Coach Bill / Dad, Entrepreneur Special Educator, American Political Scientist, Writer, Musician.

updated 2/7/16 I  consider how incredibly fortunate I am to have had the opportunities that I have been given. I stand on the shoulders of others.  My own family life was not perfect, but I had both parents home, and the strong support of extended family. This post is about what 'mother' means to me, and it is also a social commentary in how I see the role of the 'mother' under constant bombardment in America today.  My mother has been a selfless, sacrificing woman who has gone beyond the point of exhaustion, wit, and strength to see that my three sisters and I succeed. Everyone who knows my mother know about  her connection to her children. We constantly seek to talk with her on an almost daily basis and she counsels us. She does not call us with counsel to give, but we seek her out. ..It is also because her internet phone system automatically answers her  calls putting the caller on loud speaker by error.   Her children seek her out because of...

With the advent of common, across the board student performance standards aimed at competitively meeting international standards, the need for parents to shore up and instill an entrepreneurial mindset in their kids becomes a great priority. Not doing so is a disservice to them, your family, and our country. This action-oriented mindset parallels in striking ways with the development of executive function skills, and it is part of my educational policy to lead a transition from using one's EF skills effectively across different settings and ages.  That said, if executive function skills development is a foundation then the entrepreneurial action-mindset and framework is the context in which we see a performance of the skills. For your use, I have included a working list of almost three dozen executive function skills. This word bank of skills is a fast way to come up to speed with a growing knack for coming up with activities that include a great number of these skills, or activiti...

The use of a back-door approach to 'jimmy' your child's mindset can be used to circumvent a lack of motivation and engagement. Children and young adults with attentional deficits or executive function skill deficits find it troublesome to focus on that which they find cumbersome, and with the manifestation of the learning environment in U.S. Public schools, the top-down instructional format is exactly like trying to fit everyone into a square hole.  Hence, many students hit grade performance obstacles, and experience feelings of frustration, anxiety, and even anger. Their parents look to help and remedy the situation: they sit down to do home work with their children, they help them stay on the study path, and hopefully, look to advocate for their child in the school. If you are looking for another pathway, then here is one. I argue that pre-teens and adolescents are grossly under-challenged by their public schools, aside from being treated mostly like cattle. The public sc...

Common sense in the application of instructional approach sais that a teacher should seek to know her students, so that he/ she may help facilitate successful educational outcomes in them.  This is a given, and all educators 'get this idea,' and to large degree pivot their instructional approach in and around this precept.  Clinical teachers on the other hand, tend to pivot around this point much better by monitoring their instructional process, and applying metrics that help them actively learn as they teach, experiment, innovate, and most importantly, keep their eye on what actually creates the most successful short and long-term learning outcomes.  By definition, a clinical teacher goes out of their way to connect with the students and is consistently desirous to study and monitor their instructional approach. In fact, they seek to empower themselves in the use and experimentation of best instructional practices and methods as they see such tools and st...

Once we understand what our executive function skills are, we move to streamlining how well we use them, how they show up/ don't show up in our life. As we move through our understanding of how to better manage our ideas, feelings and actions, can their be soft and hard forces which are orchestrated with the focus of instilling in us..how to think...how to act... how to respond? Or is 'man' so free in mind, so independent, and so ahead of these forces that he is not affected, not thwarted in his goals, and not redirected easily? If we are to polish and tone these executive function skills so that we can harness the ability of our mind (a tool) to facilitate successful outcomes for ourselves, should we not start by bringing a critical eye to why we think the way we think? Is this not metacognition, or how we use our thought process to approach the world?  Using systems theory, any system that is accepted into a larger system invariably begins to affect tha...

Live E xecutive Function Skills Vocabulary Word Bank focus sustain attention goal-directed persistence prioritizing organization task initiation task execution time management awareness short-term planning ahead long-term planning ahead sequencing pace short-term working memory long-term working memory self-monitor self-regulation self-actualization self-assessment self/ emotional control behavior modulation foresight (anticipate/ predict) metacognition (thinking about your thinking, how you approach world) mental flexibility(shift/transition) mindfulness  problem solving response inh   ibition (impulse control) functional balance study skill tools *are their more? Let me know:)  For more, go to http://www.CoachBill.US Twitter.Com @CoachBill007 Instagram: CoachBill007 Youtube: CoachBill007  

Is the current cost/ benefit ratio of fracking the earth's crust to extract energy in the form of natural gas a much greater cost than the benefits it gives? Is it a benefit or an exorbitant cost to the immediate and long-range health of communities, and lands where such a practice occurs?  Does injecting obscene amounts of chemicals, mixed with water into the earth's crust and its water tables harm the physical health of any child or adult? Can it lead to autism? Can it lead to other neurological disorders, based on exposure? Why is it legal to frack when it is such a counter-productive, and unhealthy way to extract energy, given that we can get way cleaner and cheaper energy from such sources, like waste, algae, the sun, the water, and apparently, electromagnetism?  I hear they are doing nifty energy things over in that CERN place in Europe.  With that kind of energy, why frack, why even use oil?  It just doesn't make sense that the water supply of hundreds of comm...