New "center" of learning

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly - Feb 10, 2010

When you are looking for lifelong learning, there are many places to go, large and not so large.

Of course the Club Ed program covers Kerrville and Boerne, offering hundreds of classes. Go down IH-10 to the east and you will find hundreds more classes hosted by Northside ISD. But don’t forget to dig in unlikely places, like deep in the hills in the small town of Center 

Point.

[PHOTO: Cooking up new ideas, Center Point residents are diving in to classes such as Cake Decorating offered locally in the school’s new community education program. Shown: Sharon Kirby and her Pumpkin Cake. Photo by Shirley Wright]

I had heard that Center Point got its name from being at the “center point” of Texas when measured from east to west. More probable is that the name came from its central location in relation to the neighboring towns of Kerrville, Comfort, Bandera, and Fredericksburg. Now, thanks to Shirley Wright, the unincorporated town is becoming a nexus of lifelong learning with a new program of classes that the locals are embracing with enthusiasm.

When it comes to enthusiasm, Wright has an abundance. “I am having a ball,” she said of setting up and running her program. “My wheels are always turning, trying to think of different things to offer.”

Just started last fall, Center Point put out an ambitious catalog of 30 classes. The 3750 residents of the district could pick from such offerings as computers, martial arts, Spanish, quilting, cooking, and photography, along with some more unexpected topics such as yoga, acting, cake decorating, and bread dough basket weaving. All are held in the buildings of Center Point ISD, a Class 1-A school. Opening existing school facilities to the public has been the cornerstone of the community education concept ever since its introduction in the 1930s.

One innovative project is the new fitness center. Housed in the Center Point schools, the center is open to residents of the district and sports 10 new workout machines. It is available each school day from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Wright - who also wears the hats of librarian and cheerleading coach - enjoys the support of her board and Superintendent Cody Newcomb, as well as the support of the community. Most of her first classes “made” and she is eager to expand the program.

“Even if some of our classes don’t make, at least we are taking steps and offering you the chance to come learn something new,” she said. “I am very excited.”

If you would like to learn more about the Center Point ISD community education program, contact them online at www.cpisd.net or call 830-634-6124.

Lifelong learning has something for everybody, and it should be everywhere. There is lots to learn around every corner.

P.S. Any school district interested in adding a community education program of its own can find out more at www.tcea.com.

XXX

For information on Club Ed or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

Secrets of successful interviewing

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly - Jan 27, 2010

A job interview is a minefield for the unprepared. Jim Keefe wants to keep you from blowing yourself up by making a bad first impression.

It may not be as disastrous as the applicant who asked if the personnel manager was qualified to conduct the interview, or the one who challenged his interviewer to an arm wrestling match. But in Keefe’s experience as owner of an employment agency and headhunter for Fortune 500 companies, he has seen every aspect of the employment process. He knows that the weakest part of any job search is the interview.

“Most people don’t know how to develop the chemistry with the interviewer, which is all important,” Keefe said. “If the chemistry is not there, it doesn’t matter how qualified you are, you are not going to get past the interviewer.” Keefe has seen cases where the most highly-qualified candidate did not get it the job, just because they lacked chemistry.

So what is this “chemistry” and can it be conjured?

According to Keefe, the secret is empathy. That comprises listening skills, interaction, definitely manners and politeness, cleanliness and hygiene.

“The first way to make a great impression, is you have to be clean,” he said, stating something that should be obvious. Next, you have to be dressed for the position. “If you are applying for a janitorial position, you do not need to wear a Brooks Brothers suit. But you need to be clean. You can’t have an interviewer recoil because of body odor or holes in your clothes.”

Beyond those basics, interviewees must put some advance effort into any interview. That means knowing something about the company and position you are applying for.

“You have to examine the company so you can form questions and show interest,” he said. “If you show interest, the interviewer is going to show interest in you.”

An interview is a two-way street. “Don’t make him do all the work. He has to ask questions to see if you are what he wants. But you are interviewing the company, too.”

There are also a few “don’ts” that many applicants stumble on.

Don’t ask about salary or benefits. Don’t ask about vacations. Instead, ask about what you can do for the company, and if you get the job, what lies ahead.

