A true 8 Keys success story is the McPherson School District in Kansas. The school district has embraced Quantum Learning and the 8 Keys of Excellence for more than 10 years.

Former McPherson district superintendent, Randy Watson was and remains a champion of the 8 Keys of Excellence. Mr. Watson saw the role the 8 Keys could play as the character component of the “C3 initiative” he was developing. This initiative, which stands for Citizenship, College, and Career Readiness, brought cohesion to the district, increased the partnerships with local businesses, amplified their RTI efforts, reshaped their approach to discipline, and gained the only broad-based waiver from NCLB (No Child Left Behind) under the then-Secretary of Education, Arnie Duncan.

Mr. Watson’s visionary approach and proven success at improving student achievement led to him being elevated to the role of Kansas state education commissioner in 2014. He had been the district’s superintendent since 1993, and prior to that, was a teacher and principal within the state for many years.

After the 8 Keys were well established in the district, dignitaries from the state of Kansas, from the Kansas Department of Education, and from the US Department of Education visited McPherson to see what was happening. When they were greeted by the principal at one of the middle schools he said,

Through our Quantum Learning Education division, we continue to work with school districts nationwide on integrating the 8 Keys of Excellence in schools’ character development curriculum, so we can create more 8 Keys success stories. As we do so, the 8 Keys will remain at the core of all of our SuperCamp programs in the U.S. and worldwide.

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The Key of the Month is Balance—Live your best life. Be mindful of self and others while focusing on what’s meaningful and important in your life. Inner happiness and fulfillment come when your mind, body, and emotions are nurtured by the choices you make.

It’s the classic story about balance—one you may have run across before:

An American tourist traveled to a Mexican fishing village.

One day, the tourist noticed a fisherman unloading several tuna from his skiff. The tourist complimented the fisherman on his glistening catch, asking how long it took him to catch the fish.

“Only a little while,” replied the fisherman. “All I need is a few fish to support my family.”

The tourist looked baffled. “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The fisherman shrugged, “I sleep in every day, play with my grandkids, take a siesta, and spend time with my wife. In the evenings, I go out drinking and singing with my friends. I have a full life.”

The tourist scoffed, “I have an MBA from Harvard, and I can help you. You should spend more time catching fish. With the extra money, you can buy a bigger boat.”

“And after that?”

“With the extra money from the bigger boat, you can buy two or three boats and eventually hire more people to operate a fleet of fishing trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can start to negotiate directly with the processing plants.  After a while you would be able to open your own plant. Then you could leave this little village for Mexico City and eventually, New York! From there you could operate the whole enterprise.”

 “And after that?”

“Well my friend, that’s when the fun starts,” explained the tourist, “When the business gets really big, you can sell stock in the company and make millions!”

“Wow, millions. What happens after that?” asked the fisherman.

“Then you can retire to a small Mexican fishing village, where you can sleep in every day, fish a little, play with your grandkids, take a siesta, and spend time with you wife.  In the evenings you can go out drinking and singing with your friends.”

The fisherman just shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

The fisherman is the hero of this story. He throws conventional wisdom about wealth and success to the wind in exchange for a simple, leisurely life with plenty of time to play.

But is that what a balanced life really looks like?

In the 8 Keys of Excellence framework, balance is about identifying your values and making choices that honor those values, your own well-being, and the well-being of others.  It means saying “no” to certain opportunities so you can say “yes” to others.

Balance is also about being flexible. Balance makes room for the natural ebb and flow of life. For example, you may have to skip your workout session one week to finish an important work project. But maybe the next week your work load is lighter and you have time to squeeze in an extra cardio session.

That’s why it’s so hard to nail down exactly what a balanced life looks like. We’re all going to make different choices based on our unique values, and even within our individual lives, priorities are going to vary from day to day and year to year.

Perhaps the takeaway is not that we all need to give up our career ambitions and go live on a beach in Mexico. But rather that we need to clarify our values and honor them in the lives we create.

For some of us, honoring our values will lead us to something akin to the fisherman’s life. But for others, we may find ourselves living the life of the American tourist. Whatever our values are, let’s make Balance one of them.

