Week 3 - Reading - Lighting a Spark!

This week I am going to focus on the ninth practice in Benjamin Zander's book, The Art of Possibility. In this chapter, he discuss the idea of enrollment and the "practice of generating a spark of  possibility for others to share." Zander offers the following as a guide for practicing enrollment and "about playing together as partners in a field of light."

1. Imagine 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.

I do not believe there is any better guide that could be used as a template for every teacher in the world. Yes this can be applied to business and life, but in the role of the teacher, imagine the result if we approached every interaction with our students in this manner. Often times we give in to the labels given to our schools, students and administration. We believe that they are not capable of more or if they were, we can not bring it out of them. We make excuses for why things are bad and how they could be better, but step off the the side when it is time to "step up to the plate". Yet, if we simply insisted that every interaction with our students was an opportunity to ignite a moment of enrollment, where would we end up? I imagine our students would rise up and begin to appreciate every interaction with their teachers. Which in turn would lead to students more engaged in the learning experience.


Reference:

Zander, R. & Zander, B. (2000). The art of possibility: Transforming professional and personal life. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press

Publishing/Leadership project part 1 of 3 - What to do?

Image from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aleksei_Sheludko_presenting_the_critical_thickness_theory.jpg

A couple of days ago, my good friend Ashley posed a very important question. What are you going to do for you Publishing/Leadership project? My response..."uggghhhhh". Not very elegant, I know, but at least I am spending some time right now thinking about what exactly I should do. Based on directions and feedback from friends, it appears that I may be better suited and attempting to present at a conference. This not only will be beneficial for my job as a Tech Director, but it will also force me to use some on the new tools I learned in my literature review. I can attempt to implement many of the techniques that were missed in my cycles and I could attempt to use this venue as a cycle 3. My biggest fear is actually presenting what I found through my research and project. It wouldn't take a genius to recognize that my cycles went against those thinks that are stated in my literature review. As of right now, I am going to look for feedback from my professor on what the best way to handle the presentation. I would rather work on presenting something like a third cycle demonstrating the uses and benefits of iLife in curriculum.

As far as where to present, my dream would be the Florida Education Technology Conference (FETC). I had the privilege of attending this conference in January and was blown away with all the things I learned and had access to.

Week 3 - AR Project

This week we were asked to create a summary page for our AR project. The point of this is to take the time and truly think about where we have come over the past 11 months. It was sort of surreal to be putting the final thoughts on the work and this program. In writing up the summary, it brought out frustration and joy reminding me that all though I am done, it did not turn out the way I thought. My expectations are so much higher for myself and my work, yet on this, I feel as though I compromised. I lowered my standards and gave into the pressures of time. If I could continue on in this program, beginning my project now after all the course work, I believe things would have been very different. I think I would have had a better foundation for researching literature as well as an idea of what meaningful project could be tested.

We work so hard during our monthly courses that I found myself loosing sight of the AR project. However, there are many of my classmates who have done extraordinary work and should be considered model examples. Lina Varley did a phenominal job with her project on home schooling and the role of technology. Therese Josephson did a great job of demonstrating how technology can help one of the biggest issues in education, communication. Another favorite of mine, Alicia Kalb took a very realistic problem, finding a job as an educator, and presented a unbelievably useful solution with her portfolio site. There are so many others that I don't want to overlook, but I think you get the point. These people have something they should be very proud about. I, in attempting to do more attitude, actually over thought this so much that in the end I created junk.

The worse part about all this is that I could have simply done research on all the things I do everyday in my classes. In my upper level classes I promote project based learning. In my lower end classes I do the same thing but I on a much more managed scale. All classes keep a digital portfolio, use blogs, screencasts, podcasts, videos, etc to present their information. Student collaborate virtually and provide feedback and guidance on assignments and yet I decided to over look all of this and do something different. So my advice to anyone attempting to do AR would be the same I tell my students, keep it simple stupid (KISS)! Lesson learned.