And what, I wondered, do you do with the question that has always been asked in every interview I have been in: “What is your greatest weakness?”

Keefe has an answer for that “loaded question.”

But you’ll have to take his class to hear it, along with dozens of other secrets and tips such as why you should look for a job that is not posted, who to select for references, how to follow up the interview, how to quit your current job, and how to research a company.

“This class is a two-hour investment of time that will make a huge difference in your life. I’m looking for people who have a worthwhile attitude, but no one has ever told them how to do this.”

And it just might land you your next job.

XXX

“Secrets of Successful Interviewing” will be held on Feb. 9, with another session set for April 14. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

Print On Demand

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly Feb 3, 2010

Do you have a book in you? Dumb question. Who doesn’t? Ron Williamson wants to help get it out of your head and onto the page. He is teaching a new class for the first time - How to Publish Your First Book: The Print on Demand Revolution.

“This is a type of new technology that allows literally one book to be printed at a time,” the writer and Hill Country resident explained. “You can print small runs of books and get them in a rapid fashion.”

Williamson has had success doing this with his most recent and best-selling work - “The Texas Pistoleers.” The book on Wild West history was published completely using print-on-demand (POD) technology and is now available online around the world.

“If someone in Arkansas, London, New York, or Winnipeg wants a copy, they can buy it through Amazon. This has been a terrific boon to online book sales.”

The key difference with this technology is that an aspiring author can print as few as one book at a time. Gone are the days when a new author had to buy a thousand books that ended up sitting in the garage. Williamson calls POD technology one of the greatest boons to publishing since the Gutenberg press.

In addition to saving large print runs, POD saves time.

“Using traditional publishing, the time from submitting a manuscript until the book comes out in print can be one to three years. With POD you can be up and running in two to three months. I know, because I’ve done it.”

Another advantage is that your work can become an “ebook” giving you instant online access to the growing market on personal reader devices like the Kindle (Club Ed also has a class on that!). Williamson cited the example of a woman who wrote a book on Alzheimer’s. No publisher wanted it, so she got it printed-on-demand, then picked up so many online sales the publishers came to her.

Of course, no matter how you publish it, you must still write your book. Williamson notes that his is not a “how to write” class (Club Ed offers that, too). This class is more about “how to format.”

“You have to have it in a format ready for online printers,” he said. “That is quite different than formatting for traditional publishers.”

Another advantage - or disadvantage - with POD is it allows the writer to bypass that bane of the creative - the editor.

“The way you print it is the way you wrote it,” Williamson said. “That could be good or bad, but either way, editing slows the process of taking the book from your pen to the reader.”

Williamson notes that POD is a good way to get information out there, even if you don’t plan to write the Great American Novel. It might be your personal memoirs, a family history, your own cookbook. Those topics have an audience that doesn’t require printing thousands of copies.

So no matter where you are in the writing process - a seasoned pro, working on your first book, or a dreamer with an idea in your head - Williamson estimates this 3-hour class will save attendees 30-40 man hours in the process.

Best of all, with print-on-demand, every book is a first edition!

xxx

Print On Demand is offered on Feb 13 and Feb 27. Information on other writing classes and Kindle is available at www.clubed.net or 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

Knowers vs Learners

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly Jan 20, 2010

Are you a “knower” or a “learner?”

Here’s how to tell the difference. A “knower” lives in the past. A “learner” is moving into the future. Another way to portray it is that “knowers” talk, “learners” listen.

We all are familiar with someone who “knows” it all. No matter the topic - from world geography to political nuance - they chime in with facts, opinions and trivia that leave no room for conversation. One buddy described it as if people carry around scripts in their head on every topic, ready to unleash one at the even the most tangential moment.

“Knowers” show up in all walks of life. The stereotype is the old fellow who remembers how it was in the good old days, when he walked to school in the snow, uphill both ways. A more insidious type is the quintessential salesman who won’t stop talking. Back in my selling days, I have been in meetings with account executives afraid to appear not to know everything. They filibuster the conversation, drowning everyone with all they can do to serve the clients.

I learned something on one of my first sales visits. We went into a meeting with a large potential client. After listening to their marketing director describe the company’s current campaign, I stood up and announced, “I’m not sure you really need us. You have a perfectly adequate situation.”

