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.

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.

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

3 Resources for Learning New Skills Faster (for Teens, Teachers, and Other Pros)

August 01, 2018  /  Oskar Cymerman

3 Resources for Learning New Skills Faster

School or work can be a grind. This is true if you’re just starting out a new journey or if you’re a seasoned pro. It’s rare to be able to automate whatever you do, spend 4 hours a week working, and make a decent living doing so. But while you have to put in the time, it’s important to learn how to put in smart time, not more time into your school, job, or business.

One of the most effective ways to do that is to learn. Learn about learning, learn about working, learn about the business, the trends, the people… Learn and apply what you learn constantly and you will get ahead of the curve.

Here are the three learning resources that will help you learn quicker and make your grind easier.

1. Videos on Steroids

You know YouTube and other video platforms offer a lot of learning in the area you are currently developing more expertise in, but chances are you don’t always have the time to watch thirty, forty, or fifty-minute films. Check out the hack below you might not have thought of to save you time and speed your learning up.

Your Time-Saving, Faster-Learning Hack

Click on the Gear icon next to the CC button on the bottom right of the YouTube video you’re about to watch. Change the speed from “Normal” to 1.5x. You will still easily understand the content but receive it 50% faster. A 30-minute video just became a 20-minute one.

But if you increase the speed to 2x and really focus, you will be able to make 1-hour long videos into 30-minute learning sessions. It will sound like you’re being taught by Alvin and the Chipmunks at first and might require some getting used to, but you will reach a point at which listening at twice the speed is seamless. This is because the human brain is capable of absorbing information much faster than it usually receives it.

2. Blinkist

“Big ideas in small packages.”

Blinkist is a company that takes the best nonfiction books on all topics imaginable and turns them into “blinks” or short chapters filled with only the key content of each book. All you have to do is download the Blinkist app, subscribe, and start reading text or listening to audio that summarizes books in your field of interest in 15-minutes. Try it free for 7 days here.

Blinkist is my secret super weapon - this is how I learn about a variety of topics (but mostly the brain and learning) faster.

Listen to these quick devoid-of-fluff audiobooks in your car or while doing chores and increase the speed to supercharge your learning.

3. The Kwik Brain Podcast

Jim Kwik is a guy who survived two brain injuries, learned to read 2 years after his peers did, and struggled in school. Then, he discovered accelerated learning and started teaching his college peers how to learn faster. Now, he teaches everyone to read faster, remember better, and many other accelerated learning techniques via his website and podcast Kwik Brain.

Give it a listen at 1.5x to 2x the speed and get a little smarter in under 10 minutes for free. 

Jim is a hero of mine. I learned many of the things I teach my students and write about to help their teachers and parents from him. In fact, I use several Kwik Brain episodes to teach teens how to learn more effectively in my book Crush School Student Guide: Learn Faster, Study Smarter, Remember More, and Make School Easier. 

And if you buy my book here before midnight Friday, August 3rd I will give you an extra copy and a gift that supports your child's learning further for FREE. Just pay $7 for shipping. This offer is gone in less than 2 days.

And if you already purchased one, or simply value the work I do, you can help me get the word out about the Crush School Student Guide to other teachers and parents of teens.

Here are the 3 easy ways you can help:

  1. Simply tell others who can benefit from the book about it - teachers who need lessons to teach study skills and parents of teens.

  2. Tweet. Super easy - just click: Share on Twitter below.

  3. Share on Facebook. Easy. Click on Share on Facebook below and Copy/Paste this text: Check out this book to help teach teens how to crush it in high school. Free Bonuses Inside.

  4. Do all three! You will have my gratitude forever :)

Thank you and I appreciate you!

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

Hi! I'm Oskar.          I teach, write, and speak to make learning better.

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BOOKS & TOOLS

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categories / Learning, Parenting
tags / teaching teens, parenting teens, deeper learning, independence, lifelong learning, simplicity, skills, success skills, learning, making life easier, kids

How to Read 50% Faster [Free Lesson for Teens]

July 31, 2018  /  Oskar Cymerman

How fast do you read?

read faster

read faster

Fast?

Medium?

Slow?

Chances are you never measured your reading speed. Experts say we read 200-250 words per minute on average. But whatever your reading speed is you probably learned to read at the speed you read at now before you entered middle school.

Unless you intentionally tried to increase your reading speed in between then and now, it hasn't changed since you were a pre-teen.

Typically, we get instructed on how to read in elementary school, and once we're fluent and most of us can go through a reading without major stumbles, it is deemed that we know how to read.

And we do.

But guess what? You can read much faster.

All you have to do is know how to train. And fear not - this does not involve some sketchy skimming (and not understanding or remembering anything) tactics.

Don't believe me?

Fine.

Pick up a book you're currently reading and a timer. Read it for 60 seconds. Count the number of lines you read. Write it down.

Now, start where you left off. This time, read faster.

It sounds really weird, I know. Trust me. Start the timer and read at a pace that is faster than your usual pace. Make yourself read faster! Do it! 

Now, count the number of lines you read. Write it down.

If you did this without the skepticism I sometimes get from students I do this presentation with, you read faster. What happened is that you just realized that you always read slower than you're capable of.

The title says 50% faster but it's an underestimation. I did not want to overpromise. I wanted to overdeliver. 

From experience, I know there were several readers out there who read 50% faster than normal just now with the same or better comprehension and memory. 

You see, the human brain is capable of processing information at a much higher rate than most of us feed it at when reading. In fact, when we read faster we tend to focus and engage more, which improves comprehension and memory.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Of course, to make sure you keep reading at your new, faster pace, you must do it every time you read until you internalize it. For some, it will become a habit in 2 weeks, while it will take more like 2 months for others.

Reading just 50% faster will allow you to read 3 books in the same amount of time it took you to read 2 before.

But you can do better. Much better.

Just do the lesson I developed for my new book Crush School Student Guide: Learn Faster, Study Smarter, Remember More, and Make School Easier.

It involves using a visual pacer, which is a fairly basic speed-reading technique.

But it works.

Here's Read Faster #1.

There are 2 more lessons on fast reading in the book.

Just a quick reminder that Crush School Student Guide, my new learning how to learn book for teens, is now available on Amazon.

If you buy it here before Friday, August 3rd I will give you an extra copy and a gift that supports your child's learning further for FREE. Just pay $7 for shipping.

And if you already purchased one or simply value the work I do, you can help me get the word out about the Crush School Student Guide to other teachers and parents of teens.

Here are the 3 easy ways you can help:

  1. Simply tell others who can benefit from the book about it - teachers who need lessons to teach study skills and parents of teens.

  2. Tweet. Super easy - just click: Share on Twitter below.

  3. Share on Facebook. Easy. Click on Share on Facebook below and Copy/Paste this text: Check out this book to help teach teens how to crush it in high school. Free Bonuses Inside.

  4. Do all three! You will have my gratitude forever :)

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

Hi! I'm Oskar.          I teach, write, and speak to make learning better.

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BOOKS & TOOLS

Comment
categories / Learning
tags / teaching teens, parenting teens, deeper learning, independence, lifelong learning, simplicity, skills, success skills, learning, making life easier, kids