Wk 4 Reading Response

Response 2

Inquiries by Ishia

FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 2011

Week 4 Reading Post: Chapters 9-12

The Zanders have a very common sense approach to life that obviously isn’t common among us. The anecdotes and connections to music are particularly insightful as I embark on new and uncharted choices in my life and career. As I have mentioned in previous posts, the practices discussed in the The Art of Possibility are biblical and it makes sense, as the author’s father was a student of the Bible and history.

The idea of enrolling others in our dreams is eye opening. Often when we make requests, we operate on the presumption of being turned down. I have heard myself say on many occasions, “The worst he/she can say is no.” I did this to make myself feel better, but did I really? Of course not.

In “being the board” I saw similarities between this new idea of responsibility and blame and being in God’s Will. Like being the board, being in God’s Will makes it possible to accept the circumstances of life knowing that those circumstances will yield positive results in the end. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28.

What I enjoyed about the frameworks chapter was the whole idea of creating a vision and not division. In all honesty, mission statements do create a competitive spirit and while they may be designed to inspire, it typically is ignored. Now a vision is something that can be seen even if it does not exist at the present. To me, the vision resembles a five-letter word: F-A-I-T-H.

The Zander's story of their father's passionate recount of the Arab and Jewish peoples’ history and arrival in Palestine was interesting. Even more moving was the student’s response, “What a wonderful opportunity! What a privilege for both those peoples to share that land and that history!” What is that saying? Out of the mouth of babes come words of wisdom? Well, that young person definitely has it [wisdom]. What is ironic about division is that the multiple parties are often so similar. The “We” story recognizes the sameness that so often divides.

Wk 4 Reading Response

Response 1

The Sharon Clay Chronicles

Thursday, June 23, 2011

MAC Week 4: "The Art of Possibility"

Lighting a Spark: Since my universe of possibility includes reaching the lives of others by igniting a spark I must remember to enroll myself as much as possible into the lives of those seeking passion and engagement. Sometimes I find myself unwilling to participate because of past fears or my inability to see pass personal limitations. My most valuable contribution can be to relinquish my judgments and accept those who may be reaching out to light a spark inside of me.

Being the Board: Living my life as the board puts me in control of all of the things, which come into my playing field.  I decide what happens when things get moved around. My response determines what possibilities are available to me.

Creating Frameworks for Possibility: Climbing out of the downward spiral is the key to taking full advantage of the possibilities available to me. Recognizing that division feeds the spiral will help me change how people respond to me.  I want to that teacher who makes the abnormal the status quo.  Like the second grade teacher who shaved her head I want to take a flash of insight and change it into a possibility.

Chapter 12. I would like to think that I have been able to tap into my inner power and use it to make a substantial difference in someone’s life. I just do know for sure if that is the case.  I have played many roles including mentor, teacher, mother, and friend.  I would like to believe that I have had a role in helping some of the people I have known realize their dreams.

MAC Wk 4 Reading

The thing that caught my attention was the explanation of enrollment. According to the text, enrollment is the art and practice of generating a spark of possibility for others tho share. This could mean that in order to get someone to participate in something they would have to want to participate in it. In order to accomplish this I would have to get more creative every time I asked someone if they wanted to participate in something. A way that I could make this easier is by taking advantage of a passion that the person has.

MAC Week 4 Publishing/Leadership Project

The two conferences that I am considering are the E-LEARN 2010-World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government Healthcare and Higher Education and the Georgia Educational Technology Conference. The world conference is in in the middle of October. The most important reason why I am considering this conference is because it is a world conference. This means that my information has a better chance of reaching the farthest places on the planet.

World Conference in Hawaii

The second choice is being held in Atlanta in the beginning of November. The thing that attracted me to this conference is the Bring Your Own Technology session. In this session, attendees bring their own technology and visit with others to discover new ideas.

Georgia Educational Technology Conference

Think Out Loud Blog Post 1

Think Out Loud Blog Post 2

Publishing/Leadership Project Presentation

MAC Wk4 Publishing/Leadership Project part 2 of 2: The Pick-Up Note

MAC Week 3 Publishing/ Leadership Project part 1 of 2: The Pick-Up Note

MAC Week 3 Peer Response

Response 2

bravo bucket

Lauren Schneck's MAC Blog

Monday, June 13, 2011

Reflection on the reading wk3: chapters 5-8

I must say the notion that "the eyes never lie" really is true. There is a lot I can learn from my co-workers, my bosses, and the teachers I am helping, by really looking at their eyes when I speak to them. Looking in their eyes can tell me wether or not they are really into what I am saying and wether or not I am connecting with them. I can remember being half way through a seminar on technology and making eye contact with some teachers and instantly realizing I never had their attention. I need to remember that concept as I go on with my work.

Rule number 6 is something I feel I am grasping. I really don't take myself too seriously, and I don't think I am in danger of doing so any time soon. I do know though that people in my department do take themselves way too seriously, and I can see that it hinders a lot of things in their work life and becomes a stumbling block to success. I know that personally I have a hard time respecting leaders that are unnecessarily serious about themselves. I know it's not right to disrespect leaders and I would never do anything outright against them, but internally I loose a little bit of admiration when I see a leader being very serious about themselves all the time.

The concept of leading from your chair so to speak is something that I don't give enough credit. I know that there is truth to the concept that if you do the best with the position and resources you are given you will be successful. Sometimes it is hard to believe that when you don't feel that things could possibly get better. I know that I have to remind myself of that concept often even though I feel that what I have right now doesn't add up to very much.

2 comments:

Ali Weinreb said...

Your thoughts are so true with looking at people. I myself am very aware of this and can tell just by looking at people if they are really listening and getting what I am saying. Just because someone might be looking at you when you speak doesn’t mean they are really hearing what you are saying.

June 14, 2011 6:14 PM

Tremeris Sanders said...

Making eye contact with someone you are conversing with is vital in letting them know that you are fully engaged in the conversation. While in undergrad I liked to sit in the middle of the classroom. Not because I didn't want to be easily noticed but because I noticed that most of my teachers tended to focus on this section of the class while lecturing. I felt that if I sat there while they swept the room with their eyes they would notice the eye contact from me an feel reassured that somebody was paying attention.

June 14, 2011 7:54 PM