quiz Lesson 1. Write a quiz question using this fact: Socrates (Plato's teacher) said knowledge is often remembering. To write a quiz question in reMember Mate® choose Write. Do it – DO IT NOW.

reMember Mate®

How did you do? Did you write a Multiple Choice question or a True/False or a Fill-In? Any one is ok.

Plato was a great philosopher from ancient Greece. He wrote Meno, a dialogue that has great descriptions of teaching and learning. Socrates was Plato’s favorite teacher. So Plato often tells you what his teacher said to him. Plato kind of ‘pays it forward’ – he passes on the best lessons of his life. Plato is truly awe inspiring.

TASK: Open this short biography of Plato. Keep it open.
Write a quiz question in reMember Mate® about Plato.

reMember Mate®

I said that Plato's favorite teacher was Socrates. His favorite student was Aristotle. Some people say that Plato is one of the fathers of Philosophy. He was definitely a master philosopher who changed the world with his teaching. Some say that Aristotle is the father of Science.

TASK: Open this short biography of Aristotle. Keep it open.
Write a quiz question in reMember Mate® that teaches that Aristotle was a master scientist.

reMember Mate®

I said that Plato is a father of Philosophy and that Aristotle is a father of Science. Do you know any founders of Literature? How about Homer? He wrote The Odyssey and The Iliad. He was also a master who changed the world. Both Plato and Homer are writers who are really writing down stories that had been told for generations without writing! We are not sure whether they did the actual writing or whether they had friends help with the writing - but we know that the wisdom in their texts was already ancient - even in their time.

TASK: Open this short biography of Homer. Keep it open.
Write a quiz question about Homer in reMember Mate®.

reMember Mate®

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Please Note ...

Many of the forefathers of the people in America come from Europe. Many of the first great works of Philosophy, Science, Literature, and Mathematics in Europe come from the country of Greece. That is why many of us have been taught very well about Greek founding fathers and mothers.

Actually, earlier discoveries and major origins took place thousands of years before the Greek civilization. An awesome author named Dick Teresi spent his life finding lost discoveries. His book, Lost Discoveries tells all of his findings. I will pass many of them on to you within this course.

A few great origins of discovery are:

The Kushites of Africa

The Olmecs of South America

The Chinese of China

The Indians of India

The Babylonians of Mesopotamia

TASK: Write 2 quiz questions in reMember Mate® that teach about the origins of civilization facts as they are written above.

2
reMember Mate®


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