MAC WK4 Leadership Post

Dreaming has never been a problem for me. As a child, I knew that I was destined for greatness. As an adult, I am still trying to figure out what greatness that is but I know with the support of my family we will figure it out together. My ultimate role model is my wife. We have been together for 14 years and married for 10 of those years. She has excelled at lightening speed up through the ranks from classroom teacher to assistant superintendent within 10 years. Additionally, she has always been going to school. She spent a year in law school, and is now completing her doctorate degree. She is also pursuing a Superintendent position at this time. We hope to develop our own entertainment products based upon all of our experiences and remove ourselves from the public sector or education. It has been quite a journey but I know based upon how passionate we both are about being independently employed that we will be able to reach our goal. Hey, maybe you will see our names on the credits after reality tv show sometime soon!

MAC WK4 Response to Cherylee Gruber

MAC – Week 4 – Reading Blog – CH 9-12 – The Horse

I am continuing to read Zander’s book, The Art of Possibility.  As I read, I take notes on parts that stand out to me or analogies that I wish to reiterate.  Here are my gems from chapters 9-12.

Chapter 9 - Lighting the Spark

In Chapter Nine, Lighting the Spark and Enrollment are the key points.  Zander’s theory is that the universe is alive with sparks. Passion rather than fear is the abundant force. Once you realize the spark exists it is like playing catch in a field of light.  Offer others the spark you carry. I appreciate the analogies especially being a teacher.  I have observed several other teachers in action, and it is always very obvious who is carrying a spark, who is smoldering, and whose fire has long ago died. 

I have always tried to convey my passion for English Literature.  I show excitement about what we are about to read.  My one area that always concerned me was Animal Farm.  I don’t like it, yet it was district required.  My outlook however, was trying to make it exciting for the students.  I never walked in and said, “We have to read this book.”  Instead I have tried several projects to “spark” the book for my students and myself.  Once I held a “meet-and-great” where all students pulled the “Hi my name is” tag out of a bag with a historical figure or party member on the tag.  They had time to research their roles and then attended the party.  It was quite funny to see how they would interact with one another based on research.  

The point is lighting the spark.  I also think it is important to allow others to ignite yours.  Sometimes in a hectic and chaotic life, we tend to shutout “sparkers” because of the flames that they might ignite.  Ignition means work. 

Three more key pieces of advice from chapter nine that I plan to incorporate in my life are as follows:

• Analogy of the service station – Changing a scene of all misery to one of possibility.
• Sometimes the best things are done in person.
• Practice giving an “A”, not as a type of judgment, but as a gift.

Chapter 10. Being the Board

If you are at wit’s end – This is the graduate study of the Art of Possibility. I am the framework of what happens in my life – Do not give away your power.  This also reminded me of my Conscious Discipline training. When working with students, it was advised that you accept your feelings and deal within yourself.  For example, if you tell a student, “You are making me angry.”  You are giving that student all of the power over yourself.  You are powerless to control the outcome. Once viewed this way, you world does change.  However, you might not want to openly share this theory with your 4-year-old.  It again changes your world, when your 4-year-old reiterates that she “can’t make me angry, unless I give her all my powers.”

Analogy of the chess set – A chess piece must only move by the rules.  The board creates the rules.  I thought about negative things that have appeared on my chessboard.  I thought about my past and feeling like I too could only rely on myself.  I needed control over every aspect of my life.  However, as the Zanders claim, this leads to a blame game.  If you are able to blame you feel in control.  I watch the news of the night and it never fails that something somewhere horrible happens.  After reporting on the incident, the next question is always, who is blame? 

After reading, Being the Board, I turned it into an icebreaker.  I asked several random people, the waitress, the store clerk, and another man pumping gas at a service station, “If you could be any piece on a chess board, which would you be?”  I am a very shy person, and the experience was very random.  I started with the waitress and randomly asked.  She asked me to repeat.  When I did, she selected the “horse”.  I asked why assuming she didn’t know the game and would respond with a “horse” reason.  However, she responded that the “horse was very tricky and could do quite a few special moves.  The responses varied.  The lesson I learned was normally these random people are silent or simply chat about the weather.  They all light up after thinking a few moments and responding.  Now I know this is off the point of the chess set.  It was simply a random exercise.  However, I think I will do it more often with different questions.  I had conversations with them all and I would never have. 

I imagine that I could have asked any of them for two quarters, and they would have been happy to oblige.

Cherylee,

Your blog is insightful. We were taught that we had to earn an A. I had some professors start their classes off with the same concept as Benjamin Zander. I had professors say that you all have an A. Now you have to keep it. It is difficult implementing curriculum that you do not agree with based on its content or lack of interest for your students. It is great that you took the high road to see how you could get the most out of the literature even though you had strong professional and personal reasons why it was not valuable literature. I agree with your emphasis on creating a spark for others and recognizing individuals that try to create a spark for you. We spend so much time “controlling” life around us that we forget that in order to grow and be creative, we must have humility and also not try to be in control all the time and let people impact us as we impact them in a positive fashion. 

