Presentation Introduction

Media_literacy_georgesiemens_emerging_

The top two choices for presenting my Challenge Base Research Project at would be the Georgia Educational Technology Conference or Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education.  My reason for choosing the two specific conferences is because they both deal with using technology in education.  I feel this is a gap that needs to be bridged in the educational environment.  Most teachers feel more comfortable in the traditional style of teaching and the world is changing.  Technology has become a large component in the domestic environment of our students.  Their interest is on techno gadgets.  In order to reach the new generations of students, teachers have to become more involve with technology and how to use it to educate the students.  The two conferences discuss and present ways to use technology in the classroom and what types of technology that works to educate our newly tech savvy students.

Think Out Loud Blog Post

http://rchanda3.blogspot.com/2011/09/think-out-loud-ppp-post-ga-educational.html

http://rchanda3.blogspot.com/2011/09/week-2-think-out-loud-ppp-post.html

CBR Publication Presentation Project

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AbC5k5O80MoSZGZ0MjZjM3NfMTlnaG14c3hjag&hl=en_US

Response to Pam's Blog

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2011

Week Four-Telling the 'We' Story

GNU Free Documentation License.

Have you ever started a request with "Well, what do 'we' need to get started….." and the person you are speaking to says "We, you have a mouse in your pocket?"

"Telling the We Story" really spoke to me this week. I am approaching my 21st anniversary this December. As relationships roll through time there are definately ups and downs and curves and smooth rail. Recently, it seems that that my marriage is rolling through a dark tunnel filled with turmoil. Where the question seems to be "What do WE want to happen here?" "What's best for US?" and "What's our next step?" At this momemnt the questions remain unanswered, because it seems I have to adopt the idea of 'Being the Board' and recognize what stumbling blocks I am putting in the way of our future. I am trying to focus on what I want which is to grow and change together instead of running negitive tape in my head "If only YOU would do…." We have begun to see a counselor, so hopefully with her help we will be able to improve our communication skills and build a new framework.
Posted by Pamela King at 3:55 PM
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1 comments:
 Chanda Robinson said...
Hi Pam,
I am sorry to hear about the issues that are occurring in your marriage. I truly believe that you will get through any problems that are existing and things will work out for the best. I am really glad to see that you truly recognize the stumbling blocks that are hindering your life. Your testimony will help someone else in their crisis or problems. This was a very inspirational blog post that truly in a real life situation described the meaning behind the chapters in this week discussion. Thanks Pam. Great Job!
September 25, 2011 4:36 PM 

Response to Lori's Blog

The Art of Possibilites Ch. 9-12 Wk4 MAC

This video that I watched in a counseling course this week reminded me of the Art of Possibilities.