Week 3 - Response to Jill Davis

Jill wrote:

It was fascinating to learn about the New Media Academy. My son would love that school! Ron Smith teaches with a focus on 21st century learning and project based learning. I like the idea that Smith keeps current on the latest trends in technology and incorporates them into his classroom setting. What an engaging way to learn: present the format and have the students create the end result. Twenty-two ideas, and they are all right! Now that takes into count individual learning styles and true creativity. Also, for the students to teach one another - and the teacher.

As a teacher, it was interesting to hear how Smith spends a large quantity of time to prepare his materials before the course’s first day, so that he can be fully engaged with his students during the course. I could relate to the teachers he was referring to that still prepare their materials a week at a time. Hmmmmmmmm. Welcome to a new wave of teaching and learning!

My Response:

I too was inspired by this video and always view these types of schools in awe. Another school that I am a huge fan of is High Tech High in San Diego (you can watch a great video about the school here - http://www.edutopia.org/collaboration-age-high-tech-technology-video). The school itself operates on the idea of project based learning. That is, learning is taking place while operating within the task of a project. For instance, students may use a website to present information about atoms and a video editing program to create the main portion of the presentation on the site. Also, instead of gauging success like normal schools with state testing, etc, students keep a digital portfolio and do individual student presentation reports to demonstrate the knowledge they have gained. Instead of taking finals, the students do POL's or presentations of learning to demonstrate what they learned in a class. Students are also assessed based on how well the participate in groups and interacting with the classes they are taking. The school has grown to eight charter schools and 100% of all High Tech High graduates are accepted to college. Pretty motivating stuff. Oh yeah, they also offer a Masters degree for educators as well as several workshops throughout the year. Sign me up!

Week 3 - Response to Soyeon Kim

Soyeon wrote:

This video is a story about a man who does not has arms nor legs. Although he doesn't have the health that others have, he seems happier than any other person I have seen. How can a person be so optimistic and determined in such a circumstances? I mean, I complaint all the time about how others treated me, how I make mistakes, and how messed up the world is and so on. Nick completely taught me how to stay determined and positive with myself. He may be in a difficult physical condition, but he is the best emotional mental condition. I admire his passion and inner strength so much.

My Response:

Thank you for sharing this inspirational video, it really does put things in perspective. I, like you, tend to complain about the little things in life. Yet, watching Nick Vujicic really makes me wonder why it is I complain at all. In many circumstances I have the All-American dream life. I am married to an awesome woman, have a beautiful house, nice cars, great family and even a great job. However, I still think there is more as though the grass is really greener somewhere else. Videos like this remind me and us that we are all lucky. Lucky to be alive, lucky to be free, able to do the things we want, say what we want, be who we want. But as you said, we over look this freedom and undermine everything that people like Nick truly enjoy about life. Thank you for sharing this with me and reminding that I have it pretty good!

Week 3 - Free Response - SEED School

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It is not very often that a 60 minutes story has much relevance in my line of work. In fact, for as many issues as we have in education you would think there would be a featured spot for the subject in every broadcast. However, as I watched this story I was reminded of the good things that are happening in our profession.

The SEED school was created by Eric Adler and Rajiv Vinnakota and is based around the idea of boarding schools for the rich but intended for the less privileged inner city school student. Students are placed in a lottery and are allowed in no matter what their current education level. Many students come in with very poor basic skills yet go on to attend major four year Universities. So what is the secret to this success? What they found was that taking students out of their surroundings and putting them into an environment that fostered learning, the students were successful. To ensure this, students live on campus during the week, have access to mentors and tutors and are driven from day one towards a college education. There is not an option to fail and the dedication from the administrators down support this idea.

Watching such a motivational story, I began to wonder why there aren't more schools like this around the country. Why do we not take examples like SEED or High Tech High in San Diego and recreate these all over the country? I have no real answers to these questions and welcome any feedback.