Week 4 Reading: Art of Possibility Ch 9-12: Response to Curt

Week Four Reading - The Art of Possibilities 9-12

“A distinction is not a standard to live up to, but a framework of possibility to live into.”

The Art of Possibilities, Rosamund Zander, and Benjamin Zander, 2000.

Instead of commenting on just one part of the last chapters of this book, I would like to write down a few simple thoughts on the whole book:

This book has really got me thinking about I interact with the people around me, and how I react to the environment that surrounds me.

I have to remind myself that reality is simply my reality and the perspective I view it from can be so fluid from day to day and moment to moment.  I believe that it is up to me to create my world and to make sure that I try to tackle it from a positive and educated viewpoint and keep the WE factor in mind always.

I cannot say I have had a book that has stuck with me so well as the Art of Possibilities. 

Week 4 Reading: Art of Possibility Ch 9-12: Response to Pam

Media Asset Creation (MAC) Week 4-Art Of Possibility- End chapters

I have recently added the phrase, "A vision articulates a possibility" to my Facebook page to see the comments that would be left. Since I am terrible with delayed gratification, after only one 'like' I moved onto my students to hear their comments. Some students were stuck at the word 'articulates' while others replied, "Oh yeah, yeah I get it Miss (for some reason all the kids use Miss instead of Mrs. such and such)." Anyway, I came to realize that students are the one who should be reading this book. The problem blocking most students is that they have no vision. Therefore blocking most possibilities and missed opportunities.

I look at myself. I always had vision and always steered my course to the direction I wanted it to go. I remember people asking me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I replied with specific details up to to the type of car I would drive. All have come true except my Eddie Bauer Explorer is a Kia Sedona (which most people think is the Cadillac). My visions determined my possibilities. I wish most of my students would see their visions like I saw (and still continue to see) mine, work towards those goals, and not miss opportunities that might belong to them. Like in the movie "Field of Dreams" if you build it, they will come.

Week 3 Reading: Art of Possibility Ch 5–8: Response to Ryan

from creativecommons.org

Rosemund Stone Zander and her husband Ben Zander wrote a book called the Art of Possibilities and it has quite a few words of wisdom.  Chapter 7 asks the reader to analyze their beliefs about life struggles big and small.  They talk about getting weighed down while you focus on negative events that are an evident part of everyones life.  I like how the Zander’s want you to clear your mind of any judgement about the things that happen to you.  This reminds me of a fable that I often read to my children called Good Luck Bad Luck.  In this story, a farmer’s lone horse runs away only to come home days later with four wild horses following close behind.  The farmer’s son breaks his leg training one of the horses just before the army comes to recruit soldiers for a hopeless war.  What seems to be bad luck at first, actually reveals itself as good luck later.  The current economic situation in the State of Michigan has forced people in power to make some very unfavorable decisions.  The Zander’s advice can help keep me from storming the capital building! 

Bruchetta Jones

Wow, what an interesting comparison!  It is sometimes where we are at our best when situations are at their worst.  I think the Zanders were trying to capture this so then we don't take every bad incident as a setback.  We are supposed to learn from each situation, despite how horrible it may have been.  I can emphasize with you with how your state's economic situation is.  Florida is no better...

Sunday, April 17, 2011 - 06:06 PM

Week 3 Reading: Art of Possibility Ch 5–8: Response to Jeremy

SUNDAY, APRIL 17, 2011

Can we tell as educators if students are engaged when we are teaching? What process do we notice that can keep students attention? With verbal communication we sometimes need to make different voiced sounds to keep attention. Allowing discussions to help students become more involved can make students more engaged. This makes class more enjoyable and has better engagement. 

Another process that can help educators is trying to implement an idea called “calculating self”. This process is about making progress, striving for success, and positioning ones self in the hierarchy. This process is about creating an environment in the classroom that brings in self awareness to help students strive for success. Students need some more self motivation. By making your classroom a more self sufficient room students will want to learn on their own. This creates an intrinsic learning environment. 