9. Lighting the Spark – The authors give the example of needing 50 cents to pay buy air to inflate a bicycle tire order to get to a museum. Today someone asked me at a gas station for 50 cents to get to Orange County. I gave him the $3 dollars I had. He said, “Sweet!” and thanked me. It was an interesting story of trying to find solutions and that can sometimes seem hard to do when faced with needing to negotiate. This week I began observing a severely disabled student in a classroom to find a solution to some undesirable behavior. I was concerned that the classroom aides may be unwilling to cooperate fully.  The student demonstrated the behavior immediately which was useful and a few minutes later he tried again. This time he was unsuccessful in his attempt. The interesting part was that he communicated (though he is nonverbal) to the aide that she needed to mark on a tally sheet that he had made the attempt. When I mentioned after class, that I believed the tallying might inadvertently be reinforcing the behavior, the teacher immediately responded by moving the sheet from the student’s line of sight. By just being there I have changed the environment, the aides began discussing the behavior openly which led to the revelation about the tally sheet. It made me think about how every environment we enter is changed by our presence, hopefully for the better.
10. Being the Board- a somewhat difficult concept but not so much if you have faith. When you have faith, you have to believe that what happens in your life has meaning or leads you to where you may not have planned for yourself. I already know I am not in control of my life and trying to understand the world from my experience is an important part of realizing that. When difficulties arise then it is time to accept that you need to change.
11. Frameworks for Possibilities – this chapter speaks about stating visions. I had to write mission and belief statements this week for a model school counseling program. They included such things as: all students are worthy of love and respect and deserve to be cherished, and all students have the ability to achieve. I agree with the authors that a broad vision opens things up to possibilities and helps give us a direction.
12. Telling the We Story- I am always aware of the “we.” Groceries do not magically appear on shelves and roads are not paved by magic. We are intricately dependent despite the lone cowboy mentality that drives our country's identity. I almost laugh when I deal with people who believe they are independent. That is just not the truth. Understanding our interdependence is key to compromise and seeing the greater good.
Posted by Lori Buder at 7:19 PM  
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Labels: Week 4
5 comments:
 Christine Shikenjanski said...
Hi Lori! Your insight regarding Telling the WE story, Practice 12 was wonderful. I just had a similar conversation with my 15 year old son, who by all accounts is an wonderful young man. However, as I said he is 15. He just got his driver's permit and is wanting to drive everywhere. Unfortunately for him, he can only drive when I am in the car. He is too young to work, so there again he can only drive when I put gas in the car. He told me the other day that he couldn't wait until he was independent and could do things on his own. For him he is thinking about when he is 16 and can drive by himself and can work to have money for gas. I love his enthusiasm but I reminded him that independence is a myth. That WE are all dependent on someone for something. I appreciate your thoughts on this subject.
September 24, 2011 11:27 PM
 jH said...
Lori,
I really enjoyed reading your post. Your mission and belief statements that you mention in regards to Chapter 11 were worded very nicely. While many will instantly agree with your message, It is sad to think that there are some adults in schools that do not feel this way. It is also sad to think that the children we come across that make this difficult to do are possibly the way they are because of a lack of love and respect in their home environments. Hopefully, those that see your visions will be inspired and it will make a difference in your community. Great work! Jon
September 25, 2011 8:35 AM
 Mr.LesBrown3 said...
Lori,
Thanks for your comments on being the board and the necessity of faith. Your connection that God is some how involved really got me thinking. God may not intend for something to happen but God will use it for his good. If I could remember this instead of losing my temper or passion I would do much better.I can tell you like me enjoyed being the spark. I thinks your work is so valuable.Just your reflections here have been a spark to me. Thanks so much.
September 25, 2011 11:07 AM
 Pamela King said...
Lori,
I love the video you posted. It was so cute. Last year, we used the Fill Your Bucket as a school theme. All the staff and faculty made "buckets" out of plastic cups and they were hanging in the hallway on the way to the office. Staff was encouraged to take slips and "fill each other buckets". Then at Thanksgiving everyone was giving a turkey and people went around passing out feathers to put on it with why you were thankful for them. It definately brought around a good feeling. During summer school, one of the lessons I did with all the classes was about filling buckets. I read the story and we generated a list of ways to fill people's buckets. Then we would take time 2-3 times each week to write out a slip a fill a bucket. The children really enoyed it. The Fill A Bucket movement is spreading. Last week I drove pass the local school and the outside banner had on it: "Have you filled someone's bucket today?" For the record Lori, everytime I ichat you….you always fill my bucket! You have to be one of the kindest people I have ever met!
September 25, 2011 11:51 AM
 Chanda Robinson said...
Hi Lori,
I love your example describing how we affect the environments we enter. I truly believe that energy whether negative or positive travels around with us and affect our environments. When a situation is tense because someone is angry and you enter that environment, you began to get upset as well and it's all because of the energy released in the atmosphere. It is great how you positively affect the classroom environment. It actually helped an assistant teacher find a better way to help the student with needs. I love that response and example. Great job!
September 25, 2011 4:28 PM 

Week 4 The Art of Possibilities Blog Post

The Art of Possibility was very interesting this week.  The chapters 9-12 were very enlightening.  They discussed concepts that would help you in your profession as well as everyday life and its decisions.  Chapter 9:  Lighting the Spark, this can actually be done in a negative way or positive way.  It put me in back into the classroom.  Teachers can light the spark by negatively impacting the students to gain achievement, which doesn’t work or positively impacting the students to gain achievement, which works.  Students tend to react better for teachers who positively affect their lives.  Chapter 10:  Being the Board, discusses how one needs to not analyze life but understand and have faith about the things that are happening in their life or around their life and make the necessary changes or adjustment to adapt to the situation or solution.  Chapter 11: Frameworks for Possibilities, this discusses how visions come to realty.  If you state your visions and they are broad enough then it opens doors for other opportunities or possibilities to arrive and leads to helping us find our way.  Chapter 12:  Telling the We Story, discusses how even though we have the understanding or belief that we are independent and need no one is far from the truth or realty.  We have to understand that in order to get to the next level or the best place, we need to accept our dependence on others and compromise for the good of all.

The Art of Possibilities 4-8 Week 3

The Art of Possibilities gets interesting as the chapters continue.  I am so amazed at how this book tends to lead or guide into my own personal soul searching.  I often analyze myself after reading each chapter to see what I’m doing and if I can change some things for the better after getting insight from the chapter. 

In chapter 5:  Leading from Any Chair discusses how everyone can be a participant or the leader of the group.  It empowers everyone to view themselves as leaders.  This helps you as an individual to display leadership qualities at all times.  From the viewpoint of an educator, it is important to allow the students to become leaders in the classroom.  I have found that some students learn better from other students.  I tend to have peer-tutoring session in class to allow a concept to be taught by a classmate who understands that particular concept better.  This strategy has proven itself to work.  It also builds self-esteem and leadership qualities of the students.

In chapter 6: Don’t take yourself so seriously, discuss how we over analyze ourselves and tend to become overly serious about minor issues.  From the viewpoint of an educator once again, we tend to become so serious that we break down the communication process between the students and ourselves.  Once this happens learning cannot take place.  This harms the students more than help.  I feel that we should be firm but fair and allow our students to know we are human and we care about them and their education.

