Week 4: Publishing and Leadership Entry 1

I am currently considering publications in two publications:

The Journal of Research on Technology in Education (JRTE)

This particular publication is of interest because it is in line with my action research goals of examining the impact of technology on educational environments. Typically they report on system or project descriptions and evaluations, syntheses of the literature, assessments of the state of the art, and theoretical or conceptual positions that relate to instructional uses of educational technology. This would be in line with the content I am prepared to present.

Educational Technology Research and Development

I appreciate that they have a focus on research and development. Indicating the journal is forward thinking and seeking to make change. They publish analytical papers that evaluate important research issues related to educational technology research and reviews of the literature on similar topics.

The link to my projects is as follows:

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1c5Iusljz6_z0MZCrKfLVXyPrYjPazprMvDrjG5tLQeU

Week 3 - Blog Comments # 2

Week 3 Reading: Living in the Present Moment
Sabrina Giroux writes:


Photo by: Sabrina Giroux
This month has been one of the most stressful since beginning this program. FCAT pressure is on, my oldest daughter is getting ready to go to college, and I'm spending spring break in Manhattan. That, with the pressure of writing a paper has me feeling very resistant to my present set of circumstances.

The Art of Possibility has been a pleasant book to read, but it's still one more thing I have to do. Until The Seventh Practice. I feel like this is the chapter that was written for me at this time. I have been having a hard time dealing with the way things are. I have not been present without resistance. Consequently, I am not enjoying life right now, which isn't really like me at all. Reading this chapter brought me back to reality just in time. I have one month until I have a master's degree! My daughter is going to college! I'm staying in Times Square for five days! These are things I should be celebrating. Instead I have been wrapped up in how I shouldn't be going to New York...I don't have time to go to Orlando this weekend...I hate writing.


Thank you Zanders for shaking me into the present just in time. Tonight while I'm in The Hogshead drinking Butterbeer with my daughter I will be fully present with her. While we walk around the UCF campus tomorrow absorbing what college life will be like for her my only thoughts will be how proud I am of her and how much I am going to miss her. My publishing/leadership project will get my full attention when it's time for that, and it will get done. And, when I am in New York I will be fully present every moment accepting the way things are, and giving my full attention to the details of the moment whatever they are.

I Comment:
Oh my dear, you said it better than the Zanders for me. Let me see if I can make the shift from there is no way I have time for 7 days in Ethiopia, getting my emergent english speakers in the UAE ready for the grade three international standards test is impossible, dealing with heartbreak is ripping me apart. Hmmm, I will provide time in space for masters and explore Ethiopia with the depth I have always dreamed of, my students are ready to show what they CAN do, ... heartbreak ... still too messy to shift out of, lol.

Week 3 - Blog Response # 1

http://flic.kr/p/5tumsb

Mark Coppin writes:
This book continually amazes me in that it provides me with insight on not only how to get oneself to think in a positive manner, but how to empower others to look at the possibilities. I really like the "white sheet" practice because it builds a trust and a bond with those you work with. If you are honest about that approach you will open lines of meaningful, positive, and constructive discussion.
Ah, and rule number 6. This is one that I will have to remind myself of more often. Especially when things get really hectic, it can be easy to fall into a situation where i can take myself way too seriously. The "calculating self" is certainly a trap that I fall into. As the book states , I need to recognize the often-charming, always scheming, sometimes anxious, and frequently conniving calculating self. We all need to look to the central self much more often.
I see a lot of the barriers and roadblocks that put us in a downward spiral. It is easy to fall into that mode. I see this at my workplace and I fall into that trap. It is where someone wants to try something and I say we tried that many times before and it didn't work then. However, I should think that maybe this time it will work. If it keeps coming up, it must have some merit.
This whole book is more than reading to me. It has become more of a self reflection. The Giving Way to Passion chapter really spoke to where and what I want to be. I am very passionate about what I do. I just need to re-find my tempo.

Comments:

I agree about refinding the tempo of passion. Teaching for me is my expression of creativity and passion and I have utterly lost it over the past two years. It is rough, especially when it is one of your only forms of expressing yourself creatively.

