Tuesday's Blog- December 20

"That loss, in manner and timing, would become a nine-month-long hornet sting." (Thomas, 1)

This week I started reading the book, Remember Why You Play, by David Thomas. In the first chapter I read it started off with the sentence, "There was really no off-season." After that sentence the author took us through the journey of certain members on the Faith Christian Lions' football team. Chance Cochran, a running back on the Lion's team, always had football easy to him. Youth games, he would break free for long runs, opposing teams could not stop him. His coaches even had to take him out of the game so he wouldn't embarrass the opposing team. Freshman year on Varsity, the first five times Cochran touched the ball, he scored touchdowns. Each touchdown was in different fashions- (running play, interception return, kickoff return, etc.) He would come off the field smiling from ear to ear saying, "I love football." Everything was going great, until the first scrimmage of his sophomore year season. He was carrying the ball left and had one defender on him, he planted his left foot to cut back to the right, however, the cut

back never came. His left knee buckled, and he collapsed to the ground. And just like that, his sophomore season ended. Determined to get back on the field, he did so junior year, but nothing was the same. He was still having trouble with his ability to move laterally to create space for different plays. He admits he is a different person. The happiness, the love of playing football, had been replaced by doubt about his ability to recover and uncertainty about his future. Head coach of the Faith Christian Lion's team, Kris Hogan, had been head coach for eight seasons. Six of the last seven have been playoff seasons, and those six seasons ended in a loss in the playoff round.

Junior year, here they were few minutes until the finals game would end. Lions' had no time outs and it was the fourth down. If the ball was spiked, Lions would loose possession of the ball and the game, and the season would be over. Anderson, the quarterback decided to sprint left as his linemen scrambled to catch up and block the defenders. As he was looking for an opening, a player on the opposing team was there, he brought down Anderson a half a yard short of a first down. And just like that, the season was over. Anderson, being a junior would have another chance to win that first football championship, but the other five seniors would not. Anderson said, "Seeing their high school careers just trick away, it was like five, four, three, two, one..it's a really sobering feeling. It's the kind of feeling like you've let them down."

Alex Nerney, another player on the Lion's team felt this feeling like no other. As far as he was concerned, his team had lost because of him. Three months earlier, he suffered a dislocation of his right hip during a game. He took it easy here and there and gradually grew closer to were he was. During that game, he was on his way to another long touchdown when an injury occurred. He was crying on the field waiting to be carried to the ambulance. Since Nerney was also a junior he had that chance of winning senior year too. He was lucky enough that his bone had a small crack, but didn't chip. Three weeks after his injury he was cleared to play and was going to be able to play his senior year. But at that moment when they lost the game, he suffered a different type of pain- the pain of believing he lost the game. To each senior, he embraced his "I'm sorry" in tears. Head coach Kris Hogan was devastated about this particular loss. Unlike previous years when it was disappointment that dominated his face, this year it was sadness. It really hit him how close they were.  As the juniors returned back for their last season, they walked in to the locker room with the mindset of- there is work that needs to be done. Five days after the loss, Curtis Roddy, another junior on the team, turned in four days in the weight room. "Don't take a day off" he said. "You take a workout off, and Trinity Christian (the opposing team of the game) will beat us again. You don't want to have to regret that." The seniors-to-be said they are trying to get into every one's head that every single moment matters. "No matter if you're in the weight room, if you're on the field practicing, if you're at home working out, what you're doing right then is preparing for football." This is where I found my quote to fit in perfectly, "That loss, in manner and timing, would become a nine-month-long hornet sting." Because of all the injuries, the milestones, the sweat, the tears, the I'm sorry's, the hour long practices, it was what made the soon-to-be seniors stronger. They took that loss that made them so frustrated and angry, which later "stung them like a hornet" into consideration and wanted to train themselves harder so they could win that upcoming year. Over the nine months between the end of the season to the next season they were not going to take a day off and it is times like these where you have to think, "remember why you started."

This connects to me because of cheerleading. Recently, doing these blogs I have found myself connecting to cheering more often, which in a way surprises me. When I first started cheerleading, eight years ago, I was incredible. Each practice I would learn something new, whether that be gaining a new skill or becoming more confident. I remember I would be so excited to attend each practice and it was all I ever talked about. As the years went on, I started to develop more and more injures. Now I can't put all the blame on cheerleading because my freshman and sophomore year I did three sports in high school. Eventually I suffered tremendous back problems, and to this day my back has been getting worse. Last year, I had to take three months off of cheerleading because I ended up getting very sick and hurt. Now this is where I connected to Alex Nerny, because I had felt like I let my team down. Because of back problems and all my other injures I felt as if I was not going to get better. This is where I connected to Chance Cochran, "the happiness, the love of playing football, had been replaced by doubt about his ability to recover and uncertainty about his future." turned into "the happiness, the love of cheerleading, had been replaced by doubt about my ability to recover and uncertainty about my future." After I was out my junior year, there were days where I thought and I thought, "why am I ruining my body for a sport?" and then I thought "remember why you started." I started because I loved this sport. I gave up all of my high school sports for cheerleading. I gave up being with family for cheerleading. I gave up going out with friends for cheerleading. I gave up my time for cheerleading. Everything I've done has been for cheerleading, and I am not going to let something affect that love I have for this sport. As it is my last year of cheerleading for an all-star team, given I am a senior. I have been training tirelessly to gain back my strength, my courage, and my confidence. Nothing is impossible, it is just a matter of how you take the steps to where you want to be.

Friday's Blog- December 16

This week I finished my book, The Talent Code, by Daniel Coyle, which was pages 150 to 232. 

Vocabulary Words

Presuming (pg. 151)- to take for granted, assume, suppose. 

Deliberate- (pg. 155) carefully weighed or considered; studied; intentional. 

Nirtoglycerine- (pg. 159) a colorless, thick, oily, flammable, highly explosive, slightly water-soluble liquid. (how the bank robbers blew ope the vault)

Lucrative- (pg. 160) profitable, moneymaking, remunerative. 

Eloquence- (pg. 161) the practice or art of using language with fluency and aptness. 

Libretto- (pg. 169) the text or words of an opera or similar extended musical composition. 

Virtuoso- (pg. 170) a person who has special knowledge or skill in a field. 

Matrix- (pg. 188) an environment  or material in which something develops; a surrounding medium or structure. 

Conceptualize- (pg. 191) a form of concept or idea of something. 

Trellis- (pg. 194) a framework of light wooden or metal bars, chiefly used as a support for fruit trees or climbing plants. 

