Week 3 Free Choice: Abstract

It is funny that while one definition of abstract is "a summary of a text", another definition is "difficult to understand; abtruse".  Hopefully mine will adhere to the first.

It is an interesting challenging to condense a year's worth of work into 120 words or less.  For guidance, I went to the model sight by Roxanne Deleon.  This gave me an excellent example of what an abstract should look like.  By sticking precisely to the steps laid out in the assignment, I was able to consolidate the work into the limited space required in the abstract.  The process was not as difficult as expected and I think that all of the required information is included.  I look forward to getting feedback and moving on to the final month of the program.

Week 3 Peer Response 2

Photo by Melissa Lodhi

Everett Jones

These chapters are really geared towards myself and friendships that I have.  The example in chapter 5 about the conductor that doesn't know his members of the orchestra personally, but would like to.  The members hold him in such a high esteem that they send messages to him through those in the hierarchy.  He receives all praise for how the orchestra sounds, yet he does not perform and instrument at the concert.  I think it is important to acknowledge all that are part of the larger picture.  Especially if they are all working towards a common goal.  The results tend to have a better outcome.  When people are acknowledge, they tend to have a personal stake in the goal and perform better.

Chapter 6 gave an example of how when we lift away our personal judgements of people, that we may see them in a more positive manner.  I honestly think that each person no matter how evil some may seem to be, possess at least one thing that is positive.  Sometimes focusing on that, brings out a person that we never thought we'd see.

I learned from reading these chapters that I have to set up my life and relationships so that positivity embraces them both.  My daily decisions and choices not only effect myself but those around me.  Focusing on those things that make me happy in life, can hopefully overshadow those obstacles that do not.

My Response

I think the conductor analogy is very effective in analyzing relationships especially in the leadership capacity.  In order to be successful, we need all of the stakeholders to feel valued and for them to play an active role in the pursuit of the goal.  That requires letting go of ego, acknowledging mistakes, and engaging participation.  Thank you for also pointing out the chapter 6 idea of removing judgements.  I am working on that now and hoping for more positive interactions with those that I previously found to be “difficult”.

Week 3 Peer Response 1

Posted by BNHendrickson at 12:25 PM


In the Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander, as I read chapter 5, I at times switched out conductor with educator. (I think that often times we feel like the conductor to all the various student personalities and learning levels.) As educators, we at times could boast and take too much pride in the success of our students, for example on the year end exams. But in actual reflection we the teacher's couldn't be successful without the hardworking, studious, and intelligent student, right? I love the idea of being more of a facilitator and aiding students in their success. Too many times lately have I experienced/seen students wanting to be spoon fed. And at that point what are we teaching our students by doing that? I enjoyed the scene where Maestro Guido Lobeps Gavillan and his Cuban Philharmonic Orchestra and how what he saw as failure turned into an amazing peer teaching moment. Their reactions were very similar to what I have seen numerous times in the classroom, the environment becomes energized! What a great "aha" moment.


I do feel that my overall mood/demeanor will effect the environment that I am in. If I am depressed, sad or grumpy, in my opinion I am going to bring down those with me. But if I am happy, positive and upbeat my energy is bound to rub off on those around me. I really liked the game that Roz described, "Have the Best ____ Ever." It is a good challenge and in the end will create positive results. I personally am happy 95% of the time, those around me will see me with a smile on my face, and almost always get those around me to smile back. (That is a personal mission that I seek to accomplish everyday, to make people smile!) But one thing that I find helpful is to take any situation and try to find one good thing about it! For example, say my car breaks down on the way home from work. I might say, well good news is, I don't have to cook-pizza delivered it is! You would be surprised how your mood might lighten/lift a bit. Sometimes when you have something that is bringing you down, you must first figure out what exactly it is that is holding you back. Once you have figured this out (prayed about it)

Publish Postand searched (sometimes going outside the box) for a solution. You can get past it. I agree that often times you might have to dig for that passion or tap into some of that "energy and vibrancy" of your environment to overcome this rut that you are in.