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The Key of the month is Flexibility: Be willing to do things differently.

Recognize what’s not working and be willing to change what you’re doing to achieve your goal!

You’re working on a science project, and the cotton ball cloud parts simply will not stick to the cardboard. You glue, let it dry, it falls out. You glue, let it dry, it falls out. After a while, it would seem a bit crazy to just keep using the same glue when you’re getting the same results, right? This is where flexibility comes in.

The key of flexibility is about maintaining the ability to change what you’re doing in order to get the outcome you desire. If your current strategy isn’t working, try something different! Keep trying  until you find what works.

In our everyday situations, we need to look at our actions to see whether we are being rigid or flexible. If a set of actions repeatedly fails to help us reach our goal, then it’s time to change our strategy.

It’s not always easy to recognize or admit that we’re doing something that just isn’t working. The first step to being flexible is admitting that something needs to change. Remove your ego from your actions and take an objective look at what you’re doing. See your failure as feedback, use that valuable information to make adjustments, and move on! By exploring numerous potential solutions, you’ll discover avenues for success that you never would have previously considered.

How have you used the key of flexibility? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section. Click “leave a reply” at the top of this page!

Without flexibility, we’re all bound to go a little insane!

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For many years at SuperCamp, parents would ask us if we could start a program for them, to help them learn what their child is learning at SuperCamp. So we designed an intensive SuperCamp ‘crash course’ Parent Workshop for our SuperCamp parents to continue the positive SuperCamp experience and skills upon returning home with their grads.

We enjoy teaching parents many of the learning and life skills their students discover at SuperCamp. Here are nine great tips/reminders for parents to support their children at home and help motivate teens throughout the school year:

1. Really listen. Don’t try to listen while doing something else. Put your chores aside so your teen knows you are paying attention.

2. Take the long view. Remember, minor mishaps aren’t major catastrophes. All incidents provide opportunities to practice good communication. Often, categorizing incidents according to their importance will help keep responses and consequences appropriate. Choose only the most important issues to evoke the strongest consequences.

3. Make time for being together. Find activities you enjoy doing together and pursue them. If your invitation gets turned down, keep trying.

4. Tolerate differences. View your teenager as an individual distinct from you. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t state your opinion if you disagree.

5. Respect your teen’s privacy. Just because he/she wants to keep their door locked, doesn’t mean he/she is doing anything you wouldn’t approve of. But if a behavior is worrying you, speak up.

6. State facts instead of opinions when you praise or discuss problems. Ask your teen to demonstrate “OTFD” – a communication tool we use at SuperCamp.

O – is an objective observation about the situation.
T – is a thought or opinion about what you observed.
F – is a feeling you had about what you observed.
D – is what you want, your desire or outcome of the situation.

Practicing this together is great for keeping the doors open!

7. Ask your teen about his/her learning style. Knowing there are differences goes a long way toward explaining why we have problems understanding and communicating with some people and not with others. When you know what cues he/she picks up on most easily (visual, auditory or kinesthetic), you can take steps to help him/her learn faster and more easily.

8. Support a positive attitude about learning. Create a positive study environment that includes appropriate reference materials, music and reminders that he/she is intelligent (like old report cards, awards, notes from teachers). It is also helpful to demonstrate your own positive feelings about learning.

9. Celebrate success! Positive feedback goes a long way to encourage repeat behavior. Each accomplishment by a family member deserves acknowledgement, whether verbal or by means of a special treat, like a trip to the movies, a special dessert, or posting on the bulletin board.

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Bobbi DePorter, teen motivation and accelerated learning expert, has changed the lives of over four million kids through her SuperCamp and Quantum Learning school programs. SuperCamp is a learning and life skills summer program with more than 53,000 graduates in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America. Quantum Learning is an accelerated learning-based teaching and learning methodology that has helped improve thousands of schools and districts across the nation. Bobbi is the author of more than a dozen books, including The Seven Biggest Teen Problems and how to turn them into Strengths (An Insider’s Look at What Works with Teens). 