I can’t say who was more startled - my account executive or the client. After a pause, the client said two things: 1) I’ve never had a vendor say that before, and 2) You get the account.

She was impressed by my honesty, but more important, by my ability to listen. We sat back down, probed deeper, and came up with award-winning campaigns and a relationship that went on for years.

The point is that I was willing to learn - to learn more about my client’s needs. Those types of learners are the people I meet walking into our doors day after day. They come in all ages. We had the 80-something retired engineer who decided to learn how to weld. I am just as impressed by the 18-year-old college student who enrolled in a Spanish conversation class to supplement her language studies at Schreiner University. Now that’s a learner.

So now is the time to ask yourself what type of person you are - a knower or a learner?

If you are a learner, we have a class for you.

If you are a knower... well... maybe you can teach a class.

XXX

For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter@clubedtx.

Life-wide Learning

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly  Jan 13, 2009

As a statewide and national advocate for Community Education, I always speak of life-long learning, as in learning that never ends.

Lately I’ve realized a better way to explain the concept might be “life-wide learning.”

The difference is similar to the one of that exists in pursuit of advanced degrees. One wag observed that the goal of a Ph.D. candidate is to learn more and more about less and less, until he knows everything about nothing.

But even those of us with advanced degrees find satisfaction in gaining knowledge in many unrelated fields. It might be said this wide learning has lead to mankind’s great discoveries. Consider the serendipitous events, such as the discovery of penicillin from bread molds, and radiation from the accidental placement of uranium on a film negative.

Maybe you already have a degree in Nuclear Physics, but you need to fix a fence. That’s where our class in welding comes in.

Or maybe you run a small business that is growing so fast you can’t keep up with payroll and inventory. But Quickbooks can, and Club Ed has a class to teach you how to use it.

Or maybe you’ve retired from that military career, where you were in charge of platoons and divisions. But you have always wanted to learn to paint (or knit, or crochet, or dance, or play guitar). That is a wide array of choices. That is life-wide learning.

Not sure what you want to learn? We have classes for that! Coaching courses put you one on one with a professional who will help you lay out a path for personal fulfillment. Or take a course in journaling, where you discover your inner voice.

Lifewide learning is also “learning to learn.” The first step to learning any skill or knowledge is an having an awareness of how you learn, to recognize and monitor your  learning style. Are you a visual or auditory learner? That is, do you prefer seeing the information written on the board, or do you prefer listening to a lecture? Or are you kinesthetic - do you have to get your hands on something in order to understand how it works? Knowing the answer will guide you in the kind of class you should take.

Whichever way you learn, the key to lifewide learning is that the very act of learning should be a source of enjoyment. Learning is something you immerse yourself in.

Even if you discount the worldly benefits, the act of learning can be a source of enjoyment.

Opportunities for “lifewide” learning are endless and ever changing. Each session brings about 200 new classes. You don’t even have to wait for the catalog. You can go online year round, or go to your favorite bookseller and get a book.

So don’t ever wait to start learning. Come on in - the water is warm and the river is wide!

XXX

Registration for Spring classes in Club Ed is now underway. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

Resolutions You Can Keep

 by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly Jan 6, 2010

As we turn over a new year, we resolutely make resolutions, all of which fail or are forgotten by the turn of the new month.

I believe this is because we focus on the ends rather than the means. When we want to lose weight, we misguidedly proclaim, “I will lose 20 pounds,” as if that were a waypoint to program on our life’s GPS. We forget that once we reach the fictional city of “Twentypoundia” we must continue traveling, else we wind up back at our starting point.

Better to pledge “I will enjoy eating my broccoli and kiwi, while I walk and talk with a friend each evening.” Isn’t that more appealing than your vision of standing on a scale?

In that vein, and with credit to a blog by Scott Young on www.lifehack.org, here are 10 steps to follow on your journey to improving your life through lifelong learning.

1) Keep a “To-Learn” List

We all have to-do lists. Try to also have a “to-learn” list. Maybe you would like to take up a new language, learn to dance, or read the works of Shakespeare. Whatever motivates you, write it down.

2) Get Smarter Friends

Start spending more time with people who think. Not just people who are smart. But people who actually invest much of their time in learning new skills. Their habits will rub off on you. Even better, they will probably share some of their knowledge with you.

