wk3_Comment 2: Response to Jenney

Jenney posted:
Publication versus Presentation

Well, I am leaning towards a presentation. I do not have time to write another paper worthy of publication.

With the advent of voice in powerpoint, I'm wondering why we need to type more words on a project? Also with the advent of YouTube or Viddler, couldn't we submit a link to our PowerPoint screen flow or actually "present" to our video camera and post it? Often my brain works faster than I can type, and believe me I can type pretty fast (80+ wpm when I get going). Also with typing my English/grammar cop comes out, and I tend to fix things as I type instead of waiting for a re-write. (I just fixed a missing comma in my compound sentence!)

So what am I going to present? Well, I wish that I was able to obtain some student work to show what they created in Creaza, but I was not thinking ahead and did not get copying of their user name and passwords. Also with Creaza, there was no publishing option.

Guess I'm left with my data.

Slide one: Problem...in my humble opinion, what is the state of language classroom?
Slide two: Brainstorm...solutions, what are some of the solutions that I see, or have researched.
Slide three: Implementation...what did my CBR project show? How did students react? Phase 1.
Slide four: Implementation...what did Phase 2 show?
Slide five: Future...where do we go from here? What is in the works for my classroom? Game? etc. 



I replied:
I second Matt's encouragement Jenney! We've all had our ups and down with this project, but you have been a rock! You truly have kept the bar high for all of us! Thinking about your videos in the past 11 months, presenting is a strong suit for you and I know that you enjoy that visual component much more than mere words on paper. I can't wait to see what you develop! I like the brainstorming you're doing so far...

wk3_Comment 1: response to Crystal

Crystal said:
Chapters 5 through 8 have been my favorite thus far. I highlighted much of the text for my own personal use to reflect on again later and I even stole a quote and put it on Facebook.

"Being present to the way things are is not the same as accepting things as they are...It doesn't mean you should drown out your negative feelings or pretend you like what you really can't stand. It doesn't mean you should work to achieve some "higher plane of existence" so you can "transcend negativity." It simply means, being present without resistance: being present to what is happening and present to your reactions, no matter how intense."- The Art of Possibility

What I read resonated with me and I know that I will be able to put it all into practice.Two items stood out to me the first being the story in Chapter 5 regarding the National Youth Orchestra of Cuba and the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. It mirrored a story of my own that actually came about while doing my Challenge Based Research project. The story in the Art of Possibility talks about two orchestras coming together and having difficulty with each other's pieces of music. Each orchestra struggles to follow the conductor leading the pieces and all seems to be failing until one conductor suggests letting the students who know the piece lead the students who don't. This takes the pressure off of the unknowing students and allows the other to become natural leaders.

In conducting my Challenge Based Research Project, this situation occurred with my administrators. I had both experienced and inexperienced/newly hired ones in the same meeting. We were discussing the merits of creating a handbook and training manual for all administrators. Through discussion emerged a brilliant idea to start a mentoring program in which more experienced administrators could train and give guidance to new administrators while also allowing new administrators to bring some creativity and change to many of the processes. Needless to say it all worked out very well and we are continuing the challenge based research I conducted continuously into the future as a group of administrators working to make change within the University.

The other main "Ah-ha" moment that resonated with me was the Rule Number 6. I often have a problem of taking my self too seriously and reading this chapter put that "practice" into context for me. It allowed me to examine further how I take myself to seriously and when/if it does happen again how to diffuse it. I wish I could make copies of this chapter and give it to everyone I know, not to force it on anyone as the book says, but just to give others the chance as I have to realize that we all at one point or another take ourselves too seriously and this does us all no good in the long run. Live and let live, right?!
(photo credits: 1. Chair by misbrzi  2.Flickr

I replied: 

Great connection, Crystal. I too began to see this as the art of the win-win. The experience informed the newbies and the techies informed the luddites! LOL! I too was relieved in this section. The passage you quote is a great one. We don't need to create absolute fictions, but we do need to cope with reality in a way that enables us to move on productively, no? I like Ben's example about weather and Roz's example about ice. Either one of them could have given up and pouted and maybe they did for a bit of time. But then the creative reframing happened in their own perception and they were able to move on and enjoy themselves more. 

And I too, see how this can be related to not taking myself so seriously. Is it the New Yorker in us? That hit-me-with-your-best-shot attitude that needs to take a backseat sometimes to make way for other possibilities?

Wk3_ Reading: the way things are

THIS is the chapter I have been waiting for!  Ben and Roz have made the distinction that we need not whitewash, sugar-coat, turn-a-blind-eye or otherwise tinker with reality.  As long as we follow up-- once the fury, disappointment or other emotion has abated somewhat-- with the question "What else is here now?"  And I have to say it is true that disappointing to tragic events have ultimately led to  unexpected blessings.  I met my husband working a second job; my ex-husband was having, ahem, difficulty with the concept of child support.  Although I will not directly thank my ex for doing what he chose to do, I will generally be thankful (and the rabbi says to be safe always thank God) for the way everything worked out in my life.

