CRUSH SCHOOL

5644 1st Avenue South Minneapolis, MN, 55419

I blog on Brain-Based Learning, Metacognition, EdTech, and Social-Emotional Learning. I am the author of the Crush School Series of Books, which help students understand how their brains process information and learn. I also wrote The Power of Three: How to Simplify Your Life to Amplify Your Personal and Professional Success, but be warned that it's meant for adults who want to thrive and are comfortable with four letter words.

Filtering by Tag: communication

Quick Tutorial on Delivering Killer Presentations

August 08, 2018  /  Oskar Cymerman

The ability to deliver engaging, effective, and energizing presentations is a highly desired skill employers look for. These days, it is hard to find a job that does not depend on communication. In fact, as businesses use more technology, digital tools aided with effective presentation skills will be even more in-demand. Thus, it is important to teach effective presentation and communication skills in schools.

However, many teens leave high school unaware of how to deliver engaging and effective speeches, slide show presentations, or other multimedia demonstrations. This is perhaps best evidenced by the fact that many adults, myself included, can look at the graphic below and find a few things in it that will help them communicate better and deliver killer presentations.  

Delivering Killer Presentations Tutorial

I use the infographic above in my new book Crush School Student Guide: Learn Faster, Study Smarter, Remember More, and Make School Easier to help teach teens how to deliver presentations. It follows creating and practicing for killer presentations. The lessons also contain an outline template students can fill out to create their presentations. 

I believe the skill of presenting should be learned and practiced many times before teens become adults. This will allow them to not only master the skill but to feel confident and be more effective while delivering presentations as professionals.

The book that can help them with this and many other skills is now available on Amazon for $29.95. Click here, look inside, and see if it is for you.

You have the power to change lives. Use it often so they can change the world.

Oskar

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Hi! I'm Oskar.          

I teach, write, speak, rant to make learning better.

BOOKS & TOOLS

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categories / Teaching
tags / teaching teens, parenting teens, brain, sharpness, clarity, brain rules, neuroscience, presentation, communication

How to Practice for a Killer Presentation

August 06, 2018  /  Oskar Cymerman

One of the best ways to learn something is to do it before you learn. We often try to become experts at something, or at least proficient at it, before we venture out and do it because we don’t feel comfortable doing it.

The problem with that is that we actually learn things better when we try them out as we are learning them. 

However, feeling uncomfortable doing something we don’t feel competent in is normal. New things, though often exciting are sources of anxiety - we fear the unknown. This is how we evolved after all.

But if you want to learn faster, realizing that you have to practice before you are confident in your knowledge goes a long way. If you think about sports, you’ll realize this is exactly how we learn sports. A skill is introduced and then practiced over and over despite the fact the athlete feels uncertain and awkward. And that’s where the coach comes in...

My new book Crush School Student Guide: Learn Faster, Study Smarter, Remember More, and Make School Easier is meant to be a coach for teens, a mentor that allows students to practice what they are being taught immediately. This is why it’s not really a book. Most books do not do that.

Most books are descriptive. The good ones tell you how to do something and give you examples, but they don’t show you specifically how to practice, or provide the reader with the opportunity to stop and practice. They just keep going onto the next topic.

A coach is different. Consider what Obi-Wan did for Luke Skywalker. Before that, Yoda coached Obi-Wan on the ways of The Force. In each case, Luke used the light saber or the Force - he didn't just read or hear about them. A coach, like a Jedi master, gives you the way, shows you the way, and helps you practice the way.

This was the aim of the Crush School Student Guide. I didn't want to "just write" a book, because we forget most of the stuff we read from books.  

I endeavored to create something that lasts and something that leaves lasting memories.

There are great books on learning and mastery on Amazon filled with insightful, science-backed, and useful information.

But if you're like most people who you read a 200-page nonfiction book a month ago, you can probably recall three to five facts from it, and unless you've read it several times, describing these facts with detail and examples might prove strenuous.

This is because long-term memories don't form this way. Rather, they're created when you use the information right away and in several ways. Otherwise, you might remember only the things that evoked the most powerful emotions and little else.

Knowing this, I wanted to create something (a book that's perhaps not a book?) that allows an individual to put what he or she is learning into practice as she's learning it.

To accomplish this, I filled each lesson in the book with spaces for reflection, planning, and application of the skills. Akin to a coach helping her pupils practice, the Crush School Student Guide helps teenagers use and improve the skills they're learning in real time. It doesn't say: "You should do this when you find some time," because "this" never gets done this way.

Below is an infographic I use to give my high school students the information that helps them practice for a formal presentation. The previous 2 lessons in the Crush School Student Guide walk them through creating an effective presentation and provide them with a template to complete to plan the presentation. 

The lesson that comes after this one covers the delivery, because what you say often gets lost when you don't know how to say it well.

But right now, let's remind ourselves that Practice Makes Progress.

Practicing Killer Presentations to Decrease Anxiety and Increase Success

Just imagine how a teen might feel knowing that no matter how difficult something is he or she will eventually always learn it or complete it. Skills create confidence. Confidence in own abilities breeds motivation. Success follows. 

I wrote many of the lessons in Crush School Student Guide: Learn Faster, Study Smarter, Remember More, and Make School Easier to increase my high school students' confidence. Now, I put these lessons in a book because I want all teens to have a resource they can go to any time they need to memorize 30 terms for a quiz, study for a big exam, complete a project, or create, practice, and deliver a killer presentation.