Matrix

Thursday's Blog- December 15- Four Virtues

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." -Henry Brooks Adams

In my last blog, we learned what master coaches are. Great teaching is a skill like any other. It looks like magic, however it is a combination of skills- a set of myelinated circuits built through deep practice. Ron Gallimore, a professor at UCLA describes this skill as, "Great teachers focus on what the student is saying or doing and are able, by being so focused and by their deep knowledge of the subject matter, to see and recognize the inarticulate stumbling, fumbling effort of the student who's reaching toward mastery, and then connect to them with a targeted message." The three words highlighted are the key words. Master coaches are the human delivery system for the signals that fuel and direct the growth of a given skill circuit, telling it with great clarity to fire here and not there. Coaching is a long intimate process and conversation. It is a series of signals and responses that move toward the coach and that certain individuals goals. A coaches true skill is not just their ability to communicate, but rather the ability to locate the sweet spot on the edge of each individuals ability, and send the right signals to help the student reach toward the right goal, over and over again. With any complex skill, there are several different qualities involved. Daniel Coyle calls these different qualities "the four virtues".

The First Virtue
Most of the people Coyle met and talked to were in their sixties or seventies. They all had spent decades intensively learning how to coach.  A great teacher has the capacity to always take it deeper, to see the learning the athlete or student is capable of and to go there. Years of work go into myelinating a master coach's circuit, which contains knowledge, strategy, experience, and practice instinct ready to be put into use to take the athlete and students to where they need to go. People are not born with this ignition and deep practice. One does not become a master coach by accident. For example, coaches in the NFL did not just become coaches on accident. They loved football and most likely played it growing up and then grew a tremendous amount of knowledge and skill and wanted to pass it on.

type of knowledge, it's something they grow, over time, through the same combination of

The Second Virtue
Eyes are a giveaway. They are usually sharp and long, unblinking gazes. Several master coaches told Coyle that they trained their eyes to be like cameras. Though the gaze can be friendly, it's not about making a friendship. Yeah, it is important to be friendly and on good terms with your coach, however it is there job to pass on the information and get you to where you're suppose to go. One person Coyle met was a coach named John Wooden, he said " I am not going to treat you players all the same. Giving you the same treatment doesn't make sense, because you're all different. You are different from each other in height, weight, background, intelligence, talent, and many other ways. For that reason each one of you deserves individual treatment that is best for you. I will decide what that treatment will be." I feel like this is hard for some coaches to realize. Sure I have only had a few coaches in my lifetime, but I feel like a lot of coaches now-a-days are more focused on trying to get their athletes to win or to try and be successful right away. Those may be good goals to reach, but it is important to get to know each individual because treating a bunch of people the same could be difficult on the athletes because they could not all be on the same page physically and mentally. Most master coaches Coyle met sought out details of their athletes personal lives such as, finding out about family, income, relationships, an motivation.

The Third Virtue
"You gotta give them a lot of information," said Robert Landsorp, a tennis coach. Shock will be an important word toward this virtue. Most master coaches deliver their information to their students and athletes in a series of high-definition bursts. Coaches never start a sentence saying, "Could you please" or "Do you think this...", instead they say "Now do this... Do that." Basically saying "you will do what I tell you". They are not trying to be rude or mean, but delivering in a way that sounded urgent. Most master coaches change their input. If A didn't work, they tried B and then C; if they failed it would go on to D and E and so on. As soon as a coach sees their student or athlete accomplish something they would add difficulty. Small successes were not stopping points, they were stepping stones. Push is another important word. The second they accomplish something it is important to push them to a new goal or spot even if they are struggling.

The Fourth Virtue
Many coaches Coyle met radiated a subtle theatrical air. Theatrical honesty works best when teachers are performing their most essential myelinating role: pointing out errors. It is important to point out their errors because you don't want they doing something wrong continually. Coaches should be warm and encouraging instead of making them feel like they are doing everything wrong. This is where experience from the coach steps in. In order to understand what that individual is doing wrong, the coach has to be able to connect with them because they know what they are talking about.

Being a master coach is hard work and it takes a lot of dedication. The quote I added in the beginning, "a teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." Once someone is a master coach they are always going to be a coach at heart. For example, when I did track, my uncle would come to some of my meets and help me correct some errors I had (fourth virtue) and even thought he was no longer a track coach, he still had that knowledge to help me. A teacher affects individuals for eternity. Some coaches could even change lives. It is incredible what coaches can do.

Tuesday's Blog- December 13

"It's not about recognizing talent, whatever the hell that is. I've never tried to go out and find someone who's talented. First you work on fundamentals, and pretty soon you find out where things are going."
- Robert Lansdorp, tennis coach of former world number-one players Pete Sampras, Tracy Austin, and Lindsay Davenport. (pg. 159)

So far in the book, The Talent Code, by Daniel Coyle, he has addressed skill as a cellular process that grows through deep practice (myelin) and how ignition supplies the unconscious energy for that growth. The chapter I am currently reading, I will meet the rare people who have the mysterious talent and gift for combining those two forces to grow talent in others. He starts of the chapter by getting us intrigued into what we were going to learn. With that being said, the first sentence of the chapter is American bank robbers weren't very skilled. Gangs followed a simple plan: they picked a bank,

waited until nighttime, then blew open the vault with dynamite. By the early 1920s the banks had caught up, bringing in alarm systems and blast-proof vaults. The bank robbers then simply became more skilled. They worked day and night, and it was as if bank robbers had suddenly evolved into a more talented species. Stealing hundreds and thousands of dollars, this evolution could be traced back to the man who lead the gang; Herman "The Baron" Lamm. He was the teacher of the modern bank-robbing skill. He was the "master coach". Lamm organized each bank rob, visiting the bank, sketching out blueprint maps, and holding rehearsals. After his death, (he was shot to death by police) it was taught to John Dillinger. Lamm's system is still employed today because he was able to communicate his ideas and translate them into the performance of a difficult task. He inspired through information and was a master coach.

When we think of a master coach, we think of someone who is a great leader, someone who is committed, battle-tested knowledge, and someone who has power to influence someone else. In the beginning of the book, Coyle says he began visiting tiny places that produce Everest-size amounts of talent. "My journey began at a ramshackle tennis court in Moscow, and over the next fourteen months it took me to a soccer field in Sao Paolo, Brazil, a vocal stuido in Dallas (when he visited Clarissa, the musician who accomplished a months of work in six minutes), Texas, an inner-city school in San Jose, California, a run-down music academy in New York's Adirondacks, a baseball-mad island in the Caribbean, and a handful of other places so small, humble, and titanically accomplished that a friend dubbed them "the chicken-wire Harvards." " He called these hotbeds. When Coyle visited the hotbeds that contained people who have the mysterious talent and gift of combining the two forces to grow talent in others, he found teachers and coaches that were quiet and reserved. They were mostly older, and many had been teaching for forty years. They also were "steady, deep, and unblinking". They listened more then they talked, and when they did talk they were either giving pep talks or inspiring speeches. After Daniel Coyle met all these people, he suspected that they were all related in a way. They were all talent whisperers. They posses deep structure of knowledge, adding to mental work of growing which they have no control over. Basically, coaches are just there to help guide athletes into the right direction and help they get the knowledge they need to grow.

