OverHall IT!
Vol. 9 Issue 3
OverHall IT! - Newsletter for 'OverHalling' Your Life & Spaces
Vol. 9 Issue 3
"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself".
~John Dewey
Special Edition: Back to School
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Need Help Overcoming Excuses, Challenges, and Hurdles?
MP3 Instant Download
http://tinyurl.com/2f83qt
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1. Back to School Organization
2. Events with Janet
3. A Little Feng Shui for the Classroom
Back to School Articles, Checklists and Tools for children,
parents and teachers can be found by visiting
http://www.overhall.com/August/back_to_school.htm
Thank you for allowing me to be of service to you through this
newsletter and all my web sites.
1. Back to School Organization
By: Dawn Burrell
It is time for your kids to hit the books again! Here are tips to
help your family ease back into the school schedule and make
the mornings and evening less hectic.
Use family time to prepare for the week ahead. Sundays are a
great day to have a family meeting to go over everyone’s
schedules for the upcoming week.
Color-code your calendar. Keep track of after-school activities
by using a different colored pen for each child to mark on your
calendar when practices, lessons, and games are.
Prepare your family’s outfits (and uniforms) for the week. If you
do all your laundry on the weekends, then everyone in the family
will have what they need for the week.
Lay out or hang the outfits for the upcoming week for you and
your children for all 5 days.
Plan a week of meals. The weekend is a great time to plan out
the meals for the week. If you have after-school activities, then
this will allow you to plan accordingly for those days as well.
Gain 15 minutes for your morning routine. Set your clock next to
your bed for 15 minutes later than it really is. This will give you
an extra 15 minutes in the morning, so you are not running late.
Use your extra 15 minutes to sit down, and enjoy a nutritious
breakfast and quality time with your children. It will make for a
better day for all.
Establish an after-school routine. In my house, my kids come in,
take their shoes off, get everything out of their backpack, put the
backpack away, place their lunchbox on kitchen counter, wash
their hands, eat a snack, and do homework. A routine fosters
good habits, keeps your kids and you organized, and reduces
stress for everyone.
Designate a catch-all area for your children’s backpack,
homework, lunchbox, shoes, and other items to bring to school.
Set up a bin or basket that is labeled or color coded for each
child.
A wipe a day keeps the germs away. If your child packs lunch,
be sure to clean his/her lunch box everyday with disinfectant
wipes to keep bacteria away.
Create a communication center, a specific place where your
children can leave paperwork that needs to be read or signed.
My older son has paper work that needs to be signed every day.
He knows where to leave it so I do not forget.
Be involved in your children’s homework. My kids do their
homework in the kitchen, and I sit down with them and go over
their assignments. By being involved, you’ll know what your
children are studying and what they need to complete for the
week. You can also have them do their homework while you
prepare dinner, and if they have questions you are there to help.
© 2007 Dawn Burrell, Let's Re-Arrange It! LLC has a free
newsletter, Inspirations, Inspiring Solutions and Tips to help get
your home organized and re-designed at
www.letsrearrangeit.com
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Parents: Now you can "Create Supportive Environments for
your Child to Excel" with this CD and handout at:
http://www.overhall.com/workshops/childenvironmentst.htm
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2. Events & Happenings with Janet
Workshops Devoted to Personal Change & Enrichment
Live - Reiki Sessions - $35
Waldorf, MD
August 19th (Tuesday) 9AM - 3PM
Waldorf Senior Center
3092 Crain Highway
Waldorf, Maryland 20601
MUST sign up in advance by calling Marjorie Carberry
301-638-4420
Live
Largo, MD
August 23rd (Sat.)
10:00AM - 4:00PM
Getting Your Office Organized
Prince George's Community College
Largo Campus
MUST register in advance by calling
Nancie Park: 301-277-5934 X 340
Live
Loffler Sr. Center, MD
9/5/08 (Friday)
1pm-5pm
In Case Something Happens: Preparing Your Home and Getting
Your Affairs in Order
MUST register in advance by calling Vickie Grow:
301-934-7652
Live
CSM: Prince Frederick Campus, Prince Frederick, MD
9/6/08 (Sat.)
12pm-4pm – Saturday
Introduction to Feng Shui
MUST register in advance by calling Vickie Grow:
301-934-7652
For more upcoming live workshops with Janet please visit
http://www.overhall.com/workshops.htm
Any of OverHall's workshops can be taught at your location (or
via phone) for a group of five or more. Call Janet at
410-586-9440 to see how you can book her to speak for your
company, organization or college. Janet offers workshops with
regards to organization, time management, Feng Shui, energy
medicine, EFT (tapping), reiki, business and web development.
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Get Janet's workshops on CD with handouts
http://www.overhall.com/cds.htm
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3. A Little Feng Shui for the Classroom
By: Vladek Bednarz, FSII
The many, many components needed for a positive and
beneficial learning environment can be enhanced by Feng Shui.
Let me share a few ideas with you.
