Comments: Helen

Week 2 Reading: Chapters 1-4 (WK2BLG1)

Credit: Notebook Gallery Software (SmartNotebook)

This week in my MAC course I have finished reading chapters 1-4 in The Art of Possibility and WOW what a STRONG and uplifting book. It was nice to first view the video from TED because it really set the mood for the book before I started reading it.  Benjamin Zander is such a strong speaker and is so methodical with his speech and writing. Both Zander’s are filled with such strong stories and examples and reflections for me as a reader that I found myself rereading each of their stories multiple times.

The chapter this week that hit me the hardest was “Giving an A”. It was such a power chapters filled with uplifting stories that constantly kept making me reflect upon my daily life as a daughter, wife, educator, and all around person.  Reading these stories that Roz and Ben had to share about their lives and experiences really made me think about what I was doing towards and with others within my life. Many times we by human nature judge things before giving others the chance to prove themselves and we need to watch these barriers we put up. We need to allow the creativity flow and allow people to make their mistakes and make their judgments but ensure that we are allowing them and giving them the A they deserve.  When I first started reading the chapter I thought it had to do with standards and I couldn’t warp my brain around giving all students an A…because I kept thinking…what do they have to work for or towards then…their motivational levels fall and their thought on doing their best does as well…but it wasn’t about standards and giving the A so that something was completed but allowing our learners and peers in our lives to live up to their potential and allowing them to be passionate and share their experiences with others. I was moved through these stories and examples in this chapter and I know this sounds nerdy…but cannot wait to finish this book to reread this chapter again. I already have it bookmarked to read in the months of January-February…the time of the year when our students and teachers, myself guilty of, fall into the winter blues and hopefully this will make me become more passionate and drive my students in their learning when I ‘Give them an A’.

I really want my students and peers and myself to really reflect daily on what steps have I taken that make a difference…good or bad…We all need this opportunity in our lives to be given an A by ourselves or others. Being an educator we need to open our students eyes to see what they CAN do and what they are possible of achieving...allowing them to push themselves and be passionate about the things around them and share it. We need to change our world of learning into being able to look deeper than skin deep.

Source:
Zander, B. & Zander, R. (2000). The Art of Possibility. Boston, MA:Harvard Business School Press
TED Video: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/eng//id/286

My Comments:
Helen,
I have enjoyed your take on what you read. It seems like the "Giving an A" chapter really hit home for a lot of us. Giving ourselves an A makes us want to step up our game and not lower our standards. Sometimes what we call our best really isn't our best and giving ourselves an A can help us live up to our full potential.

I often ask my students, what do you think this class requires of you for you to make an A? Some of our students do feel that their presence is merely enough and some know that it takes more work than they think. Some of my students viewed Music class as another recreation but I had to show them that there was still a lot that was left for them to learn. Not even I know everything that's why everyday is a learning process.

Thanks for sharing some of your knowledge!!

Comments: Francine

Wk2 Readings - The Art of Possibility , Chapters 1-4

Well first I will speak on the video of Benjamin Zander's presentation. Ben humorously engaged an audience of 1500 people to take a journey in listening to classical music. Awesome!  I was so amazed at how engaging he was and thoroughly enjoyed his antics and the analogies that he used to describe how human nature can direct us into negative or positive thoughts about our daily walk in this life, irregardless to what path we have chosen.  AND he did it all with his awesome and beautiful piano playing.  The video was a great preface or lead - in to the book, The Art of Possibility: Transforming  Professional and Personal Life!

Photo Credit: Francine Jackson - The Art of Nature

The stories that Ben and Roz have shared in this book have truly opened my eyes to the many possibilities that I still have left while I am on this journey called life!  Chapters 1 - 4 were very interesting and it is hard for me to choose which topic I want to address in my blog because they were all so very true and enlightening.  As a musician, the art of possibility spoke to me in such a way that I am considering the questions that were posed in the "first practice", What might I now invent, that I haven’t yet invented, that would give me other choices (Zander and Zander, 2000).  It is fascinating to think that "it is all invented!" And truthfully it is! Our thoughts, our interactions and how we approach life is all invented.  We tend to grab hold of the things that we were taught by our parents as our own, but actually they invented some of those things and now it is time for us to invent our own ideas and ways of handling adversity and positive outcomes that occur in our daily walk while on this journey.

