Wk 4 Response to Stephanie Layne

Stephanie wrote:

Though many people have been feeling very stressed and nervous about this Publishing Project, I found it quite lethargic! I was able to take my AR summary and simply go crazy. It gave me time to really reflect on my experience and put all of my thoughts, whether happy or sad, onto paper. It made me sad about my current job situation and about the current state of obesity in our society, but excited about the affect this project has had on some of my students and our entire school environment.

I am excited to send my paper off to some periodicals to see what they think of my project and about this topic in general. Some of the educational journals I want to send them to are The Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, The Journal of Nutrition Education & Behavior and The Journal of Adolescent Health. I would also like to send my paper of to the NEA (National Education Association) magazine they send off to their members every month. For fun I would like to send it off the O Magazine, since Oprah has been talking about the problems with obesity for years and even Seventeen magazine just to get the word out to teens. I am excited to see what happens with this project next month!

If you would like to read my Publishing Project paper click HERE.

I responded: 

I think your AR project is very well done and very timely too.  I really hope we as a country get a handle on this nutrition problem.   Part of the problem perhaps is that we tend not to see things in the long term.  Yes I can eat a burger now, but I will pay for it later.  Many people have trouble seeing the consequences of their actions.  I wish you luck with your submission.  Make sure you let us all know if it gets published!!

Wk 4 Reponse to Jen Kubeczko's Post

Jen Posted:

Benjamin Zander’s Art of Possibility has filled me with enthusiasm and new vision for being a quality leader. He has this to say in Chapter 10: “We often use reward and punishment to regulate accountability – the carrot and the stick… Apportioning blame works well enough to keep order in a relatively homogeneous society that boasts commonly accepted values and where everyone is enrolled in playing his part. It appeals to our instinctive sense of fairness. However, its effectiveness is likely to be circumscribed in communities of divergent cultures and widely varied resources.”
Wow. WOW. So that’s perhaps why I loved living in Japan so much. It was ordered. I knew my role, and we all worked together, “enrolled” in our efforts to support the community and the country by succeeding in our places. America is not homogeneous. Not even close. Were we ever? That’s a good research topic. But, I have strayed. Back to the reading: Instead of being a piece of a game such as chess, Zander says to be the board itself, the “framework for the game of life around you.” (p. 146) Yes! Now being the board gives you the “power to transform your experience of any unwanted condition into one with which you care to live.” Keep in mind he says “your experience and not the condition itself.”
The action of the game, the point is that you now make room for “all the possible moves.”
Think on THAT people.

I replied:

Hey Jen great post! Something that occurred to me as I read your post is the term “rat race”. This is used to describe the quest in society to try to make it to the top of your field. While I have no problems with achievement, and think it is a normal and healthy thing to try to better ones self, ponder the other implication of the “rat race”. Rats race in a maze. A path that you must follow. Only the right choices will lead you out, an you have to do them faster than everyone else.
Well, what if you choose not to race? What if you decide there is another way and don’t want to play that game. I think this is what Chapter 10 is all about.
I like this book.

Week 4 - Publication/Leadership Post

As I have been preparing my AR project for publication, I have had a few interesting thoughts I wanted to explore.

First, I find it amazing how much I have learned about research in the last year.  There is a method to it that the structured person in me finds quite understandable.  As I noted with APA formatting, it's kind of a language that people have evolved over time. Once things are formatted and processed in this way, it becomes easy to take somebodies work and evaluate it. You don't have to mess with figuring out where things are, it just all kind of fits.

Second, I am inspired to contribute to the educational field.  I think I have a great deal to offer and now feel like I have the tools and credentials to begin. I started my real blog in mid January and it just passed 3000 visits.  This is pretty cool.  I am making friends and connections on the Internet of like minded people.  Knowing I am not alone and there are other people willing to improve education is a good feeling.

So, onward to month 12!  Before I know it, the training wheels will be off and it will be up to me to continue my learning and research.

Week 4 Free Topic - Playing my own game

After reading the Art of Possibility I realize I am already doing one of the things they talk about.  I am playing my own game.  I tend to look at situations and try to find all the possible solutions to the problem.  Then I take another look and see if there are ones that are outside the box.  I like those the most.  In my job there are lines of resistance to my goals.  That is natural.  What other people don't understand about me, is I am playing a different game now.  I started playing it last year and so far so good.  I don't think many others are playing it, which is also good.  You can always win a game if the other people don't show up.

