With Dr. Brenda McGill

Good Morning from The Living Pen!

I'm in one of those lazy weekend kind of moods.  How about you?
I couldn't decide whether I wanted an herbal tea, a green tea or a black cup of tea.  I then shifted to coffee, did I want a hot black cup or a cappuccino.
(Decisions, Decisions!!)

Of course when I can’t decide, I simply decide to have it all so I brewed an enormous cup of decaf tea, one bag of green and one of black.  I know it sounds weird but putting both bags in, made a really tasty cup of tea.  I am sure I am making tea lovers all over the world cringe!  I am now enjoying a cup of decaf dark roast coffee with a bit of steamed milk, yum!!  Can you guess what I will be indulging in next?
If you guessed a hot steaming cup of dark chocolate cocoa you guessed right!  What better way to start a lazy weekend then with all my favorite morning drinks!  Tell me about your lazy weekend morning rituals.  I read everyone’s comments, whether you email me privately or make a blog comment.

On Wednesday I made my final blog call to Dr. Brenda McGill.  It was a clear, breezy yet warm evening at The Living Pen but it was rather a stormy humid evening where she was.  Fortunately, power was not loss and our chat went on without any interruption.  I hope you have enjoyed this blog and our last conversation.

Blu:
Good Evening Brenda, how are you?

Brenda:
I’m doing well, making progress with increasing my online technical knowledge. The latest was organic marketing. Really cool stuff. I’ll now put my free time toward expanding my training.

Blu:
So you’re a student, and wow, organic marketing that sounds like work Brenda! (lol)
You know, I can hardly believe that this is our last conversation.  I mean it flew by and we covered so much, and yet, I feel there is so much more that would be worthy of chatting about.  You have truly been a patient, informative and fun guest and I so appreciate your time and the effort you have given this little blog.

Brenda:
I’m really glad you asked me. We certainly were meant to connect (lol).
I agree, from the responses on and off the posts, people have found our conversation worthy of their comments. I can remember how much I valued professors who were authentic and honest with me. Offering to share their skills and more importantly, letting me know they believed in me. It really helped during the difficult times when doubter’s voices seeped in. Thank you, this was a unique opportunity to help others who have similar questions.

Blu:
Education and learning is a different experience for everyone, and like everything else, there are good experiences and not so good experiences.
You know we brought a lot of things to light and in doing so I believe that we may have given some credibility to ‘Learning is an Art’ and everyone has their own ‘Method to the Madness of Learning’ but they may not have discovered that or even know that the way they learn is as individual as they are.

Brenda:
You know, we are all blessed to have what we need and others are placed in our paths to help pull those blessings out of us.
How easy is it to say, “let’s try another way to find out what works best for you”, right?
Self-awareness, on everyone’s part, is essential to this process and leads to establishing good communication and creating supportive relationships which is vital to our survival.

Blu:
And learning is vital to our survival as humans, without it, nothing changes.
If I am totally honest Brenda, I didn’t know there were multiple ways to learn until I had training for the job and boy it was an eye opener so when you exposed those hidden treasures you called Available Resources, I felt that this was another thing not many of us knew of and if we did know of them we may not have known that they were available to everyone!

Brenda:
Yes, and again, all the more reason for every student to have the opportunity to take that college success course.
We hope for heroes and we should be the protagonist in our own story. I remember well, returning for my PhD in my 50’s, and although I had some support it was still messy.
You really don’t know what you don’t know and it took continual asking “where can I get more help” to find it.

Blu:
Yup, navigating the educational road is not easy, sometimes you feel like you’re always lost and either asking for directions or asking where to get help.
Not sure which blog post was your favorite but mine was Blog 4 ‘Different Strokes for Different Folks'.
It just was so relatable and enlightening, I mean we all learn differently and if we change our language we will think about it differently and maybe give it another try.  Not to mention that you brought to light different methods to try so that if we didn’t know the way we learn best, we could start there. 