We tend to encourage our children to accept the ideas that we have invented but actually we need to allow them to invent their own.  By protecting and sheltering them so much, our children have become stagnant in how they approach life, because their ability to achieve success and make good decisions in whatever they choose to do has been permeated ostensibly by our inventions.

Stepping out of the box is really hard for some people to do. In the "world of measurements," which is our familiar world we tend to stay inside that box because it is our comfort zone.  For example, my sister is a wonderful person, but is not able to step outside of the box of familiarity.  She is apprehensive in doing things differently than what she is accustomed to doing, and so is her daughter. The apple does not fall far from the tree. On the other hand, I am not afraid of trying new things or moving away from the familiar, and my daughter is just like me. My daughter is 24 now and has never been afraid of people or trying new things in seeking out new possibilities. In the final analysis I found the following statement of the Zander's to be very profound and that is; in the measurement world, you set a goal and strive for it. In the universe of possibility, you set the context and let life unfold. I felt this was a very powerful statement.

In addition, after reading the 3rd practice of "Giving an A," I felt compelled to call my sister to read her a passage from the wk 2 readings from this section.  In short, she has been frustrated about her job and the fact that she is isolated in her position and it appears that her supervisor is not much help in assisting her with her low moral. So I read her the passage on page 46 which basically states that giving yourself an A is not about raising your self-esteem but it allows you to lift yourself from the success/failure ladder and spirits you away from the "world of measurement" into the universe of possibility and it gives you the opportunity to see all of who you are an be all of who your are, w/o you having to resist or deny any part of yourself."  I woke her out of her sleep to share this with her and she thanked me.

I believe that I am a contribution. I didn't know I was playing this game. But I am.  I believe that I am contribution when I am teaching my students about life and the games we must play to survive.  Although I teach "choral music," I believe that I do much more than that.  I am nurturing and provide my students with a place where they are comfortable talking about whatever they need to discuss with me.  This may seem small to some, but is is huge when it comes to the daily needs of our students.  The illustration of the 5 year girl who wanted to know what the music of the composer Mahler  was trying to convey and that she was able to discern that the first story that she was told was not the truth, was quite profound.  And the fact that after she attended the concert that Zander conducted, she wrote him a note thanking him for having the orchestra transmit Mahler's feelings through his interpretation of that music was just so insightful. Loved reading the book!  Thank you, Joe! 


My Comments:

Francine,

I really enjoyed reading your blog about your take on the readings. It's always exciting when you learn something that you want to share with someone else like your sister. I agree with your statement that sometimes we copy what we see. Even right after birth and before we could take we were learners. My music professor always told me that as a baby we breathe correctly but as we get older we watch how others breath and tend to take their way. As a result, I spent 2 of my 4 years in college learning how to breathe like I once breathe before so that I could sing properly.

I believe that through giving yourself an A, you push yourself everyday to live to that standard. Ultimately, you want to be better!! In college if I thought that I would get an A in the class at the beginning of the semester, I would. If I believed that I would get a B, that's what I got. I really enjoyed your blog and thanks for sharing.
  

Wk2 reading -Out the Boat

Toes to your nose, Toes to your nose.

I took from this more than just the story, but I took this from an educational standpoint. Some times it seems that we have to say things over and over to our students. I know at my school there is an A, B, and C day for all grade levels, so that means I teach the same lesson at least 3 times depending on how well the students learn the information. This story lets me know that sometimes repeating that information is not a bad thing because in a test that's all the students would have is that memory of you and the information that you were quoting sometime daily. In the situation that he was in, I know that sometimes when in a stressful situation we can forget everything that we have been taught. In his case at first all he could think about was survival. Eventually he remembered what he had been taught to do. I think this story is the reason why we have teachers to guide us into the education that we deserve.

I think that it is important that we think outside of the box that we live in. Everything around us in this world is not always right, its just here. Some of these things we see, we can change and some we can't. Living outside of the box is a good thing to do, I would not confine myself to things that the world does as a means of entertainment or fun. The biggest thing that a high school students has problems with is being themselves. Most of them want to dress alike and act alike until they are not even themselves. Then you have some students that would rather hang with no one just to live outside of the normal High School box and it most cases these are the individuals that the followers cling to and hopefully start to be themselves.