The quote and this blog connects to me, not because I have robbed a bank before, but it connects to me because all of the coaches I've had throughout the years have one plan, to teach me and make me successful. They've never screamed at me (only sometimes), but they have listened to me and look at what I need improvements on and then they teach me more knowledge of that certain sport. My cheerleading coaches always tell me they can't make me better. I have to be dedicated and work hard towards bettering myself. They will guide me to get better but they can't physically make me better. Cheering coaches in college don't go looking for people and scouting out individuals. They make try out dates and each person has to come in and try out for the team. It is like working on the fundamentals and then seeing where things go. Like working up the skills to doing that sport in college.

Friday Blog- December 9

This week I have been ahead of my reading schedule, so I just read pages 100 to 160 of the book Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. 

Vocabulary Words


Insurmountable- (pg. 101) incapable of being surmounted, passed over, or overcome; insuperable.

Incremental- (pg. 101) increasing or adding on, especially in a regular series.

Clamor- (pg. 118) a loud uproar, as from a crowd of people.

Fluke- (pg. 124) the part of an anchor that catches in the ground, especially the flat triangular piece at the end of each arm.

Oxymoronic- (pg. 126) a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in "cruel kindness" or "to make haste slowly".

Environs- (pg. 127) the surrounding parts or districts, as of a city; outskirts; suburbs.

Glint- (pg. 130) a tiny, quick flash of light; gleaming brightness; luster.

Exquisitely- (pg. 136) of special beauty or charm, or rare and appealing excellence, as a face, a flower, coloring, music, or poetry.

Innovate- (pg. 141) to introduce something new; make changes in anything established.

Jalopy- (pg. 141) an old, decrepit, or unpretentious automobile.

Thursday's Blog- December 8- Ignition

Ignition

Recently, I have learned a good amount as to what deep practice is. However, deep practice is not so easy. It requires energy, passion, and commitment. It also requires motivational fuel. Remember that word, motivational fuel because it will be very important given it is the second element of the name of the book, the talent code. In the section of the book I am currently reading, I learned how motivation was created and sustained through something called ignition. Ignition and deep practice work together to produce optimum skill. Ignition supplies the energy while deep practice converts the ignition over time into progress (myelin). Deep practice isn't easy and takes time. An example the author uses to describe how deep practice takes time is through an Oxford medical student named Roger Brannister who was the first person to run a mile in less than four minutes. He earned headlines around the world and lasting fame for what many professional illustrators called the single greatest athletic accomplishment of the twentieth century. As time went on, another runner, an Australian named John Landy, also broke the four-minute barrier. The next season a few more runners did too. And then the next season more runners did also. Within three years more than seventeen had matched the greatest sporting

accomplishment of the twentieth century. Nothing extreme or intense had changed. The training was the same and the genes were the same but what did change was how the athletes were responding to something outside of themselves. The seventeen plus runners had received a signal saying, "you can do this too". This is how ignition works. Deep practice is a conscious act while ignition is an awakening. "Ignition works through lightning flashes of image and emotion, evolution-built neural programs that tap into the mind's vast reserves of energy and attention." Ignition leads us to the thoughts of "you can do this" or "this is what I want to be", it creates our identity. Sometimes individuals say to themselves, "if she can do it, why can't I?"

Another example the author used to show us readers is through his family. The author, Daniel Coyle's has a family of six, his daughter, Zoe is the youngest and the speediest. Her foot speed seems natural, yet this is how Coyle started learning and reading about myelin. He was wondering how much of Zoe's foot speed was inborn, meaning natural, and how much of it stems from the combination of practice and motivation she gets from being the youngest.?

Below, Daniel Coyle gives us the birth-order ranks of the world-record progression in the 100-meter dash, with the most recently set world record first, then second, third, and so on.

1. Usain Bolt (second of three children)
2. Asafa Powell (sixth of six children)
3. Justin Gatlin (fourth of four)
4. Maurice Greene (fourth of four)
5. Donovan Bailey (third of three)
6. Leroy Burrell (fourth of five)
7. Carl Lewis (third of four)
8. Burrell (fourth of five)
9. Lewis (third of four)
10. Calvin Smith (sixth of eight)

Of the eight men on the list, (Burrell and Lewis appear twice), none of them were firstborn, and only one was born in the first half of his family's birth order. On average, history's fastest runners were born fourth in families of 4.6 children. We also find a similar result with the top ten of all time NFL running backs in rushing yards. Here we see a pattern. This pattern may strike many as surprising because speed most times looks and feels like a gift, however it not just a gift but a skill that grows through deep practice, and that is ignited by primal signals. In this case the cue is: "you're behind-keep up". Myelin also plays a role in this because myelin connects to impulse speed- the more you have, the faster your muscles can fire and it is useful for sprinters to fire your muscles faster. This does not mean being born last or late into a big family automatically makes that individual fast, but it does say that being fast involves a bunch of factors that go beyond genes, but directly related to motivational signals that provide energy to practice deeply and produce myelin. As I continue reading, I will learn more about  ignition and how it can be triggered, but as of now I have learned about primal signals.

Tuesday's Blog- December 6

"Just take it one step at a time" (Coyle, 80)

Back to Clarissa the average musician who in just six minutes, accomplished a month's worth of work, we are going to dig a little deeper into how this happened. In my last blog, we were introduced to myelin, a microscopic substance that is "the key to talking, reading, learning, skills, and being human."

Myelin is built on three simple facts:
1) Every human movement, thought, or feeling is a timed electric signal traveling through a chain of neurons- a circuit of nerve fibers.
2) Myelin is the insulation that wraps these nerve fibers and increases signal strength, speed, and accuracy.
3) The more we fire a particular circuit, the more myelin optimizes that circuit, and the stronger, faster, and more fluent our movements and thoughts become.

Many researchers especially Fields, who is mentioned in my last blog, are attracted to myelin because it provides insights into the biological roots of learning and of cognitive disorders. Clarissa couldn't feel it, but when she was deep-practicing she was firing and optimizing a neural circuit- and growing myelin. Myelin and deep practice is what helped her focus and get a month's worth of work done a short time period.

Myelin operates by a few fundamental principles:
1) The firing of the circuit is paramount- myelin is not built to respond to fond wishes or vague ideas. It is built to respond to actions. It responds to urgent repetition.
2) Myelin is universal- one size fits all skills. Myelin doesn't care who you are- it cares what you do.
3) Myelin wraps- it doesn't unwrap- myelination happens in one direction. Once a skill is protected, ou can't un-insulate it (except age or disease). That's why habits are hard to break.
4) Age matters- in children, myelin arrives in a series of waves, some of them are determined by genes, some are dependent on activity. We continue to experience a net gain of myelin until around the age of fifty, when the balance tips toward loss. This is why majority of world-class athletes/experts start young. The study of myelin can be confusing, but according to Dr. Dogulas Fields, "it's early, but this could be huge."