One of the things about the Internet that a lot of people don't get is that the game has changed in a lot of industries.  Music, film, games, publishing.  All are different.  I see things now as in a state of transition.  Old powers are crumbling, and new ones are rising.  The hungry will defeat the fat and complacent.  I am one of the hungry.  I will bend like a reed in the wind.  Agile of mind.  Go with the flow. 

Oh and of course, Rule #6.  I am so ready for graduation.

Week 4 Art of Possiblity - Thoughts

This book is like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time.  As each chapter unrolls, I can see myself doing exactly the opposite of what the authors are trying to say.  I am a stubborn person.  I have an ego sometimes and feel pretty sure of myself often.  My dad was like that.  I am however, not a finished work.  There is still more road to go.  My day is not yet over.  Each day is a gift given to us and if we mess one up, then we should do our best to make the next better.  I have been married now for 3 years and my wife has been a great help to me on all of this.  This book has also been helpful. 

As for the reading material, I keep finding exceptions to everything the authors are saying.  They give a lesson, and I say to myself "yes but what about...".  It was nice in Chapter 10 to find out that Ben wasn't perfect either. 
Like all philosophy we can never attain perfection, but must work at it every day.  I find lots of faults in myself, but I am working on them.  This book is helping me open my horizons a bit to see what is possible for me.  I will be a better person for having read it.

Wk 3 Publication/Leadership Post

I did some research on various publications and the Journal of Interactive Learning Research from Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education looks ideal for what I did.

They list various topics they cover including:

computer-mediated communication
electronic performance support systems
and  computer-supported collaborative learning.

All of these can apply to my work.  After reading their submission guidelines,(you need to be a member to see them) I realize I will need to go back through my website and get rid of the "I"s.  I wrote a lot of it in the first person.  Blah.

I have become a member on their website and am actually looking to subscribe to that magazine.

Wk 3 AR Update

My AR Update this week is about my AR Summary. You can find the blog post here:  Link

Wk 3 Response to Rita Martinez

Rita wrote:
Week 3 Free Post - Instruments of Mass Distraction?

I was reading one of the daily newsletters I get from ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development ) about different happenings in education throughout the US and followed a story that took me to an NPR (National Public Radio) story about professors who are upset about their students’ use of laptops in their classrooms.  The complaint is that students are using the laptops to surf the internet, shop, pay bills, chat, etc. during class.  (You can listen to or read the story here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126241853)

I am sure you have already figured out what the professors and the schools are doing about this.  They are figuring out how to use these tools to create engaging, dynamic lessons that are transforming the way lessons are being taught and students are interacting, right?  WRONG!  They are trying to figure out (or already have something in place) that allows professors to select different levels of access that students can have to the internet.  Seriously. 

In the case of Bentley College in Massachusetts, the school was one of the first to make it a requirement for all students to have a laptop and shortly after all students were showing up at class with the laptops, professors started complaining about what students were using them for in class.   I honestly couldn’t believe what I was reading.  Instead of being proactive and figuring out how to use the laptops to improve the teaching and learning taking place in the room, the professors would prefer to remain in a reactive position and try to control the students. 

All I could think about was how I wish my students showed up with laptops everyday.  I would  love the challenge of figuring out how to use them to transform what I have been doing.  Please send unwanted laptops my way.

Sources:

Smith, T. (April, 24, 2010).  Put away that laptop: Professors pull the plug.  NPR.  Retrieved April 24, 2010 from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126241853.

I replied:

Yes I am with you on this one.  Most teachers don't really understand what a disruptive force a laptop is.  For the first time, students can access more information than just what the teacher provides.  This changes the dynamics of the classroom like it has not been changed in 150 years.  I have written extensively on my real blog Education Stormfront about this and have come across many articles and stories describing exactly the same thing you talk about. The biggest problem is, there is no reason for the teachers to reevaluate how they teach.  I mean it's not like the students can go somewhere else right?  At least they can't for now.

