Taylor's Confabulation Station: 2011

Sunday, June 26, 2011

StokerTaylorPubLeadProject

I have decided to publish this paper to the Journal of Education and Technology. This is the link.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g2xtGE4qkAr9hrsEb6fvM-kV785_sQhl-3EwpqWfd-M/edit?hl=en_US

Saturday, June 25, 2011

“Certain things in life are better done in person.” That is a quote that both of my parents stress on a daily basis. My mother cannot stand technology and would do away with everything that came after a typewriter if she could. Growing up with that mindset, I try not to revert back to an e-mail or a phone call. Things mean so much more when they are done in person. You can learn so much from body language, so there is only one way to see someone’s’ full reaction. E-mails and text messages easily get misinterpreted because you cannot hear the tone of the person’s voice that is sending the message. Enrollment I pair with the phrase ‘planting the seed’ that I use quite often. You tend to drop a hint or a ‘seed’ and wait to see if it catches and grows into something bigger or takes off. I personally like the idea of ‘stand ready to participate, willing to be moved and inspired.’ It has such a positive and proactive meaning to it. In my own personal life, I am finished with one part of my life and starting a new book. I finally landed the job of my dreams (teaching) this coming September and I will be moving out of my parent’s house. This is the time that I want to start over and take on a more positive outlook. That phrase is perfect for what I am looking for with my newfound look at life. When I think of persuasion, I think of my old retail job and how we would have to almost convince the customers that they needed the protection plan. Persuade them that they needed the extra accessories with their purchase. We were persuading them all the time to purchase things when really it was not for their true benefit at all. The musical story was quite inspirational for me. The school that I will be teaching at is called VOICE Charter School and their main focus is on music. Fortunately I do not need to have a musical background to work there. It was just nice to read the story and see how you can totally think negatively about something and it can turn out to be one of the best things. Downward Spiral thinking is not for me anymore.

The chapters talking about possibility were definitely eye-openers for me. While working in retail, I was always responsible for my employee’s ‘accountability’. Whether it was not selling enough products or the store being too messy, accountability was always the buzzword going around. It is so true that we can only take responsibility for ourselves. Especially when it comes to mistakes, we cannot do anything about someone else’s mistakes. This again is another great chapter to read since I am ‘turning over a new leaf’ so to speak. Just like in the orchestra mishap, we usually tend to place the blame on people for their mistakes. We want everyone to know who messed up and certainly who did not. In the game of life, we are subject to others actions and decisions and responses. It is how we react to them that make the difference in our lives. Keeping in mind what is ‘on the track’ and what is ‘off the track’ is helpful when thinking about framing possibility. I hope that I would be as brave as the teacher that shaved her hair off and do that for one of my students as well. To be honest, I thought mission statement and vision could be used interchangeably as well. A vision is seen more as a possibility.

Especially when talking about foreign countries, there rarely are ‘we’ stories. It is truly a shame how the world is the way it is right now. We, us, and our are three words that are not reiterated enough. Just looking at the news for a few moments will visually express that. I hope that throughout my years of teaching, I can teach my students the importance of WE and that I can show them how important it is in our lives. It is important to be mindful of others and to not close ourselves out from others because of differences or misunderstandings.

1 comments:

Taylor Stoker said...: I am very happy for you that you got your dream job. I also just got the job of my dreams at a new school with a big pay raise! Things always work out for a reason and I have your same thoughts on the idea of We!; June 25, 2011 11:04 PM

Tina Deluca Blog response # 1

Taylor Stoker

I agree with you completely!! I wrote my blog post about the same thing! When I communicated and showed my students that I cared about them on a personal level they showed much more interest and responded to me on a much bigger level!

