Learning comes alive with human connection.
Invite Robert to speak, and be inspired.
The same energy and spirit that you see in Robert's classes can be imparted directly in service to your school, conference or homeschool organization. Please reach out with the free form at the bottom of this page, if you'd like to arrange for in-person or virtual presentations of:
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a keynote address
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professional development seminars
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connected parenting seminars
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an insightful address to students on self-worth, kindness, perspective, and mindfulness
Connecting to our students, a feat accomplished in Yay Math's videos, is more important than ever during this era. We must not drop the ball by neglecting to prioritize the critical need for students to be inspired by their educators.
Author of the widely read book, One-on-One 101: The Art of Inspired & Effective Individualized Instruction, Robert Ahdoot has given multiple TEDx talks and has traveled across the country to share his message that elevated learning only happens through human connections. You'll learn exactly how to establish those transcendent bonds with your learners. By gaining insights into the modern student psyche, we all flourish.
"Robert Ahdoot provided an electric keynote presentation at our conference this summer. The audience of teachers from all across the state and all grade levels raved about Robert's insight and his personal, passionate and funny delivery. As he described the authentic excitement of learning in children and the power of meaningful one-to-one connections with students, we all remembered why we teach. If you are an educator and you get the chance to see Robert speak, you must. We will ask him back soon and often."
— Brian O’Connell, Executive Director, Golden Apple Education Foundation of New Mexico
Keynote Address:
How to connect to students and inspire them
What do teachers and parents see when they envision a sensational learning environment? Enthusiasm? Laughter? Everyone being their core selves? What is the fundamental recipe for creating a positive student culture?
The answer: to fundamentally understand our students' mental and emotional wiring. Ask them and they'll tell you, they crave a meaningful connection with their teachers. Our understanding of how they relate to learning, and to us, is the difference between igniting deep learning, or extinguishing it cold. Once we tune in to the frequency by which they learn, and live, we cultivate the very bond necessary for inspired education. Then they thrive.
How to connect to students and inspire them is, at its essence, an art form. It's about so much more than teaching tactics alone. Tactics are important, yes, and they are an essential part of the conversation. Yet at the heart of any learning exchange lies the very people taking part in that exchange. We all go the extra mile for those whom we feel a deep connection to. Understanding how people learn most effectively is the basis for all our success. And now, even the NY Times realizes how important the human connection is.
Keynote Address:
Think you can recite your times tables while evading a tiger? A discussion about Math Anxiety.
Adrenaline is a beautiful biochemical. It's there to bolster us in stressful or dangerous situations. But, scientific studies using live brain scans reveal how that body surge stops the math centers our brains cold. And yet, we expect our students to go against their own biological wiring and use parts of their brain that go dark while in that "fight/flight/freeze" state. This gets at the heart of what Math Anxiety is, and in this talk, we'll discuss how it comes about, and what we must do about it.
Workshop #1 – Become a "Response Ninja"
What you say, how you say it, when you say it... all are critical in the nuanced open space between your student’s words and yours. Use this space wisely, and you’ll deftly build your student up, indirectly, without him/her even realizing it. And incrementally, in subtle ways, you strengthen the bond between you and the students, so that learning can continue to deepen.
On a daily basis, students subconsciously ask themselves: "Shall I jump in and engage, or shall I detach and reject this learning moment?" How we respond to them directly influences their choice to buy in. It's time for you to become a "Response Ninja." Then they'll always be excited to learn with you.
Being anointed a "Response Ninja" happens in 10 actionable ways. They are:
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The “so you’re saying that...” then “agreed.” method
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The “Are you sure?” method
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The “We” method
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The “Sarcasm is SO AWESOME.” method
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The “Do you speak body language?” method
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The “I hear you, see you, and know you” method
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The “NICE, now can you use the word ‘___’ in your answer?” method
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The “Binary to Open-Ended Question Decision” method
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The “Back to the Future” method
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The “Who’s In Control?” method
Workshop #2 – Puzzles, Riddles, and Games!
Extensive research has proven the transformative power of playing games and collaborating on shared challenges. Conquering riddles has numerous positive benefits, including practicing extended focus on a task, patience, persistence, team building, leadership, and rational/logical thinking. But best of all, they are FUN, and are applicable to students of all ages and grade levels.
Through an informal seminar in which we as teachers work on riddles and challenges together, we gain direct understanding of what our students experience at school on a daily basis. Thus a stroll within their shoes builds our empathy. Once we conquer the puzzles, then we're ready to share them with our students, and even our families... they're that fun! (Seriously, everyone at dinner will be mesmerized by you.)
TEDx talks, & informational flyer to pass along
Robert's bio & background
Robert Ahdoot began his teaching journey 15 years ago as a classroom math teacher. Throughout that time, his personal mission was to explore every specific way to reach his students. He saw firsthand how learning exploded when he connected to them as people, and such an elevated connected reversed any state of shutdown they experienced. One mental note led to several, which led to a living and growing teacher playbook. Through years of dedication and focus on student connection, his classes became fun, lively, and positive beacons of learning for both him and his students.
Yet within so elevated a space, he and his students felt a restlessness. It was the dawn of the video era, and they knew that what they were stumbling upon something that could truly benefit others, if they could only experience it. So out came an impromptu camcorder perched atop a precarious stack of books, and the Yay Math movement was born.
YayMath.org is a free online collection of math video lessons, filmed LIVE in Robert's classroom, featuring authentic student interaction that's inviting and emotionally connective. It has given life to now iconic, full costume math characters, like the "MathemaGyptian" and "MathemaChicken." Since its inception, Yay Math's YouTube channel hosts 200K subscribers, and its videos are viewed at a staggering 2 million minutes per month.
Yay Math's online proliferation has provided him the opportunity to give multiple TEDx talks on conquering math anxiety, speak at schools about how to permanently achieve inspired learning, and pen his debut book, One-on-One 101: The Art of Inspired and Effective Individual Instruction. It's the complete guide to connecting to learners, and it has been adopted by multiple school administrations as a blueprint for cultivating transcendent student-teacher learning relationships.
Here are some speaking engagement programs:
