Week 3 Wimba Session

Giving an A is the chapter from The Art of Possibility that meant the most to me because it doesn’t just apply to only teaching. The chapter asks us to place value to all around us for whom the person is, not what they can give in return. When you do that, it is easy to make a contribution to them and not take yourself so seriously.

 

The greatest thing I am taking from the book is humility. The majority of things I think are important aren’tJ! Our relationships with other people are important. I need to give value to individuals around me. As a Christian, I didn’t realize how far I had strayed from one of the fundamental beliefs.

Glenn Shelton MAC Week 3 Reading-Rule #6

First, let me say if you feel you are nearing burnout in your current situation, read Art of Possibilities by Ben and Ros Zander. Now that I have that plug in, let's examine Rule #6 from chapters 5-8. Rule #6 is don't take yourself so seriously (edited for my own tastes). I think a true sign of burnout is that you have believe that everything that you don't like is wrong. That is not the case. What you consider to be an emergency isn't to everyone, so chill out and relax. This is saying a great deal from me since my wife went through thyroid cancer three years ago and being diagnosed with Parkinson's this summer, everything has been super serious for me. Until my wife tells my dad that she will get a purple scooter in a couple of years to race his red one in the mall. Enjoy life and those in it.

The picture above is a snapshot of my family except my parents. The person that has me in the headlock in the backrow is my new son-in-law. I pray that he continues to feel he can clown around me the rest of our lives. Sometimes in the classroom, students are battling things far greater then memorizing Shakespeare. Placing food on the table for a baby is more important than understanding Hamlet that you will forget in 3 months. However, too many teachers make their work to be a life or death situation. Don't take yourself too seriously and enjoy those around you for the ride.

Week 2 Leadership Post- Paper or Present

I heart's desire is to present my findings from the CBR. I have a co-worker that is using my project with his classes which cover all three levels of students, regular, honors, and advance placement. After my work and being able to use his insights, I believe that it would be an effective presentation.

The conference I would love to present to is the North Carolina Technology in Education Seminar annual meeting in March.

I also teach online with North Carolina Virtual Public School so I would look forward to meeting several individuals in person that I have only met virtually. However, I have one problem--- deadline for proposals was two weeks ago. Not only that, the deadline for North Carolina English Teachers conference proposal was last week.Ugh!! I checked the deadlines for conferences on the list that were within six hours of my home and the conferences all occurred last month. Are there any other options if we want to present for this project?

Week 2 Peer Comment 2

  Mitch Canter wrote in his blog:

As a teacher, it seems that I spend an inordinate amount of time living in the world of measurement.  One of the things I’ve done to release myself from the constant desire of students to know how they’re “measuring up” is to post grades online for all of my courses.  This allows the students to check on their progress without making me constantly reference grades for them.  That releases me a bit, but not them.  So I have to ask myself, is there more I can do to make my students see the world of possibility?

Both Chapters 3 and 4 made an impact on me so I have to comment on both.  There were many moving stories in Giving An A, but I was struck by Roz’s story about the teacher that was disappointed that Roz achieved an ‘A’ even after her procrastination.  As a teacher that tries to engage and support students, it would never even occur to me to express to a student that I would wish them to do poorly to “teach them a lesson.” That said, I can’t be sure that I would see the circumstance as an opportunity to challenge the student to do even better next time.  That is truly living with a vision of possibility.

Finally, I’m a big believer in being a contribution.  I’ve offered up my expertise for charitable causes in the past and continue to do so.  I know that I have skills that I can bring forward to help in some small way to a larger contribution that can raise funds for terminally ill children, help the fight against birth defects, and I give my time willingly to such things; but chapter 4 of this book opened up this vision and narrowed it at the same time.  It helped me understand that being a contribution isn’t something that I should be just for special events, but a way to look at myself everyday.  How can I be a contribution to each of my students, to the people I live with, to my kids?  Starting today I will try to keep this in the forefront of my mind as I deal with people on a daily basis.

My response was:

Mitch,
When I read "Be a Contribution", I thought the same about being okay since I "step up" pretty well for the special occasions. I also was struck by the need to step up for everyday events. Thank you for sharing.

Week 2 Peer Comment 1

Here are my responses to Mindi Vandergriff's blog. I only copied the section labeled Giving an A.

Mindi wrote:
Giving an A is so much harder than it sounds. I know. I tried. More than once. I started with my husband, but that failed miserably, so I tried on someone else. Myself. As a teacher, I understand the impact the grade can have on a student and I resent the institution of grades for comparing every single  child to every other child out there. Yet, as a student, I thrive for the A. Because it is part of the ridiculous plan i have invented for my life. Then, again, as a teacher, i strive to create a safe environment for my students where they are free to make mistakes and learn from them and fail and succeed multiple times in a day. Yet, as a student, failure is not an option. I have gone through the last 10 months with a perfect average. Something I knew I was capable of but never achieved in my educational career. A couple of months ago, that average was in severe jeopardy of being tarnished. And I was devastated. I had already convinced myself that the project I produced wasn’t good enough (for my invented standards) and thus convinced myself that I might get a B. Heaven forbid. In hindsight, it was ridiculous because although I had earned an A in every single class up to that point, I had never truly given myself an A. And that’s actually quite embarrassing. I can see in my future that I will celebrate my mistakes and failures and say, “How fascinating!” but I’m not quite there yet. Maybe after month 12!  

My response:

Mindi,
I feel the same way you do at times about not giving yourself an A. I think also that many teachers push their students to meet standards because they feel that it is a reflection on them as an individual. However, I think we miss the reason for giving an A. It is so the teacher/boss/etc. and the student/employee/etc. can meet the standards that are place on them as a unit and not worry about the standard or divide created by grades or evaluations.

Week 2- Wimba Seesion

Good ole copyright laws. Teachers may be the worse offenders of copyright laws. In addition to playing whole movies, I have seen teachers copy entire books for their students. Teachers at low income schools are the worse. It sounds as if I'm dragging the bravest of the teaching souls through the mud, but it is really the school systems and the means of support they receive I'm berating. You can't expect a teacher to teach effectively when they are dealing with out of date materials. That is why I liked the notion put forth about approaching the artists directly to use materials. Many are not ruthless and can evaluate situations like the one I just described. They will help. The other notion I liked is the change with Youtube and copyright laws. Many times a bit of nostalgia is kindled and old hits return, especially if people start hitting facebook button and placing it on their wall.

Week 2 Reading Post- Hester Prynne and the Letter A

After reading the third chapter of the book The Art of Possibility by Ben and Roz Zander, I asked myself why do I give grades. Grades are a way to measure students and how you think they will do in future courses. However, they are also labels we place on people. Stop and think about it, what if we put an oreo package on a package of store brand cookies. How does our expectations change and will that pack of cookies live up to those expectations? Probably, if we didn't know about the earlier change.

What if students came into our classroom wearing the letter "A" on their chest, but not given the class roll? Our expectations would be great for  the group. We would expect great in-depth conversations, well thought-out papers, splendid projects. After the first two weeks and all of our students are meeting the goal, then we are given our rolls. We see one Hester Prynne. Do we expect the same from this student or do we expect less from her since she was cast out of her former community after committing adultery with the pastor? The past didn't matter before given a roll, does really matter after the fact. By truly giving students an "A" as Zander suggests, we also help eliminate self-fulfilling prophecy by giving value to all students. It is truly an amazing concept to consider.