Mac WK4 Response to Debbie Patsel

MAC/ Week 4, Reading: The Art of Possibility: WE, US, THEM, oh MY!

As I finished reading this book, I was struck by the WE story. That is one of the current problems in my district. WE do not have a contract and WE are being picked on and bullied by OUR governor. WE are going into our third year without a contract. WE are state operated and final control lies with the governor that hates teachers. WE try to sit down and negotiate terms of the contract, but THEY won’t play with US.

WE won an award for back pay because THEY violated the block-scheduling clause in the contract. Now, THEY have to pay thousands of dollars in compensation to US.  THEY won ‘t let that go and are trying to find new language to change that part of the contract while holding up 3200 other people in the unit.

HOW do THEM, and WE get to US? WE have hired a mediator, again. Every contract year the union needs to do this to move the district to action and to develop a contract. The district has been state run for 22 years and it only gets worse. It is no wonder we are a failing district, although I believe all districts throughout the country were expected to fail under NCLB because of the business of charter schools and big business.

OUR children are the ones who are suffering. WE ask, WHERE are the parents? WHY aren’t THEY screaming foul when THEM, (the district), fired ALL world language teachers, art and music teachers, librarians, tech coordinators, and academic support teachers? ALL of US, do the downward spiral, yet WE are blamed. WE are held accountable and evaluated by test scores that are a poor judgment of how and what children really learn.

So, how do WE become US? At this point in time, WE don’t. THEY won’t let US be. What has happened here? How did it get so out of control? There is no happy ending here right now. THIS has to be played out with mediators, arbitrators, and patience. US, THEM, WE, OUR, I, it doesn’t matter, THEY are all unreasonable and ALL of US suffer. Oh MY!

Image Source: Microsoft Office Clipart: MP900309634

MAC WK4 Art of Possibility

There is so much to say about this weeks reading and Steve Jobs speech. Taking responsibility for ones actions and outcomes is something I do not believe most people live by or teach their children. In fact I did not learn about this lesson until I was around 24 and working for a very large finance company. I was being trained by one of the companies top sales manager and most of the sales staff thought he was very rough around the edges, this is putting it in PG terms. What he was was intense and straight forward. He called it like he saw it. I remember him sitting in with me while I was helping a client and something started to go wrong. When I say wrong I mean something that the customer thought they were getting but the paperwork said different. I remember starting to sweat and get nervous. My manger jumped in and helped fix the situation just with his words. To make this short and sweet he fessed up to the client and told him this is 100% our fault and we will fix it. I know this seems simple to admit when your wrong but believe me it doesn't seem to be best practice for most. My boss called this falling on your sword. I find this works very well when in the working world. Even if it hurts and is embarrassing to fall on your sword it seems to work out better in most situations. Ever since then I try my hardest to live by this mantra.

I really like how Steve jobs explains connecting the dots. It is so true trying to connect them looking forward is very madding and will drive the ordinary person off the ledge. At least for my life and my wife’s there are so many to connect I could not begin to understand how they connect looking forward until something comes together and bam that magical moment happens and it all makes sense. 

Really sucks at the end when Steve is talking about his brush with death and how he hoped he will not have to deal with that again at least for another 10 years or so.

MAC WK4 WIMBA

Recap of wimba:

Have IM and Skype ready to go in month 12. Focus on the possibilities vs. focusing on the limitations. I believe that by the time most people get a little life experience they begin to naturally begin to think in-terms of what cannot be done vs. what can get done. I have watched the movie The Secret years ago and was very intrigued. It was more about the energy you put out in the world is what you will attract back. I am not sure if this is the same as Oprah The Secret, in fact I do not believe it is. 

Leadership project recap. If someone did not attend the wk wimba very explicit instructions were given in order to earn the credit for this assignment. Project will be graded on latest version of the document. Month 12 the leadership project needs to be submitted and we need to have a screen capture of the process.

Month 12 do not relax. It is a five week class due to summer break. If at all possible come to 1st wimba. Final presentation video. Groups can present together if they decide on a day that works for all.

MAC WK3 Wimba

Two of my colleagues were very generous in providing feedback regarding my project. Some of the structural APA issues were addressed. It was mentioned that I needed to put “running head” on my title page. For some reason, google docs erased that feature of the APA style. Google docs does translate some of the APA rules in a way that reconfigures the structure provided by Full Sail. There were a couple spelling and subject verb agreement issues that needed to be addressed as well. As far as the content, I was asked some very investigative questions. One of my colleagues asked what was so special about the Teaching Machine when looking at all different types of on-line professional development tools. Since we are all taking classes on-line for a degree in exploration of current technology for education, this question makes sense. Overall, the Teaching Machine is able to monitor students and determine what content is taking students the longest to understand and demonstrate knowledge. The Teaching Machine is like a big brother of learning. It can tell the administrator how long a person stays on a particular page, how much time and how many times it took for the learner to respond correctly, and how the learner tested out of the content reviewed. 

