Week Thre Blog Three- Streaming Thoughts

As excited as I am about what I have learned in my time here at Full Sail, I don't see how I caan successfully carry it over to the required curriculum the powers that be are continually pushing on us. Now the entire county is to be on the same place on the curriculum map, continuity across the board. I am a very creative teacher, constantly coming up with new and fresh ideas that I would love to implement. I am fortunate to work at a school that performs fairly well academically, therefore the county leaves us alone. My administrators have been in my room twice this entire year. When they came in, they were looking to see if my lesson essential question was on the board and if I had the correct word wall up. Nonetheless, the problems are compounded daily, and by next year it will have reached near fatal levels.

The way standardized testing is going, the classroom is more and more falling back into the traditional style of teaching. Teachers creativity is confined; our county even said that they had to place more stipulations because the teachers had too many freedoms. We are being told when to give a paper and what the topic will be. How can I use time-consuming technology? It's VERY frustrating and discouraging.

The county pays for Blackboard, and I worked really hard to set up my required Blackboard site. It's so disheartening to know that it is almost May, and our students were never given their login information. I wanted to have them blogging this year as part of their journaling. I wanted my advanced classes to create wikis. Alas, because of the confines in which we must work, I wasn't able to travel outside of Blackboard and never used it.

I guess I need to finish my reading of Zander's book. Maybe it will inspire me to begin looking for the up side of the situation, rather than focusing on that which will only bring me down even more. I must continue to strive to better grow into someone who doesn't allow the outside stresses of life to kill my joy!

Carlene Young said, "Zander’s The Art of Possibility has been a wonderful, breath of fresh air in our long, arduous year of studies. I have already recommended it to several people and am inspired by it again and again. In Chapter 10 he states:

“If I cannot be present without resistance to the way things are and act effectively, if I feel myself to be wronged, a loser, or a victim, I will tell myself that some assumption I have made is the source of my difficulty” (p. 143).

I am reminded that life is not fair, it’s the way things are. If I find myself in conflict and feel put out, or like a victim, I just need to turn the tables and say, “OK, what am I assuming? Is that the problem?” If I am assuming that every teacher in my school has as much passion and desire to have their students learn the arts as I do, I’m sure that’s false, no matter how much I wish it. I have to back up and see the whole board, and enjoy my dealings with all of the teachers and their classes. They aren’t all as supportive as I wish, but I can deal with that and enjoy those classes in a different way.

I replied, "Sometimes when we are so passionate about something, it is so difficult to see why others don't get it. Feeling that the louder we exclaim your belief, the better chance they will have of believing us. The fire inside that a passion for something creates is hard to quench, unless we are finally beaten down and the fire just goes out altogether. I guess the question is: How can we redirect that passion in a way that is supportive of those who might not necessarily see things the same way we do? In theory we know that we are supposed to look for the positive, but sometimes, the emotions those passions bring to the surface, override and logical or reasonable thought."

Week Three Blog One- Response to Romel

Romel said,

"Mistakes can be like ice. If we resist them, we may keep on slipping into a posture of defeat." (p. 103). This statement hit me smack in the face during my reading this week. Not too long before writing this post I blogged about not liking to go back and readdress mistakes that could have been prevented if I had known the direction of the task more clearly. I think this was be being a bit whiny. I know that mistakes are inevitable in my life. I've made my fair share of mistakes and I'm sure I have many, many more waiting for my future. I guess the "ah ha" moment for me in this statement was the part referring to resisting those mistakes and basically setting myself up for permanent failure. I have come very far in this process of life and have hit several patches of "ice". Some of those patches I did not allow growth for learning to occur and as a result I faced some defeat along the way. The previously mentioned statement goes on to say " If we include mistakes in our definition of performance, we are likely to glide through them and appreciate the beauty of the longer run." (p. 103) I am no more immune to mistakes than any other human being on this planet. I think the thing I am taking away from this is that mistakes are going to happen. How I deal with those mistakes determines the success of my overall performance.


I replied, "You are definitely not alone in the resistance of mistakes. Nobody likes to face failure and mistakes always felt like an intensified and repeated failure. I took this attitude in my work place and with my daughter, who is now 11. It has been within the last few months that I realized how detrimental that fear of failure can really be. I had created a child who was afraid of everything, and do extremely poorly because she could never do enough or do it right enough to make me happy. In August I had to have an emergency hysterectomy and went from wanting more kids one moment and never being able to have another one the next. That opened my eyes to what I was doing to myself, my daughter, my students, my coworkers. I still find myself freaking out because I want everything to be perfect it and it far from it. Especially now that I am nearing the end of school and feel like I am drowning. Slow breaths and thoughts of serenity remind me that in this one life I have, I can best grow and flourish when I truly embrace who I am, mistakes and all."

AR Presentation Places to Present...

Convention 1:

Currently set up to present information and projects from Cycle One at the Teacher to Teacher/School to School in Mid-November in Winter Haven, Florida. There are several counties there, and close to a thousand teachers travel through the booths.

Convention 2:

The Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education conference will be in Nashville, TN in March 2011. This conference is a great way to Network with others in the industry as well as share the knowledge acquired through this journey.

Publication 3:

The Journal of Technology and Teacher Education is a journal that also partners with others to hold conventions. Both are a wonderful resource, as well as a wonderful place to start with getting my work published.

Week Two Blog Five-AR Update

So, here I sit, my dinner made up of stale graham crackers in one hand and typing with the other, musing over what I actually accomplished this week.

I'm now only one week behind on the blogs, not three. So props for that. (I am kidding of course about receiving props.)

I am pretty much done with my Literature Review. Other than some tweaking, here and there, the idea is outlined. I think I have to add more, but I am not sure.

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I have redone my interviews and data from cycle one and cycle two and will have it posted soon. I definitely have that to get done soon.

I am not sure what I am going to do about the lost data. I guess I need to figure out a solution soon because I need it posted on my site.

The AR presentation is nearing a close, so I think I will be ready.

What else am I missing?

Week Two Blog Four- Response to Roxanne

I also share the sentiment; however, I sometimes let it get the best of me, taking everything so serious. Most of the time I get to the place where I can comfortably let things go. Count it a blessing that you are a let it roll off your back kind of chick! LoL

Week Two Blog Three- Response to Xavier Lazo

I can relate with the feeling that being number two isn't good enough. But I have been trying to apply the "Giving myself and those around me an A" philosophy. Which ties in nicely with the idea of not taking ones self quite so serious. I know people who just can't seem to help themselves and really indulge when it comes to making sure others see things the same way they do, to the point of being obnoxious.

I also think that part of any good leader is being able to own up to your error and to reconcile it. I've known teachers that would refuse to credit a student a correct answer because they felt they couldn't have made the mistake and even if they did, they wouldn't change the points. To me that seems a little bit like a dictatorship. My way is the only way mentality. As a leader, the goal is to bring out the strengths in each member of your team. As the teacher, it is my goal to bring out the best in each of my students.