Brenda:
Well sis, there were a couple of good ones, but Blog 7 ‘Master the Eight: Success is Your Fate!’ was my favorite.
It spoke directly to my interest in continuing that support work with students, and I need to make a correction.
My mentors, Masara Dziruni and Stephanie Hutter, are from Austria, not Australia (sorry!).
You know, making a decision to move forward comes with accepting the responsibility to stick with it, and it can be tough. But I’m learning to trust in the process and my purpose.

Blu:
It’s beginning to sound like retirement is going to have an interesting hobby and you know I’m gonna get curious and ask you about it.  It’s coming Brenda! (lol)
I hope that talking about responsibility wasn’t too uncomfortable.  I really felt that it is the elephant in the room when it comes to education.  I mean parents, teachers, students of all ages, and educational administration, all share a part of that but which part is a cloudy area.  It was great to bring some of it into the light.

Brenda:
Well it takes a delicate balance because folks can take offense. But students need to feel that they belong and that it’s everyone’s mission to help them cross the stage.
That’s a service I want to continue to pay forward.

Blu:
I love the pay it forward movement.  It’s an endless opportunity with the best rewards and if one person reading this learned something new, or felt better about themselves or decided to go back to college then I feel our chat can stand up and be part of that movement.  You know, seeing that it is a delicate matter, maybe someone should do a video on the evolution of learning or education.  Like they do for other things, that way we could see how far we have come, what we know now that we didn’t know then and where we need to go.  What do you think, Brenda?  (lol)

Brenda:
Sounds like a great master’s thesis!

Blu:
I’m a sucker for documentaries.  You have been a wonderful interviewee.  Was it hard? Did talking about this bring anything to the surface that maybe you hadn’t thought of before?

Brenda:
Honestly, these are the things I think about all the time!
They relate to my own plans for retirement, and when I’m talking to young and older adults who are considering returning to college. I know He’s not done with me yet! (lol)

Blu:
You have dropped hints about your future plans and you know how I am with hints, Brenda, you know I wanna know so, I have to ask.  Do you want to share what you may be doing?  (Please, please, pretty please)

Brenda:
Sure, thanks for asking. I’m creating an online course to help struggling students reach their academic goals, earn A’s and B’s, and get that graduation hat!
I plan to offer a free 5 day challenge in August to start the process. Then offer a 6 week course in mid-September to run during the first half of the semester.
My foundation is the Transtheoretical Model developed by the Prochaska's at the University of Rhode Island.
It created a transformative experience in the classes I taught for the past 20 years! I’ve always felt honored to help students succeed.

Blu:
Wow!  That is awesome!!  I mean really, that is awesome Brenda! That is such an incredible idea. Will you send me the details so that my readers and I know when it is available.

Brenda:
Yes, gladly!
I know how great it feels to overcome and I’m paying it forward because I received help to reach my goals.

Blu:
That course would be a great place to start not only for students who want to improve but for people who are considering becoming a student again or for those students who want to continue on to college but found high school a challenge.  I love that idea and I can't wait to see how you design this course.  Brenda, once again you have been great and on behalf of all out TLPR's and myself, Thank you!

Brenda:
My pleasure and I promise to let you know when I kick off my big adventure!

That concludes our 'Method to the Madness' series topic 'The Art of Learning' with Dr. Brenda McGill.
Learning is truly an art.  You really need to know how you learn, so that you can apply that learning method and get the best out of the courses you take.  Next, you need take advantage of any and all help available and knowing where to find that help before you need it, will make it so much easier.  Finally, education like everything else is evolving.  It is not the same now as it was ten, five or even two years ago.  This means we all need to change our language, change how we think about it and be brave to give the advancements in education a try.  I hope you enjoyed this blog and I hope you will leave me a comment.  Stay tuned for the next installment of 'Method to the Madness'! 
                                                                                                         Blu