There are also three rules of deep practice:
Rule 1) chunk it up- how do we know we are deep practicing? What does it feel like?
Deep practice feels a bit like exploring an dark and unfamiliar room. We start slowly, we bump into furniture and run into walls, we stop, think, and then start again. Slowly, we experience the space over and over and where everything is place, building a mental map until we can move through it quickly. The instinct when we are approached with something unfamiliar is to slow down

and break skills into their components. It is universal (myelin is universal). We are "taking it one step at a time" This is where I found my quote. As we are faced with something we are not used to, we take it one step at a time until we are able to fully understand it.
Rule 2) repeat it- repetition is irreplaceable. Spending more time is effective- but only if you're still in the sweet spot at the edge of your capabilities. Today, we are seeing younger kids practice up to three hours a day, every week because repetition is something that can help us improve.
Rule 3) learn to feel it- myelin is sneaky. It is not possible to sense and feel myelin growing along our nerve fibers. The author asked many people to describe the sensations of their most productive practice and this is what they said: attention, connect, build, whole, alert, focus, mistake, repeat, tiring, edge, and awake. This list as the author says, evokes a feeling of reaching, falling short, but getting back up and reaching again. The more willing individuals are to endure it and to permit themselves to fail- the more myelin they build and the more skill they earn.

This quote connects to me, because as a kid my mom and especially coaches when ever I was frustrated trying to learn something they always told me, "take it one step at a time." No matter what I was doing, my parents and coaches wanted me to slow down and take time to accomplish what I was doing in that moment. I can say I am someone who wants to get something done right away, for example, in school when I learn something and I don't understand it, I get frustrated because I want to be able to know what I am doing right away. Another example, in cheerleading, when I am learning a new skill and I fall each time, yes I get frustrated and I want to keep on going and going until I get it, but I have to realize that I have to take it step by step because nothing is going to work right away.

Friday Blog- December 2

The Talent Code- Daniel Coyle 

This week I read pages 1 to 90. And I am currently on a good path following my reading plan. 

Vocabulary Words

Hotbeds- (pg. 13) a bottomless, boxlike, usually glass-covered structure and the bed of earth it covers, heated typically by fermenting manure or electrical cables, for growing plants out of season. 

Transcendent- (pg. 14) going beyond ordinary limits; surpassing; exceeding. 

Quintessential- (pg. 14) of the pure and essential essence of something. 

Trifecta- (pg. 15) a type of bet, especially on horse races, in which the bettor must select the first three finishers in exact order.

Imperceptible- (pg. 17) very slight, gradual, or subtle. 

Scaffold- (pg. 19) a temporary structure of holding workers and materials during the erection, repair, or decoration of a building. 

Prehensile- (pg. 22) adapted for seizing, grasping, or taking hold of something.

Charisma- (pg. 25) a spiritual power or personal quality that gives an individual influence or authority over large numbers of people.

Cajoled- (pg. 25) to persuade by flattery or promises; wheedle; coax.

Myelin- (pg. 30) a soft, white, fatty material in the membrane of Schwann cells and certain neuroglial cells: the substance of the myelin sheath.

Thursday's Blog- Deep Practice

A theme I found in the book, The Talent Code is deep practice. The part of the book I am at really emphasizes on what deep practice is and how important it is. Brazil produces outstanding players because Brazilian players have trained in a particular way, using a tool that improves ball-handling skill faster than anywhere else in the world since the 1950s. This type of training the author, Daniel Coyle, calls training of deep practice. This deep practice he says applies to not only soccer, but to more. The way the author helps us understand what deep practice is, is by actually doing it. He gives us the following lists. He wants the readers to take a few seconds to look at both lists and spend the same amount of time on each one.

List A

ocean/breeze
leaf/tree
sweet/sour
movie/actress
gasoline/engine
high school/college
turkey/stuffing
fruit/vegetable
computer/chip
chair/couch

List B

bread/b_tter
music/l_rics
sh_e/sock
phone/b_ok
chi_s/salsa
pen_il/paper
river/b_at
be_r/wine
television/rad_o
l_nch/dinner

After studying each list, Coyles says, "now turn the page and without looking, try to remember as many as the word pairs you can. From which column do you recall more words? The book says, like most people, we will remember more worlds from List B, the ones that contain fragments. In those few seconds, our memory skills suddenly sharpened. If this was a test, our list B score would have been 300 percent higher. Our IQ did not increase and we did not feel different. This is how the author let us experience what deep practice actually is.

However, readers were encountered by words with blank spaces. We stopped. We may have stumbled over the words briefly but then we figured it out. Us readers, experienced a microsecond of struggle, but that microsecond made all the difference. We did not practice harder when we looked at list B, we just practiced deeper.

Deep practice is constructed and appears to be self-contradictory: struggling in certain targeted ways- operating at the edges of our ability, and where we make mistakes- makes us smarter. In another way, these type of experiences where we are forced to slow down for a second, make some errors, and correct them. Robert Bjork, the man who developed the list above, says, "we think of effortless performance as desirable, but it's really a terrible way to learn." Meaning if we are not forced to think as hard, we have an advantage, but Bjork thinks that is a terrible way to learn because we are not actually using our brains. He also mentions, "We tend to think of our memory as a tape recorder, but that's wrong. It's a living structure, a scaffold of nearly infinite size. The more we generate impulses, encountering and overcoming difficulties, the more scaffolding we build. The more scaffolding we build, the faster we learn." When we are practicing deeply, we use time more efficiently.

Deep practice is a powerful idea and an average musician, named Clarissa describes how she managed to accomplish a month's worth of work in just six short minutes. Clarissa states, she was introduced to a microscopic substance called myelin. Knowing about myelin changes the way we see the world. Dr. Douglas Fields a director of the Laboratory of Developmental Neurobiology at the National Institutes of Heath in Maryland expresses that, myelin is "the key to talking, reading, learning, skills, and being human." I could write and write even more about myelin but that would take a while. To make it short, practice makes myelin, and myelin makes perfect.

Tuesday Blog- November 29

I finished my last book, and started my second book, The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. 

"Making progress became a matter of small failures, a rhythmic pattern of botches, as well as something else: shared facial expressions" (Coyle, 13). 


The author, Daniel Coyle starts off the book by his daughter over hearing that her dad was going on a treasure hunt. He explains his first clue and how when he arrived to it, his expectations were met and exceeded, but only half the time. During the other half he witnessed something different. He witnessed moments of slow, fitful struggle, as he says. He compared this to a herd of deer who encounter a hillside coated with ice and how they stop, look, and think carefully about making each future step. The author then introduces us to an eleven year old, named Brunio. He is working on a new soccer move on a playground in Brazil. Coyle says, he is trying to learn the elastico, a ball handling maneuver in which Brunio nudges the ball with the outside of his foot, then quickly swings his foot around the ball to flick it the opposite direction with his instep. This skill is very tricky, and the first time they watched Brunio try the move, he fails, but thin stops and thinks. He tries again, this time more slowly, but fails again.

