Spinervals 32-day Challenge Facebook community 12/31/11
It is Day 31. Some of us are already hitting the hardest, 26.0 - The Hardcore 100! As this is a very long workout, we are starting to act like we are on Tweet and posting progress as it happens. We are checking in and cheering on each other’s progress. What a community support! This incredible community support by my new friends for the challenge is what I never expected from this challenge. But I have a criminal history in online community experience.
When I first got a full-time job teaching job at University of New Mexico in 1995, my assignment was through New Mexico US-Japan Center, where I had scientists from Sandia and Los Alamos National labs. They are the ones who were already proficient using Internet and taught me a lot of web site links that are helpful for studying about Japan and Japanese. One day, I asked the tech guy to see if I can make a web page out of my Bookmarks on Netscape. From there, Keiko Schneider’s Bookmarks started. After my full-time position ran out with funding, I became and independent educational consultant and web designer. I became involved with TAPPED IN when it was MOO-based online community for educators. With people who frequent at my Boomarks and I met at conferences, I started mailing list for Japanese teachers and educators called senseiOnline and ran a series of online conferences at TAPPED IN. In 2000, I completed Online Teaching certificate from UCLA Extension, all online. Fast forward to 2008 teaching Japanese at SMU, when first-year came to restaurant unit and wanted a student to organize a class trip to a Japanese restaurant where they can wait using Japanese, I started to get involved with Facebook to learn what is going on inside students’ brain. Now my spouse claims I spend too much time on Facebook.
So that is what I know about online community. What do I know about teaching and what do I think about Coach Troy? My highest degree is MAT, which stands for MA in Teaching, not Japanese (which is I am in trouble). I don’t know sports training, but I hope I know teaching! I went on about my favorite spinning instructor Stan on 8/9/2010 entry. Here is Coach Troy version relating to this challenge.
If we can see any hint of nerdiness in Coach Troy, I suspect that is because he has studied so much about his professional subject. If you haven’t seen Coach Troy’s very first workout video he made at the age of 25, I would ask Nancy Hill to share her video. At that age, Coach is already showing talents so strong. And of course, some of us experienced his first Spinervals video 1.0 - No Slackers Allowed!! (mine says 1997, but Coach always says he has been doing this since 1992) and commented what a great workout it was already. I am not certain from his Facebook profile what he got his degree with, but I am picturing his bookshelf filled training books, well read and written remarks everywhere. And he must have done his program so many times. Some of us noted that we felt like Coach Troy was just staring at our bike computer and he knows when we lose focus or workout gets tough. And we know his own accomplishments from DVD feature “Training with Coach Troy” segment. It is evident he knows what he is doing and he knows it is effective.
If that is not impressive enough to keep him in the top of his business, I am picturing another bookshelf-full of books about coaching. Maybe not TEACHING like I had gone through, but coaching. Maybe he had good coaches himself, too, but that alone doesn’t do the justice. Maybe his family brought him up with such inspiring quotes, but he is simply too good and I have to believe that he has done extra job himself. In graduate school, we are taught that teachers are students’ facilitator in learning. To First-year students, I often say that my job is not to transfer what my brain contains to their brains.
So I am coming to the point that Coach Troy is even a step-up from an excellent athlete good at yelling at us. In summer of 2009, I got to teach an online 4th year class during more intensive summer semester and got to apply what I learned in Online Teaching certificate. Luckily this class was mostly from previous semester’s 3rd year class, so I didn’t have to do whole lot of community building. I feel Coach Troy is even smart in being a good facilitator in Facebook community.
Seeing how successful this Spinervals 32-day Challenge Facebook community has become, I got curious and opened a book I used to learn about building online community in distance learning classes for the first time after so many years. I am sure there are online classes with various degree of success, but here is a classic textbook about teaching distance class successfully, “Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom” by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt (This link is for review). In the last chapter (p.p. 160-163), authors offer sixe elements that are critical to the success of distance learning. I mirrored all of them to this Spinervals 32-day Challenge Facebook community.
1)Honesty
Some of us submit device provided data, but even with that, honesty needs to be accounted everywhere. From the workout we actually completed or didn’t complete and how we did.
2)Responsiveness
I wish there were app for Troy Coach training, but since it is a popular Facebook, it encourages us to respond to each other quickly. Coach is responsive when it is needed. This book doesn’t say so, but in my opinion, only when it is necessary. I think Coach is good at community letting taking care of itself. Concerning online mode of instruction in early days, a lot of teachers burn up because they felt like they had to be available to all students at all times, answering email all day all night.
3)Relevance
Our task is our actual training and it is shared. We all feel expert in what we are going through and feel that it is worth sharing.
4)Respect
This is probably the nicest bunch of people I met online. Nobody is making us do this challenge and we are not even paying for it! We show great respect to Coach and each other. It is so comforting to know there is such a community and I feel lucky to be a part of it.
5)Openness
Related to honesty, we are all trying to better our athletic performance, accepting the challenge and change. I feel it is safe to trust to be open to this community.
6)Empowerment
Because we are in control about our training, we are really expert in ourselves progress and earn confidence in ourselves and interacting with other participants.
As the challenge nears the end, I feel like I have made very good friends in such a short period of time and in a way, I don’t know how I am going to structure my life when the challenge ends! Luckily there is Super 6 and Facebook to keep in touch even if they are not participating. I thank Coach Troy and fellow participants for this great experience in 2011. ONE MORE DAY!