Wk 3 Response to Karlene Young

Karlene wrote:
Benjamen Zander is a true inspiration and awesome motivational writer. I wrote down two gems this week from chapters 7-9.
Page 119: Performance is not getting your act together, but about opening up to the energy of the audience and of the music, and letting it sing in your unique voice.
For our Celebration of the Arts last week, the 1st graders were darling. I tried to get them to see they just needed to get up and have fun and feel the music for their dance and accompaniment with instruments. I was out there trying to pair up students whose partner wasn’t there, and I got to dance with several students that were alone. The energy of the audience was electric, and we truly had a lot of fun.
Page 126: The Practice of Enrollment
1. Imagine that people are an invitation for enrollment.
2. Stand ready to participate, willing to be moved and inspired.
3. Offer that which lights you up.
4. Have no doubt that others are eager to catch the spark.
The arts are what truly lights me up, and I am always throwing sparks out hoping to inspire students to love the arts. Children truly are “eager to catch the spark.”

Zander, B., & Zander, R. S. (2000). The art of possibility:
Transforming professional and personal life. New York: Penguin
Books.


I replied:
What strikes me about Zander's book is all of what they are talking about comes from confidence and a belief in yourself.  I believe our current school system doesn't really help with this.  Some people have come up with misguided ideas like give everyone a trophy and don't keep score to try to help kids build a belief in themselves, but that is not the same as actually accomplishing something.  I think what needs to change is the system in school where failure is not re-mediated.  There is no time nor effort to let kids learn at their own pace.  If they were allowed to keep trying till they got it right, then I think they would do much better work.  If at first they don't succeed, they can try and try again.

Week 3 Free Topic - Both sides of the coin.

One of the most fascinating things about people is how they can ignore things when they don't fit their beliefs.  I think everyone does this to a certain extent.  I still do.  With the dawn of the Internet, it is easy now to find information that completely reinforces our own world view. 

From this myopia comes the Law of Unintended Consequences, or as I like to call it, The Other Side of the Coin.  No choice in life is a certain thing but some people think it is because they choose not to see the other side of the coin.  For example:

No Child Left Behind.  When it was written I at first liked the idea.  Let's put down some standards for students to measure up to.  Encourage success, and punish failure.  Sounds good.

Of course there are many problems with this.  Just the name itself is loaded with problems.  No Child Left Behind indicates that all children will do equally well and nobody will fail (aka be left behind).  The problem is when you look at the other side of the coin.  If you want all children to do equally well then you have to hold back the high achievers too.  Enforcing this standardization on everyone is a left over from the factory model education system. Teachers are handcuffed to Teaching to the Test. 

The only skill the students will really have after they graduate is a skill of taking standardized tests.

So here is my radical idea.  Disband the Department of Education entirely. Let states try 50 different approaches to education and see what happens.  Let kids excel and provide guidance to help them get there.  Over time the best approaches will become clear and will then be passed around to other schools.  What makes this country great is American Ingenuity, not government.

Most critically, make sure from an early age young kid's native gifts are recognized and nurtured before the factory school beats it out of them.  So who's with me?

Week 3 Reading – Jackie's Story

I enjoyed the reading this week.  This book is written in a very accessible way.  It's like a breathmint.  Leaves you feeling refreshed.

I would like to talk for a moment about Jackie's story.  This is found on page 119.  This is a brief story about Jackie Du Pre, who grew up to be a great cellist.  She started playing at an early age and apparently completely loved it. There have been many studies over the years that say when a child is young, their brains are at their most adaptable and pick up new things easily.  I have noticed myself that many gifted adults developed their gifts at a young age.  The author tells the story about how excited she was at age 6 to give her first performance.  She had passion and enthusiasm. I think all children have that early on, but as Ken Robinson says we send them to school which does it's best to stamp that out.

Reading between the lines, I think the reason Jackie was so happy to play that day was she didn't have any fear of failure.  She was going to express herself and that was the only standard she was being held to.  With so many standards we place on children these days is it no wonder they lack passion?  Unless they fit into the "schoolchild" shape we make for them, they fail.  This is no way to run a railroad.

WK 2 AR Blog post

I have written an update on what is left to do with my AR project on my AR blog here:

AR Blog