In Chapter 7:  The way they are, discuss how we over analyze things rather than seeing them for what they are.  We tend to not stick to the reality of what things are but try to make more out of things, which then leads to problems.  As teachers we often overanalyze things such as pre-test scores.  We often feel that this is the marker that shows our students haven’t learned anything from the previous years or lessons.  We then began to over work ourselves and students rather than seeing the picture for what it is and not what it could be.  We as teacher must learn to relax and teach according to our students learning styles and abilities not test scores.

Chapter 8: Giving Way to Passion, discusses how we should try new things that are apart of our passion.  Most of us hate to try new things whether we are interested in it or not.  We often want to stick to the same things to avoid failure or hurt.  As an educator, I noticed that teachers love to teach but hate to try new ways of teaching to reach their students.  Most traditional educators want to remain traditional despite the growing changes in our society.  Technology is one thing that most traditional educators want to avoid; even though, they love to teach.  We have to learn how to take life by the handle and enjoy it and its new experiences.

Week 3 Response to Dena's Blog

Week 3 Art of Possibilities

Any Chair
 Leaders sit in all types of chairs.  We have leaders of our country, of our schools, of our communities, and of our organizations, just to name a few.  So the concept of any chair does apply.  As educators our job is to lead our students in the right direction to prosper into life long learners.  Some types of leaders were mentioned in this chapter that stood out and one was the insensitive management type leader.  These types of leaders may take us further down in the reading when we meet the wall.  It also brings to mind the two types of self.  The calculating and the central.  The calculating is the more dominant one and I think that is where the insensitive mangement leader fits in.  I thought the statement, " A leader does not need a podium, she can be sitting quietly.  The leader maybe anyone of us."  I thought that was powerful.  People in higher positions can just supply the tools and allow the work to be done.  It would lmake the work environment a bit more pleasurable to work in.  There are leaders in everyone, it just needs to be brought out of the individual.  
Rule #6
I love this rule.  Lighten up and have a sense of humor, that helps to alleviate the stresses of life.  Enjoy life while you have it because no one is promised tomorrow.   I also agree that it is important to look at yourself in the situation and ask is it me.  It may not be you but at least you have explored the possibilities.  I also got the message that you should take the opportunity to explore your inner self.

The Way
 This concept should have a balance.  I agree that sometimes it is easier to accept things as they are rather than fuss over everything. On the other hand right is right and wrong is wrong, therefore you have to be careful of what you accept.  There were a few statements that I withdrew from the text.  " When we dislike a situation we tend to put all our attention on how things should be rather than how they are."  "A storm sweeps overhead showers and thunder only to be followed by clear patches of blue."  "Nature makes no judgement. Humans do."  These statements are so true.

The Wall
The wall is not a good place to be because communication has shut down.  If you can not communicate, you will not be able to resolve anything.  " The practice of being with the way things are allows us to alight in a place of openness where the truth readies us for the next step and the sky opens up."  I agree with this statement.

Giving Way to Passion
The message I received was get on with things that matter to us.  There were two ways:
1.  Release those barriers of self that keep you separate and in control.
2.    Allow yourself to be a channel to shape the stream of passion into a new expression for the world.

Week 3 Response to Lori's Blog

The Art of Possibilities 4-8 Wk 3

Image from MicroSoft Clip art

Chapter 5: Leading from Any Chair- this chapter is a reminder that everyone is a participant. You contribute from where you are and empower others to contribute is an important lesson.  It reminds me of a friend who counseled youth drug offenders in a program in San Francisco. His clients were tough street-smart criminals who would have their records cleaned if they completed the program. His technique for dealing with them was to put the “badest” one in charge. That was the one person he could count on to keep the others in line and it gave him a stake in the performance of the group. Other counselors in the program relied heavily on medicating their clients into submission. He had a much smoother approach, giving them self efficacy and using the courts to back up the consequences.

Chapter 6: Don’t take yourself so seriously. Nearly every student I have worked with comments on my laughter. I have worked with a many students with serious emotional difficulties cause mostly by chaotic and violent environment. I would like to cry but laughing works much better. I take the reality seriously but try to make the moments working together as light and happy as possible. I take life this way in general. When my dog ate my wallet and credits cards, I laughed at how silly I was for not being able to outsmart her.

Chapter 7: The Way Things Are: It is true that the one thing we have in common is suffering and circumstances are often less than ideal, but that is okay. We can look at the way things are and use it to see other possibilities. I felt especially moved by the description of Jane Goodall’s speaking engagement because I actually do avoid wildlife programing due to the bleak outcomes. Often I have had to advocate for children living under duress by telling the truth about the situations but also pointing out how a teacher can help in the classroom by providing an escape. It is not always easy sticking to the reality and people want to tell the story either in the worst possible or best possible way. Being realistic changes the possibilities.

Chapter 8: Giving Way to Passion: Life is hard and trying to avoid difficulty by not trying new things will not lesson pain. I always try new things. If I don’t know it or can’t do it, it is a challenge to figure it out. True, trying to use cross terrain skates at my age led to falling on my backside, I still laughed. And I will try again on a less slick surface next time. Change is hard but we have to fight the urge to hide. I agree with the authors. Usually, if you have a strong conviction you can bring others around. If not, enjoying the experience on your own can be good too.