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How to maximize learning ability

You knew that you have three different channels through which your brain makes contact with the outside world. Imagine your brain as if it were our beloved smartphone but without the data connection, constantly looking for a free Wi-Fi! You are there?

Good. Can you feel the limitation of when you can’t access the internet? When the Wi-Fi symbol finally lights up, above the dot there are three arches from the largest to the smallest, these are like the three channels through which our brain receives information: the auditory, visual and kinesthetic canal. One of these is predominant but you know well that with a single notch you can’t go anywhere! To receive the maximum and thus obtain the maximum benefits from studying English, we must look for those points where our brain will have 3 notches! That is, where we can “see” the language, “hear” the language and practice it by linking body sensations such as touch, movement, balance, posture to its use. One notch … no good!
Let’s come to our College English class in England, we hear English from native speakers, we see it in the videos, we speak it and we listen to it again ourselves, we link to it all the perceptive memories of the smell of the canteen, the touch of the carpet under our feet, the colors of the sky outside the windows , the sound of the voice of the Director of Studies, the weight of the suitcase, the meetings at the airport, the waiting outside the exam door, the trips, the monuments, the English rain, the English sun… changeable and unpredictable weather.

In short, by amplifying, letting information enter through all three channels of perception, it is as if our mobile phone always had three powerful notches to take data from the network all around and since your brain also connects to the outside world like a wi- fi, give it 3 notches.

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How a child’s fantasy works

TIC-TAC… TIC-TAC… the days go by and the first day of the educational farm is approaching. What an emotion! How much magic is there in a child’s imagination? How much strength does his passion contain? How many times have they told us as children, maybe it’s better if you change your mind, no, don’t do this. But you can’t give up on your dream.

You can’t avoid what you always think about, from when you get up to when you fall asleep, even while others are talking to you. Being able to ignite a child’s interest is possible and when this happens it will never stop, it educates him to excite him to inspire him to a higher level. Have you ever thought about being an astronaut by putting a basket on your head? We do, we always do! When a child enters a restaurant, he looks for sugar sachets, toothpicks and wants to drink from goblet glasses. Go in search of fun, different and special items. For me it is wonderful to try to elevate myself to the majestic fantasy of a child to make me accept myself as an equal, admitted in the important circle of people who matter, who shave with foam or who stick the receipts of the fruit scales behind my back of the mother. It is an exciting process! And when a school year starts again and I think of the teachers returning to class, I wish them that the desk is not a barrier but a market stall on which to display all the merchandise to entice children to buy, the walls are not a fence but a container of ideas, the stairs lead not only to classes but to higher levels of values ​​and the chalks draw the horizons of the future. We are faced with those who are thirsty for attention who ask to be listened to and guided in a direction that they do not yet know and sometimes do not yet know they want. Let’s take them by the hand and fly with them.

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How the brain works on the farm

We are used to saying that time can run slow or fast, well known is the phrase that says that the length of a minute depends on which part of the bathroom door you are! In fact, few consider the effects that time can have on relationships and learning.

Every time we check an email or hear the beep of a text message or the phone rings, whatever cognitive process our brain is processing, it suffers an interruption, it is kidnapped by an overload of work. It is as if in preparing for a sports match, instead of giving continuity to training, we systematically interrupt ourselves. Or while we are cooking, the microwave and the oven play continuously and we risk burning the puree. On the farm this risk is not run, the devices are not used to be together with the animals, nor to run on the meadows or jump on the sand. When you pick herbs and vegetables from the garden, you can only hold the basket in your hands, let alone while kneading the flour with the eggs or sitting down to discuss the events of the day. Time takes on all its value, it is not he who guides us but we decide what to do. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin conducted a study of 630 Berliners and found that those who lived near the parks had a healthier brain structure, firmer memory and more fluid reasoning. At Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health have instead shown the lowest mortality (-12%) of people who live in contact with nature. It is estimated that over 70% of the world’s population will live in cities and this could certainly be a new factor of natural selection. The psychology department of the University of British Columbia Okanagan directed by researcher Holli-Anne Passmore, has conducted a series of studies which showed that contact with nature is a factor that directly increases the well-being of people and now those who follow the our posts know very well that learning in a condition of well-being is much easier and more effective. This concept emerged in particular during the last working meeting of the Cultivators of the Future held on 30 November 2018 in Spoleto where scholars, teachers and educators agreed that leaving the classroom and creating a bridge with the surrounding reality, makes us introduce elements breaking the habitual pattern and bringing up new areas of attention that teachers can take advantage of to transmit notions through new experiential activities. Our brain processes ideas while it is free from work: it is while we swim or run or take a walk that it rearranges memories. The neuronal connections then look for the connections between the acquired data and stimulated by an image or a sound that we had never noticed before, but that by walking slowly or looking at reality instead of a screen, we are finally able to see, a new idea is born. . It was right there in the middle of everyone’s path but only those who were able to pass slowly could notice it. Time on a farm … it is not he who commands, it is not the schedule of things to do that dictates the rhythm of the day. It is the farm that commands. It is useless for the man to make too detailed plans, because you never know how long it will take to collect the honey or if our Gwendolyn will call you because her milk is too much and she wants to be milked, or if she realizes that the hens is breaking. Time on the farm is our friend, it awaits us and gives us the opportunity to stop, to wait, to observe, to dream. Above all, in the evening it gives us the opportunity to sit down and talk and tell each other about all the unexpected and stimulating experiences that have distracted us from the pre-established plan.