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Before lunch, each team presented to each other and voted on which of the partnerships would represent the group in the competition. It was difficult with so many excellent business ideas and everyone having worked so hard, but each team finally did. This was a good opportunity in and of itself to get a glimpse of some of the tough choices required in business.

I was so impressed by the variety and creativity of each of these partnerships business and charitable causes they selected:

• B.E.A.R.S. (Bears Encouraging Awareness Regarding Safety), a buy one-get one teddy bear program, presented by Sterling and Courtney, to provide teddy bears to abused children.
• Cascara, scented sunscreen, presented by Peyton and Uto, to benefit skin cancer research.
• Clique In, a new social media site to find social events in your area, presented by Gary and Simon, benefitting ASPCA to end animal abuse.
• Dot 2 Dot, a job matching website, presented by Izzy and James, to help Seattle Foundation to aid local employment efforts.
• Grenna Blics decorative blind decals, presented by Chris and Samantha, to help provide cataract surgeries in third world countries.
• ITS (In The Spotlight), an artist promotion site, presented by Ethan and Nolen, to benefit Art & Fashion and SavingMusic, which helps underprivileged schools arts programs.
• L.I.C. (Leadership Integrity Courage), a T-Shirt company to support Veterans and show pride and gratitude for their service, presented by Blake, to benefit Veterans.
• Maji Safi water bottles, presented by Tracy and Steven, to provide clean water in Africa.
• Part II, designer fundraising bracelets, presented by Alyssa and Drew, to help give the homeless a second chance at success.
• PineappleBanana, a script analysis website for aspiring writers, presented by Uri and Tommy, and benefitting Teach For America for educational equity.
• Salvaged Wallet, wallets made of recycled materials, presented by Darian and Johnny, to help provide sanitation in third world countries.
• Tea Day, presented by Madeleine, to help provide clean water in Africa.

We had round one of our SuperBizCamp Business Plan Competition this afternoon, where each partnership presented before their team and our three judges. Following their 8-minute presentation, each business partnership fielded questions and received feedback to further refine their presentations and continue to teach the finer points. Every judge agreed that every single business that these partnerships presented could easily succeed if they pursued them.

Following dinner, we returned to our main room and the five semi-finalists were announced. It came down to Cascara, Clique In, Dot 2 Dot, Grenna Blics and Part II. Each team did an exceptional job presenting and their scores were all within a couple points of each other but Grenna Blics won out, taking home the $3,000 seed-money prize.

That evening was our last at SuperBizCamp. It was bittersweet indeed and many tears were shed, as students reflected on the week, their new friendships, their futures together and their impending separation to return home. I still cannot believe the powerful connections this group of teenagers made in just one week. The teens determined to have a reunion in one year and to encourage each other to pursue in their businesses in the meantime.

Graduation was awesome, of course, and more tears were shed by students and parents alike. I expect to see each of these teen entrepreneurs on the cover of Forbes someday. I am looking forward to next year when I can see what they’ve accomplished and hope to get updates in the meantime. Until then, keep your eyes open for these products and help support these young entrepreneurs!

The post LIVE from SuperBizCamp – part 2 appeared first on SuperCamp.

I don’t know if it was my dashing good looks or my rave review of SuperCamp Junior Forum last week, but I got the chance to come back for the second half of SuperBizCamp and OH-MY-GOSH, IT IS AWESOME! Really, talk about a great day at work! Yes, I work for SuperCamp so you might think I am biased, but I’m hoping the caps and exclamation points portray my sincere appraisal of this new SuperBizCamp program!!!!!

I arrived at this morning and the students were hard at work in their business partnerships. I took the opportunity to snap some photos and ask some questions and came away impressed. These teenagers (ranging from 14- to 19-years-old) are getting great business principles and practical application and are absorbing it all like CEO’s in the making.

They are engrossed in their projects and always eager to know when they’ll have more time to work on them, including skipping their cell phone time – a SuperCamp first, I’m sure!

Their business ideas are also interesting and inspiring, several of which are charity-based. I am impressed with their sharp minds and willing spirits. They have great attitudes, which I didn’t entirely anticipate. They are working hard and excited about starting their own businesses and helping others.