Sunday, June 26, 2011 - 02:01 AM

Chapter 9 Lighting a Spark or enrolling someone hit home. I always try to make contact with my students on a personal level if I can. Students are more interested in science when I ask about their personal lives. Did you guys win the game last night? How did your dance recital go? A short story will usually accompany the question from said student. However, during that class the student is more inquisitive about what I a teaching. Another part of the reading that really brought to light the world around me was Chapter 12 Telling the WE Story. If everyone would do this there would be no disagreements. In schools, “How can We help all of our students?” could be the topic of a meeting and the outcome could be fantastic. There are always going to be some people that are playing the fault or blame game, you need to get them enrolled in the We scenario to help all around them. I am going to propose this to my classes on the first day of school. “How can WE help each other to succeed this year in science class?” I am interested to hear what the students have to say. Great book really opened my eyes to different ways to think. It also brought to light some of the things that I am already doing and was not aware.

Week 4 Chapter 9-12 Reading

The Concept of We

My profession as an educator is a co-profession as a coach as well. When I decided what my profession would be, it was a profession surrounding sports that was accompanied by a teaching job. Don't get me wrong, I certainly enjoy my teaching job as my much as my coaching job but this is not how I started my career. I believe that the concept of WE falls in line with my way of thinking when I started my career. The three concepts of WE directly correlate to me on a personal level. The story of possibility is that I had to coach and teach to have a job. I could not do one or the other. For me it was always a double gig. As I progressed through my first year I saw how the two went hand and hand. This lead to the emerging entity. I saw that the more I cared in the classroom and the more I got the kids to respond to me in the classroom, I could get them to follow me more in coaching. I became a better leader in the gym because of the classroom. That lead me to the next step of WE of what is best for all of us and how can I improve it. When I accepted my job as a teacher and a coach, other teachers became much more friendly and willing to help me along my path. Also my students/players saw that I cared for them in both academia and sports and they were much more willing to work hard for me. I agree with the three concepts of WE that are written about in our book.

Intro Paragraph 1

I am thinking of publishing my research to Journal of Digital Learning in Education or the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Chapter 5-8 Reading

The chapter that stuck out most to me was chapter 8 about being passionate for what we love to do. How to let go of things that are holding us back. Being afraid to fail and how we need to let go of our barriers in order to truly succeed. I thought I would share a success story of a time that I had done what this particular chapter was talking about. I have two other brothers and no sisters. I do not know much about girls however my first job that I ever got was coaching girls. This was stepping into brand new territory for me. I have always wanted to be a successful guys football coach and being a girls coach was opposite of this. One thing I was very afraid of was being successful with girls. I was afraid that if I was successful with girls I would not be able to get out of coaching girls and get into coaching guys. I went about my business coaching girls kind of halfheartedly myk first year. We did OK in sports but were not truly succeeding. This past year I thought that I am going to give 100% no matter what and see what happens. We were very successful and I applied and got a new job coaching guys and teaching somewhere else. I think it plays into life that trying your hardest is something you should do at all times and that being passionate will help and affect your work attitude about what goes on around you.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Response Week 2

Week 2 BP#4 Reading

How will I be a contribution today?
I try to enter the doors of our school with a smile and a good morning as I stroll through the halls passing students thinking to myself “It’s going to be a great day!” I try to assist the parents and students as much as possible. I always keep in mind that we have them for the majority of the day and for some this is a safe haven, some are caring the weight of the world on them at such a young age, and as Tricia mention “We need to give them the benefit of a doubt.” It is such a great feeling when you reach at least one and he or she comes back to visit and say, “Thank you for always being there and believing in me.” He then goes to our conference room to speak to a small group of students about his college life. This is my daily contribution.

http://votw.wikispaces.com/file/view/children_holding_hands_around_the_world.gif/31245573/children_holding_hands_around_the_world.gif

2 comments:

jbb said...: Awesome contribution indeed, to let a little one grow into being a big good example of what can come from giving to all of our students.; May 20, 2011 11:08 AM
Taylor Stoker said...: I think it is important to ask ourselves daily "how can I contribute"? Whether it be in school, in relationships, or in any aspect. That question can help keep you grounded and give you a good concrete foundation to build upon.