1 COMMENT 

BRUCHETTA JONES

from creativecommons.org

Ways that we can tell if students are engaged when teaching is by assessment.  It doesn't always need to be paper & pencil or even a formal test.  One way that I find out if ALL students are engaged is with my smart board.  I have a texting devices that students send answers to questions I pose on the board or orally.  If you do not have this type of technology, you can use polleverywhere.com where students use their cell phones to text in responses.  Either way is keeping students' attention and communicating with them in a way that they like.

SUNDAY, APRIL 17, 2011 - 04:52 PM

Week 2 Reading: Art of Possibility Ch 1–4: Response to Mike

The beauty of the EMDT program is that we have been challenged to move outside the boundaries we usually set up for our own students in creating the projects and completing each month's set of challenges.  In an almost subversive way, giving the A is the practice of most of our instructors throughout the ten-plus months we have traveled on this journey.  I say subversive because it is only now that the practice has been revealed to us through this excellent book. 

That said, I have been truly inspired by two non-traditional “textbooks” in this program.  The first isPresentation Zen, the perfect selection to inspire in us that less is more in presentations.  Garr Reynolds was able to teach an old speech communications teacher some new tricks and moved me towards the selection of my Action Research topic. 

Now, I have the Art of Possibility, which should be required reading for teachers, both old and new.  What a down-to-earth, simple approach to drawing the best out of each of the children we are charged with moving on to the next level in their lives. 

Just today, when I was working through my classroom to check on progress on the upcoming projects, I saw many of the same approaches to solving the problems of creating an effective presentation.  That seemed ok to me, until I checked on a group that was obviously enjoying what they were doing, almost, it seemed to me, too much.  To my pleasant surprise, they were sharing what they had done so far, which was the lyrics to the song they were writing to tell the story of their mythic hero.  It was really good, and made me wonder what made them go in that direction, when most of their peers wouldn’t.  Their answer was the same thing the Zanders reveal in the practice at the end of chapter one: they looked beyond what was already being done and looked at what they might invent that would be another choice and open up new spaces to work in.

Bruchetta Jones said...

Week 2 Reading: Art of Possibility Ch 1–4: Response to Trina

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

Week 1 Reading: Copyright Issues: Response to Sarah

Wk1/Blog4: Free Choice--Copyright & the Classroom

After listening to all of the information regarding copyright laws and fair use, it seems as though it's pretty difficult to easily incorporate copyrighted works into the classroom.  Permission can take a while to receive and would require intense future planning of lessons and projects.  I mentioned in one of the discussion boards this week that I use Prezi to introduce and review vocabulary words in my classroom.  A few weeks ago, one of the words was "awe." My students read the definition and I tried providing examples to paint a clear picture for them, but I could see they didn't really grasp what it meant to be in awe of something. Finally, I remembered the movie "Toy Story." At one point in the movie, the little green men in the toy vending machine are in awe of "the claw," and they "ooh" and "aah" over it.  Once I recalled that scene and shared that with my students, most of them knew exactly what the word "awe" meant. But this could have been so much more powerful if a movie screenshot or movie clip could have been used to portray this.  There were some students who hadn't seen the movie, and the connection didn't mean anything to them. It's instances like this that copyright laws can be disheartening. Even though the nature of the video clip I wanted to use was for educational purposes and not much of the movie would have been used, I didn't use it. After hearing the things in the videos this week, I'm glad I didn't.  The lesson could still be taught without the video clip, so it wasn't an absolute necessity that this clip be incorporated into the lesson.

Sarah-

You have some valid points in your post in regards to copyright and fair use.  Seeing that you would have used "Toy Story" in the classroom, I believe you would have been OK using the clip.  When I taught Language Arts a couple of years ago, we were using the College Board SpringBoard Curriculum.  For the 6th grade curriculum, they had to analyze part of "The Lion King" with plot and climax.  When using movies as a part of your curriculum, it is under fair use.  Now, if you wanted to just show it to a large mass of people and say that you created it, then you would be breaking copyright laws.

"Toy Story" picture from creativecommons.org