We were fortunate to have Nancy Gale, founder of handbag company, Jamah, and her non-profit, In True Fashion, as our guest speaker today. She taught us the importance of socially conscience business and being inspired by your business by dedicating it to a cause you are passionate about. It was great advice and made an impact on everyone there, including the adult leaders.

She gave out her business cards with a warm smile and willingness to help these students in the future however she can. Part of the focus of SuperBizCamp is teaching students to build their professional network so these guest speakers are an excellent start and provide wonderful opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise receive.

 
Following our guest speaker session, we grabbed a quick lunch, as entrepreneurs often do, and then jumped into the selling arena. We had a selling event where students hosted booths to sell their wares. These wares included a variety of merchandise which they bought yesterday In the LA Fashion district. Their products ranged from inexpensive keychains and bracelets to mobile speakers and t-shirts.

We received great moral support from passersby, if not financial. Several offered words of wisdom but one, in particular, went above and beyond, offering an on-the-spot sales class. He gave the team a run-down on what their pitch should be, how to establish rapport and find a sales pitch angle, then had them practice their pitches several times more. He was a great inspiration and the students were grateful to benefit from his expertise and willingness to impart a small share of it on his way to the library. He received many thanks and a cool bracelet for his troubles.

It was interesting to see the students in action. Some were very outgoing from the start, while others preferred a less aggressive sales approach. It was nice to be able to coach students in the moment, during their sales pitches, so they could see how slightly different wording might make or break their sales. I appreciated that these students were so open to feedback and wanting to learn more. This was great practice and I only wish they could do more of it to further hone their skills. Hopefully they will do exactly that when they return home with their business plans in hand.

Debriefing on the selling event was also enlightening. The students identified their strengths and weaknesses and determined action steps. They also realized the variables involved with any business venture, which I think was one of the most valuable lessons.

The rest of the evening was spent working on projects, building and rehearsing tomorrow’s business plans presentations. These kids are enjoying the competition and taking it very seriously which is great to see in these budding young entrepreneurs. Looking forward to some amazing presentations tomorrow!

The post LIVE from SuperBizCamp! – part 1 appeared first on SuperCamp.

Integrity is priceless. That’s what we learned in SuperCamp this morning. We learned the Integrity Key of Excellence and that integrity means your values and action match.

We did a cool activity to remember this, which was to trace our hands, then write a big ‘V’ for Value on the left palm and a big ‘A’ for Actions on the right palm.

Then we wrote a value on each finger of the left hand and the corresponding action steps required to demonstrate that value. Then you flip them face to face and see how they match up.

INTEGRITY – Match behavior with values
Demonstrate your positive personal values in all you do and say. Be sincere and real.

This Integrity Key Talk led perfectly into our ‘Do It Goals’ session. During our Do It Goals session, we learned about John Goddard and his amazing accomplishments. Then we set our own and learned the DO IT approach to accomplishing our goal.

‘DO IT Goals’ stands for:

Design — Make sure your goals are specific, achievable and measurable.

Outline — Timeline of what you’re going to do, how you’re going to do it and what you need to do it.

In Your Face — What is in your way? What are those barriers you’ll have to break through to achieve your goal?

Take Action — What do you need to do to start taking action right now to start working toward your goal? How are you going to take action?

Next we broke out into our main academics session. I went to Quantum Reading today, which I’ve really been looking forward to.

We started by singing our ‘attitude’ song, ‘Don’t stop reading…’ to the ‘Don’t stop believing’ song melody so we can get excited about reading.

Then we commenced with the SuperCamp Quantum Reading Process:

1. Prepare – Get situated correctly (SLANT) and create a positive learning environment.

*** HOT TIP: Baroque music helps put your brain in Alpha State. Good Baroque Composers: Handel, Bach, Vivaldi.

2. State – Get into Alpha State: Sit up, take a deep breath, close eyes while exhaling. Picture your peaceful place, roll your eyes up, roll your eyes down. Open your eyes and go to work with a focused mind.