The book is now available on Amazon. I promise you that if your teens apply it, their learning and school experience will drastically change. 

It begins here. 

You have the power to change lives. Use it often so they can change the world.

Oskar

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Hi! I'm Oskar.          

I teach, write, speak, rant to make learning better for teens.

BLOG ARCHIVE:

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categories / Teaching
tags / teaching teens, parenting teens, brain, sharpness, clarity, brain rules, neuroscience, presentation, communication

Create Killer Presentations Your Audiences Will Love

July 16, 2018  /  Oskar Cymerman

The 3 types of presentations we've all been a part of:

  1. The kill me now type: Presentations done for the sake of filling time with an activity that seems productive but is a waste of time for everyone involved, including the presenter. We've all been there and want to forget. Luckily, they don't happen all that often and when they do, we've learned to use the weak bladder excuse to periodically stop the brain pain (the flight response). 

  2. The I think I heard something about it but forgot type: Content-rich presentations delivered in such a way that we forget most of what was taught even though we might have stayed engaged throughout. This is the type we experience most often. The presenter has good intentions but lacks the understanding of how to deliver a killer talk or multimedia presentation. 

  3. The killer type: Engaging presentations full of valuable content presented in such a way that we can remember and apply it to our work or personal life. They don't kill us. They kill IT. They cause us to have strong, positive, and hopefully appropriate feelings toward the presenter. We feel thankful, inspired, and challenged to action.

The infographic below is about the elusive presentation type - one that showcases the speaker's knowledge as much as skill. One, that proves he or she can communicate ideas in a way anyone can understand and apply them. One, that leaves us in awe of the presenter and wanting more because somehow, some way the presenter understands how the human brain learns and leverages it when creating the presentation. One, that we'll talk about to others. One, that leads to professional success because everyone wants that person on their team.

When employers talk about communication skills they specifically want an employee who communicates effectively, is engaging. and energizes others to act.

Below, is a start. My future posts will explain how to practice and deliver killer presentations. I hope I communicate my ideas effectively...

My new book Crush School Student Guide: Learn Faster, Study Smarter, Remember More, and Make School Easier contains 4 lessons designed to help students create, practice, and deliver effective presentations and avoid the dreaded "Death by PowerPoint." Each lesson contains exercises and examples. But I don't just tell students how to do it - I walk them through the process and provide a plan and a template to follow so they can create their presentation right in the book.

It's kind of like having a coach who helps you practice a skill after it's shown to you. In fact, all 60 chapters/lessons are designed for students to use the skills after they're described. The infographic below is merely an "information-delivery" medium. Applying it is the key to learning. Check it out!

Creating Killer Presentations Audiences Love

When writing Crush School Student Guide: Learn Faster, Study Smarter, Remember More, and Make School Easier, I wanted to create a resource a student can use for school and beyond. My goal was not only to write a book that helps teens learn more effectively while stressing less about school - I also set out to create a guide that helps them learn transferable skills they will need in college and later work. 

The infographic above is one of a series of three I use to teach students how to create, prepare for, and deliver more effective presentations.

If you're like me, you've sat through hours of mind-numbing PowerPoints or Google Slide presentations you remember little from. This is because the presenters did not know how to do it better. They were asked to give presentations in school but not taught how. They just did what their teachers did. I bet their information was valuable but it was delivered ineffectively.

Skills, such as effective presentation and communication of ideas are the biggest reasons why some individuals achieve great success and others stay stuck on the first few rungs of the professional ladder. As these skills are often an afterthought in high school and college, students who choose to learn them on their own rise above the average and advance in their future professions. 

Just take a look at the list below and think about how many of the skills below were deliberately taught in your high school and how much class time was spent analyzing how to improve them.

  • Creating, Preparing for, and Delivering Effective and Engaging (Killer) Presentations

  • Improving Critical Thinking

  • Better Decision-making

  • Becoming More Open-minded

  • Creativity and Innovation

  • Teamwork Basics and Creating Effective Teams

  • Setting Goals and Creating Plans

  • Understanding and Developing Habits

  • Training Memory

  • Speed Reading

  • Problem Solving

  • Project Completion

My guess is... not much. Chances are you were expected to use them but not explicitly taught how to or given a plan to improve. This realization of how inadequate schools are at skills instruction is what guides my writing.

The Crush School Student Guide is an all-in-one book, guide, and exercise manual that contains a series of short, fun, and easy to follow lessons designed to teach students skills needed for school and work success; skills required but not explicitly taught in today's schools.

Imagine your kids having a book that gives them:

  1. Over 60 strategies they can use to learn faster, study smarter, and remember (a lot) more of what they learn. 

  2. A self-paced fun way to learn how to learn and acquire success skills they'll be able to use in school and beyond.

  3. A reference guide that shows them how to use brain-friendly strategies to do better at school (understand difficult concepts, complete school projects, and study for tests).

It is now available on Amazon for pre-order. Just click here.

You have the power to change lives. Use it often so they can change the world.

Oskar

oc pro.png

Hi! I'm Oskar.          

I teach, write, speak, rant to make learning better.

BOOKS & TOOLS

BLOG ARCHIVE:

Comment
categories / Teaching
tags / teaching teens, parenting teens, brain, sharpness, clarity, brain rules, neuroscience, presentation, communication

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