MAC WK3 Leadership post: Leadership Project Hub:

The Capstone Project I will be presenting will encapsulate the use of the modern day Teaching Machine. B. F. Skinner generated the original Teaching Machine that calculated learning through the interaction, response and correction to curriculum content. The modern day Teaching Machine has the ability to calculate how long a student is on a particular page, how they respond to questions, how many times it takes to get the questions correct, and their accuracy within percentage measures. It takes behavioralism to another level. I will be sharing this information on the website titled, “Journal of Educational Technology and Society.” 

MAC WK 1 Leadership post: To publish or To Present

http://sholiton.blogspot.com/2012/06/mac-wk-1-leadership-post-to-publish-or.html

MAC WK2 Blog Share My Project

http://sholiton.blogspot.com/2012/06/mac-wk2-blog-share-my-project.html

Leadership Document

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YF25s3Dff3QyMSPp6V61wAqnEQRzqwB2I7w6h9YAomg/edit#

MAC WK3 Response to Cherylee Gruber

MAC – Week 3 – Reading Blog – CH 5-8 - BTFI

I am continuing to read Zander’s book, The Art of Possibility.  As I read, I take notes on parts that stand out to me or analogies that I wish to reiterate.  Here are my gems from chapters 5-8.

Chapter 5. Leading from Any Chair 

I really enjoyed the piece on how Zander had changed his perception on his own leadership.  His original motive was to convey his interpretation and possible be more successful at conducting.  Instead, he began to focus on having each band member perform to their own potential.  It is an excellent analogy of how a teacher can refocus on the students, instead of their own careers. 

The leader may be any one of us.

Chapter 6. Rule Number 6

Lighten Up – And others will lighten up around you.  Humor is the best way to get over ourselves.

Lessons I learned in this chapter were “Rule Number 6” and how to have the best sex ever.  Wow, the curriculum scope &sequence of Full Sail is very far reaching.  In reality, the key to The Best Sex Ever – Is learning to live life in the realm of possibility. – You can imagine there are three steps to reach all goals. – You can change the steps as often as you want to meet your goals.  Play the - “Have the best ____ ever.” – Game.  “Have IT” – Be fulfilled.

Chapter 7. The Way Things Are

ATTENTION makes things grow.  You shine attention on something you get more of it.  If you pay attention to problems, they grow.  I have heard very similar advice before.  It may have been from my Concious Discipline.  As a teacher, I have used it and it really works.  In the beginning I would focus on Katrina’s slow reading speed, poor math skills or obnoxious behavior. Remember, I was trying to help these problems, but in reality they grew.  Instead I began to focus on what I wanted more of.  I would focus on Katrina’s instances of good behavior, her skill at previous levels of math and reading.  Just focusing on the positive attributes helps not only Katrina, but the whole class by example.  When used, it seems almost as a miracle.  However, it is very easy to slip into the old stand-by, “that is the third time this week you have not completed your homework.”  It is more of a lifestyle shift than a simple rule change.

Chapter 8. Giving Way to Passion

Three key pieces of advice from chapter eight that I plan to incorporate in my life.  All three seem to unlock potentials in exponential ways. 

One buttock playing = One buttock teaching

BTFI – Beyond The “F” It – Just thinking about it, makes me feel “FREE”.

Participate!

Sources:

Book Link - Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Possibility-Transforming-Professional/dp/0142001104/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339628634&sr=1-1&keywords=art+of+possibility 

Photo - Flickr Commons - http://www.flickr.com/photos/avpiedra/3815253020/ 

Cherylee,

You provided a well condensed version of our reading for this week. You outline the content and boil down the information to a simple rendition of the material. One of the key components that you picked up on is the evolution of leadership. Leaders that turn from good to great are those who constantly put themselves in check by looking past themselves and getting others to rise to their potential. Another aspect that you focused on is paying attention to problems and how they grow. Often, if you let some time go by, what we perceive as problems resolve themselves. You mentioned your focus on Katrina’s behavior. Punitive reactions to student behavior will always work against you. I have found with my daughter that if I explain or set the boundary that I want I will get the desired behavior and less of the undesired behavior. I guess we were taught from our parents the negative side of life and now we need to turn that frown upside down and focus of what we want, not what we do not want from our children and students in the classroom. 

Mac WK 3 Response to Debra Patsel

MAC-Week 3, Reading: The Art of Possibility, Silent Conductor

I was struck by the silent conductor metaphor. I think that in a well-run school, the Principal would act like the silent conductor and just quietly lead the staff to be the best they can be by observing every teacher’s strength and acknowledging that to the teacher. Seldom are teachers given any positive feedback in the current climate that bashes teachers. 

A great silent conductor would also be able to lift and support the teacher toward more growth opportunities that allow the weaker areas to become stronger with proper support, guidance and training.

"It is about living life in the realm of possibility larger than the achievement of specific goals. That would be the rich, free, compassionate, expressive world of the central self." This is a world in which I hope that I have finally arrived at and I am trying to live comfortably in.

There is always the journey in which I have struggled to overcome, as described in the book, the obstructive nature of the calculating self. I over think things sometimes which plays with my real self and I work against my goals. Always striving to ignore the negatives and focus on the positive. Moving forward into the realm of possibilities. 

Image Source: Microsoft Office Clipart; MC900434889