Like you, I find this book is helping me to take notice of the barriers, roadblocks, and starting points. Not necessarily analyze them, but notice the exist and often present new possibility.

wk3 reading – What starts as a trickle

http://flic.kr/p/5ZnqAH

Chapter 5. Leading from Any Chair: We’re all leaders. How can we make a difference in the people will influence each day? How do we listen to those who help us make our dreams become reality?
Listening to those who act in contrast to our dreams, our visions, our passions is one of the most difficult tasks of our human existence. This chapter really helped me to focus on how those voices also contribute to the possibility of seeing our dreams, our visions, our passions become a reality. If we are truly and deeply listening to what could be perceived as attacking, counteractive, negative we can begin to make what we have envisioned the mere starting point of a more evolved possibility.
Chapter 6. Rule Number 6: Don’t take yourself so seriously. Life is a journey–enjoy and learn along the way. Live, laugh, and love!!
Teaching kids is serious business. So often I get lost in that seriousness, forgetting to relish in the passion of teaching. I suspect that my students can sense this to at times. On the one hand I yearn for them to tap into some intrinsic love of life-long learning, and on the other demand seriousness. I guess the key here is not to a take yourself SO seriously. Seriousness is necessary, but shouldn't be the primary driving factor.
Chapter 7. The Way Things Are: Sometimes settling for the way things are is a lowering of expectations, sometimes it’s finding a starting point so that one can make things better. Where are you in this continuum?
I am so about settling for the way things are these days. Working here in the middle east has begged me to keep my head low, not stir the waters, be complacent. There are people at the top here wanting to make radical changes to education, but on the day to day level you have teachers and administrators who want nothing more than a paycheck. Most of them responding only to the most dire of crises. I came here because I wanted to innovate take my knowledge, learn from the knowledge and experience from the culture around me and blend that into something new and evolved, a new way forward for teaching and learning. The complacency of those around me and the fact that I get shunned every time I try to initiate some of what I was hired to do has resulted in a lowering of my expectations. Finding a starting point as the chapter suggests seems nearly impossible to do alone. Maintaining communication with those who seek to maintain their own high expectations and desire for change seems critical for me now.

Chapter 8. Giving Way to Passion: Control says that the only way to avoid disappointment and frustration is to not care at all. No hits, no runs, but most importantly, no errors. What are you doing in your daily life that expresses your passion or the things you are passionate about?
My Facebook wall has been a place for expressing this passion as of late, through posting links to music, art, news, images, etc. I have also been really focused on communicating my passions with my friends and family, since I don't always have a forum for this at work.

Week 2 Comments to Dena Whipple

Courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/debaird/

MAC_Week2_Reading(Art, 1-4)


This book is truly inspiring and I can’t believe how the timing of reading it has coincided with such monumental events happening in my life. Perhaps some of it is a bit of nostalgia as we’re finishing up this very important journey of earning a masters degree. It leaves me with such pride, but more importantly an open attitude and heart for what lies ahead. I really enjoyed watching the TED video of Benjamin Zander and felt that it was a fantastic introduction to the book. Being able to see how he inspires his audience gave the book that much more credibility as I began reading chapters 1-4. I immediately liked him for his humor and ability to captivate just about anyone he comes in contact with.

As I began reading, I felt such a connection to his thoughts especially about the way we use measurement for a tool of success in just about all that we do and how making a contribution is really the truest measure. There were so many quotes that I wrote down, especially in chapter 2 when he discusses that if we more successfully engage those around us, we will attract resources through our passion for what we do. I can relate so much of what Zander discusses for several reasons: first, our college is currently in the process of interviewing for a new vice president. We are down to three candidates and have recently started some open forums to ask questions of the candidates. There is one internal candidate and she had her open forum this past week. It’s been a long time since I have been so inspired by a speaker and Zander’s book reminds of how life changing it can be to just open your attitude to new thinking. Our internal candidate is incredibly smart, but what stands out even more is her passion for what she does and her vision for the future of the college. Much like Zander refers to in the TED video, I was inspired by her ability to “awaken possibility” on those around her (and me especially).