He stops and thinks for the second time. The third time he tries even slower, breaking each move down into different components- "this, this, and that". His eyes are focused, his body controlled, and they all of a sudden, something clicks: he starts nailing the skill each time. The author also introduces us to a twenty-four year old, named Jennie. She is a singer working in a Dallas vocal studio learning the chorus of a pop song. As she is trying to finish singing the last few high notes of the song, she fails. Just like Brunio, she stops, and thinks, then sings it at a slower speed. Each time she messes up a note, she would stop, breathe, and then return to the beginning. Then all of a sudden, something clicks: she gets it. The sixth time through she finishes the song perfectly.

Between Bruno and Jennie, they both failed multiple times, but in order to succeed one has to fail before success. It is like that saying "practice makes perfect." If one does not continue to practice they will not get better or perfect at what they are doing. In this chapter I feel as if the author was trying to get the point across that "making progress became a matter of small failures, a rhythmic pattern of botches." This is where I found my quote, in order to make progress along the way one will encounter small failures, but we learn from them, we grow from them, and practice to get better. Nothing in life is handed to us, we have to work for what we want.

I thought this quote connected to me because when I first started cheerleading eight years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. Absolutely no idea. I strictly remember walking into tryouts thinking to myself, "I may make a fool of myself, but I'm okay with that". I had some tumbling skills from doing dance cclasses and gymnastic classes the previous years but nothing outstanding. For years I tried to get a back-handspring which is when you do a back flip but your hands go on the ground. It took me forever and ever to get it. Of course I had failed multiple times, landing on my knees, or bending my arms, but I got right back up and kept trying. There were bumps in the road, including fracturing my ankle during the process of learning, but I healed and then started right up again. Eventually after tireless hours of failure and progress, I got my back-handspring and to be completely honest, I learned from this struggle. As I continued with cheerleading over the years I gained more skills, but it took the same steps, failure after failure, but I eventually got it. It is just a matter of time and never giving up.

Friday Blog- November 25

Outliers- a story of success- Malcolm Gladwell 

This week I read pages 100 to 200.

Vocabulary Words

Primeval- (pg. 161) of or relating to the first age or ages, especially of the world.

Subpoena- (pg. 164) the usual writ of the summoning of witnesses or the submission of the evidence, as records or documents, before a court or other deliberate body.

Aviation- (pg. 178) the design, development, production, and operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier than air craft.

Jurisdiction- (pg. 180) the right, the power, or authority, to administer justice by hearing and determining controversies.

Tarmac- (pg. 181) a brand of bituminous binder, similar to tarmacadam, for surfacing roads, airport runways, parking areas, etc.

Inadvertently- (pg. 183) unintentional, not attentive; heedless.

Negotiating- (pg. 192) to deal or bargain with another or others, as in the preparation of a treaty or contract or in preliminaries to a business deal.

Anomalies- (pg. 197) a deviation from the common rule, type, arrangement, or form.

Mitigate- (pg. 197) to lessen in force or intensity, as wrath, grief, harshness, or pain; moderate.

Prelude- (pg. 199) a preliminary to an action, event, condition, or work of broader scope and higher importance.

Tuesday/Thursday's Blog- November 24- Success and Failure

Success and Failure- Outliers- Malcolm Gladwell 

In the book, Outliers, chapter four focuses on the life of Chris Langan. Chris's mother had four sons, Chris being the eldest. His father was an alcoholic and disappeared before Chris was born. His mother's second husband was murdered, her third committed suicide, and her fourth was a failed journalist named Jack Langan. With that being said, he unfortunately grew up very poor. Although he was poor, Chris was extremely gifted. He started talking at six months and he taught himself to read at just the age of three. He was born smart. Upon graduation from high school, Chris was offered two full scholarships, one to Reed College in Oregon and the other to University of Chicago. He ended up choosing Reed. He found the adjustment from growing up on a ranch to going to school with a bunch of kids from New York City was difficult. He said he was unable to speak up in class even though he knew the material well. Eventually he lost his scholarship due to his mother failing to fill out a parents' financial statement for the renewal of his scholarship. He proceeded to ask the office why and they neglected Chris's proclamation saying he did not have a scholarship anymore. He was furious there was nobody there for counseling, or mentoring.

Chris Langan 

He decided to drop out and considering he left before final exams he was leaving with a row of F's on his transcript. He worked as a construction worker and a firefighter for almost two years before enrolling at Montana State University. He was doing well there, taking philosophy classes when one morning his transmission fell out of his car due to his brothers using it on the railroad that previous summer. He contacted his adviser asking if he could move his morning class to an afternoon class so he was not marked absent. However, the dean was disdainful and declined his request. He was frustrated and dropped out saying he was done with the higher education system. Chris's experiences at Reed and Montana State represented a turning point in his life. As a child he dreamt of becoming an academic. Going back to construction, he continued to read deeply into philosophy, mathematics, and physics. He wrote several papers but he believed no one would take him serious considering he had a year and a half of education.

The author, Malcolm Gladwell connected Chris Langan's story to Robert Oppenheimer, a physicist who famously developed the nuclear bomb during World War II. Oppenheimer had a mind, just like Chris's. His parents considered him a genius. Oppenheimer started doing lab experiments by the third grade and studying physics and chemistry by the fifth grade.

Robert Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer went to Harvard and then to Cambridge University to pursue a doctorate in physics. He struggled with depression his entire life and was gifted with a tutor, named Patrick Blackett (won Nobel Prize in 1948). His tutor forced him to study experimental physics which he hated and preferred theoretical physics. He grew more emotionally unstable, and out of no where tried to poison his tutor with chemicals from the laboratory. The university was informed and and Oppenheimer was put on probation. Twenty years later, Oppenheimer would lead the atomic-bomb effort from Leslie Groves, the man who was in charge of the Manhattan Project.

So here are the stories of Chris Langan and Robert Oppenheimer. Two very brilliant young students, each who run into a problem that endangers their college career. Langan's mother had missed a deadline for his financial aid and his car broke down so he kindly asked to switch into a later class while Oppenheimer tried to poison his tutor.

