Rothacker Reviews

Dinosaur Tipping

The dinosaur stood in the middle of the road - fast asleep...

"Hey Jimmy, do you think you could read my book?  And if you like it, could you write about it at our forum?"

"Sure thing Billy."

Jimmy began to read Billy's book, which was really a marketing program in the form of a story.  Within ten minutes he knew that it was more different than anything he'd seen in his industry.  He devoured the book and wrote a passionate review.  In fact, Jimmy's review was so strong, those riding the status-quo scooter could feel Jimmy grab them by the ears and shout, "wake up!"

Later, Billy called Jimmy and told him how he sold fifteen of the one-hundred and thirty dollar books and had leads for twenty more immediately following the review.  Billy was so happy and thankful that he could hardly contain himself.  Jimmy, eight-hundred miles away in a quiet basement, began to cry after hanging up with Billy.

It wasn't so much Billy's thanks.  It was the emotion that surrounded it.  Jimmy knew he'd made a difference in Billy's business and life...and tipped a dinosaur from his path.

Karen Wallace, at Joyful Jubilant Learning, talks about the ability to make a difference in the lives of others and whether or not you believe that you can.   Karen bares her inner self in eloquent and beautiful fashion to demonstrate her own learning journey.

Note to Karen:

Karen,

The above story is true.  Jimmy told me so.  He also said that for the rest of his life, whether or not he receives such an emotion packed response again, he knows that he has the ability to make a difference in people's lives.

I cannot imagine that participant in your class not delivering his feedback without some emotion.  Allow yourself to feel that emotion.  And allow it to tenderly take hold of your heart and tickle tears from your eyes.  You can make a difference in the lives of others and tip dinosaurs from their path.
 

Joyful Jubilant Learning: The Learning Journal

To move forward we must learn and retain some things along the way.

The Learning Journal / Worksheet

How do you remember what you read?  How do you learn?  Personally, I must have highlighters, paper, pencils and pens near me while I am reading.  My brain gets this warm, fuzzy feeling when I write notes about what I read.  I'll write in the book, on a piece of paper that might eventually get tossed or in a notebook.  What if you had a way to organize your thoughts on a piece of paper?  What if this worksheet were to guide your learning experience?

Tim Milburn has designed and created such a worksheet.  In Project # 1  at Joyful Jubilant Learning, Tim provides a free download and explains each section of the worksheet.

I've lived in a left brained world for the first forty years of my life.  Very organized, very detail oriented.  So when I saw Tim's work, the rigid and structured brain cells hanging out in the left brain part of my head almost did a jig!  Almost did a jig, left brain cells don't do dance.  But, at least I was trying to imagine this jig going on inside my head when WHAM!!!!, I feel this train barrel into my brain from the other side.  Right Brain Train.  Outta control. 

What If?

What if I were to create a design-type notebook incorporating Tim's Learning Journal worksheet?  Lets say the goal is to try and learn something about a subject.  Paste pictures and photographs in your notebook that remind you of your subject.  Your right brain is playing and creating this part so nothing here needs to make perfect logical sense.  Feel free to draw, sketch and color stuff around your pasted material.  Now, weave the Learning Journal worksheets into your notebook.  The material on your worksheets follow whatever it is that you are trying to learn.  It could be notes taken from a class, from a chapter out of a textbook, from an Internet based program or from a DVD. 

The idea here is to introduce each side of the brain to each other and then let them work together to learn something.