(P.S. And somebody with business administration background will have to write how good of a business person Coach Troy is.)
When I first got a full-time job teaching job at University of New Mexico in 1995, my assignment was through New Mexico US-Japan Center, where I had scientists from Sandia and Los Alamos National labs. They are the ones who were already proficient using Internet and taught me a lot of web site links that are helpful for studying about Japan and Japanese. One day, I asked the tech guy to see if I can make a web page out of my Bookmarks on Netscape. From there, Keiko Schneider’s Bookmarks started. After my full-time position ran out with funding, I became and independent educational consultant and web designer. I became involved with TAPPED IN when it was MOO-based online community for educators. With people who frequent at my Boomarks and I met at conferences, I started mailing list for Japanese teachers and educators called senseiOnline and ran a series of online conferences at TAPPED IN. In 2000, I completed Online Teaching certificate from UCLA Extension, all online. Fast forward to 2008 teaching Japanese at SMU, when first-year came to restaurant unit and wanted a student to organize a class trip to a Japanese restaurant where they can wait using Japanese, I started to get involved with Facebook to learn what is going on inside students’ brain. Now my spouse claims I spend too much time on Facebook.
So that is what I know about online community. What do I know about teaching and what do I think about Coach Troy? My highest degree is MAT, which stands for MA in Teaching, not Japanese (which is I am in trouble). I don’t know sports training, but I hope I know teaching! I went on about my favorite spinning instructor Stan on 8/9/2010 entry. Here is Coach Troy version relating to this challenge.
If we can see any hint of nerdiness in Coach Troy, I suspect that is because he has studied so much about his professional subject. If you haven’t seen Coach Troy’s very first workout video he made at the age of 25, I would ask Nancy Hill to share her video. At that age, Coach is already showing talents so strong. And of course, some of us experienced his first Spinervals video 1.0 - No Slackers Allowed!! (mine says 1997, but Coach always says he has been doing this since 1992) and commented what a great workout it was already. I am not certain from his Facebook profile what he got his degree with, but I am picturing his bookshelf filled training books, well read and written remarks everywhere. And he must have done his program so many times. Some of us noted that we felt like Coach Troy was just staring at our bike computer and he knows when we lose focus or workout gets tough. And we know his own accomplishments from DVD feature “Training with Coach Troy” segment. It is evident he knows what he is doing and he knows it is effective.
If that is not impressive enough to keep him in the top of his business, I am picturing another bookshelf-full of books about coaching. Maybe not TEACHING like I had gone through, but coaching. Maybe he had good coaches himself, too, but that alone doesn’t do the justice. Maybe his family brought him up with such inspiring quotes, but he is simply too good and I have to believe that he has done extra job himself. In graduate school, we are taught that teachers are students’ facilitator in learning. To First-year students, I often say that my job is not to transfer what my brain contains to their brains.
So I am coming to the point that Coach Troy is even a step-up from an excellent athlete good at yelling at us. In summer of 2009, I got to teach an online 4th year class during more intensive summer semester and got to apply what I learned in Online Teaching certificate. Luckily this class was mostly from previous semester’s 3rd year class, so I didn’t have to do whole lot of community building. I feel Coach Troy is even smart in being a good facilitator in Facebook community.
Seeing how successful this Spinervals 32-day Challenge Facebook community has become, I got curious and opened a book I used to learn about building online community in distance learning classes for the first time after so many years. I am sure there are online classes with various degree of success, but here is a classic textbook about teaching distance class successfully, “Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom” by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt (This link is for review). In the last chapter (p.p. 160-163), authors offer sixe elements that are critical to the success of distance learning. I mirrored all of them to this Spinervals 32-day Challenge Facebook community.
1)Honesty
Some of us submit device provided data, but even with that, honesty needs to be accounted everywhere. From the workout we actually completed or didn’t complete and how we did.
2)Responsiveness
I wish there were app for Troy Coach training, but since it is a popular Facebook, it encourages us to respond to each other quickly. Coach is responsive when it is needed. This book doesn’t say so, but in my opinion, only when it is necessary. I think Coach is good at community letting taking care of itself. Concerning online mode of instruction in early days, a lot of teachers burn up because they felt like they had to be available to all students at all times, answering email all day all night.
3)Relevance
Our task is our actual training and it is shared. We all feel expert in what we are going through and feel that it is worth sharing.
4)Respect
This is probably the nicest bunch of people I met online. Nobody is making us do this challenge and we are not even paying for it! We show great respect to Coach and each other. It is so comforting to know there is such a community and I feel lucky to be a part of it.
5)Openness
Related to honesty, we are all trying to better our athletic performance, accepting the challenge and change. I feel it is safe to trust to be open to this community.
6)Empowerment
Because we are in control about our training, we are really expert in ourselves progress and earn confidence in ourselves and interacting with other participants.
As the challenge nears the end, I feel like I have made very good friends in such a short period of time and in a way, I don’t know how I am going to structure my life when the challenge ends! Luckily there is Super 6 and Facebook to keep in touch even if they are not participating. I thank Coach Troy and fellow participants for this great experience in 2011. ONE MORE DAY!
(P.S. And somebody with business administration background will have to write how good of a business person Coach Troy is.)
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home