Patrick Blackett

Langan gets his scholarship taken away while Oppenheimer gets put on probation and gets sent to a psychiatrist. Oppenheimer was known as the man who was trying to kill his tutor in graduate school yet was put out for the most important jobs of the century. The difference between Langan and Oppenheimer is that Oppenheimer got the rest of the world to see things his way while Langan did not. His "charm, intelligence, and performance" stood out to everyone. The question here is would Oppenheimer have lost his scholarship at Reed? Would he have been unable to convince the dean to move his classes to the afternoon? The author, Gladwell states, of course not. Not because he was smarter than Chris, they were both equally intelligent, but because Oppenheimer possessed the kind of perception and savvy that allowed him to get what he wanted. Another difference between Langan and Oppenheimer is how Oppenheimer was raised in the wealthiest neighborhoods in Manhattan, and was the son of an artist and a successful garment manufacturer. He attended Culture school and had a lot of advantages growing up that Chris did not have. Chris grew up dominated by an angry, drunken stepfather who would lock the cabinets so Chris and his brothers couldn't get the food. Chris never had a parent to teach him the way to success. If Chris was born into a wealthy family, and the son of parents who had great jobs, he would be very successful having a PhD at age seventeen.

This is where I found success and failure to be a theme. Although today, Chris is doing perfectly fine and is living on a horse farm in Missouri with his family, his college career had failed and was nothing that he had dreamt of. Nevertheless, Oppenheimer was the successful one. I thought this also connected to the theme I am reading about this quarter, (sports) because athletes, especially professional athletes will be successful while some will fail.


I feel like this connects to me because sometimes unfortunate things happen in my life and I feel as if I have to tirelessly work for making what has happened better on my own. For example, in the beginning of the year I ended up getting very sick. I was in the hospital for weeks and after a while of recovery, I went back to cheerleading. Given I got sick in January it was right in the middle of competition season, so my coaches had to replace me with someone on a different team to cover my spot until I got back. When I returned, I worked and worked on my own to get to where I used to be before I got sick. (I had an extreme virus that effected my muscles so I had to regain my strength back) After proving I was ready to pick up where I left off, my coaches decided to tuck me into the back of the routine and leave the fill in I had in my spot. Of course, I was very upset and often I would find myself thinking how come this has to happen to me when getting sick was not my fault or something I could not prevent, yet I was in a way getting punished for it. Before I got sick, I worked really hard to make this certain team I was on. But, because I got sick I felt like I was barely apart of the team. I thought Robert Oppenheimer and Chris Langan's stories connected to me because I felt like I was Chris in this particular case working for something hard and then ending up not getting rewarded for it. I also felt like the girl that filled in for me was Robert Oppenheimer and although she was very talented she did not have to work as hard as I did to make the team she just was left on it because her mother had connections with my coaches.

Friday Blog- November 18

Outliers- a story of success- Malcolm Gladwell 

This week I read pages 1 to 100. 

Vocabulary Words

Tumult- (pg. 15) violent and noisy commotion or disturbance of a crowd or mob; uproar. 

Virtuoso- (pg. 17) a person who has special knowledge or skill in a field. 

Success- (pg. 19) I know what this word means, however, I wanted to see what the dictionary definition was because success means something different for everyone. Definition- the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors; the accomplishment of one's goals. 

Meritocracy- (pg. 37) an elite group of people whose progress is based on ability and talent rather than on class privilege or wealth.

Innate- (pg. 38) existing in one from birth; inborn; native.

Simultaneous- (pg. 45) existing, occurring, or operating at the same time; concurrent.

Mimed- (pg. 46) the art or technique of portraying a character, mood, idea, or narration by gestures and bodily movements; pantomime.

Paradigm- (pg. 62) a set of forms all of which contain a particular element, especially the set of all inflected forms based on a single stem or theme.

Epicenter- (pg. 66) a point, directly above the true center of disturbance, from which the shock waves of an earthquake apparently radiate.

Mitigate- (pg. 73) to lessen in force or intensity, as wrath, grief, harshness, or pain; moderate.

Thursday's Blog- Elite Hockey Players born between January and April, who started playing a young age

A theme or an important part of this book I found was how seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen year old boys are becoming elite hockey players who have the chance to make it into the NHL. However, these elite players were all born at the beginning of the year rather than the end, and started playing at a young age.

In the book Outliers, a Canadian psychologist named Roger Barnsley drew attention to the occurrence of relative age. He found many professional hockey players were born in January, more than any other month. The second most frequent birth month was February, and then March. Barnsley found that there were nearly five and a half times as many Ontario Junior Hockey League players born in January as were born in November.

As he looked further into research, he found that any elite group of hockey players whether that be traveling teams, National Hockey League (NHL), or Junior leagues, any elite group of players, 40 percent of the players will have been born between January and March 30 percent between April and June, 20 percent between July and September, and 10 percent between October and December. "It sounds like a strange sporting ritual for teenage boys born under the astrological signs of Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.
The following link is an article that summarizes about playing in the NHL, but being born in the right month in order to do so. Want to play in the NHL? Better hope you were born in the right month. I found this article interesting considering if you were not born in the correct month and you love to play hockey, chance of you making it professional are unlikely.

Say someone starts playing hockey at seven years old compared to someone who started playing hockey at age twelve. Yes, the hockey players who make it into the NHL are more talented than anyone else, however, they also got a big head start, an opportunity that played a critical role in their success. If this seven year old were to play a game against this twelve year old, the seven year old will probably be better because the player was able to start out playing earlier. And that little difference of starting younger leads to an opportunity that makes that difference a bit bigger, which then leads to another opportunity, which then makes that certain individual and outlier or someone who stands out the most compared to their peers. An example from the book was from a father of one of the Medicine Hat Tigers. The fathers says, "When he was four and five years old his little brother was in a walker, and he would shove a hockey stick in his hand and they would play hockey on the floor in the kitchen, morning till night. He always had a passion for it. He had to work very hard for whatever he's got. I'm very proud of him." These are what makes someone successful. Passion, talent, and hard work. Of course, his son was born on January 4, the perfect birthday for an elite hockey player, Becoming pro in hockey is not easy it takes being born in the correct month, and the skill from past experiences to make it big.

An article I found on the Internet talks about how great the sports author (J.R Gamble) son is at baseball. He states he has a lot of video clips that he shows to different people of him doing amazing things on the field. Part of the reason his son is so good at baseball is because he started at a very, very early age. Gamble says, "when he was about 14 months, I put a golf ball in his hand to let him know how a baseball would feel when he got older. By age two, J.C (his son) was hitting and throwing the ball. By age three, he was playing organized T-ball." Many people believe J.C is good enough to become professional and his dad would quit whatever he was doing to attend every game. J.C indicates he will go to Standford, get a scholarship, and then he will go to the Yankees in the MLB draft. According to a poll from the NPR that is shown below, about 40 percent of respondents between the ages 18 to 25 have played a sport in the past year, compared to 26 percent of respondents ages 26 to 49. This shows how more athletes are starting and playing at a younger age rather than playing at an older age. It is extremely hard to make professional athletes, because each individual has to be fully committed to the sport. However, in recent years, a director of the Sports and Society Program of the Aspen Institute started to see a shift among the parents of kids playing sports at a young age. A lot of parents today will say, "I'd better get started early with my kid." Some parents follow their child's passion in a specific sport while others push their children into competitive sports believing their child could get athletic scholarships or become professional. There are still some children and parents who let their children play multiple sports at a young age just because they enjoy and have fun playing that certain sport. Yet, a child psychiatrist has noticed more and more parents are obsessing over their kids' athletic careers which can be concerning. In fact, there is a name for this type of obsession, called achievement by proxy distortion. It is important now a days, that future parents are careful with pressuring their children into becoming professional when it is more important for them to learn about being the right team player.

