Week #4 Wimba Blog "Leadership Project Sharing Feedback"

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During this weeks Wimba session I was unable to share my Leadership project so I asked some classmates to review my project and give me feedback. I asked David Stossmiester, Vivian Tejedor, Drew Fulton, Smitty Lewis, and John Hutchinson to review the project. I was given some great feedback that I believe helped my project tremendously. David said that "I needed to add some to the methodology slide. You discussed what and the why but what about the how? how did you try to get the teachers excited and willing to use new technology? Did you hold Professional Development meetings, did you conduct surveys? You mention in the next slide "after the teachers went through professional development..." So, I guess what I'm thinking is a brief explanation of what that professional development was." 
Smitty said "

Slide 2, Paragraph one reads: 

"When this technology is implemented there is a need for follow up to find out the positives and negatives of the technology and see how to better implement the technology." 

At the end of the paragraph you almost repeat this statement. I would suggest perhaps rewording the terms positive and negative to "benefits" and "challenges."

Slide 3, Paragraph 1 seems to suggest being stand offish as a mentor or lead teacher. I would like to hear the validation or refutation in your experience to thi point.

Slide 7, Paragraph 3 one spelling error to repair.

 

Drew said "Your presentation looks good.  You've got some really great info in the first few slides that I assume comes from your Lit Review.  I think your actual work in the CBR is really great and I think I'd like to see that portion of the presentation expanded.  I'd love to know more about how your teachers felt about the whole thing.  If you have some quotes or something from them, that could be really enlightening. "

Vivian said, great image, of students and educator engaged in technology, it would be great to add an image of a classroom lacking technology to contrast and support your research questions.

All of the feedback was great and much of it was taken to heart and changed to help my project. It is great to know that there are colleagues that are will to go above and beyond to help a classmate. THANKS!

Week #4 Blog Post Comment #2 "Vivian Tejedor"

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Week 4 Reading Reflexion

"You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world" (Mt 5:13-14)

Image Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons, By Fundacionvallesalado 

As I finish reading the last four chapters of the Art of Possibility I have three thoughts I keep revising, "You are the salt of the world", Why since we are little we feel so compelled to look for who or what to blame when something goes wrong when this use of our energy never leads to good, and a powerful image of how we are all connected from a book I recently read, My Stroke of Insight, by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. 

“You are the salt of the world” this bible teaching encourages us to live happily and in communion with those around us.  A perfectly salted dish is tasty, a bland dish can be hard to swallow and an overly salted dish can be overwhelming. The same applies to our interactions with others just perfect brings the best in all.  The Art of Possibility authors call this a spark, too intense or pasive interaction with others do not allow for a spark.  Too little salt does not allow enough of ourselves to shine to light a spark. Too much salt and we may shine but fail to light a spark in others. Very inspiring, how Maestro Zanders reminds us to find the perfect balance to light a spark in our life and those around us. I love the thought of being the salt of the world.

It so easy to be caught up in blame or guilt, I know I blamed my brothers and sisters for everything that broke or disappeared in our home. I never lost or broke anything. As soon as my mother or father would begin to question us, we were all pointing at each other even if we had no clue about what they were asking about. We know blame is futile, still many times it is the first thing we concentrate on.

My Stroke of Insight is a great read, the author a brain scientist has a stroke and is able to talk about the stroke as it occurred, her recovery and her new view of her connections with people.  Here is my favorite quote from this book, it is about how she sees the connection we all share. “I am the life-force power of the universe. I am the life-force power of the 50 trillion beautiful molecular geniuses that make up my form, at one with all that is.” (Jill Bolte Taylor)”

Dwayne BuchananFeb 26, 2012 12:26 PM

Vivian,
You are the salt of the world has always been something that I believe in. As salt gives flavor to food we are also what gives flavor to the world we live in. I have often told my students that if we were all the same it would be one boring world. We are what puts the flavor in our own world. The Art of Possibilities is a great extension of that verse, we can influence the world we live in and the people we come in contact with. The book has changed the way I look at the world I have influence in and hope that it changes the way I do things.

Week #4 Blog Post Comment #1 Lewis "Smitty" Smith

Feb

24

Wk 4 Reading: Being the Board

The idea of accepting the random nature of the universe was initially hard to separate from the meaning of this chapter. When I read the examples I get a much better idea. The notion that there is a causal relation between actions and their inevitable consequences is difficult to swallow at first, since the first thing most people attempt to do is place blame and ownership of successes and failures at someone's feet. Taking blame out of the equation completely changes the view of the actions of self an others. I have often been heard saying to my students and even my own children, that I don'tbelieve that there is such a thing as an accident, but that carelesasness can be attributed to many mishaps. By this I try to impart that in the future it is important to work against bad choices, even if that choice is inaction in the face of a dangerous situation.
Owning action and reaction mean that we can see the reason in the chain of events, and because we have free will, act differtently in the future to avoid them. While happy "accidents" do befall folks, for the most partwe can continue to live happy, healthy, and productive lives by considering the ramifications of actions. This is a huge challenge but one which offers anyone the chance to fail, and take the lesson to heart. By being the objective board and seeing the interconnection of actions,we can take better control of our lives and the way we impact others for better or worse. All teachers should employ this before even talking to a student or parent about grades and progress. This would help the teacher identify the needs and causes of problems in the learning process without making the discussion about the students actions at all, but about the best way to influene the student positively.