The second reason I relate so well to Zander is on a more personal note. Recently I have been asked to head up some very special projects at my college because of the EMDT degree that I’m earning. The opportunities have been incredible, but as I move up a little bit there are those with less than model attitudes who want to tear you down at every turn. The importance of a positive attitude and the anthem that Zander discusses couldn’t be more accurate and I feel as though I’m experiencing these tests at this very moment! These two events (the VP search and my jobs at the college) are connected on so many levels because of the direction in which the college wishes to go. I have already made a list of people who I would like to refer this book to so they can reconnect with the universe of possibility rather than just the idea of surviving and scarcity-thinking. It couldn’t be more important in the field of 21st century education, where measurement is usually the only recognized road to success. I thoroughly enjoyed reading his many examples of his classroom teaching, especially the letters he received from his students.

His idea about giving an A to each student and requiring the letting written from the future was a true example of the art of possibility. I was so moved by his instructions to fall passionately in love with the person each student was describing in their letter—talk about giving students a vision! I was especially inspired by the segment from the Taiwanese student who talked about his transformation of thought from being #68 to being an A. It is truly all invented.
Posted by Dena Whipple at 9:34 AM

Comments: It has been nice to have a read here at the end that beckons us to reflect and restructure the way we see the world. I hope, like it seems you have done, I can get out of my thinking head for a bit here in the end with all I have to accomplish and shift my perceptions. The demands of work and school are taking a toll and I really need to seize this opportunity.

Week 2 Comment on Justin Baker's Post

Wk 2: Reading “The Art of Possibility” Ch. 1-4


Wow! I am thoroughly impressed by these two authors – and especially of Ben, surely being helped by his talk about classical music on the TED asset. I believe I especially am connected to this writing because I am a music teacher, and a musician. To speak in the terms of music, its rehearsal, its pains, its passions and trials are right up my alley, and help me to connect in a major way. Of the four practices discussed thus far – Giving an A, and Contribution have spoken to me the most. While reading, I found myself raising an eyebrow or two just about every other page – and for me this means someone has “called me out” or challenged my way of thinking. How true is it that we have those students who don’t fit our way of doing things, or our rules and methods and we are quick to label them as lazy or unreachable? I am reminded at what kind of student I was, especially in my undergraduate college years. I was – and still am to this day, a rebel to form. I always questioned what was being taught; its authenticity, meaning and driving purpose. This is why, now as an educator myself, I often let the students tell me what it is they are learning, or why they are doing something. This book challenged me further, however, to venture into the lives of these students, where education is not something that happens in a building, but in their homes, their communities and their lives – and starts within. In these recent weeks, I have been trudging through my professional life. Every task seemed to drag me down further and further, every initiative seemed to bring me back to the rebel that is constantly there. I was beginning to be a “second string fiddle” to teaching. This book came just at the right time, right when I was loosing steam, thinking every event that “happened” to me was this awful step to my doom. Perhaps now I can look at things differently this week.

Comments:

Justin, I was struck most by your comment about venturing into your students lives and the notion that it starts within. Some days that is my mantra, my prayer. Hoping that I can get a glimpse of that intrinsic motivation to learn. I know it is there. We are told over and over that one of the brains primary "desires" is to learn. My students up until this year have been extremely poor to the point were education served no real outlet from this poverty (in their minds view at least.) Now my students here in UAE are so wealthy that they see no real benefit to education, because they will live the lives their parents ore living regardless. So interesting, that two extremes yield the same result. I keep asking myself as I read, "What could be my version of giving an A for 8 year olds?" How do I scaffold students to be able to even write such a letter from a truly intrinsic place?

Week 2 Wimba

Alarm Bells Ring: I can't play my itunes in class!I spend more time in my classroom than I do at home, lol. I will go insane, lol.

Interesting WIMBA session. I know we do not have lifetimes to spend on copyright, but I feel we all walk away from this session a bit wiser and more knowledgeable. I really appreciated the questions being asked because they allowed me to reflect on where copyright really can impact the daily decisions I make. For the most part, each of us will continue to make the decisions we have already justified in our heads about what gray areas we are to muddle through regarding copyright.

I find the societal impacts of copyright to be of most interests. It is this discussion where we as educators, and creators can participate. The discussion surrounding this seemed to indicate that the laws will have to change to meet the challenges and demands of the 21st Century. I agree, but this will not happen on its own. Activists and not-so-activists will have to demand change. Discussions will need to be engaged and maintained. Isn't this what we are here to do? To beat it all, we have students producing quality and not so quality work to be fodder for this discussion.

Image courtesy of Horia Varlan http://www.flickr.com/photos/horiavarlan/