Free Post - Art of Possibility pt 2

One of the ideas I came away with after reading the first four chapters of the book is that people do not put themselves in position to move up the ladder or to succeed. I feel that is what the chapter Being a Contribution was hinting at and that is also something that I personally believe. I think people get very comfortable in their lives with what they do and, as humans, we are creatures of habit. So we become comfortable in our daily lives, not moving up the chain as educators or in other jobs as well. I think that is what separates the people who are bosses from the people who work for the bosses a lot of the time. I think people are not contributing like they should be or like they could be to help themselves because we get comfortable in our lives that we do not like to take the extra step.

Blog Response Week 2

Week #2 Reading Post: Inventing Possibilities By Writing Into the Future and Being A Contribution

The compelling idea that stood out in reading The Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander was the assignment of having students write letters into the future as a requirement for earning an A. This activity takes me to one that I do with my freshman students:

During the final week of school, I ask students to write a letter into the future that they will read as a graduating senior. I suggest that they speak about goals, reflect on the past year, reminisce or a combination of those. I promise not to read them. The Zander activity is similar. Students write to themselves in past tense about their future. But this is where a major break happens.

Whereas, my intentions are for students to set goals to measure themselves and to reflect on past experiences for self-improvement, the Zander method challenges students to see the selves they want to become in the present. Whereas, my students assess themselves for growth and change by reading their letters from three years ago, the Zander method works as a teacher/student assessment to determine which path will exact the growth needed to change now.

This gave me pause to consider that I am expecting my students to singlehandedly invent themselves based on a set of standards, when I should align with them on knocking down the barriers that block the infinite possibilities that are before them. My assignment, then, should occur 10 months earlier with a new intent on students “inventing” themselves based on their future self – validations.

In a few weeks I will be teaching an experimental writing course for incoming freshmen. One of the things that I will try is giving them an “A” and making their initial writing assignments the “A” letter and observations on “Being A Contribution.” One of the things that I most enjoyed about Film Making Principles and Gaming class was the release of pressure I felt. Kathy would assign AAA (Absolute “A” Assignments) and Dr. Dan would just have us play games. Even without the pressure, I ironically dug deeper and challenged myself creatively. I think that this can work for my future students.

2 comments:

Karen Gearns said...: Ishia, You just gave me a new first week activity for my classes. I have two letter writing assignments I do with students. One I assign the first week of school where students tell me about themselves. The second I do the last week of school where students write to incoming freshmen to give them advice on how to be successful in high school. I teach at an alternative high school where all of my students have had some obstacle that brought them to our school. Many of them feel like they have failed because they did not complete their career in a traditional setting. The assignment to write to incoming freshmen is meant to put them in the role of expert where they can help someone from their experiences. This fall I will be adding the letter you described based on what you gleaned from The Art of Possibility. My students will write a letter to themselves in the past about their future. They will talk about what they have accomplished and how they got to those accomplishments. It is interesting that while I read the same four chapters you did, the letter assignment did not jump out at me until I read your blog post. Thanks for helping me see the light.; June 11, 2011 11:49 AM
Taylor Stoker said...: I think that the write a future letter is a good idea as well and it's cool that you have done this before I read about it in this book. I am a very recent graduate from college and in all of my education courses we learned about non traditional grading and the negativity of standardized testing

The Art of Possibility Post

This book is pretty crazy and really makes you think. I can't say I agree with the things that I have read so far because some of the things I've read seem to make me believe that X-Men are real. Even though I realize that is not what it is saying, it still seems far fetched to me. It really makes you think and the book is on a deep thinking level. It pretty much leads me to a thought, then breaks that thought down and so on and so forth until I sit there wondering to myself. I did agree with the book about the As and measurement tools. That is how I teach my class which is one reason why I hate standardized testing so much.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Richard Blog Response

2^nd Blog-I got my “A” or in my case, I got my “Master’s”

I had to dedicate one of my blogs to what I read in the book, giving an “A”. Mr. Z, as the students called him, chose to abolish the norm of giving A’s, B’s, etc. for his classes. He did this to loosen the confines of competition and help his students see, they are all “A” students. The only thing that the students had to do was write a letter in past tense stating why they earned their “A”. I want to write my “A” or “Master’s” letter.