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How to build a critical memory

When was Dante Alighieri born? What does “reliable” mean? Was Plato a Sophist? Who won the Champions League in 2015? How many times have you been faced with a question like this and did not remember the answer. Fortunately, in the palm of your hand, as long as the internet connection is good, you will immediately find the answer to any doubt.

By repeating this action continuously, several times a day every day, we automate a behavior of abdication of the storage function of our memory to an external device. Our brain no longer has to try to remember notions, because it learns to be able to use them at any time without making any effort. And it’s true, it doesn’t cost him much, just a few easy flicks of the thumb. Reasoning, the production of ideas, the ability to solve situations, derive from the ability to connect, to variety, to quantity of brain synapses. But if we keep the notions in our external palm memory, the synapse is not created, the reasoning analyzes fewer cases, the conclusion is obvious, the consideration is trivial, the choice is almost obligatory. Anyone of us will access the same answer given by the same search engine, will reach the same conclusion by abdicating our every possibility of individual thought. Think of a different situation, where instead the storage action is performed mechanically, after having had a real and fatigue experience as it could be an alternation between school and work on the farm (see how it works here). To find out what “reliable” means, I open a dictionary and search, I read the examples given, maybe my eye falls on the phonetics, maybe I am in a college or in an English camp (here I explain the importance of these experiences). To calculate the derivative, I go to my classmate’s house, he explains it to me, my mother prepares the donut for us, the flavor of which is linked to the memory of the procedure. I will have put pleasure and notion in the same drawer of my brain as you do with the Learnemotion. The formation of the concept goes back to being offline, that is, the result of an individual experience born in a social context, a sequence of behaviors that have had time to wait, do, repeat, wait again, return to the concept.

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What is EDUCAEMOTION

Where are your socks? To give this answer, your brain activates a series of neural connections that follow the path towards the drawer where the panties are also. Socks and underwear are always in the same drawer. Education is the drawer of the brain in which I would like to store my memories

of what you learn and fun. In the particular case of English, encounters in which the foreign language is used must be lived with friends, joyfully. Think about getting involved, coloring, using devices, sounds, eating good things and when you need to speak English or study it, you will feel a surge of well-being and that fear of making mistakes will be eclipsed by the light that comes from your drawer. Living an experience on an educational farm corresponds to experiencing all these sensations, which is why in my opinion it is the best place to set the Educaemotion. It is a bit as if our brain has a three notch reception and you are maximizing the learning capacity. When children do not have their personal phone, they see parents and grandparents with theirs in hand, their personal Social page, their personal Netflix profile, their Youtube channel. In a context that enhances individualism, the expectation of being at the center is built in young people. What appeal can a frontal lesson have in the middle of a class of 28 people? Educaemotion presupposes small groups of maximum 10 or 12 children, concrete involvement in activities, stimulating their attention and individuality in every way. When you manage to interest a boy in what he does, Continuing Education is born from Educaemotion: the desire or need to independently seek further insights or applications other than those known in the didactic meetings. The prodigy is to raise the number of hours dedicated to the use of English to power, which are no longer just the three hours a week spent with the teacher. They are replicated endlessly in a continuous repeated search for use in the most disparate fields. Language is transformed into a living instrument, it is no longer a matter. Educaemotion is an effective tool for enhancing the attention and motivation of each apprentice. This is what the master of masters Yoda would do (Can Master Yoda teach English? read this), to involve the part of the padawan that pushes him to listen and become an active part of the search for his own training. If you manage to install it well, it becomes like the renewable energy source of knowledge, igniting an innate force: a child’s imagination. In the older ones it is powerful and opens the mind to the development of a critical sense, in search of one’s own identity and point of view.