So we should ultimately let go of that box and step out and be something that we have never been before.....OURSELVES.

Photo from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/megansauce/5315674796/

Comments for Edwin Moy

Wk1 Reading- Copyright issues

Via Flickr

The concept of copyright is confusing if you don't have all the information.  From watching all the information provided I still think there is an enormous amount of information regarding copyrights that I can still learn.  The biggest understanding I took away from the reading was how copyright laws are still changing and almost everyone is affected by it because of the internet.  With sharing sites like creative commons out there I feel hopeful that copyrights will not totally limit the creative process.


Hearing the copyrights have gone from 14 years to 100 years for companies worries me to what the future of creative media will be if new artists worry about being sued for using copyright content to create new works of art.  The video A fair(y) use tale brought a smile to my face because it uses the law to push the boundaries of copyright laws to prove a point and teach viewers about how fair use can be used as a defense in copyright law cases.
Working for a company and not being an educator creating educational media is easier to use since my target audience has more knowledge about the world and I can use photos and images within the company to prove my points.  For educators the difficult is how can I get my students to understand a point without violating a potential copyright at the same time.  We all understand popular culture and students would love to have that as a reference point for learning, so the challenge is on the educator to be able to relate the information in a way that does not violate any copyrights but still gets the message across.

Edwin,

I enjoyed your take on the required reading for this week as well. I am learning more and more about copyright and sometimes I am surprised by the number of things that are protected. As a teacher, I understand what you mean about how we can so easily break some rules of copyright. For instance, when I was in college as a voice major you could not copy your music and if paper music was present at your jury (when you sing in front of all the voice professors for a grade) you would fail. So copyright really is serious!!!

Comments for Cheryl McGovern

This weeks reading assignment was very much on target for me.  I am in the library, and am asked copyright questions all the time.  This was very helpful.  I was amazed at the fact that copyright lasts a lifetime plus 70 years! WOW! That is one long time! It is a good thing that someone came up with fair use! Teachers would be in so much trouble if fair use was not around! Another thing that I thought was that those rappers with all the profanity and sexual innuendos throughout their music should be glad that someone would even consider using any of it.  I won't even subject myself to listening to that in the first place, let alone "borrowing" any of it! I am really behind in the times, as I have never heard of Danger Mouse and the album "Grey". I also did not realize that Nigeria was so involved in the music industry.  I really liked the "Fairy Tale" using the Disney characters! That was my favorite part.












Cheryl

I also was impressed by the amount of time that a copyright last. I always wondered why most of the hymns in the hymnals are public domain, probably because the composer wrote it more than 70 years before now. It is also amazing to me how much can be copyrighted.Thanks so much for sharing your take from the required videos.

Wimba X Summary

What is MAC?

Watching the archive of this week let me know how close I was to graduation. This is the time in which we put everything together that some of us have been working on for months. This month I was able to put my Literature Review on my website which was a big step for me because that is the one thing that I stressed about when entering the program. This Month 11 class will helps us get our final website ready. 


Thanks for the sneak peek of what our final project in this course will be about so that we can start preparing. Since we only have a few days left, let's cherish this final moments and put forth our best efforts until graduation day. See you all there!!!!

Week 1 Reading: Copyright

Copyright- an creators protection (If you can create it, you can protect it)

This is one word that could get you in a lot of trouble if you are not careful. This week I learned that copyright goes beyond books, articles, and music but a dance could also be copyrighted. I remember in undergrad always trying to keep an account of everything I researched to get information for our big papers that we had in Music History. Copyright is not always a fun thing to do but at least once you really get it, you know what to do and what not to do. In writing a research paper, you must cite all of your sources so that it is very clear that some of the information you are using is not your own.

Certain citations have specific requirements. If you repeat a statement that you found in a book or article you have to cite the book and page that you got the quote from. Pretty much every quote that is not yours has to be cited with a page number and the author. This is only a certain citation system. I am a songwriter and I never thought about how important it was for an author or even a dance creator to protect their works.

I am glad that copyright allows you to protect what is yours, it is kind of like an alarm system for creators.

Copyright Picture
http://www.flickr.com/photos/man_from_md/6008832460/