3) Guided Thinking

Simply studying the wisdom of others isn’t enough; you have to think through ideas yourself. Spend time journaling, meditating or contemplating ideas you have learned.

4) Put it Into Practice

Skill based learning is useless if it isn’t applied. Studying painting isn’t the same as picking up a brush. If your knowledge can be applied, put it into practice.

5) Teach Others

Any teacher knows the best way to learn a subject is to teach it. At Club Ed, you can try out your class ideas and have fun doing it.

6) Learn in Groups

Lifelong learning doesn’t mean condemning yourself to a stack of dusty textbooks. Workshops and group learning events can make educating yourself a fun, social experience.

7) Start a Project

Set out to do something you don’t know. Forced learning in this way can be fun and challenging. If you don’t know anything about computers, try building one. If you have two left feet, learn the two-step.

8) Follow Your Intuition

Lifelong learning is like wandering through the wilderness. You can’t be sure what to expect and there isn’t always an end goal in mind. Letting your intuition guide you can make self-education more enjoyable.

9) Reap the Rewards

Learn information you can use. Understanding the basics of computing will help you join the rich online world, communicate with your family, or help you start a new business.

10) Make it a Priority

As I always told my students, no one can make you learn. The desire has to come from within. It is up to you to make lifelong learning a priority in your life.

As you’ve guessed, Club Ed addresses all 10 points. But even if you never take a class, my wish is that you use these tips to guide you on your learning journey.

xxx

The Spring 2010 Club Ed catalog is now online and in the mail. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

Sayings I never understood

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & the Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly, Dec 30, 2009

We grew up hearing “sayings” gleaned from literature and history that are meant to impart great truths in few words. Phrases like “Man does not live by bread alone” and “I am my brother’s keeper.”

When you reexamine the source, you find many have morphed into meaning the opposite of the way they are used. Herewith are some examples:

You can’t have your cake and eat it, too

I never understood this one - it makes no sense. Yes, you can have your cake and eat it. In fact, that the only way to eat your cake is to “have” it first!

It makes sense only when it is stated accurately. The original phrasing is “You can’t EAT your cake and have it too.” Suddenly it makes sense. After you eat anything, you no longer have it to eat.

Man does not live on bread alone

I have heard this line quoted by sybarites to justify living the high life; that is, one need not subsist on mere bread and water. The Bible phrase actually means just the opposite - man is not meant to subsist entirely on material things of this world, but to seek spiritual nourishment, the opposite of living it up.

I am my brother’s keeper

Used by politicians to make us pay more taxes for welfare programs. The Biblical phrase has Jesus asking “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Again, this imparts the exact opposite meaning used today - I cannot control how my brother uses his time and gifts.

Money is the root of all evil

No no no, that is not what this other Bible phrase said. It is the love of money that is the root of evil. Big difference.

Steal from the rich; give to the poor (the Robin Hood argument)

The parable of Robin Hood actually makes the exact opposite argument than the one proposed by those who evoke it. It is used by usually by those who see Robin as a hero who takes money from the wealthy merchants and distributes to the poor common folk - redistributing wealth.

In reality, Robin is taking back the taxes and tariffs unfairly imposed upon the working man by the government. Who chases Robin? The Sheriff, on behalf of the government. So Robin Hood should be the hero of those who opposes oppressive taxes and government interference.

I laughed all the way to the bank.

Actually, Liberace, the flamboyant pianist, when asked how he felt after bad reviews by critics, said, “I cried all the way to the bank.”

My favorite might ring a bell for member s of the older generation. My mother often used the phrase, “Didn’t know s*** from Shinola,” and occasionally when talking about me as I recall. It was an alliterative and colorful phrase, but I never really got the reference. Only when I was an adult did I discovered that Shinola was a brand of boot polish, one whose consistency and color apparently bore a resemblance to the another substance beginning with the letter “s.” Suddenly all became clear.

Proving an Amish proverb that - more than ever - rings true, “We grow too soon old, and too late smart.”

XXX

Club Ed is the community education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Every session, Club Ed offers hundreds of classes for everyone in the Texas Hill Country. The Spring catalog is now in the mail. More information online at www.clubed.net.