Walking Barefoot

I love walking barefoot. It's really too cold this morning and I should have shoes on, but I don't care. The ground is wet and it has made my feet a little muddy.

Muddy and cold.

And there were some sticks and sharp rocks that weren't particularly comfortable to walk on.

But I like being able to FEEL the earth under my feet. I just feel more connected. This is not a spring time thing with me either, though it gets easier to indulge myself as the weather gets warmer. No, I'm a barefoot kind of guy pretty much all the time.

The first thing I do when I walk through the door each day is kick off my shoes. I'd do well in Japan or Korea.

Don't reply to remind me of the dangers of contracting worms, getting infections, or cutting my foot on broken glass. I'm well aware and am willing to take the risk.

Now, excuse me while I go back outside and explore the sights, sounds, smells, and FEELINGS of spring.

Reward or Inspiration?

Last week I had a conversation with a friend who provides Upward Awards Night Entertainment and another friend who does Arizona Reading School Assembly Programs. We discussed the value of rewarding behavior as a method of increasing that behavior.

This is a very important topic to me for several reason. Firstly, I make my living in large part by providing Bluebonnet and Accelerated Reader Incentives in the form of educational and motivational assembly programs. Secondly, my BA and most of my masters level coursework has been in the field of behavioral science in one form or another. When it comes to Kid Control: Behavior Management for Unruly Children, I literally wrote the book!

So the conversations I held with my friends on these topics were more than just academic.

I was impressed with the idea brought up by Tommy that when the reward is, in itself, an inspiration to continue the behavior, then it becomes a more effective behavior loop.

Think of the difference between exercising for three weeks so that you can eat a huge and fattening meal (rewarding, but not circularly reinforcing the original behavior), verses exercising for three weeks so that you can buy yourself some new workout clothes or a desired piece of gym equipment (reward AND circularly reinforcing of the original behavior).

The programs I offer as rewards and incentives are the same programs I offer as my regular Reading School Assemblies and also the same programs that I offer during my Family Science Night and Math Night Activities. These assembly programs are inherently funny and entertaining, just like Kyle who does some hilarious but very effective Arizona Family Science Night and Literacy Night Activities.

I think doing a program like this (i.e. Inspirational) is so much more effective than just a fun, rewarding show. I mean, from the perspective of the audience, the results are very similar (everyone laughs and has a great time and feels rewarded) but when it comes to LONG-TERM results, I think an inspirational assembly program is more effective than one that is just a funny children's magic show puppet show.

The Dot

Yesterday I was at Saegert Elementary in Killeen ISD. I was doing a school assembly program teaching the scientific process / scientific method and the kids were loving the puppets and magic so much they had no idea they were learning all sorts of new vocabulary and important curriculum-based concepts.

Of course, because all my shows are reading motivation programs encouraging children to read, I usually perform in the library. And Jennifer Brown, the librarian at Saegert does a great job of creating an environment rich in reading possibility. Her displays of books were simple, but quite effective. Between shows I wound up reading several short books, as frequently happens when I am in the library.

On this particular morning I picked up The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds.

What an amazing book! During my lunch break I skipped lunch to run to Barnes and Noble to buy my own copy of the book. When I got back to my hotel room that evening I got on-line and ordered another copy to give to my daughter's art teacher. It is such a profound book and really quite moving.

People look at children's literature and see that there are not many words and think "Oh, I could write a book like that!" But the truth is that it is MUCH harder to convey important messages with few words than it is with many words.

Peter Reynolds did a MASTERFUL job and this book is a great addition to any library. It is a perfect gift for any teacher, but if you have an art teacher you love, you are obligated to get this book for him or her. I can't believe it's been around since 2003 and won awards and I hadn't heard of it until yesterday.

Thank you Ms. Brown for having me educate, entertain and inspire your students yesterday. But I thank you even more for educating, entertaining, and inspiring me by introducing me to this book. I owe you.

I'm the biggest geek

It was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day today. I guess it still is for another 90 minutes or so.