3. Superscan – Spend 2-3 seconds per page to skim content, tracing your finger in a slalom or straight down pattern.

4. Read – Return to the beginning and read the content, making sure to use a visual cue (like tracing with your finger or pen) to keep your eyes from skipping around. Our brain is able to take in whole sentences at a time, not just one word at a time, so let your eyes flow quickly over them and your brain will register it all.

*** HOT TIP: Using a visual guide (like your finger along the page) can double your reading speed.***

5. Review – Within 5 minutes, review what you read by mind-mapping, writing out notes or telling yourself (aloud or in your head) or someone else what you’ve read.

After learning the process, we completed a pre-test to measure our reading speed and comprehension. I got 100% comprehension and 232 words per minute.

Then we practiced these methods during three 30-second reads:

• On my first 30-second read, I read 508 words per minute.
• On my second 30-second read, I read 736 words per minute.
• On my third 30-second read, I read 472 words per minute.

I am a little confused and not sure I’m doing this quite right… I stayed after class with one other student to ask for some clarification. I think we both got the idea. We shall see after lunch…

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After lunch we reviewed the Quantum Reading Process again and got to ask more questions if we had them. Then we went right into more practicing in 1-minute chunks. At the end, we took a post-test. I increased by words per minute to 400 and retained 100% comprehension. Seriously, amazing. Can’t wait to practice more! This will make short work of my inbox!

We’re going for our review sessions where the teams will act out skits for key principles they’ve learned this week, then back to the dorms to pack after this. Such a bummer. 🙁

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My funny for SuperCamp today: A camper just told me she plans to use OTFD to ask for a new Apple laptop! I LOVE IT!

The post SuperCamp LMU Junior Forum Journal – Day 6 appeared first on SuperCamp.

FLEXIBILITY – Be willing to do things differently

Recognize what’s not working and be willing to change what you’re doing to achieve your goal.

Next we practiced our location memory technique to learn polygons 3 – 12, then reviewed the two previous lists we’ve learned, the presidents and states. It’s amazing how easy it is to learn and retain information by doing it this way.

We took a little break and then headed to our academic skills sessions. I went to Quantum Writing with Facilitator Silvia. We learned some of the obstacles we feel about writing and that we have the choice to overcome them or not. Next we tackled the most common obstacle for everyone in the room, figuring out what to write! We learned how to brainstorm for our writing assignments and get in the flow that way. Then we practiced our writing on our choice of three assignments and got feedback from our peers. I think it was a valuable opportunity to start feeling good about writing and feeling empowered to be great writers.

After dinner, we completed the “X” activity as teams. The object was to step on each number 1-30, in order as fast as you can, without stepping on a number out of order. It required teamwork and some strategizing but mostly persistence.

It was an object lesson to teach the Failure Leads to Success Key of Excellence but the campers also said they used other Keys to Excellence such as Integrity, Flexibility, Speak with Good Purpose and Ownership. Everything the Facilitators do at SuperCamp is intended to be ‘on purpose’ and this is just one small example of their achieving that goal, where they are able to teach a new key while practicing others. Through this activity we learned that failure is an opportunity for growth.

FAILURE LEADS TO SUCCESS – Learn from mistakes
View failures as feedback that provides you with the information you need to learn, grow, and succeed.

We ended day 5 at SuperCamp with a powerful session, called the “Rejection Talk.” During this piece, Facilitator Brett played the role of “The Rejector” – the grim reaper of self-esteem – and went around the room passing out ‘rejections’ on little black cards. These put-downs were typical bullying comments that increased in intensity until the campers realized that they didn’t have to accept these rejections. It was very moving when the campers began to stand up for themselves and each other.

Lead Facilitator Karen did a wonderful job moderating the experience, throwing out prompts for the students to reflect on their behavior and reactions to this bullying. She is a profoundly talented teacher. Facilitator Brett played his part well, despite his abhorrence for such bullying, in order to help the campers avoid it in the future. It was very uncomfortable to stand by and watch this scene unfold, but it gave me chills and brought a tears to my eyes when two boys literally stood up and yelled ‘stop’ to the Rejector.