This book is being read at the perfect time of my life as sometimes I feel like I am spinning my wheels. It's really helped me to think outside the box, and remember what is important and also how to think on the more positive side. Ultimately, for me it comes down to what I value the most, and the fact that I will reach my goals, I just need to see all the possibilities in perspective.




My Response


I like your idea of finding the positive in any situation. Something that has helped me this year is to look at situations from the outside and see the humor in them. I know production/show time is always very stressful and completing this Master’s program at the same time made it twice as difficult. There were times when the students were acting crazy and I instead of getting crazy myself, I just looked at it objectively and thought, “This is really hilarious. What would I think if I was watching this from the outside and did not have a personal stake in what is going on? At times it is just chaos and madness.”

Week 3 Reading: Seriously?

During the last few days, I have spent a substantial amount of time asking myself, “Are you taking yourself too seriously?”  In most cases, the answer is yes.  When things don’t go the way they should or the way I think that they should, my normal reaction is frustration.  This is usually a result of being driven by the calculating self instead of the central self.  This weeks reading has sharpened my awareness of internal motivation. 

In many ways the reading from The Art of Possibility mirrors concepts delivered in Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth.  Instead of calculating self, Eckhart uses the term ego.  Realizing when this aspect of personality is at work is a major step in redirecting thought patterns.  The calculating self, or ego, is really just a survival mechanism that loses its purpose in adulthood and serves to hinder relationships.

These steps are not easy but reading them again has helped me to refocus on awareness and presence.  Breaking habits in behavior and in thought is a challenging endeavor but is the only way for me to evolve as an individual.

Photo by Melissa Lodhi

Week 2 Free Choice: Buggy

Photograph courtesy of Morguefile

The AR website has been a great source of frustration this week.  While all of my information was already posted, I had major issues with formatting.  Actually, the formatting and alignment looked fine in the application, but every time I published, it went haywire.  In iWeb, the numbers and paragraphs were perfectly aligned but the published site had lines waving in and out.  First, I tried to put in additional text boxes and move them around to line up.  FAIL.  Next I tried to go back and forth between the published site and iWeb, moving things left and right to match up with where things belonged on the published site.  FAIL.  Then I went in and deleted the preference files and cache for iWeb.  FAIL.  Finally, I consulted discussion boards online and read that sometimes the text boxes themselves can be the problem.  I had to copy and paste all of my text in a Word document, reformat in Word, delete the old text box, then put in a new one and copy and paste all of the reformatted material.  SUCCESS.  Who knew the text would be the hardest media item to integrate into the site.

At this point, I think I have just about maxed out my Mac.  My machine is not the one supplied by Full Sail because I already had one before starting the program and opted out of the new purchase.  While my machine is adequate to complete the program, I am asking a little more than it is capable of.  At this point, I need to run a disk utility, or wipe it clean, or set it on fire to stop all of the bugginess but I am afraid to kill it before the end of the program.  For the remainder the program, I guess I will have to keep going through FAIL, FAIL, FAIL, SUCCESS.

Week 2 Peer Response 2

Photo by Melissa Lodhi

Curt Isakson

One of the most compelling points bought across in this book, and what has stuck with me the longest, was the concept of giving an ‘A’ for a particular project to free one-self of the grade, and to let a person fully experiment, fail, or succeed without the worry of getting a bad grade.  I believe this can be a wonderful way of letting loose the chains that bind us creatively.

I find myself in this course having to make decisions about whether I do what I really want to do (which usually is more involved), or just make sure I fit the criteria for the grade.  Many times I have made the conclusion that I want the grade and have not taken it as far as I wanted to.  The projects I am most proud of though are the ones that I really didn’t care about the grade and did what I felt was right in my mind.

This course has used this concept many times, and I use this same idea in the classes I teach.  A ‘no-fail’ approach to some of my learning environments really brings out the best in my students. 

My Response

As a teacher, I provide many opportunities for students to do creative projects that have an automatic "A" as long as they put in the work.  This works especially well with choreography projects and film projects.  I like for them to experiment and I find that the creativity and effort levels on these projects are excellent.  In other teaching situations, though, I find that I need the motivation of the grade to push them to complete the work and to do a thorough job.