So, I will not force myself to become a junior Mrs. Sunshine and Roses, I will however look harder for the positives among the perceived negatives.  I love what Ben and Roz say about the pessimists believing in their own fiction, because they focus on a lack, rather than on what IS.  I think I get it.  Much about life for so many people is unfortunately filled with misery and suffering.  But taking stock of what assets and positives exist despite obstacles is the only way to summon the courage to persist.

Resiliency is a word I've been focused on and I've been pondering how to help inspire student to persist despite difficulties.  And I think I need to share these ideas with them, so they can choose "positive self-talk" or other strategies.  I think I need to expose them to tools for their own resiliency toolbox.

Wk3_Reading: Lead from any chair

I found myself getting teary as I read this chapter.  I found it incredible and thrilling; the empowerment and active engagement of the players is exactly what I want in my classroom!  If I need white sheets, so be it.  If I need guest conductors, so be it.  In the past, when I've tried things like this, I've met with resistance and I think I let it discourage me too soon.  Wendy Drexler's study, which I have cited in my lit review described the resistance of kids who do not always welcome the added responsibility for their own learning, and I think this is similar.  Ben does not tell us of times when he chose someone too shy or just too disinclined to conduct that day.  I wish he had.  I need to know that it doesn't always work out in a sunshiny way.  I work with ninth graders who, for reasons entirely their own, do not want to cooperate just yet.  I think his question, "Who am I being that their eyes are not shining?" is a good question, but it needs to be tempered with a bit of reality.  Kids come to me with all sorts of problems, and my classroom approach is not a panacea!

I'm thinking of a particular boy this year, Zach S.  Zach's last name in our district is synonymous with problems; talk about the cycle of violence, poverty, crime and just general nasty attitudes!  A colleague, who is a distant cousin of Zach's, told me a little bit about the family and the drama that just seems to explode from every member.  The colleague felt very lucky to have escaped that family's vortex, having graduated college and become a teacher himself.  So, Zach's father's side of the family is a dramatically negative influence in his life.  I learned from Zach's mother and stepfather that Zach's parents had divorced but that his mother had to keep several jobs to keep the family financially afloat.  As the stepfather put it, Zach was left with a lot of spare time an little guidance; he resisted the structure and rules that came with a stepparent joining the family.  Zach told me when his mom was single he had been left in the care of an older brother who was cruel at times.  So, his upbringing led to his current problems.  Simply put, Zach was just fighting all of us.  He hated everyone, even me.  When I asked him  to focus on the task at hand, I noticed he wanted to debate me; wasting class time was his M.O.  I honestly can say I tried to reason with him, using detentions as time to talk.  I could sense his pain behind his defiance.   And that's how the school year went.  Assignments came and went and every time he missed a deadline, I offered him time to work after school, reminding him it was up to him to make some steps to get his work done and I'd be there to help him do it well.  I am proud that I never yelled or lost my cool with him; sure, I was exasperated, but I ended up saying, "Listen, I'm not battling or debating you here.  Let's just get this done..."  In the last weeks of school, I saw his attitude change and he did stay after and did a nice job on his final project.  I can't take any credit for what happened because I really think HE made it happen.  But my point is I may have helped it happen.  I'd revise Ben's statement about shining eyes to say, "What can I try to help his eyes shine?"  A teacher or conductor doesn't have absolute power but has power nonetheless.

And when I look back at the ten years of kids I've had in my class, I can't say I've had a dramatic impact on ALL of them*.  It's like the starfish story-- I make a difference for as many as I can.  Some kids smile shyly at me in the grocery store years later, others rush up to me to chat and still others avoid my eyes awkwardly.  But I think Ben would still give me an A, and I'm going to give myself an A, for sincerely trying every year, with every kid.  I think that's what counts.

*It IS exciting when you can hear back from kids as they graduate and beyond.  This weekend I was invited to a grad party for a girl who volunteered to paint backdrops with me for the school talent show year after year.  I grew to just love Tess!  At this party, the parents and the older sisters each told me separately throughout the evening that they were so glad I came and that they were so grateful for the "good influence" I had on Tess throughout high school.  Tess is planning a career in art therapy, so she will pay it forward to countless others.  I am humbled and grateful I have an opportunity to impact my local community in such a powerful way.

Wk2_Comment 2

Crystal Cusimano said:

The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander was quite an interesting read. I have read many of these kinds of books before and this one struck me as taking a slightly different approach. The authors work their way through different scenarios, approaching them from different angles, exploring the idea of pushing limits and thinking “outside the box”.

Reading this book allowed me to begin to think more deeply about my role as an individual and the significance my thoughts, actions, and beliefs play in the whole of the human race as a connected collective group. Many times, especially in Western culture, we tend to stress individuality, but ironically in reality, we tend to think alike, stuck in similar patterns without looking at things with fresh eyes. The authors in this book work to get the reader to understand that there may be opposition or differences of opinion in what you believe is right or the right way of doing something and that you must push on because what you think and bring to the table is important.

