Wk4 Publishing/Leadership project part 2 of 2: Where Will I Go??

From AlexanderDrachmann w/ Creative Commons

Now that I've presented my Publishing Leadership Project this week I can concentrate on answering the question as to where best my presentation would fit. Unfortunately the list that is on the class assignment page does not fit with what my Action Research Project is about. This led me to seek out other conferences that are out there for teachers. Although I'm still searching for other conferences, the following three I feel would be acceptable venues to present my Publishing Leadership Project.

1. I Teach K! National Conference
2. National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) National Conference 2012
3. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

I look forward to next month in putting together proposals to submit.

Wk 4 Reading Activities Post 3 - Response to Janene Neal

Here is my response to Janene Neal:

Janene.

What can I say really other than the fact that since EDE you have provided me with a spark to push forward and do my best in our EMDT courses. Your endless words of encouragement and your not so subtle ways of saying to stop slacking have made learning with you since December's class something that I will cherish.

I remember one of our first assignments when we began on our EMDT journey was about did we want to gain colleagues or friends during our time here at Full Sail. I remember saying that through our shared learning friendships will be created that transcend the normal interactions between classmates. I look forward to our friendship remaining strong after we're done here at Full Sail and thank you for helping me find that divine spark within to be the best that I can.

Wk 4 Reading Activities Post 2 - Response to Hunter Looney

My response to Hunter Looney's week 4 reaction to this week's reading:

Hunter.

The word that comes to my mind when reading this portion of the book was 'immersion'. I know that when I'm being active in something I immerse myself totally in what it is. By being immersive, I am giving all of my being to the task at hand. This allows me to, as what is described in step 2, to become wholly participating.

Wk 4 Reading Activities Post 1

The one thing that stood out to me in this week's reading has to come from Chapter 11 "Creating Frameworks for Possibility." The reading revealed three main areas for a person to create the frameworks needed to make change happen.

1. Making a new distinction to help reframe the current one.
2. Become a part of the framework around you.
3. Distinguish what is part of being off-track, while remaining on-track.

This chapter describes the very reason I became an educator. I usually get laughed at when I refer to teaching as being an art form. It truly takes a special being to become one. It's become open season lately on teachers. Yet despite all the pounding we take, we trudge on because we know what is at stake.

Each day we walk on campus we MUST check our egos at the door because something more important is at stake. I strive everyday to instill the desire in my students to look introspectively and make decisions that will positively impact their lives. Unfortunately, success is not 100% and I'm not naive to think that I will ever be 100%. It's like I hear football coaches being interviewed on television saying that they put their players in the best possible position to win. Very few football coaches are successful at accomplishing this, as history has shown, this has only happened once. This fact does not stop me from trying my hardest every day though.

This endeavor goes hand in hand with the third area. Part of making or reframing the current possibilities of life involves distinguishing between right and wrong. I, like the example given in the text about the orchestra in Sao Paolo, Brazil, was faced with something similar when I was playing high school baseball. We took a trip to New Orleans for a tournament. Our last instructions were to NOT go down to the quarter. When 16 to 18 year old young men are faced with being told not to do something, we chose to do the exact opposite. Our coach took a similar tact as the orchestra leader. We did not get the beat down reaming that we all probably deserved. Although we did not win the tournament, we went on to play some of the best baseball we had played up to that part of the season. Rather than playing for someone who we resented, we were playing someone who we felt we understood.


Images:
Downloaded from Flickr with Creative Commons Attribution Licensing
Schools Out - From Loozrboy
Football - From ElvertBarnes

Wk4 Publishing Leadership Project

Journey by Katielips - Creative Commons Licensing

Month 11 draws slowly to a close. Meaning I am one step closer to my EMDT journey being over. It is hard to believe that it is almost done. I can remember this time last year as I was getting my paperwork together to begin the program and coming home one day to find a shiny new MacBook Pro waiting for me. This journey has been a fun and fulfilling one.

My action research (AR) project focused on what effects utilizing concept maps in a first grade science classroom would have upon learning vocabulary. The data collected revealed that the use of concept maps had a positive effect upon the learning for the targeted students. I was genuinely pleased with the outcomes produced from this AR. Especially the positive influence on the use of concept maps that transcended across the curriculum.

For the week 4 publishing leadership project I presented during the Thursday night session with assistant course director Emily Wray. I was quite happy that all of my classmates chose to stay connected during the session and gave all participants great feedback. As previously stated in another blog post, the three conferences that I've chosen to submit a conference proposal are:

• I Teach K! National Conference
• National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) National Conference 2012
• Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

The link to my presentation can be found Here
Think Out Loud 1
Think Out Loud 2

Wk3 Reading Activities Blog Post 3 - Response to Michael George

My response to Michael George's Blog Post. His post will be below my reply.


I applaud you Michael for viewing everyone on campus as an educator. Just a few years ago I held a different belief that the actual 'teachers' on campus were more important to the learning then everyone else. It took me moving from the classroom to a support role to realize how wrong I was in this thinking. It takes everyone on campus doing all their little parts to make every learning experience count for students.

Wk3 Reading Activities Blog Post 2 - Response to Brian Thomas

My response to Brian Thomas.  His post will be below my reply in its entirety.

"BUT" is one of the words that I NEVER allowed my students to utter in my classroom. I would usually follow up a student saying the word with "are for sitting" or "are for ashtrays". In my opinion it is a truly defeatist type of word. I'd rather see a student say "What if" and then follow up with some sort of support for their position.

The thing that sticks at me with leadership Brian is the fact that schools are doing away with practice of 'recess' in the elementary setting. It's these informal periods where students work on the original social networking and build leadership skills through pretend play and other non-coordinated activities. It's these activities that inhibits students from gaining confidence in themselves. I think if we as educators would take a step back and look at educating the whole student again a new crop of empowered leaders might be harvested.

Wk4 Publishing/Leadership project part 1 of 2: What will I do???

Photo by Horia Varlan Used with Creative Commons

Had the oh so much pleasure of sitting here at home today sick which allowed me to think about the final leadership project. After writing the literature review for my action research the thought of writing another paper for this particular assignment does not seem very appealing. I also went back to look at my options that were expressed during the week 1 wimba session.

I recently became quite familiar with using Prezi. I feel it takes keynote and powerpoint style presentations to the next level. As of right now this is the route I'm planning on taking for the final leadership project.

Wk3 Activities Blog Post 1 - Rule #6

Newfound Gap, TN  Photo by: Tom Turner

The first thing that I thought of when I saw the title of Chapter 6 in "The Art of Possibility" was a saying on a t-shirt that my wife owned when we first met. After all these years it has stuck with me. The slogan was "Life's a Journey, Not a Guided Tour."

This slogan is right in line with the theme of Chapter 6 and its suggestion that we all need to "lighten up" (Zander & Zander, p. 80). As I walk around campus I encounter teacher after teacher who is stressed out. Stressed out because of poor student performance on standardized tests. Stressed out because of mandates passed down from administrators. Stressed out because of what seems to be a lack of support by a government that doesn't really understand what teaching is all about, yet continues to try to reform it.

I myself subscribe to the "Life's a Journey, Not a Guided Tour" mentality. