Research at Big Lake last year showed a 30% drop in failures and a 14% drop in disciplinary reports after beginning a Transition Day program that featured all students completing vision videos.

TEL.A.VISION is based on studies of Neuroplasticity which say you can change the structure and function of your brain with your thoughts. More and more research is being done in the Neurosciences that confirms the importance of vision. The latest research is presented in the book “The Science of Optimism.” Here is a quote from the book, “To make progress, we need to be able to imagine alternative realities — better ones — and we need to believe that we can achieve them. Such faith helps motivate us to pursue our goals.”

Up With People had a successful launch of TEL.A.VISION in the first half of 2011. All 100 members of its cast completed TEL.A.VISION videos. Some of the groups they offered the program to included At Risk students in Florida, refugees in The Netherlands and second graders in Mexico. Next week, while in Minneapolis, they will be working with the students from Battle Creek.

We concluded a successful trial with the Minnesota Department of Education for secondary transition students with a presentation at the SEARCH Conference. Teachers, students and parents who spoke at the conference all felt that they benefited from the experience. We will be expanding the pilot this school year.

We are beginning to work with Optimists International clubs. Their mission is “By providing hope and vision, Optimists bring out the best in kids.” This is a perfect match for TEL.A.VISION. If you have any connections to Optimists please let me know.

Here are some of the cast’s vision videos: Alicia Kit Sophia

On their first tour of 2011 UWP brought TEL.A.VISION to students in a number of places they traveled on their tour. They worked with At Risk students in Vera Beach through the Boys and Girls Club. They were amazed at the excitement that refugees in the Netherlands had for creating a vision video. Here is Peyton’s video.

But probably their favorite classroom experience was in Chihuahua Jinte,  Mexico where they worked with a group of second graders on creating a vision for the world. Here is an example: Vision for the World

Shelsea Olsea, the UWP Educational Coordinator said, “TEL.A.VISION is an opportunity for our cast members to take what they know in their head and bring it into their heart. We are very excited about our first semester of using TEL.A.VISION and look forward to using it this semester.”

Project SEARCH is dedicated to providing education and training to young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities through an innovative workforce and career development model that is available in 205 programs across the US.

We recently completed a pilot program with the Minnesota State Department of Education for  four Project SEARCH  jobs sites. We had students, a parent and job coaches present for the session.

Carol, a mother,  talked about how much she learned from her son, Matt, in him creating a vision video . She found that her son had much higher aspirations for his life then she imagined. Matt said he enjoyed every part of the process especially showing it to his fellow job interns. He was clear that he is going to accomplish his dreams. Here is his video.

The job coaches felt that every student benefited from the vision video process. They now had a much greater understanding of the interns and all agreed that they wanted to continue the program in 2011-12 . There only desire was to start the program in September instead of January. Here is a highlight video of the 10 students in their group.

The State Department of Education is looking forward to expanding TEL.A.VISION use next school year.

“To make progress, we need to be able to imagine alternative realities — better ones — and we need to believe that we can achieve them. Such faith helps motivate us to pursue our goals.”

“Even if that better future is often an illusion, optimism has clear benefits in the present. Hope keeps our minds at ease, lowers stress and improves physical health. Researchers studying heart-disease patients found that optimists were more likely than non optimistic patients to take vitamins, eat low-fat diets and exercise, thereby reducing their overall coronary risk. A study of cancer patients revealed that pessimistic patients under the age of 60 were more likely to die within eight months than nonpessimistic patients of the same initial health, status and age.”

“Scientists who study memory proposed an intriguing answer: memories are susceptible to inaccuracies partly because the neural system responsible for remembering episodes from our past might not have evolved for memory alone. Rather, the core function of the memory system could in fact be to imagine the future — to enable us to prepare for what has yet to come. ”

“To think positively about our prospects, we must first be able to imagine ourselves in the future. Optimism starts with what may be the most extraordinary of human talents: mental time travel, the ability to move back and forth through time and space in one’s mind. Although most of us take this ability for granted, our capacity to envision a different time and place is in fact critical to our survival.”

