Archive for the ‘What can Dr. Doug do for you?’ Category

Three Tips for Opening a Flourishing Business While Caring for Your Baby by Emily Graham
Welcoming your baby into the world is one of the most exciting and memorable times of your life. However, this amazing yet exhausting time can prove extra stressful when trying to get a company off the ground. If you want to make your business ownership dreams a reality and still bond with your bundle of joy, these tips from Dr. Doug Green’s blog can help.

1. Prep the Night Before
Preparing as much as you can at night for the following day saves you time and helps your professional and personal tasks go much smoother the next day. Make a list of tasks that can be done ahead of time.

Lay out the baby’s outfitbaby’s outfit the night before with a couple of spares in case of accidents. Have clean burp rags handy, and stock diapers and wipes. Make sure bottles are clean and any frozen milk is put in the fridge to defrost. 

Be sure your clothes are also ready for the next day. If you have a coffee maker that runs on a timer, load the coffee and set the timer, so your cup of joe is hot and ready when you awake. Prep as much food as possible so that when it is time to eat, your entree is mostly or completely done. 

2. Redesign Your Office
Whether your office space is an entire room or the corner of your bedroom, update your workspace to accommodate your little one. There are times throughout the day you pull double duty as a parent and entrepreneur, so a few tweaks to your office can make the adjustment much easier.
 
Add a rocker or bouncer to the office, such as a baby swing or bassinet. According to What to Expect, babies sleep 12 to 17 hours every 24 hours, depending on their ages. So chances are, your kiddo is going to take some naps throughout the day. This gives the baby a place to snooze while you are hard at work.

Have a mat and box of toys ready to go should your little one want to play. You may need to add a fence once your tike becomes mobile. Finally, be sure to remove any breakable or dangerous objects from the baby’s play zone. 

If the office is simply not functioning for the two of you, it may be time to list your home and purchase one that meets your needs. If you are going to own a business, you must be able to work comfortably while keeping your child safe. Make a list of the new office requirements for your real estate agent so he or she knows exactly what you need. 

3. Utilize Helpful Services and Tools
Finding help takes a portion of work off your plate. A great example is a formation service that can help you complete and process a limited liability company application. Setting your business up as an LLC has numerous advantages, including less paperwork, limited liability, increased flexibility, and tax advantages.The regulations around forming an LLC vary by state, so know your state’s rules before proceeding. Once you are ready to move forward, hiring a formation service saves you lots of time; plus, you avoid the hefty fees that a law office charges. 

Look for ways to make your business more cost and time efficient. Instead of hiring a graphic designer, you can use a logo design tool to create free online logos. This tool offers thousands of professionally designed logos that you can customize. Or you can use images, icons, and other design elements to enhance your current logo. And a PDF joiner may help to organize the multiple documents you and your team are juggling for a client. Instead of searching through dozens of digital documents, you can merge PDFs into one living document during your team’s process. Then, you can formalize the document and it will be ready for your client.

While this momentous time in your life may have more stress than you would like, you can still have a flourishing career as a business owner and be a dedicated parent. Following these three tips can help you achieve success both in the workforce and at home. And you can visit Dr. Doug Green for additional tips for parents and EDUCATORS.

Emily Graham
Emily is the creator of MightyMoms.Net. She believes being a mom is one of the hardest jobs around and wanted to create a support system for moms from all walks of life. On her site, she offers a wide range of info tailored for busy moms — from how to reduce stress to creative ways to spend time together as a family. You can email her at emilygraham@mightymoms.net. She lives in Arizona.

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Tony Blair on Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century summarizes what Tony has learned as prime minister of the UK from 1997 to 2007 and consulting with leaders in many other countries as head of the Tony Blair Institute. Although this book is written for aspiring politicians, I believe that each short chapter contains timeless lessons for leaders and potential leaders in any field.

Introduction

• When leaders take over, most listen carefully as they know they have a lot to learn. The second stage occurs when they have become acclimated and start to think they know everything. In the final stage, they realize that what they know is not the sum total of the necessary knowledge associated with their leadership scope.
• Tony has concluded that the key attributes of leadership are the same whatever the leadership position. While politics has its place, it isn’t the same as leadership. Giving people what they want is not always what they need. Leaders need to do what is in the best interests of the lives they touch.

Part I: Taking Power – 1. Be the Leader with the Plan

• You must have a plan. It needs to contain your destination, milestones, and priorities and accurately describe the essentials of what you want to achieve. Priorities are essential as if you try to do everything, you just might do nothing. Change takes time and you will need to consider mid-course corrections as you move along. Not all of what you plan is likely to work as intended.

