Wk 3 Blog Post 2, Comment to Susan Calland

Image from Susan Calland's blog post

I loved your thoughts on Rule number 6. This took me back to our video analysis of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Steve Jobs seems to live by this rule. Although he is passionate about his product, he knows how to create a positive atmosphere and keep things light and interesting. He certainly is a risk taker! I know that a little humor always increases student engagement. Student involvement and the use of student ideas within the classroom give students a sense of ownership of their learning. Creating connections for students through stories, metaphors, images, and videos can really keep them interested and lead to better end results for student learning. Risk taking should be rewarded with applause. The teacher across the hall from you gives us all inspiration. I think passion and enthusiasm make all the difference.

My sons attend a camp each summer that is Christ centered. The camp counselors are all in their early 20’s and are enthusiastic about everything they instill in the children. One of the girls explained, if we are excited about what is going on, our campers think it is worth being excited about as well. May it be so with teachers!

Susan wrote:

In reading the four chapters, one main concept I am taking away is that fact that it is always more important to ask what makes a group lively and engaged instead of asking how good am I.  The students will definitely learn more if they are engaged and the focus is on them, not on the instructor.  My students seem to react when I admit to not knowing something that they ask or admit that I made a mistake.  Students also react very positively if one of their ideas is accepted and used.

Rule number 6:  Don’t take your self so seriously!  I have found in my classroom that my students respond in a positive manner when I am in a better, lighter mood than when I am too serious.  The same amount of learning still gets accomplished, but laughter makes them relax and more willing to take a risk.  I agree that if students can give up their pride, they stand a lot better chance of learning than if they let their pride get in the way.  My students may laugh at me when I do crazy things, but they love it all the same. 

Giving Way to Passion:  The teacher I have taught across the hall from for 14 years is retiring and she is a perfect example of having passion for what she does.  In this last year of her 39 year career, she still goes at it full force.  She is very passionate for reading and language arts and can still get kids excited about reading even if they aren’t good readers.  She has a gift for not holding back. 

In reading the four chapters, one main concept I am taking away is that fact that it is always more important to ask what makes a group lively and engaged instead of asking how good am I.  The students will definitely learn more if they are engaged and the focus is on them, not on the instructor.  My students seem to react when I admit to not knowing something that they ask or admit that I made a mistake.  Students also react very positively if one of their ideas is accepted and used.

Rule number 6:  Don’t take your self so seriously!  I have found in my classroom that my students respond in a positive manner when I am in a better, lighter mood than when I am too serious.  The same amount of learning still gets accomplished, but laughter makes them relax and more willing to take a risk.  I agree that if students can give up their pride, they stand a lot better chance of learning than if they let their pride get in the way.  My students may laugh at me when I do crazy things, but they love it all the same. 

Giving Way to Passion:  The teacher I have taught across the hall from for 14 years is retiring and she is a perfect example of having passion for what she does.  In this last year of her 39 year career, she still goes at it full force.  She is very passionate for reading and language arts and can still get kids excited about reading even if they aren’t good readers.  She has a gift for not holding back. 

Wk 3 Blog Post 1, Readings

The 4 chapters we focused on this week again had me thinking in a new way. Leaders are always said to be the strong, loud, commanding type, yet, in this reality, the leader is the one that makes others strive to have a vision of what is possible. As I read this week, I could not help but think of my son’s 4^th grade teacher. He truly is the best teacher I, or any of my own children, have ever had. I began to reflect on the readings and this particular teacher’s qualities. What quality does he possess? How does he lead? This is what I found. His quality is inspiration. He leads quietly. He leads by making each student feel worthy of great possibility, of vision.

When my son had this particular teacher, we attended a short play the students created in the classroom. We have all attended classroom plays, yet this one was different. Student made invitation letters went home, student created props lined the walls of the classroom. Student actors and actresses played the parts of the student written scripts. There were even student created commercials between the acts. All students were involved and the leader sat silent and just took it all in. A student made the introduction and all the leader said in the end was a simple thank you for coming to see you students amazing production.

At the time, I did notice how different the feel of the classroom was that day. Students were empowered to learn and grow, and proud to show the product they had created. The reason that teacher is such an amazing teacher is because he gets what Zander spoke of in his video this week and through The Art of Possibility. He gets that it is a teacher’s job to inspire possibility and watch students live into that vision. May it be so for all of us as educators.

Wk 2 Blog Post 5 Publishing/Leadership Ideas

I have decided to create an article for publication based on my Action Research project regarding blogs and motivation to read independently. I am excited at the prospect that others could actually benefit from my findings and ideas, as I know my own practice will benefit. I know research based practices in education are important to results for students and would love to be a part of this research community through a published article.