But unlike most people who celebrate the fact that they get the day off from work, I celebrated by reading a book. Now, granted, I'm the sort of geek that really enjoys reading and so it's probably about the equivilent of a normal person cooking barbecue and blending frozen drinks, though I like to do those things too.

Anyway, today I wanted to read something appropriate but not so blantantly obvious as a biography of MLK or a transcript of one of his speeches. Great stuff, but I wanted to step out a little.

I wound up grabbing a children's book (I'm a kid show performer and a father of a 6 year old so cut me some slack!). The book I got was an anthology of American Folklore called "From Sea to Shining Sea" compiled by Amy L. Cohn. I read a few things to my daughter and one of the stories reminded me of a video I had seen that I cannot watch without tearing up. It is really powerful.



Then I spent the rest of the day cherishing my beautiful daughter and the great weather we had here in Houston today. It was in the very high 60s and bright sunshine so we inflated an air mattress and played and napped in the back yard wearing just swim suits. I'm a little pink on my back and the top of my head.

America is great.

I can't wait to celebrate the other major holidays like Texas Public School Week, National Library Week, and Children's Book Week. Yeah, I'm a geek alright.

The 10 Types of People

There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary numbering systems and those who don't.

A new direction

Okay, so I'm a little bit hesitant to say this after all I wrote last week about the after school workshop thing. But I spent a lot of time hanging out with a mastermind group over the weekend. These are top notch professional performers from all over the country and literally from around the world.

We have members who do everything from birthday party magic puppet shows to guys who work as Upward Awards Night Celebration Speakers. These are really savvy guys and I respect their opinions about business and strategy. Anyway, after tossing the idea around all weekend and into this last week we came to the conclusion that while there were many benefits to hosting these events, that it probably was a strategic distraction.

So instead we brainstormed ways that we could really add value while keeping true to the primary objective of our business mission statement (to encourage children to self-directed learning through reading).

The idea that seemed the most congruent with this plan was the idea for offering evening programs.

Because of that, I am really promoting my Texas Family Science Math Literacy Night Programs and Activities and my good friend Kyle Terwilliger is really working hard to promote his version of the same in addition to his Arizona Reading School Assembly Programs.

Benefits of After School Programs

A few days ago I started a "Good News, Bad News" post but never did the good news! Sorry!

So here are the good things about hosting After School Magic Workshops:

• The students learn to love the PROCESS of learning
• They are encouraged to read and self-direct their own education
• They develop camradarie among classmates
• They bond with the school and the academic environment
• They learn to stick with a task
• They devleop confidence
• They learn public speaking skills and presentation skills
• They learn a craft that can become a profession!!

New Year Goals

Like many people at this time of year I begin making a list of goals, resolutions, and promises. Among mine for 2009 are:

• streamline and automate more of the office end of my primary business where I provide Texas Educational Motivational School Assembly Programs
• Develop a Google Ad-words campaign to promote my book Kid Control
• Heavily promote my programs for Family Science Night Math Night programs
• Heavily promote my programs for AR Reward and Bluebonnet Reward Programs
• Complete feasability study of After School Magic Workshops.
• Continue to work out and maintain current fitness levels
• Continue to eat healthy and drink lots of water
  

After School Magic Workshops

Yesterday I wrote about the value of After School Magic Workshops and this morning I wanted to continue on that thread for just a quick moment before I go to the gym.



I'm not sure if I want to offer these programs or not, but I am considering it. There are pros and cons. I'll do the old "Bad News, Good News" routine and I'll start with the bad news:



Because magic workshops are held on a regular basis like a class, it would be difficult for me to perform my normal educational school assembly programs in Texas if I was booked out of town. I am usually booked a week at a time and stay in a hotel in cities like Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, Beaumont, Austin, Mission, Del Rio, and so on. If I were booked in one of these cities for a week I wouldn't be able to provide the after school magic workshop.



That conflict of interest bothers me and is the only thing holding me back at this point.

