Wk 4 Comment # 2

Week 4-Reading Cheryl's Post

My favorite part of this weeks reading was that we need to generate a spark of possibility for others to share (hence my photo).  Chapters 9 and 12 were for me the most meaningful.  Besides the spark in chapter 9, I also liked the story of the hyper ten year old doing soooo well at conducting! My youngest son has been very active his whole life, and now he is the top order puller at his warehouse job nearly every month.  As educators we need to remember to look for what our students can excel at and help them find that level of achievement.  In chapter 12, we are told to approach all issues with "we" instead of "I".  Now that I am dealing with 3 paraprofessionals, "we" has become a favorite word in my vocabulary! The other part of chapter 12 that I loved was the story of the girl telling the lady that she knew what she wanted.  After thinking, the lady went to the store and brought back a can of beef stew.  It was exactly what what was wanted, and sometimes we need to remember to give our students and the people we work with that can of stew.  It can change attitudes and whole days.  Have a great day! Cheryl

 Francine's Comment
Cheryl you are so right in your blog about this weeks readings. Being a choral conductor I will implement allowing my singers to practice the WE concept. By using the practice of the can of stew we CAN provide everyone with the possibility of making a difference in their approach to that daily walk we call LIFE. Great post!

Wk 4 Comment #1

Week 4- Reading The Art of Possibility

We must make our activities desirable to others, as desirable as a banana is to a monkey!

Cindy's Post

I have to say that I absolutely loved this book. At first I was skeptical but the further into the bok I got, the more I enjoyed it!!! This book could be related to all of our lives in one way or another, especially if you are in education.

The authors made a great point about using we instead of I. This is something we all need to learn to do. We are all in it together, good or bad. In order to be successful, collaboration and teamwork is needed.

Enrolling or sparking others is a must. Educators should create a spark in their students. To get anyone to do anything, we must create a desire in them. Make it endearing and intriguing. Our students must be provided with an anticipatory strategy to hook them in. As with any activity, the participants must be reeled in hook line and sinker. They must want to participate.

This is a must read for any educator! I firmly believe that this book will be beneficial for all of those in the world of education from administrators to educators to paraprofessionals.


Francine's Comment

Cindy I agree with you totally about this book being a must read for any educator. I believe that if this book were read on a national level by all teachers, admin and staff and the practices were implemented by all that our learners would be blown away.  This book has opened my eyes to many new possibilities of how I live my life and how I will approach teaching this year and in the future. Thanks for your insight!

Week 4 Reading - Art of Possibility

Chapter 9 did it for me. Enrollment according to Zander and Zander is the art and practice of generating a spark of possibility for others to share! Awesome! Lighting a spark in others is something that I feel that I  take part in doing on a daily basis, particularly my students. Whenever there is an issue or an adversity in my student's lives, I try to ignite something in them that allows them to keep moving forward.  Enrollment is an art of which I agree to, that provides others to see that there are many possibilities for them to achieve success and attain their goals in life regardless of what life offers them from day to day.  Just the other day I called a friend because I was stressed about my personal and social life being so blah. She is a business woman who owns her own company and is about the business of lighting that spark in others and her employees to achieve the mission and vision of her company.  Using these same strategies she talked with me about being in the right place and being able to market myself so that others would want to be around me.  How awesome is that.  Little did I know that she would use her business tactics  to "light that spark" so that I could move beyond the feeling that life was at a stand still. 

Wk 4 Publish Leadership Project - Part 3of 3 Improving Motivation and Engagement in the Performing Arts

PLP LINK
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VlX9arIn70UZCQdVWWxFmAtkBxLnKii89sRQsUkDj2M/edit?hl=en_US

My Capstone Project has not turned out like I wanted it to. I ran into issues with State testing and the Final Exam schedule at my high school.  I hope that I can finalize this project when school begins next month with some of my learners.  There were many obstacles in completing this project. When the schedule changes, the students ability to focus also changes.  The capstone project I feel is an excellent idea for this program.  Writing the literature review was challenging and my entire experience in this program has been very educational and enlightening.  Each class that we took brought new ideas and strategies for usage in the classroom.  The Capstone needs to be solidified because the changes we made earlier in the program were changed again this month.  I realize that we were the first to utilize the CBR and that all of the tasks that we needed to complete was not etched in stone.

Wk4 Publishing/Leadership project part 2 of 3: Improving Motivation and Engagement in The Performing Arts

My plans are to submit my PLP to the Music Educators Journal(MEJ) of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC). MEJ is a peer-reviewed journal that encourages music education professionals to submit manuscripts about all phases of music education in schools and communities, practical instructional techniques, teaching philosophy, and current issues in music teaching and learning. The main goal of MEJ, like that of MENC, is to advance music education.  MEJ is not a research journal, but submissions should be grounded in the professional literature.

I chose this publication because the population that would most likely be interested in my paper have subscriptions to MEJ.  I read some of the articles from this publication regularly so I figured this publication would reach the audience that would benefit most from my paper. Furthermore I chose this publication because many of my colleagues and myself are having difficulty with learners who are placed in our classes who don't want to be in a performing arts class. I feel that my paper might possibly provide pertinent information that musicians could look into to facilitate student motivation and engagement in the performing arts.

PLP LINK
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VlX9arIn70UZCQdVWWxFmAtkBxLnKii89sRQsUkDj2M/edit?hl=en_US

Wk4 Publishing/Leadership project part 1 of 2: Improving Motivation and Engagement in the Performing Arts

I have always wanted to publish an article to a publication. Having an opportunity to do so seems to be a bit challenging.  Although we were provided with a list of publications to submit to,  I am seriously thinking about submitting my paper to a journal or publication.  This publication is a music publication, namely the Music Educators Journal of the Music Educators National Conference. Many of my colleagues and myself are having problems with learners engaging in the activities in our choral music classes, particularly those learners who really don't want to be in a performing arts class. 

WK3 Wimba Session

This weeks wimba was a review of our Abstract for our CBR website.  A sentence for each section, results and conclusion. We should tell the story of our whole project from beginning to end and it should be 120 words maximum.  We can include some 3rd person and a little from self and we are to post it in our CBR website on the final presentation page.

For the PLP we need to post one main blog post, make comments about thinking about the project. We need to link to two "think out loud" post, and another one paragraph about the process and links to paper I've written or the presentation doc and the posts. 

Next wimba week 4, we are to share where we are in this process. We can sign up for Tuesday or Thursday session. Not an actual presentation. Option of virtual sharing if unable to make either session and get feedback from 2 or 3 classmates and create a blog post for wk 4 wimba.

Joe suggested not submitting to several publications at a time.  He suggested to submit paper to one at a time because the publicist wants to be the first to publish. This is to be our 1st draft.  Thanks for the heads up, Joe! ALSO GREAT QUESTIONS about the PLP project and process everyone! Thanks!

As always, Rick asked some excellent questions! Go Rick!

Discussions about Roz and Ben Zanders practices in the Art of Possibility were great!  I have been really inspired by this book and am sharing unknowingly with just about everyone I come in contact with. I LOVE this book! 

Encouragement is what we need, Joe! We have so much going on in our lives that it is much needed, thanks! I liked the fact that you posed questions about the book, however, I have not read either of the books that we were to compare AOP with. Enjoyed seeing all of the responses too!