2. Make the Center Strong

• The skill set you need as a leader is not the same as the skill set that gets you the job. A strong center is needed to initiate and carry though on a change. The most important person is the one who runs your schedule. Leaders are constantly being asked for their time and if they can’t say no, they need someone who can. Meetings and events can be real time suckers. Leave them as soon as you can. Be sure to make time for yourself to recharge and time for your family.

3. Prioritization: Try to Do Everything and You Will Likely Do Nothing

• Once you get your leadership position, ask what you would like to accomplish the most. You can work back from these items to set your priorities. Tony sees five as a good number. Your followers will all have their pet projects. While they may not be at the top of your list, they don’t need to know that. Priorities have to be doable. Be sure to perform a feasibility check on each one. This process may not be easy, but it deserves your attention along with all of the uplifting rhetoric of hope you can summon.

4. Good Policy Is (Nearly) Always Good Politics

• Always put policy first and politics second. Avoid maters of ideology and convenience when crafting policy. Policy should be evidence-based. Work hard to do research so you know what you are talking about. Always think about a topic as if you were the person most impacted. Good policy strives to make change that will last rather than a quick splash. Be sure to look outside of your organization (country/school) for bright ideas and be sure to think ahead.

5. It’s All About the People

• The people Tony refers to here are the people who directly report to you. They need to be smart, hard working, loyal to you and to each other, and able to handle stress. Internal debate is healthy, not disruptive. Don’t reject someone just because they are smarter than you. Be sure to promote your most talented people. They are more likely to challenge you if you don’t. Effort you put in to finding the right people may be the most important thing you do..

6. Curb Your Bureaucracy by Cultivating It

• As a leader, you will have a bureaucracy to deal with so you need to get to know what it does and doesn’t do. bureaucracies tend to be permanent while the leader tends to be temporary. They are not known for creativity or innovation. Be clear about results, delivery, and on getting things done and the system will adjust. Look for opportunities to re-skill and retrain it. Don’t expect it to be a substitute for a leader and a team.

Part II: Delivery – 7. Democracy or Not, It’s All About Delivery

• As a leader, your success will be judged by what you deliver. The real test of government is making change that works, which is delivery. If you can deliver a higher quality of life with improved health care, education, and security, you should be reelected. Governments turnover due to instability, which is caused by the failure to deliver. People sometimes accept a strong man because the know that something will get done. Corruption is the enemy of delivery.

8. The Supreme Importance of Strategy

• Strategy assists in the long-term fulfillment of your overall plan. Without a strategy, failure is likely. Tactics are the smaller decisions that you make on a daily basis. It’s important that they align with your long-term strategy. You have to reconcile your day-to-day tactics to your core strategy. When fundamental facts change, but sure to see if you need to adjust your strategy. You should seldom discard it altogether.

9. Be a Change-Maker, Not a Place-Holder

• The world is changing fast. If you are standing still, you get left behind. If you are an elected leader, you probably got elected by promising to make some changes. Appointed leaders may have the same expectations. You need to create a constituency for your change so you have some support. Consider how you can break big changes into a series of smaller ones and take them incrementally. Consider how changes will benefit the consumers rather than the providers.

10. Le Suivi: Delivering

• Two things are necessary here. The priorities you choose must be measurable and you must be able to harvest reliable data so you can show that you accomplished your priority. When it comes to delivery, the leader needs to be actively involved. The leader need not do all of the work, but the leader must know what’s happening.

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Top 10 Tips for Test Preparation by Craig Middleton offers sound advice for parents so they can help their children do their best on tests given by their teachers and standardized tests like the SAT and the ACT.

Testing scores are an important part of any child’s school experience. These scores allow a regular classroom teacher to evaluate a student’s progress and recognize any areas that may need more attention or improvements. Testing is an effective way to measure progress and to make sure that the child is able to communicate effectively. It can also be a way to recognize and discover learning disabilities in certain situations. Testing is also important when it comes to pursuing higher education as it is a big factor in college admissions. To ensure that your child does his or her best, take measures to ensure that they are adequately prepared for any tests so that they may do their best.

Sleep

• Proper sleep is absolutely necessary, especially on the night before a big and important test. If your child is well-rested they are more easily able to focus and concentrate on the test.

Breakfast

• Breakfast is another essential part of preparing for a test day. Make sure that your child has had a good breakfast the morning of the test so that they are full and have the energy they need to stay alert. Hunger can be distracting and lead to sub-optimal performance.

Organization

• Good organization is another tip in preparing for a test. Make sure that your child has all the necessary testing materials such as pencils, erasers, pens, calculators, and any other equipment that has been recommended. Have all of these things gathered ahead of time and ready to go to avoid last-minute stress and scrambling to find missing items.

Tutoring

• A good way to prep for testing is to get additional instruction. Tutoring in addition to regular classroom preparation may help the child achieve greater results. Consider this option for ongoing education but especially for ACT Prep.