“The problem with pessimistic expectations, such as those of the clinically depressed, is that they have the power to alter the future; negative expectations shape outcomes in a negative way. How do expectations change reality?”

“Examining the brain-imaging data, Bengtsson found that the students’ brains responded differently to the mistakes they made depending on whether they were primed with the word clever or the word stupid. When the mistake followed positive words, she observed enhanced activity in the anterior medial part of the prefrontal cortex (a region that is involved in self-reflection and recollection). However, when the participants were primed with the word stupid, there was no heightened activity after a wrong answer. It appears that after being primed with the word stupid, the brain expected to do poorly and did not show signs of surprise or conflict when it made an error.”
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2074067,00.html

On September 8, 2010 all 250 freshman at Big Lake High School started TEL.A.VISION videos on the first day of school, Transition Day. The videos were shown in class to all of the homeroom students and referenced throughout the year. Staff said that students saw their friends in a different light and they got to know the students better. The principal felt the teachers became more engaged with the students. We are not claiming the results are totally due to TEL.A.VISION, but they played a part in the changes seen.

The results have been breathtaking. There has been 30% fewer student failures, adjusted for student count, in 2010/201 versus 2009/2010, a 14% decrease in disciplinary reports and a 13% decrease in Blue Slips. We have completed focus group research with students and faculty and will be reporting on them shortly.

Stay tuned

Tel.A.Vision founder George Johnson donated full use of his online video creation software to the Thai orphanage this week. The cloud based video platform is designed for children to create “vision videos” to share their hopes and dreams through multimedia. The service is paid subscription based, but thanks to Johnson, the kids at the Mercy Centre will be able to create an unlimited number of videos for free.

The Tel.A.Vision platform features a library of animated clips, images, styles and music that can be strung together to create a new video. Children can upload and incorporate their own photos and video clips to their new creations. Finished videos can be viewed on the Telavision.tv site, downloaded or exported directly to YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxWyVR8G-tI

Spark.A.Vision
In November I participated in the Big Tent Conference in Houston. We created a new product called Spark.A.Vision. It is a combination of Dr. Peter Benson’s work on Sparks and TEL.A.VISION. Dr. Benson’s research has shown that what every young person needs for a successful upbringing is to find his/her spark in life and have three adults support them. TEL.A.VISION  is a way to help a young person identify their spark and share it with the world. We had a fabulous response in Houston and look forward to collaborating to bring this to the world. W believe this work could be enhanced by proposed regulations to begin Career and College Preparedness with students in sixth grade.
Here is a video where students talk about their experience creating Spark.A.Vision videos.

TIES Conference
In December Bob Dockendorf, Gwen Toppe and I presented at the TIES Conference. Bob is the Principal of Big Lake High School. This fall Big Lake held “Transition Day” for all ninth graders on the first day of school. Every ninth grader began a TEL.A.VISION  video on that day. Teachers created videos that they shared with the students. They talked to the students about the importance of having a vision for their lives. At the conference Bob shared stories of the difference the program has made with individual students and initial results from the vision videos. These results included a 2.6% increase in attendance and a 30% drop in the number of write ups for disciplinary problems.

Foundation Grants
This fall we received a Community Grant from the Best Buy Foundation to fund expansion of TEL.A.VISION in Twin Cities Schools. In 2011 we will be funding research on TEL.A.VISION’s effectiveness and a number of pilot programs for At Risk youth. With a grant from the Rothmann Family Foundation we have funded programs including the use of TEL.A.VISION by youth at the Mercy Center in Bangkok, http://www.mercycentre.org. Mercy Center is a hospital for children with AIDS. They will be creating vision videos to send to their sponsors.
If you know of any foundations or organizations you think would be interested in helping fund TEL.A.VISION please let us know.

Quotes from Nebraska High School Students
This fall we received testimonials from High School Students in Nebraska who had completed vision videos. In this blog post we share some of the quotes. Here is one of our favorites: “Thank you soooo much I was really having a tough time in my life and wasnt really paying attention to anything. I drank and I was even considering joining a gang but now this has really just set me back an my path and I can actually see wer im going so thank you.”