Because viewing nature integrates the brain (makes it work
better and more efficiently), we must supply the children with
nature if school districts don't provide it. When this is the case,
provide the classrooms with paintings or posters of nature
scenes. Another option is to bring in live plants. It's interesting to
know that in Denmark every school (and office building) must
have windows facing nature.
Lighting is hugely important also. The all-pervasive fluorescent
lights, computers, and televisions affect the brain negatively for
several reasons. For instance, their humming and flickering throw
the brain stem into an "alert" state which results in a series of
physiological stress responses. Examples of just two of these
stress responses are a tightening of the muscles and tendons on
the backside of the body and a release of adrenalin.
Please remember that when the body is in a stress response, the
only information which the brain can process relates to its safety
and comfort. A large portion of the cerebrum (the thinking brain)
goes out to lunch and there is very little or no cognitive
functioning happening. Please know that in Scandinavia
fluorescent lights are banned from the classrooms. Using
natural daylight or incandescent lighting whenever possible will
improve the learning capacity of students.
Another negative aspect of fluorescent lights, computers, and
televisions is their huge, powerful electromagnetic fields (EMF's)
which jar the human body's EMF. This, in turn, disturbs the
brain's electrical activity and this affects our emotions and our
capacity to learn and to function. Interestingly, there are schools
in this country (and others) which restrict or eliminate
computer/t.v. activity in concert with the homes of the
students (and wonder of wonders, reading scores then rise!!).
EMF's (which function just like the microwaves which cook your
food by boiling the water molecules in the food) and stress also
dehydrate the body. It's very important to give students access
to water. Either allow the students to bring water bottles, or
provide cups if you have faucets in the classroom, or provide
water coolers. About 75% of our bodies consists of water.
Water conducts electricity, and if you want the bodies and brains
of the students (and everybody else's!) to communicate quickly,
smoothly, and efficiently they must have water. Did you know
that even a measly 2% drop in water content will negatively
affect the way you do a simple math problem?
Please note: by the time you feel thirst, you are already in a huge
water deficit. Students need to sip frequently, but should drink
more when working on a computer or watching television.
By the way, new computers off-gas for several months. New
computers should be installed in classrooms in June, as soon as
the children leave for summer vacation. The windows should
then be thrown open and kept open until the students return in
August/September. The off-gassing will not be complete,
but the worst will be over. This is better than installing new
computers in August. Also, computer placement is important.
Computers are frequently places on circular tables or in back-to-
back rows. This means the student facing the back of someone's
computer is getting zapped full-force by that computer's EMF's.
Better to have the computers lined up against the
peripheral (and preferably external) walls of the classroom.
Another off-gassing problem is found with the popular (but not
very healthy) component of classrooms: carpeting. The glue used
in the backing off-gasses. Carpeting also is a marvelous hotel for
dust mites, which can cause all sorts of allergic reactions. Of
course, it's difficult to convince the powers-that-be to tear up
carpeting, but if your school is being renovated it's wise to make
that suggestion. And if you're involved in the building of
a new school, certainly this would be a topic to raise.
Now, given that fluorescent lights, computers, and televisions are
omni-present in our classrooms, and we know that they
negatively affect brain functioning, what is it that we can do to
assist the children's brains? Besides drinking water and seeing
pictures of nature, we can make sure that the children get daily
doses of music, usually in 15-20 minute maximal increments.
Musicologist Don Campbell compiled excerpts of Mozart's
music to activate, or to stimulate, or to relax the brain in his
MOZART EFFECT COLLECTION (there's one set for
children and one set for adults). Gary Lamb has created several
collections which also entrain the heart to the optimal 60 beats
per minute, plus others geared for learning activities.
Furthermore, have the children do integrated movements which
will simultaneously stimulate and, paradoxically, relax the brain,
which is the state it must be in for optimal learning and
functioning. An example of integrated movements can be found
in Brain Gym® (Educational Kinesiology). Twenty-six simple
movements and/or processes called balances and repatternings,
can compensate for the above-mentioned factors in the
classroom which interfere with normal electrical functioning of the
brain. They're quick and fun to do. And, of course, the teachers
will benefit also! Brain Gym® movements target all three main
parts of the brain to improve memory, concentration, cognitive
functioning, coordination, and release stress.
So as you can see, when we cannot overhaul our classrooms or
our teaching methods, we have tools available to us to improve
the Feng Shui in our classrooms. As the energy moves in a
different way, the children will be able to learn and function
better.
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Teachers: Now you can "Create Better Learning Environments
for Your Students Through Feng Shui" with this CD and
handout:
http://www.overhall.com/workshops/teacherstudentst.htm
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If this newsletter feeds your spirit, tithes may be sent to:
Rev. Janet Hall c/o: OverHall Consulting,
P.O. Box 263, Port Republic, MD 20676
Help Me Help Others Heal Themselves and Their Environments
Please forward my newsletter onto those you know who might
need or like OverHall IT!
ISSN # 1533-0702.
Publisher: Janet L. Hall mailto:janet(at)overhall.com
http://www.overhall.com
Copyright (c) 2008 by OverHall Consulting
All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce, copy,
or distribute OverHall IT! or any articles by Janet L. Hall so
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