Posted Yesterday by Lewis Smith

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Dwayne BuchananFeb 26, 2012 03:00 PM

Smitty,
Taking the blame out of the equation completely changes the view of the actions of self and others is a great statement. I feel that we all to often want to lay blame before we know all the information in a given situation. There have been times that a situation has occurred. I think we need to look at the whole picture and try to make judgments based on all information and not what is just visible.

by being an objective board will allow us to make more sound decisions. Parent conferences are a great place to start. Many times if we examine what is really going on with students it will help us help them better. I had a student recently that tried to commit suicide. I had noticed his grades starting to slip and continually tried to find out what was going on and he kept saying nothing. A couple of days before he attempted he talked to me a little more about some problems he was having at home. I felt horrible about what happened and thought I should have done more. His mom came in to talk to me Thursday before her son comes back to school on Monday. She said if it weren't for his teachers talking to him it could have been a different outcome. We never know what our students are going through and when we take an interest and discuss it with our peers. We can positively impact our students and the possibilities are endless.

Week #4 Leadership Project

This project came about last year when our school received a grant that included a large amount of technology. The teaching staff is a very veteran teaching staff with six years being the least and thirty-seven being the veteran of teachers. The average teaching experience for the staff is twenty-four years. During this challenge based experience the teachers were integrating new technologies into the classroom through professional development. The teachers worked very hard implementing the technologies, the students were more engaged and the teachers had a great experience in the process. This research project turned out to be an overwhelming success.

I have chosen the Georgia Educational Technology Conference. I chose this venue because of the overarching technology emphasis. Showing the integration of the technology that is presented at the conference would be helpful to those attending. I have also chosen the Florida Educational Technology Conference for the same reasons.

Week #1 Leadership Blog

Week #2 Leadership Blog

Week #3 Leadership Blog

Leadership Project

Week #4 Reading Blog: EMDT-MAC

The chapter Framework of Possibilities has to be my favorite chapter in this book. I wish I had read this a couple of weeks ago. When we stop and look at the possibilities that lie before us each day as teachers we could help alter some of the circumstances that they tend to get into.

To me the teacher that shaved her head, because the student was made fun of by the other students, is a hero to me. I would have been so upset with the ones that made fun of her that I would not been able to think that clearly. The fact that the student’s attitudes completely changed made me think, this is the way to go.  

It is amazing to me the attitude of the author, and I understand his attitude changed through the art of possibilities.  They way he handled the students that went on the roof was amazing. I had a similar situation happen last week with my students and I didn’t quite handle it in that manner and I wish I had.  The next time I run into the same situation I will handle it differently. After reading this book I think I will handle many situations differently, the possibilities are endless.

Week 3 Wimba Blog

During this Wimba session I loved the conversations on the book Art of Possibilities. This book has changed the way that I think about empowering the people around me to be engaged and to think for them selves. I want to see a paradigm shift in this generation’s way of thinking and doing things. I all to often see students that are just getting by and not putting forth the effort they need to succeed. If I can empower my students to succeed all of what I have gone through will be all worth it. This is a book that I will recommend to students and staff.

The information on the final project was very helpful. I will not be able to make the Wimba session so I will be sending out invites to review my work.

Week #3 Blog Post Comment #2

Wk3: Leadership – Where to Present

February 14, 2012 By Drew Fulton 1 Comment

Since much of our work was conducted in the forest canopy, the 6th International Canopy Conference would have been perfect.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about where I want to present my CBR research and the associated Canopy in the Clouds project. My first choice was going to be the 6th International Canopy Conference that will be in Mexico later this year. The timing was right and they are accepting abstracts, but unfortunately, my project just doesn’t fit into any of their session themes. I have looked at a bunch of other conferences and organizations where I’d like to present and the timing doesn’t work. Either the submission period has closed for the 2012 conference because the conference is coming up soon, or the submission period hasn’t opened because the conference isn’t until late 2012 or even early 2013. There are some really great organizations out there that my project would fit in with perfectly but they won’t work as Full Sail requires I submit to a conference between now and sometime next month.
So far, I have narrowed it down to three choices that have current open submissions, but I am not totally sold on any of them so far so am still exploring options. In no particular order, the conferences are Botany 2012, Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, and Association of Educational Communications and Technology. The Botany conference has a session on botanical education and my project could fit in there if spun the right way. The other two conferences are more focused on education and they would fit nicely and I will likely focus on these two as I prepare my presentation next week.

Dwayne Buchanan says:

February 18, 2012 at 10:27 pm

Drew,
I feel your pain about the timing of conferences. The majority of ones I have looked at have either stopped taking applications or haven’t started taking them yet. I hope you can find one that fits your needs because you have a great project to share. I am at a conference in NYC and I have talked about and shared your site with teachers from London, New Zealand, Peru, Toronto, Bahamas, Germany, and several schools hear in the US. I think you have something worth sharing. Good luck.