The other campers took that cue and jumped in as well, booing the Rejector, throwing their rejection slips back at him or tearing them up and, finally, refusing to accept them at all. As the students stood up for themselves, the Rejector backed off and slinked away. Facilitator Karen took it from there, bringing it around to understand that we don’t need to accept rejections and we don’t want to standby if others are being bullied either. It was such a profound experience and I’m very sorry that my words cannot do it justice. I am very grateful to have been able to witness this crucial instruction to help students avoid bullying and the brave kids who stood up for themselves and others. Very inspiring indeed.

The post SuperCamp LMU Junior Forum Journal – Day 5 appeared first on SuperCamp.

Time flew by and the students had tons of fun facing their fears, getting outside their comfort zones and challenging themselves. They practiced working together to navigate the challenges including lava pits, giant skiis, levitating hula hoops and ‘electric’ wires.

After dinner, students had an opportunity to reflect on their experiences during Outdoor Adventure Day. This particular part of the activity was an opportunity to share with the whole group about people who had inspired them out on the course. It was a sweet, powerful moment of acknowledgement for those who dug deep to put their best effort into the day, and another opportunity to demonstrate the power of Speaking with Good Purpose.

I continue each day in awe of the Facilitators and Team Leaders who give their complete devotion to teaching and caring for these children. They give 100% to every moment and demonstrate the “This Is It” key in word and deed. I would say they give 110% to quote my favorite former apprentice Lou Ferrigno, but we’re all about being smart at SuperCamp and we know that 110% isn’t a real number and I’m 100% real about our AMAZING staff here!

I never realized just how devoted our Facilitators and Team Leaders are until today, when I realized that they have all been away from their families and homes for going on 4 weeks now and one Facilitator couldn’t remember the last time she’d talked with her children back home. These are the same people handing their cell phones over to homesick kids and waking up in the middle of the night if someone gets sick or scared or lonely or annoyed with their roommate or any number of things. These Facilitators treat their campers exactly how I would want my child treated, or better, and I couldn’t be more impressed.

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Campers celebrate Independence Day SuperCamp-style while gaining essential interpersonal skills

SuperCamp campers celebrated Independence Day in true SuperCamp style, with afternoon activities on the lawn including three-legged races, wheel-barrow races and more.

Throughout these summer enrichment programs, students engage in a variety of personal development activities, in addition to learning accelerated learning strategies. These personal enrichment activities for teens include many individual and team-building scenarios where teens build confidence, leadership and communication skills in a fun, natural way.

The 8 Keys of Excellence is the character-building foundation on which SuperCamp is based. It’s truly what sets SuperCamp, and our graduates, apart.

The 8 Keys of Excellence are:
1. INTEGRITY – Match behavior with values
Demonstrate your positive personal values in all you do and say. Be sincere and real.
2. FAILURE LEADS TO SUCCESS – Learn from mistakes
View failures as feedback that provides you with the information you need to learn, grow, and succeed.
3. SPEAK WITH GOOD PURPOSE – Speak honestly and kindly
Think before you speak. Make sure your intention is positive and your words are sincere.
4. THIS IS IT! – Make the most of every moment
Focus your attention on the present moment. Keep a positive attitude.
5. COMMITMENT – Make your dreams happen
Take positive action. Follow your vision without wavering.
6. OWNERSHIP – Take responsibility for actions
Be responsible for your thoughts, feelings, words, and actions. “Own” the choices you make and the results that follow.
7. FLEXIBILITY – Be willing to do things differently
Recognize what’s not working and be willing to change what you’re doing to achieve your goal.
8. BALANCE – Live your best life
Be mindful of self and others while focusing on what’s meaningful and important in your life. Inner happiness and fulfillment come when your mind, body, and emotions are nurtured by the choices you make.

Students apply these 8 Keys of Excellence throughout SuperCamp and learn to truly live these character principles. This repetition and positive reinforcement makes learning and implementing these core values natural and long-lasting.

SuperCamp’s 2013 season is off to a great start! SuperCamp sessions are getting under way throughout the U.S. and many sessions still have seats available.

For more information or register your student, call 1 (800) 285-3276 or visit https://www.supercamp.com/where-and-when to choose the best SuperCamp dates and locations for your student.

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