I am looking at 2 publications right now for possible submission. The first publication I found interesting was Education Technology Research and Development. The online submission process seems to be laid out very well with guidelines that seem easy to follow. This publication focuses entirely on research and development in educational technology. I would be thrilled to get my article published here. The URL for the site and submission criteria is here: http://www.springer.com/education+%26+language/learning+%26+instruction/journal/11423

My second site I may submit my article is the Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education. This journal provides computer and technology education to pre-service and in-service teachers. Technology in teacher education is shared through this journal. This site also seemed to have clear submission criteria. The URL for this site is here: http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/submission-information/journals-submission-information/jdlte-submission-guidelines.aspx

I am excited to think that the hard work we put into our projects this year could actually aid other educators looking into technology use in the classroom! I look forward to getting started on this project!

Wk 2 Blog 4, Wimba Session 2 Reflection

Flickr Image from MikeBlogs

As I reflect on the Wimba session, a few ideas you shared about copyright in regard to fair use come to mind. I was appreciative of how the ideas of fair use laws and how they apply in education. I have never been aware of what was allowed, or disallowed in the classroom under copyright law. The idea that a teacher can only use media in a classroom lesson if it is the only way to get a lesson across and even then can only use a small snippet, seems absurd. I really do hope sites like Creative Commons can begin to change this outdated form of copyright.

Wk 2 Blog Post 3, Comment to Brian Thomas

Taken from Book Cover

I was taken aback at first by the text, thinking it was going to be like a self help book, looking at greatness, but pleasantly, found it just the opposite! Chapter 4, Being a Contribution, probably had the biggest impact on me. I am always looking for ways I can grow. One area I can grow is through being a contribution and also recognizing everyone has the ability to be a contribution as well. By recognizing not only my own ideas, but also the ideas of others and their importance, I feel I can live my life in a better way by making a contribution a priority as a teacher, and as a Christian.

I also found this chapter to shift my thinking in the classroom. My students often reflect on their learning each day. This chapter forced me to go another direction and examine what might happen if I get students and myself more interested in contribution. That might mean contribution to class work, contribution to our class as a community, or contribution to the world at large. This takes pressure off students to be right, and allows them to take risks and be involved, to contribute.

I am glad to see that after you made it through the first few chapters of the book you were able to make a connection in chapter 3 and to the video. Sometimes I think just being open to other people’s point of view can change our perception of the world and of them even if it does not change our mind about how we feel.

Brian’s Blog Post:

I think the thing that I learned most from the first two chapters of this book was something about myself. This “thing” is something that I’ve had to deal with throughout this course and upon reflection, throughout my entire life. I’m talking about the types of books that speak to me and the type that I really cannot in any way relate to. Unfortunately, this book seems to be of the latter. I would classify it as more of a philosophical get-in-touch-with-your-inner-self type book. After finished up the first couple chapters, I felt a rush of all the books I’d read come back to me – those I enjoyed and those I did not (regardless of the genre or content). As an individual with a severe case of concrete logical-mathematical thinking, I realize that my brain has a particularly hard time processing text that is deeply philosophical, yet reading a physics, chemistry, or calculus text is relatively easy. As is reading any manual on whatever the topic. And I find some of the statements in the book particularly hard for my brain to accept. Take this passage on p.20 for example: “The pie is enormous, and if you take a slice, the pie is whole again.” (Zander, 2000) Now, as we all know, if you subtract a part from the whole, as long as the part is > 0, you no longer have the whole, as is insinuated by the authors.

Poor mathematics aside, the awareness of my own strengths and weaknesses in reading opened my eyes to the difficulties that some student may have in reading such texts as I enjoy, and quite truthfully, this was my greatest take-away from the first couple chapters.

So, that aside, I do see the value of thinking outside the box, as explained in the text. Another part of the text that resonated with me was the part about scarcity thinking. I believe as Americans, we have really fallen into that mind-set and try to accumulate as much as we possibly can, without much regard for those that have little to nothing.

Moving into chapter three was fearful (because it was much longer than the infinitely long previous two chapters combined) but I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the authors take on “giving an A” and thought at length about what kind of effect that would have on a student population I might be working with next year.

Ironically, I didn’t really start to get into the text myself until I watched the TED talk (which I had seen a couple years ago) and remembered how much I enjoyed watching Ben Zander. And at that point, I decided to give the book an A, and have enjoyed it much more ever since.

(image from the cover of The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander)

Posted by Brian Thomas

Wk 2 Blog Post 2, Comment to Josh Tolar

I love your example of the box. In our world today, we are inundated with worry for the future. Our financial security, job security, getting richer, being better, everyone looking only at tomorrow. I too, love the way our readings make us reflect on perspective and its importance on the here and now. If we truly open ourselves up to today and create a positive existence doing what we can for others, our tomorrows will take care of themselves. We do need to remove ourselves from the box and live a life that matters by affecting others in positive ways. Nothing makes me feel better than when I do something for someone else without their knowing. If we look at contributions, both others, and ours I agree we can be the difference.