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Can Master Yoda teach English?

As a child I wanted to become like Luke Skywalker trained by his teacher and Daniel San who spent whole afternoons at Miyagi’s, when I grew up I ended up admiring Gandalf. My metamorphosis has been completed. What do I like about being a teacher? Find out here.

If you are wondering if it is better to learn alone or have a guide, now I’ll explain why there is no comparison in the choice and to do so, my padawan, we will be guided by the master of masters: Yoda.

“There are always two, no more and no less, an apprentice and a teacher”.
Let’s start with the easy concepts, this is the most immediate sentence of how it is very difficult to succeed alone without the help of anyone. The coach does much more than teach, he guides us and above all he implements the behaviors to be imitated. We also learn from him by emulation, by the desire to become like him and in some cases to overcome him. My most rewarding goal is to help a student outdo me.

“Not this rough skin, we are luminous creatures”.
We need someone who gives us access to our unexpressed potential and who helps us to open our eyes to everything we cannot see, touch, perceive about ourselves. Without an external observer, a point of view different from ours, there is a whole part of reality that would remain unknown. I like the idea that from a guide we can receive questions, even if they are uncomfortable, in addition to the answers we are looking for. Do you remember the question that enlightened you the most?

“To do or not to do, there is no trying”.
Alone it is very difficult to be able to constantly act along our growth path. Maybe in the face of the first difficulties, we settle in the middle of the alibis that our brain is looking for to get comfortable with the first inevitable failures. “Oh well I tried” we would like to say. Our coach will help us see what to do to remedy, he will tell us what to change to start doing again.

“You have to unlearn what you have learned.”
How many times have we said, I can’t do it, it’s not for me, I don’t like it, I’m not good, I don’t know how to do it. Don’t, don’t, don’t! How many denials have we built on the basis of phrases we have heard from others, perhaps without really going through them? How many ideas have we formed on the basis of experiences lived many years ago, when we did not have all the potential that we have today? We need a coach to get us started from scratch and start over without excuses, following a program whose first point, before starting to learn, makes us leave everything behind. Here I explain the five golden rules for learning.

“The mind of the child is wonderful”.
I leave this last point for myself, to explain to you why I love to guide my students in sports, emotional and linguistic growth. This job is a continuous discovery, an incessant learning, which surprises me every time in discovering the different aspects of each young apprentice. The functioning of each one is different and precious, only by seeking its uniqueness can you make it develop to the maximum. It’s nice to know them, to be amazed again, to stimulate me again, to teach again. Children’s minds surprise you every time.

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Alternation School Work on the farm

Did you know that after the theoretical training period in the classroom you can choose to spend your practical work experience at a farm that is a multifunctional farm? The compulsory school-work alternation aims to bring all the students of the last three years of high school closer to the world of work

and also to create reciprocal links between companies in a territory and future workers. At the moment it is still mandatory to complete the number of hours assigned to each school in order to be admitted to the final exams. If you attend a high school, you will have to do at least 200 hours, if a technical or vocational school the hours double, they are 400.

On the MIUR website (http://www.alternanza.miur.gov.it/allegati/2017/Carta-dei-diritti-e-dei-doveri.pdf) you can read the Charter of Rights and Duties of female students and alternating students, which in seven articles establishes the principles of dialogue and sharing in the school-family relationship; the reception of the working student in adequate and safe training environments that promote growth and that correspond to the choice of address made by the student. It is recognized the right to express a final assessment on the effectiveness and consistency of the path taken with respect to their own study area. A tutor must be present in each company. Student workers must be present for no less than three quarters of the scheduled hours, comply with the rules of hygiene, safety and health, and maintain confidentiality in relation to specific data and knowledge. Then there is the red button, a school supervisory commission responsible for monitoring compliance with the rules.