Non-Paying Customers

How can you create loyalty if you are a non-profit? Just like the for profits do!

I recently encouraged public schools to offer additional services that appeal to their "free clients" (the students) as well as their "pay clients" (the taxpayers). There was a wonderful article in a recent issue of Harvard Business Review (November 2008) about the value of non-paying customers and it got me to thinking about all the various ways these things play out.

After School Magic Workshops are one way that a school can serve both the paying and non-paying clients. The students win by learning a fun new skill and the parents win because their kids are safe, engaged, learning, and most importantly growing to LOVE the learning process, which is a GREAT thing to have happen in any business.

Think about it, Starbucks (for all their current challenges) built a business around teaching their customers how to enjoy the PROCESSS of drinking coffee. It was only partly about the coffee, and mostly about the process of ordering, sitting, savoring, socializing, seeing and being seen, etc.

The same thing could happen in an after school magic workshop, too. The students would learn about the joy of the PROCESS of learning. Just my thoughts.

Harry Potter Prediction comes true...

Twelve years ago J.K. Rowling wrote a book that has since made her the wealthiest woman in the world and the wealthiest author in the history of the world. In that book she wrote fiction, but like much of the science fiction of Star Trek that later came to fruition (think of their communication devices and compare them to modern day cell phones), Rowlings words have also proved prophetic.

This year my mother got me a gift of a digital photo frame. You can take your digital pictures and/or videos on an SD card and insert the card into the picture frame. It then rotates through the pictures or videos at intervals you determine.

So now I have a picture frame on my wall that has a movie of my daughter dancing. Compare this to Rowling's description of pictures in the wizard world from her very first Harry Potter book.

Science is Magic.

Snow in Houston Again!

For the past three days I've had Geoff Akins, the Bubble Juggler down here from Chicago doing Texas School Assembly Programs for our company. He does an amazing show with soap bubbles. The message is one of hope, belief, persistance, and of course a good deal of science.

But the irony is that he left Chicago, in part to enjoy some of our mild weather and tonight it is warmer up north in New York City than it is here in Houston. The ground is covered in snow.

It snowed here in 2004, too. I remember because it snowed on Christmas day, which has never happened in the history of recorded weather in Houston. I also remember because that was the year I introduced my show "The Arctic Express", a school assembly program about winter festivals celebrated by various cultures around the world.

The theme of the show is about making magic snow, and then, it actually snowed in Texas the year I did that program. Now it's snowing again.

It's just coincidence, but you got to respect that it's a pretty cool coincidence!

Do People Even Think?

I was in the gym this morning and I saw a woman walk past the stairs to the elevator and ride it up to the second floor. This always catches my eye because I have tried to program my brain to always take the stairs if it is two flights or less. It is usually faster to take stairs than to wait for an elevator and the time saved makes me feel like I'm increasing productivity.

Anyway, I saw this lady get off the elevator up stairs and go to the...(you guessed it) STAIRMASTER!!

Do these people even THINK about what they are doing or are they just wandering around in a zombie-like daze?

I also talk to adults...

As a full-time elementary school assembly presenter, I am freqently asked if I also perform for adults. The answer is almost always "no". I used to, and I loved doing it, but these days my time is so full writing and developing and performing educationally significant assembly programs that I would rather keep focused on my primary purpose (FYI: My goal is to inspire children to read).

However, a few times each year I am asked to speak to groups of performing artists about how I do what I do. We go over not just the basics of creating a great assembly program for elementary age kids, but also about the marketing and management of the business side of things.

I just recently returned from such a speaking engagement in Philadelphia, PA and it was a blast. I got to meet a lot of really dedicated performers from all over the U.S. and Canada.

As I sat relaxing with the family this Thanksgiving it reminded me that I have my own gathering of the minds coming up right after new years. I have people coming from 3 different continents, 5 different countries, and 17 of the United States. They'll be here to learn exactly how to develop, present, and market a show that makes a difference in the lives of their audiences.