In regard to our journey with Full Sail, I too, think it will be significantly different without all of our time spent growing and learning. It shows me, I am definitely a person who is a lifelong learner. I do intend to keep going with technology in education one small step at a time, and hopefully end up making a contribution.

You are gifted with music and I love that you can begin to see the contribution that can have for the world. Keep making music and doing what you do!

Image by flickr user: trixnbooze

Josh's post:
I keep thinking about the current situation about my job and how it happened so fast.  While I was hastily updating my resume to look for a new job to cure my unhappiness with my current one, an opportunity came out from no where and basically slapped me in the face.  I’m now in a new position with the same company, but I don’t know for how long.  I have this hidden fear that one day this position will be over and I will have to go back where I used to work and fall into an unhappy lifestyle again where my expertise is nothing but a title on a sheet of paper.  It is here that I have enclosed myself into a box and never stopped to think about the opportunity I have right now and how it might actually affect my future; An opportunity to seize the moment.

By reading the first 4 chapters of “Art of Possibility”, I realized the potentials I have as well as the weaknesses I have had and still have.  When thinking about giving an A to someone, it somehow calms my nerves from expecting too much and allows me to focus on how to contribute to someone else’s life or a project.  This IS a realization, but NOT THE END of realizations.  While giving an A to someone might make it easier for two people to work together in a more harmonious fashion, there is still the realization of giving yourself an A.  For so many years I have been controlled by a never-ending urge to please everyone.  It has caused me to go above and beyond to the extent that my body shuts down and causes many problems like stress or an occasional illness.  This is from my past of always having to live up to an A or suffer the consequences or living up to the expectations of a parent and it never stopped.  It never stopped because I never allowed it to stop.  I have always given in to the persistent calculations and measurements in my head.  I have always been afraid that if I don’t do the best possible work then I would fail or cause someone to feel disappointed.  I have always been in the realm of self-doubt despite of what others say.  This is just like what Ben Zander was describing about his students and how giving an A would open up the possibilities of being creative and not focusing on the measurements in their head.  If I give myself an A first, then I feel I can start handing out A’s to other people and I can then start a successful domino effect of contribution.

Life is constantly changing and the past year at Full Sail has not only given me strength and trust in myself, but has shown me that when you work with others and recognize their contributions as well as your own, amazing things start to happen.  I have always been told, “If you put your mind to it, anything can happen”.  This is so true in so many ways, but you have to first realize that if you give in to self-doubt and the measurements that we are so conditioned with, you start to focus on the negative instead of the positive.  You become enclosed in a box.  I think that by realizing our contributions and the contributions of other people, we can start to open the lid of the box and slowly come out.

“Think Outside The Box (Evidence & Metaphor)” by Flickr user trixnbooze used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.
Website Address: http://www.flickr.com/photos/martyportier/4656059096/

Posted by Josh Tolar at 4:15 PM 0

Wk 2 Readings Blog 1

My Contribution

I love Zander’s idea that a leader does not doubt peoples’ abilities to do what it is they are to do. As I look at education I ask, What if all teachers believed in the abilities of all of their students? How would education change? Stop thinking about everything along the way, and see the big picture. Have a vision, a long line, and see it through! How would education change?

Zander’s video on Ted was moving and showed the connection possible for classical music through Zander’s determination and perception.  His connection to the conductor as a person to make others powerful, and make others feel it is possible. I loved his question: Who am I being if my children’s eyes are not shining?  I hope to take this and use it in the classroom. I want a classroom with children’s eyes shining.

The idea of enhancing our quality of life and the quality of life for those around us as we have the power is really meaningful to me. I think this year has been eye opening for me as I look and understand perception and the big part it plays in each of our version of reality. I have looked at this through my Masters courses, my own Bible study, through the students I teach, and now this book. It is amazing how life opens something up to us, and we see it all around. I see this as the power of God.  In this book, I feel the importance of perception and I love thinking about how our brains constructs our reality, and how that reality is just ours, we can not know if it is the reality that is real, or created, because our brain constructs our own thoughts. The idea of it all being a story we tell, can change our own thoughts about every situation. For me, the closer I become to God, the more I want his will, this leads me try to be a better person, think about others feelings, and desire good. I love the idea in the book of setting the context and letting life unfold

I loved the thoughts on giving an A, not just in the classroom but also in the everyday world. It is so true that we measure everyone according to a standard measure. When we can believe everyone has a unique gift to share, and that not all of us have the same gift, we can begin to accept and love people for who they are, learn from their gifts, and accept their differences, as well. I love the idea of giving A’s, looking at what is great about this person I meet that I can learn from, rather than comparing them to a standard measure I set.

I love the question, what did you achieve today becoming, how did I contribute today? So now I ask this of myself…How did I contribute today?