The law gives you the opportunity to spend your hours both during the school year and during the holiday periods, I recommend that you choose a place that knows how to stimulate you and make this experience as profitable as possible like on a farm or why not abroad . You can contact me by e-mail for information for both alternatives.

When you identify the company, the farm, the destination abroad, you can talk about it with your school tutor who is a professor who will follow you during your experience and check that it is carried out in compliance with the rules. You will reflect with him on your skills and attitudes and choose where to go. You will then do a preparation period during which the student will be informed about the health and safety regulations in the workplace. You will then meet the external tutor and sign the Training Agreement, a document with which you undertake to respect the rules of confidentiality and security. You will have a booklet in which to document your daily activities, it is a document shared with your teacher and with the tutor of the Italian or foreign farm or facility.

If you want to better orient yourself to maximize the learning skills and results of this important training experience, it is essential that you know the approach that each institution or company has to offer you. The risk is to spend 200 or 400 hours making photocopies or rearranging toolboxes. The structure that will host you has a social responsibility towards the school, the family and above all towards you. You have to look for a place where whether you are there or not change a lot, be there or not, this is the value. Someone who gives weight to your individuality, who offers you an activity that has an emotional substratum, who wants to listen to you and who puts you in a context of individual maturation. Because learning how to make a receipt or file photocopies, it will take a moment, but to understand how to direct your energies, frustrations, it takes a person willing to seek your uniqueness. Those who welcome a new worker must deal with the educational aspect that this action requires. Teaching to work, especially to a young person, is a very important process, because work takes up a lot of the time of our life and we must have the possibility to gradually create a relationship of love with it. Loving your job can determine our happiness. Working is a constant action that will accompany you for many years, choose a place where you can contribute with your euphoria and imagination, with your human contact to bring about changes towards people or perhaps towards animals. As you walk down the road to the horse shelters with the basket of carrots and apples, you will have time to talk, to remember, to layer your memory on the morning lesson at school. While you will be in the kitchen preparing breakfast for the foreign tourist, you will review the sentences to be pronounced at the table and you will recall the English lesson of the teacher. Whether you do this job or someone else does it, there is a big difference. Once the project is finished, the school and the host structure will produce a Certificate of Competence which recognizes which learning levels you have reached compared to those indicated in the Training Plan. You will need to summarize your personal experience in your Evaluation Form and if you need help please do not hesitate to contact me.

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Civic Agriculture in Spoleto

Always attentive to the anthropological applications of multi-functional agriculture, we think that there can be no agricultural cultural progress without the opening of this world to dynamics of information, awareness and involvement of those subjects that until now remained outside it and that at first view may seem completely unrelated.

We believe that innovation comes from the unusual and from a multidisciplinary approach, ideas arise from the multi-potential of individuals.

Thus, from the collaboration between a biologist, our farm, a beekeeper, a communication expert, four families and three renowned restaurants, we have given birth to a civic agriculture project in Spoleto.

In various parts of the world, especially in the States and in central-northern Europe, CSA (Community-supported agriculture) is called the model that brings together those who produce and those who consume to arrive at an agriculture that in many cases is organic and that aspires to share fair compensation among all participants. Crops or as in this case local farms, provide for the food needs of the communities, with particular regard to environmental sustainability or biodiversity, the circular economy, the desire to participate, solidarity. Local communities therefore become an active direct or indirect part of agricultural production and trigger a virtuous circular relationship between producers, workers, consumers that enhances the rural world and in some cases like ours, protects the environment as a value of humanity. The ideas for growth and analysis are endless, from the reduction of stress, to the experience of spending time away from devices, to the reintegration of the unemployed into the world of work, to the principles of healthy nutrition, let’s not forget the use of natural sugars naturally refined and unrelated to chemical processes. We can stay here to write for a long time, indeed we would like to read your suggestion in the comments on what other topics could be covered.

Our civic agriculture project is called “A beehive for a friend” and involves the adoption of a beehive and its community of bees, which will be placed in an uncontaminated environment in Terraia di Spoleto at our Agrileisuretime farm, surrounded by bees’ favorite plants. These will be happy to pollinate without having to reach the three kilometers they could potentially cover in search of food. In this other article you can find out more about the world of bees. This will be followed for three years by a proximity of information and participations that will lead to receiving a variable quantity of honey of about six or eight kilograms per year but which may vary depending on the season.