Of course, most of them already present great shows. But these are the cream of the crop so to speak. The people at the top in any industry stay there not by luck, but by hard work and constantly seeking improvement.

I'm looking forward to our week together in January. But I've got to get busy getting ready!

My Work Uniform

I just got back from my daughter's open house. It was kind of fun because I got to dress up a little bit. Okay, I'll admit, my idea of dressing up is probably not the same as most people. I wore my nice jeans, dress shoes, and a button up shirt. That's pretty nice for me.

Of course, as a professional magician I own the obligatory tuxedo, but because two years ago I vowed I would only perform magic for children, I haven't worn it since then. When I perform I wear a costume, and because I plan my costumes well, they are things that, with just a little bit of modification allow me to be seen in public without drawing too much attention.

For example, yesterday I was in Lufkin, Texas doing a school assembly program called "Sport of Champions", which is an educational school assembly show about reading and math and about how learning is exercise for our brain, like physical exercise is for our body. Anyway, my "uniform" for that show consists of a pair of basketball shorts, a very comfortable soccer shirt, a pair of running shoes, a baseball cap, and a stop watch around my neck.

The person who hired me even commented "It must be nice when those are your work clothes!".

Yeah, it is.

Tomorrow I'm doing "Set Sail" a show about the writing process where I wear shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, and sandals along with a crazy straw hat to give it an island feel. Hands down, this is my best costume. In fact, it is SO relaxed that I feel obligated to wear closed-toe shoes to the gig and then change into sandals after I get set up.

But I get so used to relaxed outfits that it is nice to dress up. As a former school teacher I respect what happens within the walls of a school and I want to honor the teachers who work each day with my daughter. So the least I could do was wear my NICE jeans, right?

Creativity at Sea

I just returned from a week long conference on creativity. The conference was held of a cruise ship out of Galveston that sailed to Cozumel and then to Progresso. This was the second year I've attended this conference and this year I brought my family along with me. It was not only very rewarding from a professional stand point, but I enjoyed having a "vacation" with the family and getting to write off my portion of the trip!

On the boat, Madeleine lost the second of her two front upper teeth. If you've been following my blog for any time you might remember when she lost her first two teeth (the lower front two). We had a little incident where she...well, you can read about here.

But the weird thing is that now she has decided that having a tooth fairy is much more fun than not, so she spent the trip speculating on whether or not the tooth fairy would be able to find her while she was away at sea, if she would know which cabin was ours, how she would get in, and whether or not she would leave US, or Mexican currency.

Ultimately she decided to wait until the trip was over to put her tooth under the pillow.

The cruise was lots of fun as there were several big name children's performers on the boat including Bev Bergeron (the original clown from "The Magic Land of Alikazam" that ran in the 1960s), Tim Sonefelt, Barry Mitchell, Glenn Strange, and my long time friend who performed on the ship for the talent show: Geoff Akins.

Geoff will be here in Texas doing his Bubble Show for schools and libraries during December and again in February. It has been a very popular assembly program that has almost completely sold out with out a single mailing: just word of mouth that he's coming back down.

Power is back on...

The power is back on after five days and so we are almost back to normal. Just a little bit of clean up left to do.

We feel very fortunate that our house was not significantly damaged and that no one was injured. We have plenty of camping gear and after living on a sailboat for almost 3 years our family is quite used to preparing coffee in a French press, living without television, and cooking on a camp stove and barbecue grill.

You become a victim when your circumstances are bigger than you are. This week was bad for many people, but we are fortunately not among the victims of this storm. And unfortunately there are many legitimate victims of Hurricane Ike. Our hearts go out to them.

Ike's Aftermath

I rode my bicycle through the neighborhoods nearby yesterday and it is quite amazing the amount of damage done. You wouldn't think that wind could be powerful enough to peel bricks from a building, but in fact, that happened to many buildings and homes.

Of course, tall, heavy trees cause significant damage when they fall on structures as well, and we have plenty of fallen timber around.

