I love this poster. In the FIE world, we actually value and teach how to learn from our mistakes. Too often school is a place where mistakes are dreaded because they impact a child's grade. Yet there is a group of people in the world who are PAID to make mistakes daily, over and over, and we call them geniuses.  Also known as inventors or researchers, these men and women may need years of errors to learn from before the big break through happens. But heaven forbid a child in 4th grade be given the same opportunity!  My favorite quote on this topic, "I have made mistakes over and over and over again and that is why I succeed!" comes from the icon of basketball, Mr. Michael Jordan. I had the pleasure of meeting Michael's mother just last week and you cannot be with this amazing woman for very long without recognizing that she is one of the reasons Michael succeeded. She helped him profit from his mistakes! They aren't to be feared, but to be embraced as a challenge for improvement. May your day be filled with mistakes...that you learn from!
All the Best,
Jeanne Zehr

"Wisdom is the tree of life," so says Proverbs 3:18 and if you visited Melbourne, Australia, you could witness wisdom at work through the heart and hands of the Independent Schools Victoria. This organization provides leadership and professional development to over 200 private schools in the southeastern state of Victoria.  ISV is an Authorized Training Center for the Feuerstein Programs and they are implementing wisely! I had the honor to provide 3 weeks of coaching and training.

As you can witness here, this was an exceptional group of thinkers who took the program motto of "just a moment...let me think" very seriously!  Thanks to an Australian government grant, ISV has the opportunity to train 2 staff members from each school. So these pictures represent principals, teachers, support staff, and psychologists. We had an amazing 3 weeks of challenge and growth!

Back in Indiana, new training sponsored by United Way of Allen county rolls out in January and February, 2014. Call 260-469-4002 and talk to Ruthie Krueger. She will give you all the details! Until then, mediate intentionally and with meaning my friends, and your students and clients will soar!

Happy summer to my FIE friends!  Mediation is going well in the world, especially for those people who attended the international workshops in Paris a few weeks ago. We had some new participating countries like Cuba and Turkey, which is wonderful. There is a new movement in Slovakia to assist the Roma people who have historically not fared well in the European educational systems. A small pilot study had excellent results by using the Feuerstein program to help keep students in school and succeeding academically! They hope to expand its use. Australian has some amazing implementations in several private schools. I leave for Melbourne on August 17 to provide training and coaching. It will be great to reconnect with the Aussies who were in my class in Paris! What a great bunch of educators!

Mediation Tip: remember that eye contact is part of being "intentional" with your mediation (for those students who do not find eye contact uncomfortable). Assess your own body language for how you are building a positive relationship and supportive mediation. With that established, you can then move into more challenging and intentional questioning.

All the Best from Indiana, Jeanne

Quote for the day comes from Anne Frank: How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

My mind is truly soaring! :) I am learning excellent methods of mediation for those in recovery from addictions or TBI (traumatic brain injury) or from PTSD. Amazingly enough, the mediation is not dramatically different because the impact these three have on the brain often result in the same type of bad neuronal wiring. One result from addiction, TBI. or PTSD can be loss of short term memory as well as a sense of hopelessness, as if this can't get any better. Many people have suffered for many years with no relief. Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment provides intensive experience at rewiring the brain to create new connections for strategic thinking with the amazing side effect of short term memory renewal. One week in April I received repeated texts from one such 44 year old client, Nick, who had a massive TBI from a motorcycle accident 20 years ago. His STM was basically not working. His wife and family simply assisted him in remembering where he put things, where he was supposed to go next, etc. After approximately 30 hours of FIE spread over 8 months in 90 minutes session per week, Nick's short term memory began working! His texts were ones of unbridled joy at his refound ability to  know those simple things the rest of us take for granted. Where did I put my keys? What tool did my boss say to go get from the truck? Where did I hide the candy from my kids, etc. Are there still forgetful moments? Yes, but they are fewer and farther apart. We continue doing FIE, especially with more rigor. We do the Organizationof Dots program with our left hand. We find and hold the 3 models in our mind before we connect the dots of the first shape. Our next challenge will be to create NEW dot challenges for one another to solve!  We have a session tonight and we will begin an activity that requires all the cognitive functions, reflective writing using paper and pencil in a journal, not computer composition. Oh the joy of helping minds soar!

It was a happy and sad week to wrap up FIE BASIC training with an incredible group of dedicated people!  On May 23 we will complete the 5 days for FIE Standard trainees. Its always a mixed bag when I finish a training. Fear of what I forgot to cover, joy for the level of commitment I sense, frustration over how to get it all done, surprise at what the trainees both do and do not know! And there is just the wonder of it all -people coming together who want to help other people become all they can be!

Pam Hull spent a full week - and I mean really full week - visiting agencies and ministries that are implementing FIE. I think she left town impressed with the high caliber of people we have who have enormous hearts and energy to match to help the clientele they serve, whether it be preschoolers, children with disabilities, youth with life issues, or adults in recovery. Everyone shared their passion with Pam, the director from Atlanta who organizes training for people who want to join our friendly revolution for changing the world into a place that promotes cognitive change - also known as dendrite popping!  Visit the Southeastern Center for the Enhancement of Learning at www.scel.org for more info and  to sign up for the upcoming training in June. You will enjoy the southern hospitality of FIE training in Atlanta, Georgia!

Cudos to those 2 guys: Cary and Nick!  They have been working hard at Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment and both have experienced significant improvement in short term memory and learning.  Both guys suffer from TBI - traumatic brain injury, but you wouldn't know it to meet them. They are both married, raising families, working at their jobs and living life to the fullest!  They have had a significant last 8 months, however, as their minds have come out of the fog and into the light of mediated learning!!  Cheers to their hard work and new neurons and dendrites!