Links

Achievement by Proxy Distortion

Becoming Pro

Tuesday's Blog- November 14

"You can't buy your way into Major Junior A hockey. It doesn't matter who your father or mother is, or who your grandfather was, or what business your family is in. Nor does it matter if you live in the most remote corner of the most northerly province in Canada. If you have the ability, the vast network of hockey scouts and talent spotters will find you, and if you are willing to work to develop that ability, the system will reward you" (Gladwell, 17). 

The beginning of the book, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, focuses on the two finest teams in the Canadian Hockey League (finest junior hockey league). Those two teams being, the Medicine Hat Tigers and the Vancouver Giants. Canadian hockey is a class of skilled men which experts have noticed the roster of both teams beings seventeen-eighteen-, and nineteen-year-olds who have been skating since they were 2 to 4 years old. Thousands of young Canadian boys begin to play hockey at the beginner level. From there on, there are leagues for every age class, and at each of those levels, the players are sorted and

 evaluated by ability and talent. By the time these Canadian boys hit the midteens, they are transferred to an elite league known as Major Junior A, which is the very best of the best. Major Junior A Hockey is the way coaches pick their future NFL stars. This is where I found my quote. It is not easy to make it into the NHL. As it is, its even hard to make it to the Major Junior A team.

I found a website that emphasis' how hard it is to make it to the NHL. Some interesting facts I found were, out of the select 30,000 players experts studied, 48 were drafted by a NHL team, and 39 of those 48 actually signed contracts with an NHL team. Of that 39, only 32 actually played in the NHL, and only 15 players of those 32 played more than one full season. Finally, of that 15 only six played the minimum 400 games to qualify for the NHL player pension. This shows how extremely hard it is to get into the NHL. It also shows of those 39 who signed contracts with different teams must have been completely dedicated to hockey and played to their best ability. Sports is something that is never handed to us athletes. For example, maybe in high school if your dad is the track coach, or your great cousin is the principal, maybe you could have a connection to get on varsity. But, that doesn't matter. It is all about your ability, dedication, and skill. Just because someone may have a "connection" doesn't mean they are going to get far in the sport. It all depends on the athlete they really are.

How hard is it to get into the NHL?


This connects to be because I do competitive cheerleading. When I say competitive, I really mean competitive. Not only is it competitive against other teams, but it is also competitive against other teammates. Competitive cheerleading is where coaches put together a routine and us cheerleaders have to compete the routine at different competitions and be the best of the best. Together we compete as a team but every teammate is competitive towards each other. There is five levels in cheerleading. One being the lowest level and five being the highest level. It is hard to get to level 5. It requires an immense amount of skill and determination. Level 5 teams have the chance to go to a competition called "Worlds".  Worlds is where everyone from across the world, including Japan, China, Brazil, etc. come together and compete against each other. This connected to me because I have been competitive cheerleading since I was years old. I started at the bottom and over the years I worked tirelessly, determined to make it to the top. My coaches pushed me to my best ability. Same with major league hockey,  it doesn't matter who your father or mother is or who your grandfather was, or what business your family is in, cheerleading is something you have to work for to get to the top. I feel as though, that is the same for every sport. If you put 110 percent into what you do, you will get rewarded for it. 

Second Quarter Plan

For the last quarter of this class I decided to read and learn more about sports. Sports is something that really interests me since I am fully committed to a few sports. In fact, all sports interest me in some type of way and I want to read more about what it takes to be an athlete. I am excited to read all four of these books and I am interested to see what they are all about.

Essential Questions 
What does it take to be an athlete?
How important is time-management to an athlete?
What is a daily life like as an athlete?
Why is sports so popular in our generation today?
What kind of meal plan does an athlete eat?

Outliers
Malcolm Gladwell

The Talent Code
Daniel Coyle

Thrive
Brendan Brazier

Remember why you play
David Thomas

Reading Schedule

Outliers- read pages 1 to 100 by November 18
Outliers- read pages 100 to 200 by November 24
Outliers- finish the book (pages 200-285) by November 30

The Talent Code- read pages 1 to 150 by December 9
The Talent Code- finish the book (pages 150-235) by December 16

Thrive- read pages 1 to 100 by December 23
Thrive- read pages 100 to 289 by December 31

Remember why you play- I have not received this book yet, and I could not find the number of pages online. I ordered it and it should be in soon. I plan on finishing this book from December 31 to January 13, when the quarter ends.

Final Friday Blog- November 4

This Quarter I read the books: 

The Shift- Theresa Brown, RN

Thirty years in September- a nurses's memoir- Kate Genovese 

Beautiful Unbroken- one nurses life- Mary Jean Nealon

Inside the Dementia Epidemic- a daughter's memoir- Martha Stettinius 

I read a total of 887 pages, considering each book was a little over 200 pages.


Top ten most important vocabulary words

The Shift 
Platelet- (pg. 39) a small colorless disk-shaped cell fragment without a nucleus, found in large numbers in blood and involved in clotting

Hematology- (pg. 62) the study of the philosophy of the blood- study of nature, function, and diseases of the blood and of blood forming organs.


Thirty years in September
Resentment- (pg. 41) the feeling of displeasure or indignation of some act, remark, person, etc. Regarding as causing injury or insult.

Deintitutionalization- (pg. 80) To release (a person with mental or physical disabilities) from a hospital, asylum, home, or other institution with the intention of providing treatment, support, or rehabilitation primarily through community resources under the supervision of health- care professionals or facilities.


Beautiful Unbroken
Synagogue- (pg. 7) the building where a Jewish assembly or congregation meets for religious worship and instruction.

Precinct- (pg. 10) a district of a city or town as defined for police purposes.

Emesis- (pg. 33) the act of vomit.

Colic- (pg. 156) paroxysmal pain in the abdomen or bowels.

Inside the Dementia Epidemic 
Giddy (pg. 45) attended with or causing dizziness, frivolous and lighthearted; impulsive flighty.

Geriatric- (pg. 116) of or relating to old people, especially regard to their health care.