It's pretty amazing that our house really suffered no significant damage and it's good to see power in the area being restored bit by bit. We still don't have any, but aren't really missing it too much. Normally the heat would be unbearable without A/C, but because of the cold front it actually hovers in the very plesent mid 70s and we even needed blankets last night as it dropped into the low 60s.

We've eaten the food in the fridge, then went to the freezer, and today we have polished off the deep freeze. Tomorrow we start on the pantry.

There are restaurants open and they are doing a very brisk business. Some grocery stores are open and they are also doing well, but the rumor is that there the perishables go quickly and ice is almost impossible to get. I don't know as we have enough food in the house to last us several weeks (those who know me well know how true this is!).

The water is on and works fine. The gas is on so we even have hot showers and yesterday Madeleine did a load of laundry "pioneer style" complete with clothes line. She loved it. I figure the passion for hand washing clothes will vanish by the second or third load.

Our phone lines are working as is my cell phone. We have hand powered flashlights, lanterns, cell phone chargers, and radios, so we can hear all the news reports, but remember that they sell "sensational" and so they always make it sound worse than it is.

Hurricane Ike

In the aftermath of the hurricane, I just wanted to post a note to let you know that we are doing okay. There was no damage to the house, the family is doing fine, and except for the inconvenience of the loss of our electricity, we have enjoyed a quiet weekend at home. We are eating very well, as we have grilled everything that has thawed since Saturday morning (thank goodness for gas grills!). I don't think we have eaten this many "meaty" meals in a long time, but it has been interesting to see what we had in the freezer.

My daughter was very excited about the lack of power on the first day since she would be able to use her flashlight, but the novelty is beginning to wear off, and, like her parents, she is ready for normal again.

Our phone lines still work, and we have one old fashioned phone that doesn't require electricity, so we are still running the business as much as we can. With no electricty, we have no access to the internet, so we are unable to receive or send e-mails, but be assured we will get to them as soon as the power comes back on. Feel free to call us. We've got nothing else to do!

You may remember that I have written before about how much I use the computer but that we still have to have paper in the office. This week we are glad to be old fashioned! And those guys and gals who live and die by the electronic calendar, well - I'm going to miss them.

I Wish I was Cool

I have friends who are cool.

I've often wondered about exactly what constitutes "cool" and I've discussed it both with my cool friends and my un-cool friends. We all agree that the qualities that combine to make cool are difficult, even impossible to identify, but we all agree that we know it when we see it.

We also all agree unanimously that when we look at me, we do NOT see cool. While we can't identify all the elements of cool we did make a list a few of the things that keep me from it.

• I don't have a cool cell phone, just one of the kinds that is used to make and receive phone calls.
• It's not that I don't know how to text, IM, or tweet, I just choose not to...a sure sign of absence of cool.
• Not only are my sunglasses not cool, they are so cheap that they've broken several times to the point that I've spent more money on glue to repair them than they originally cost at the gas station where I bought them. Cool people would never wear sunglasses with big globs of JB Weld on the arms and SuperGlue around the lenses.
• I don't carry a wallet, instead holding all my ID, credit cards and cash in a bundle wrapped with a rubber band.
• In that bundle I carry more library cards than credit cards.
• I have the same hair style as my grandpa: bald. Gee, thanks, gramps. I used to have lots of thick, long hair, but I wasn't cool back then either. Come to think of it, there are lots of really cool bald guys. Okay, we can let the hair thing slide either way.
• We don't have cable and I don't watch television so I'm so out of the loop when it comes to any of the hot new TV shows. It's hard to be cool if you don't know what's going on in the land of make-believe.
• My truck is banged up because it is so old and has so many miles on it (almost 250,000 now) that when it gets dented or scratched no one will repair it because the repair costs more than the value of the truck. My friends drive way cooler cars.
• This is how bad my car situation is. When I want to take the "nice" car, I'm talking about my wife's mini-van. You know you can pretty much sign off on ever being cool when you refer to the family mini-van as the "nice" car.