Month: July 2009

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Body Pump via YouTube – forget the gym fees!

Before I dedicated my life to blogging (it seems like that some days!) I used to go to the gym regularly. I was a devotee of Body Pump classes. I got to a stage where I was lifting pretty heavy weights and I was pretty impressed with my triceps and biceps.   

I can’t say that now. Blogging has led to me learning a whole heap, but it is a fairly sedentary pursuit and my fitness level has suffered as a result. I walk regularly with my good friend Nina (who I have converted to blogging along the way) but I’ve felt the need to get back  to the weights. I have my own weight bar and weights but trying to remember the routines when you are at home has been difficult.

I was contemplating getting back to the weights over the weekend when it occured to me that someone might have posted Les Mills Body Pump classes on YouTube. (Don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it a lot earlier.) So off I went to YouTube and there they were. It seems the Germans are the ones uploading so I spent some time over the last day or so using kickyoutube to download them to my computer.

So, if you’re wondering what a Body Pump class is like and the order in which you complete the routines, here is what I’ve been doing for the last hour. Stefan and a couple of other mostly German instructors have done a very good job of taking me through a class. It hasn’t cost me a cent in gym fees and I can do it all over again tomorrow should I choose to. I’m aiming to do three classes a week and that should get my fitness levels moving in the right direction.

Body Pump – the YouTube way.

Warm up.

Squats.

Back.

Chest.

Triceps

Biceps.

Lunges.

Shoulders.

Abdominals.  (This is actually too short, but I couldn’t find a complete track)

Cool down  

So there you have it. Body Pump without the gym fees. Another example of the kind of learning you can do via YouTube these days.  

     

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Agents of change or arrogance?

This comment appears on a Google Doc called ‘Your biggest take away at NECC 2009’. Interestingly, the contributor did not provide their name. 

“That our PLN is distancing themselves from the “norm”. There is the sense that most teachers are falling behind. But is the issue becoming that the PLN is getting to far ahead to even notice the difference?
Being a leader also means being a teacher and sometimes that includes repeating things several times.
The biggest take away I saw was Arrogance.”

I found this very interesting. Mostly because it rings true. I think we have to be constantly aware that just because some of us have adapted to new technologies and think they are transformative for teaching and professional learning, we can’t anticipate that others feel the same way.

We need to help others understand, be what our profession expects us to be; teachers. Not just for students, but for our colleagues too. If we don’t model, support and encourage, we do run the risk of appearing to be arrogant. We want knowledge to be powerful for all, not just in the hands of the few who make others feel inadequate without it.

“The biggest take away  I saw was Arrogance.”

A damaging statement. We need to work hard to ensure this is not the perception people have. If we don’t, we can’t expect to see others adapt and change their practice.

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School’s out Friday

 

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Jeff Goldblum Will Be Missed
www.colbertnation.com
 
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Jeff Goldblum

I felt it only appropriate to use The Colbert Report‘s, Jeff Goldblum will be missed as this week’s School’s out Friday post. (Click above on ‘Jeff Goldblum will be missed’  to see the very funny eulogy Jeff delivers for himself.)

  
Considering I had to write a lengthy post to keep my online reputation intact after I’d tweeted about his possible death, I have to admit to having a good chuckle watching this. I hope Richard Wilkins is able to see the humour in it too. He’s copped a bit of a serve from some media commentators over the course of the week.

If you want to read where the whole rumour emanated from, take a look at John Skelton’s post. He’s a Scottish blogger laying claim to sending out the tweet that started the frenzy of activity.

Lying low this weekend; looks like a cold one coming up here in Melbourne. Fire, blanket, cup of tea (maybe a glass or two of wine). Hmmmnn—-sounds good really. Enjoy whatever it is you are doing.

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will.i.am has it worked out -time for school to catch up.

Today I found myself reading a newspaper. An unusual event for me.  These days my access to news is usually via my computer.  I was in a coffee shop with no computer in sight so the newspaper was it.  There was a double page spread about The Black Eyed Peas and included was an interview with will.i.am, frontman for the group.

Interestingly, will.i.am had quite a bit to say about use of the internet and its importance to the record industry today. Much of it has relevance for education and the way we can be teaching our students to harness it to make meaningful connections. Here’s a bit of what he had to say;

   “I was telling my record company ‘It’s all about the internet’ and they were saying ‘No, that’s piracy, we’re suing those people’ and I said ‘No, that’s what you need to do, put the song on the internet’.  They wouldn’t listen. So I executed all the things I was talking about with Yes we can.”

The celebrity heavy video for will.i.am’s Obama ode Yes we can clocked up three million online views in a week. 

will.i.am went on to say;

“It’s about connecting people, giving them tools  to connect, if it’s a song or a blog or a sketch or a speech you’ve turned into a song. As long as they’re passing it around. We did that with Boom Boom Pow.  That was leaked, it was all over the net, DJs played it, radio stations found it. I learned a lot from that solo record. It taught me a lot. We wouldn’t be here had I not gone through that.”    

Boom Boom Pow has had 11,346,947 views on the official Black Eyed Peas channel on YouTube.

(Interestingly, in the same paper appeared a report that an Australian retail store, JB Hifi, has made the decision to stop the sale of CD singles. I can’t remember the exact details, but it was something like only 340 singles were sold in stores of the number one single in the last week. By contrast, it was downloaded over 13,000 times in the same period of time.)  

As educators, we need to be paying attention to what will.i.am has to say. Who knows? We may just have the next big thing sitting in one of our classrooms.  And even if we don’t, shouldn’t we be imparting this kind of knowledge along to all of the students we teach? Let them showcase what they do, share it around, give them an audience. Who knows where it might take them and the meaningful connections they may make in the process?   

Given the success of The Black Eyed Peas latest release I’d say they’ve figured it out. Time for school to catch up.   

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