Dear Full Sail,

I got my Master’s because it helped find new job opportunities and confidence in my career life. Before, I was discouraged, unmotivated about not advancing in career. The job place had become a paycheck, a means of just getting by in life. Sometimes I had felt depressed. I didn’t want to gather more debt that I knew would take me more time to pay off.

Now, I have accomplished something that I thought I wouldn’t happen. Even with my move to Egypt, the job opportunities have continued come in. Its not that my life is a measurement of what job I have or what I have accomplished, but the feeling of self-confidence that comes with this accomplishment. The discouragements are gone, my motivation high, and the thought of knowing I have done it! Thank you FS, you have helped a dream come true.

: A very creative and heartfelt blog entry. That's awesome how something like what we've been doing can help us find new jobs and opportunities. I also got a new job and I feel this masters played a large part in that. I also agree and hate traditional A B C grades. It seems much to hard to determine what a person is learning based on traditional grading criteria.

Tina DeLuca blog response

The long and short of copyright is if you are the creator it is yours and nobody can use it unless they have your permission or you pay a royalty. For educational purposes there is a thing called Fair Use. However, if you can teach with out it then it is not Fair Use. There is nothing fair about Fair Use but the way that you use the content is the idea. This is very important in my class room because one of the projects is to research alternate energies and make a brochure. In order to complete this project the students need to look on the web for pictures of said energy then a diagram of how it works. I have a couple sites that pictures are free but if a student does it at home how am I supposed to know if it is legal or not.

I like the idea of Creative Commons trying to balance the field of All Restricted and Public Domain. This will allow our students to be creative and still get credit for their work. With out all of the laws getting in the way. I do think that the creator deserves the credit for their work. Just not sure about the money. I thought the way they handle music CD sales in Brazil was very interesting. The CD’s are given to street vendors as a promotional tool to help bring people to a concert, that is where the artist make the money, not off of the CD’s or copyrights.

The 21st century student have technology at their finger tips they speak through video and songs remixing. If we allow them to do this in schools the projects would be fantastic. However, copyright laws stand in the way of that. Creative Commons has help some, but more people need to put things on there.

1 Comment

Taylor Stoker

I agree with your ideas on Creative Commons and how they are a balancing factor in this whole big long copyright debate. I also think it's very interesting how Brazil does their CD copyright material, although I'm not sure I agree with it. It is an interesting idea though. I also think you're right about if copyright laws were out of the way some of the cooler things our kids could do in school.

Sunday, June 5, 2011 - 09:59 AM

Free Post - Motivation

I am having a very hard time staying motivated the last month or so. I procrastinate everything til the last minute and cannot convince myself to sit down and do it earlier. I have been in the process of interviewing for new jobs over the last three months and now I got one! I'm very excited, however this masters has moved to the back of my mind. We only have two months left and I keep telling myself that but it still does nothing for my mentality right now! Any suggestions for ways you guys stay motivated to finish up these last 7 weeks of our year long masters?

Copyright Issues

Copyright issues have always been a difficult situation for myself. I grew up in the heyday of Limewire, Kazza and uTorrent. Music was always near at hand when I was young and in school. My friends always had the newest music and viruses. As I grew older it was always in the news of how people were being prosecuted for downloading music illegally and it was a scary thought. As I grew older and graduated from college, became more aware of how hard it is to create music and create video games I began to see how downloading illegal things was truly stealing. It takes a lot of creativity to do the things some of these people do for others to come in and use it without permission. Full Sail has also done a good job of making it's students aware of such issues as well.

Friday, April 15, 2011

TAKS PASS