People who lead normal lives, who have a revelation and decide to contribute directly with their work, for example by personally participating in the positioning and care of the hive or simply at the time of honey extraction. At the same time, in collaboration with the farm, they repopulate the bees, protect the biodiversity that is so important for these insects and indirectly carry out concrete actions to protect the environment. From year to year and for three years, they will be able to receive as a gift from nature a sweetener with numerous beneficial properties and which in addition has the value of being local, controlled and the result of their work and support. Even the farm and the beekeeper will have a part of the production to repay the work and investments. The circle closes and starts to turn from year to year to equally feed all those who have decided to grab it, push it and turn with it.

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5 Golden Rules for learning English

If you are looking for a magical way to learn English without obligation, then close this post and get back on autopilot to scroll through your favorite social network. Nothing will happen without you noticing it, indeed, noticing it is a very important aspect, we will see why later.

Remember, achieving your goal deserves your best.
So if you really want to learn or improve, follow me and I’m sure you will recognize your progress in putting these tips into practice.

No fear
Less than 10 percent of the English-language communications that are happening right now while you are reading are between native English-speaking people. It means that more than 90 percent of English spoken, written, heard, comes from people like you and me for whom English is not their mother tongue. We therefore all have the same problems, of grammar, of pronunciation, of comprehension. Who can judge you? We grew up educated in the culture of the red pen that underlines the error. How much nicer is it to underline the most beautiful phrases in green or to compliment the most successful ones? The most widely spoken language in the world, now lives and changes thanks to the contributions of accent, syntax, grammatical errors coming from each of the other 6999 languages ​​in existence. So don’t be afraid to try, the more you try, the more you learn, the more you contribute. You can also read How to overcome the fear of speaking English, you will find some other tips. Do you want to tell me about your best English conversation you ever had?

Do not compare yourself to others! – Do not compare yourself to others!
There is always someone who makes fewer mistakes, has higher grades than you, the most beautiful backpack, the newest phone, more money, a better job … Comparing yourself to others is depressing but above all it leads us nowhere and then I don’t see the reason to do it. Instead, I advise you to compare yourself to yourself: try to notice what level Trinity were at three years ago and where you are today, how many irregular verbs you managed with ease, how many idioms … This thought will make you feel good and give you new motivations to keep improving. I’m curious to know all your improvements, would you like to write them down?

Need
I do not like that English is considered only a subject, I prefer to compare it to a sport where it is certainly useful to know the fundamentals and it is very important to try them in the game situation, where muscles and brain have to act and react easily for the final goal. I therefore advise you to put yourself in a position to need to use the language and therefore move from the sterile practice of learning the rules to the most effective practical use. Look for English-speaking friends on social media, when you are at the beach or on vacation make friends with a foreign girl or boy, travel and study abroadwhere you can immerse yourself in a context where you will necessarily have to adapt to living the language. English can thus become the tool you need to solve many small everyday situations. Have you ever had the need to use it and did you do great?

Every day learning
Never stop practicing, even if it is only five minutes a day, it is obvious that the more you do it, the more you learn. Keep in mind that it is much better to do 10 minutes a day every day, instead of 1 hour and 10 a week. Here are some tips to spend your time profitably: watch a video on topics you are passionate about, fashion, magic, travel, football, listen to a podcast, create a chat with friends abroad, set the English language on your devices, listen to the music. You probably already do this occasionally, but if you don’t do them consistently, it’s a bit like starting from scratch every time. Imagine a bucket where you occasionally pour a spoonful of water but you always find it empty because the previous one has evaporated. You will never fill it.
Another suggestion is to set deadlines such as signing up for a Trinity exam every year or every six months. If you are interested in doing it, ask me in the comments when and where the next session will take place, in the next posts I will also explain why I like this certification. Having a deadline will spur you on for your daily training.

Have fun
I am not aware that anyone has ever learned to do something unhappy. Start by buying your favorite diary, one as colorful as the diary you buy for school. On it you will write down all the new words or notes that you will need day by day. You can attach photographs, newspaper clippings, wrapping snacks, anything that reminds you of something significant for the language. Use colored pens and add lots of sketches or drawings, no matter the style. You will have your own scrapbook that will record all the important things to remember and progress for you. After a year it will be a surprise to review how much work you have done and where you were at a certain date, any progress will be immediately measurable. Above all, learning your favorite language has never been so much fun.