Week 2 Peer Response 1

Trina Dralus

Photo by Melissa Lodhi

                                                  

                                            

After this weeks reading, I feel inspired and motivated to see the possiblities in myself and in everyone around me. I am in love with this book. I have so many favorite quotes and pages that I could write forever. So I will try to be concise in my feelings and inspirations from the Art of Possibility.

The first thing that inspired me was from the TED video when Benjamin Zander said, “I’ll never say anything that couldn’t stand as the last thing that I ever say. It is a possibility to live into.”

I mean wow! I know this will be a quote I have to remind myself of daily possibly hourly, but what a way to live your life.

The next thought that struck me was the whole idea of the book, that being to think beyond the constraints of today and imagine the possibilities. Thinking outside of the box and allowing the possibility of recreating your paradigm often leads us to the perfect solution. Life really is all about how we invent it. Each new paradigm gives us the opportunity to see things that we may not have seen before. Exposure to different ideas and mind-sets allow us to see other ways of doing things, which can be very powerful.

My next moment of clarity occurred while reading the comments made on competition. So as good as competition can be to motivate one to push harder, it can be a strain on friendships and lead to a solitary journey. This makes me think of Race to the Top, a program that bases teachers’ pay on test scores. The new Govenor of Florida says healthy competition will improve our school systems, but is this the type of competition we want? Is our ultimate goal for teachers to retreat from collaboration and work alone?  Won’t this lead to thinking of our children as liabilities and of each other as an obstacle to overcome? Will this lead to more effective practices in teaching? What kind of example will we be setting for our children? This seems to me like the opposite of seeing the possibilities in each other, which makes me very sad.

Giving an A was a very moving chapter for me. When we look for the beauty within or give an A to ourselves or to others, we see the possibilities that exist in all of us. The measurement world often gets in the way with Standardize testing and curriculum maps and so forth. Chipping away at the stone to find the passion and the brilliance in each of us will add beauty where none was seen before. This giving an A comes from a place of respect, not from how others or myself measure up to arbitrary standards. This acceptance or A gives us room to realize who we really are. I feel this program at Full Sail has done that for me. Sometimes I feel like my work may not be A work if you compared me to other students in this class, but somehow I get an A as well. This has allowed me to realize things about myself that I did not realize before. I grew up feeling stupid because I struggled while learning to read. I was diagnosed with Dyslexia, which I thought meant that I was dumb and couldn’t learn like everyone else. As I have grown and become more educated on Dyslexia and on myself I realize that only half of that is true. I do learn differently then others, but I am not dumb. Seeing many of those A’s has helped me to realize this- finally. I can finally see the possibilities in myself.

One of my favorite parts of this book is where Zander (2000) stated “The freely granted A lifts you off the success/failure ladder and spirits you away from the world of measurement into the universe of possibility. It is a framework that allows you to see all of who you are and be all of who you are, without having to resist or deny any part of yourself” (pg. 46). This is life changing.

The starfish story found in chapter 4 is a type of inspirational story that we focus on at my school. During our Professional Learning Communities, which is where my team of 2^nd grade teachers meet monthly to reflect and learn from a book we are reading together, our mantra is based on the starfish story. Our Literacy Coach has given each of us a starfish as a reminder of the importance of reaching each child.

This is just another reminder that I want to be a contribution to my life and to others. I firmly believe in this, and I need to remind myself that the how’s and whys are not as important as just showing up and giving my all. I can’t wait to read the rest of this book!

Zander, R. S., & Zander, B. (2000). The art of possibility. Boston, MA:  Harvard Business School Press

Posted by T. Dralus at 5:06 PM  

My Response

I agree that the chapters we read were truly inspiring.  I liked how you tied in the ideas with "Race to the top" which weighs heavily on my mind as well.  I agree that this type of competition does not inspire innovative teaching or value the real contributions made to students.  Like you, I fear this will result in an environment of distrust and will discourage teachers from working with challenging students.