Thursday Blog- Final Blog

This quarter I learned an immense amount of information from reading just four books. I chose to read about nursing because nursing is something I am very interested in. I thought reading about nursing would help me tremendously considering I hope to be accepted into nursing programs in college. Some of the books I read were challenging while others were simple. However, each book I read I learned new information that can be very helpful in the future. Some information I learned is followed:

• Most RN's (registered nurses) carry around an ink pen, flashlight, scissors, tape, blue IV caps, alcohol wipes, saline flushes, and a sharpie. It is important for nurses to have all these things ready by hand in case of an emergency. 
• The hardest thing about being a nurse is getting attached to certain patients. Nurses are the ones who comfort a certain patient after the doctor delivers a devastating diagnosis or illness. Although nurses are taught to maintain emotional distance from patients, it is hard for them to maintain the part between professionalism and personal relationship. 
• I also learned a lot about different medicines such as, amphotericin B, consolidation chemotherapy, doxorubicin, and rituxan. And how to distribute them. 
• Talking care of someone with Alzheimer's is extremely difficult but I learned the process of both what the patient with Alzheimer's goes through and what the care-giver goes through.

The first book I read, I thought was both easy to read and understand, but also emotionally hard to read. Considering it was written in first person, the author let us readers experience and learn what happens in the twelve short hours of a busy hospital oncology department. I was able to learn and feel like I experienced the difficulties of working in a busy hospital, the positives, the emotions, and the struggles. The main thing I learned from this book was as an RN the main role is to provide physical support to patients and their family members but also a little emotional support during the difficult times and to do their best with helping treat a patient and make them better than before. When a cancer patient is able to go home after a long stay in the hospital it may mean the world to not only the patient or their family but to the nurse as well. The feeling of helping someone that is in pain or really needs assistance, hope, and support is a "crystalline illumination of earned success, a gem-like moment", as the author describes.

At the same time this book was emotionally hard to read. Since the author works on an oncology floor, she is working with patients that have developed tumors and/or cancer. Every nurses miracle on an oncology floor is for the patient to confront their own possible death and move on. Yet, it is harder when the patient is not able to confront their death because they are in denial they are dying and for the nurse to tell them their percent of living is low. Nobody wants to tell somebody the operation they are preparing for may kill them, or the medicine they are about to take may kill them. It is not easy. Nurses do everything to help and save patients and telling someone they may die is the worst part. But nurse's always need to be positive around their patients because they are two people with a shared mission: healing. Often people think that once somebody gets cancer their life is over. But life is too precious and too short to give up that easily. Proving people wrong may be the best medicine. Since I want to be a nurse in the future, I have to take into consideration that I could potentially take care of someone that could be on the verge of dying. This book taught me a lot about how being positive is key and how there is not just going to be positive outcomes but also terrible, negative ones. I thought this book was also very helpful because I got to experience the authors feelings and emotions. If I am ever a nurse in the future I am going to always remember reading this book and all the tips and emotions the author provided.

Although all my other books were helpful and interesting to read, I thought the first book I read taught me a greater quantity than the other four books. The second book I read focused on the author embarking a career of a nurse at age seventeen. It aimed at the author working at a hospital, how her mother died of cancer and how it affected her, and how she ended up becoming a flight nurse. It was interesting to read, but I did not learn as much information compared to my first book. My last two books focused on family illnesses and deaths and how the author dealt with it. The book I finished the quarter with was mainly about how the author took care of her mother with Alzheimer's. Although, I want to either be a nurse in the emergency room or an OB/GYN, it was still important to learn about Alzheimer's and how a person with this disease deals with it because if I ever work in an E.R someone could come in with Alzheimer's disease.

Overall, I thought this quarter was very successful for me. I enjoyed reading each book and I learned a lot of information from just four books! This class and the information I learned will carry on with me into college and when I start my career. I highly recommend this class!

Tuesday's Blog- November 1

"I fully accept, as well, that I am my mother's advocate in all situations, that I am the only person who knows best what my mother needs and wants. I no longer shirk or swerve or defer" (Stettinius, 217).

This week I am reading the last hundred pages of my book, Inside the Dementia Epidemic- a daughter's memoir by Martha Stettinius. The part of the book I am currently at focuses on Martha's mother's transitions. Judy keeps on moving to different care settings. Something I noticed about this book is how the author, Martha Stettinius focuses on each transition, the challenges the transitions bring, and each lesson Martha has learned along the way. The last assisted living place Judy attended did not fully care for her. The RA's could not provide 24/7 care. Since Judy repeatedly would wet the bed, fall out of bed, not be able to shower, etc., Martha had to hire a personal aid that would look after her all the time, on top of paying for the assisted living home. Martha states it was hard to pay for the costs of an assisted living place that did not provide the care she needed. She searched for knew assisted living places, making them moving around repeatedly. Martha found her mom a great living home, named Elm Heaven. Martha says, "I am soon increasingly impressed with Elm Heaven. They have ordered a different style of Depends- the kind in one piece, like underwear, without the side tabs that made it so easy for Mom to rip them off. No more waking up in a wet bed. Problem solved. 

I thought this quote meant a lot to the book because it shows how Martha has changed throughout the book. At the beginning she had a hard time excepting that her mother was developing Alzheimer's disease. She had a hard time understanding what her mother was going through. Martha had to put her life on hold to take care of her mother. She had to give up working, being with her children and husband, her every day activities, and her time to take care of her mother. It is not that she did not want to take care of her mother, but she wanted to and she needed to because she loved her mother so much and her relationship with her mother meant the world to her. Martha did everything to make her mother happy. She took her back to her cottage where she lived before she developed Alzheimer's. She took her for a canoe ride, hoping she would feel the rowboat rock softly on the water so she could experience the joy in the lake she used to feel It is those little things Martha did for her mom that shows the character of Martha. Martha would occasionally get phone calls from the RA's at Elm Heaven, informing her that Judy would sometimes go missing or not be in her room. Every time, Martha would drop what she was doing, whether that be working or being with her children, to go check on her mother. Again, that shows who Martha really is. When she would leave Elm Haven, she would give her mom a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. She leaves Elm Haven without fear and worry, but confidence that the staff will give her mother lots of extra attention. Martha now knows the has managed to help Judy feel peaceful. This is where I found this quote, "I fully accept, as well, that I am my mother advocate in all situations......" After learning about Dementia and Alzheimer's more thoroughly, she understands what her mother is going through and the only way to help her through this tough time is to be there for her and guide her. And that is what Martha has discovered, accepting that she is the only person who knows best for what her mother needs and wants. 

I felt like this quote connects to me because it helps me better understand the change and the learning Martha has gone through. Since my grandmother is slowly developing Alzheimer's disease, this book has impacted my knowledge on Dementia and Alzheimer's disease. I plan to help my grandmother in the future, whether that be taking her to her favorite places to make her happy, being there when she needs help changing or going to the bathroom. Family is always first to me, and although my grandmother is not my biological mother, she is the next closest thing to one and I fully accept that both my mother and I know my grandmother the best and we will continue to help her everyday and make sure she has the love and attention she needs.