Several things struck me in the reading and I’d like to touch on them and the significance they had for me. 

1. “Draw a different frame around the same set of circumstances and new pathways come into view.” (p. 1) and “ The frames our minds create define – and confine – what we perceive to be possible. Every problem, every dilemma, every dead end we find ourselves facing in life, only appears unsolvable inside a particular frame or point of view. Enlarge the box, or create another frame around the data, and problems vanish, while new opportunities appear.” (p. 14)

As is true in the discussion in the book regarding the box game, so true is this similar statement. Many times I become so focused on solving a problem that I start limiting my thinking to solutions that seem to fit based on the criteria given or what I think I know instead of using them as a framework that can be manipulated.

Being in the EMDT program has taught me the importance of pushing boundaries and making a difference in what I do everyday by being myself. Just because it has been done a certain way forever (i.e. Many things in the educational system have.) doesn’t mean that is the only way or the right way. For this perspective on how I live and work, I am grateful.

2. “We propose to call our familiar everyday world the ‘world of measurement’ in order to highlight the central position held by assessments, scales, standards, grades, and comparisons. (p. 17)

This topic has come up in many discussions with my classmates. The majority of schools are run today on the premise that the grade is the final goal, when what we should all be realizing is that the grade is ambiguous. Students and many teachers get so rapped up into teaching to the test or toward high marks that no one really stops to think what that “A” per se is equivalent to and what it means, if it means anything at all! What measure of success and comprehension does it really show?

My point in all this is that the current way we assess people in life and students in the classroom is narrow-minded and antiquated. Everyone learns and sees the world in his or her own ways and using numerical or letter grades to assess a student’s progress or a person’s way of thinking just doesn’t work.  Most importantly as educators we must continue to work in our daily lives and in the classroom to open others up to the possibility that the current way may not be the right way or at the least that there are other options out there.

3. “This A is not an expectation to live up to, but a possibility to live into.” (p. 26)

If giving everyone an A right off the bat was an option as mentioned in the book, it would alleviate in some respects the pressure students feel in class or that all of us may feel in our daily lives with the expectations we feel we have to live up to and open us all up to the possibility that we can do far more and be far more by exploring our passions and being creative than by being narrow-mindedly focused and stuck in reoccurring thought patterns.

4. “Naming oneself and others as a contribution produces a shift away from self-concern and engages us in a relationship with others that is an arena for making a difference.” (p. 63)

I feel that my classmates and I in the EMDT program have adopted this as our motto. We all believe that by working together as a team to help the way education is viewed and the system is run we can make it better for all. We do not seek individual recognition and in doing this we work even better at coming up with ideas and ways to push the current boundaries and become even better educators.

Overall, I must say this book helped me by guiding me in my reflections of how the topics discussed effect me in both my personal and professional life. It was refreshing to read something that instead of focusing on what is wrong with us focuses on what is right with us and was there all along.


Because I liked the video so much from the assignment as well, I'm sharing it here:

You might also like:

BP4_SymbalooEDU

Interesting Site to Share

BP5_TSalt Chronicles_Wix

LinkWithin

Wk2_Comment 1

The link to Mike Skocko's blog can be found here.  I had trouble copying only the parts of the blog and not the sidebars and images!  Mike elaborated on his delight in reading the Zander book, and included exerpts of his own poetry.  His thoughts and those of the Zanders seem to be so harmonious, Mike said that it felt like rediscovering an old friend.  As luck would have it, he was reading this book as he vacationed, his family with another family.  Turns out Dave Ridge knows Ben Zander and together they toured with the symphony in Europe once upon a time.

I replied,

That’s so cool how stories and lives are intertwining! Kismet! Dave, I am wondering if you felt something extra playing with Ben and if you have a similar, shining-eyes life mission…

Mike if you read my blog, I’m am really struggling with letting go of the measurement part of my brain. The judgmental German seems to go through to the bone. Just the other day, my husband found an employee in a small lie (taking credit for someone else’s quick thinking) and I asked him why he didn’t acknowledge it; would this person continue in greater dishonesty or feel glee in putting one over on “the boss”? My husband must have decided “to give him an A” by letting the employee save face. Through the discussion, I still put so much stock in being “right” that I can make myself oblivious to the subtleties of human relationships.

Wk2_Wimba

Too bad I missed it because I really wanted to discuss the idea of creative remix.  It seems like copyright gets in the way; even if the original artists are cool with remix and adaptations, the "copyright holder" is the one we have to get permission from.  Hmm.  Again, Creative Commons can be a great resource and the symbols are easy to understand.  I even learned a way to bring photos/images into iPhoto and keep the artist name in the information section for attribution for every successive remix or redistribition.  But now I have to convince my district to allow access to CC on campus.  It's ironic our district has to pay for web blocking in order to get some federal money but kids can bypass all that on their phones anyway.  I know I do-- I've used my phone as a hotspot to show a video from YouTube for my class.