Positive Attitude

• Stay positive and make sure that you maintain an upbeat attitude for both yourself and your child. Be a good example and show them that the test is necessary and important, but not a reason to become upset and dread what is to come. Help them keep an elevated mood so they’re excited and ready to go.

Teacher Conferences

• Consider having regular conferences with a student’s teacher. This will keep you up-to-date on their current academic levels and let you know if any additional instruction would be beneficial. Conferences open communication with the teacher to allow you both to work together more efficiently and will give you an idea of what to expect for future performance.

Relax

• t’s also important to make sure that your child is relaxed. Ensure that they are not overly anxious over the upcoming test. Help your child to stay calm and be mentally prepared so the stress doesn’t become overwhelming.

Homework

• Make sure the child is current with all of their homework. Having all the work done on time will help them learn to be responsible and prepared and will keep you up-to-date with the materials that may be covered on the tests.

Test Format

• Test formats can vary greatly and if your child is already stressed over the thought of taking a test, an unexpected or new format may cause them unnecessary anxiety. Make sure that the student is familiar with the test format so there are no surprises and so that you are sure they understand how to fill out the form and complete all tasks.

Practice Tests

• Take advantage of any practice tests that may be available. Many of the larger tests, such as the ACT, offer practice tests, or you can create your own for smaller tests. A practice test will give your child an idea of test format, time limits, and topics that will be covered. This allows the students to be better prepared and comfortable so they can relax and do their best.
• The more prepared your child is the more likely they are to do well on their tests. Familiarize yourself with the entire procedure so that you can help your child prepare and reach their full potential.

Craig Middleton

• Craig is a New York City-based retired business consultant, who is an expert in education and cultural trends. He has a Masters of Business Administration and a Masters in Education from St. Johns and loves sharing his knowledge on the side through his writing. If you have any questions or comments you can direct them to Craig at craigmiddleton18@gmail.com.

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Uncommon Sense Teaching: Practical Insights in Brain Science to Help Students Learn by Barbara Oakley, Beth Rogowsky, and Terrence Sejnowsk
t explains how the brain works when it learns. It also offers lots of practical real world advice for teachers and learners of all ages. No school professional development library should be without it.

1. Building Memory: How Students Fool Themselves into Thinking They’re Learning

• Information in working memory generally goes away when we stop thinking about it. This can fool students into thinking they really know something. What they need to do is right after they have encountered new information, they should see if they can retrieve it from long-term memory. Retrieval practice is one of the best techniques for strengthening new information in long-term memory. The more times you retrieve something the stronger your memory of it will be. Students should jot notes about what they just learned and compare their notes with other students. Retrieving information from previous days or weeks is called spaced repetition, which further strengthens long-term memory.

2. Teaching Inclusively: The Importance of Working Memory

• Not all students have the same amount of working memory. For those with less, it’s vital to build their long-term memory, which will make the short-term memory they have more efficient. Working memory increases over time until children reach the age of about 14. Engaging students’ interests makes learning more effective while stress gets in the way.
• Slower learners can benefit from reteaching, giving them more time to practice, giving them outlines to take notes on, and breaking things down into simpler steps. For faster learners go beyond factual questions, have them work together, increase the complexity of assignments, have extra activities for them to do, and let them devise their own activities. This helps you differentiate your teaching. In all cases, active practice should break up teacher talk.

3. Active Learning: The Declarative Pathway

• Research shows that active learning is much more effective than simply listening to an expert. Note that not all hands-on activities are considered to be active learning. Active Learning engages students in the process of learning through activities and/or discussions in class. It emphasizes higher-order thinking and often involves group work. The foundation for conceptual understanding and creative thinking is the storage of basic facts and procedures in long-term memory. Note-taking and retrieval practice facilitate this process.
• Long-term memories are stored in the neocortex, which is the big front and top of your brain. The process is facilitated by the hippocampus, which is composed of two small bean-shaped pieces at the base. It acts as an index while the connections of neurons that store memories are being made. Retrieving recently stored memories serves to help consolidate the information. Much of this consolidation occurs while we are sleeping. Brief breaks of even less than a minute can help students make sense of new material. Index links from the hippocampus dissolve after a while, which is why cramming the night before doesn’t work as there is no time for consolidation.
• Frequent formative assessments, low-stakes tests, homework, and exercises can all help with retrieval. Daily physical exercise of an hour or more helps with the formation of neuron connections. Be sure to tap into prior knowledge. Use the think-pair-share method when teaching. Students will find that working in pairs or groups of three or four is more effective than larger-sized groups. If possible, pick a shy person from a group with the right answer (or a good answer) to present to the class.

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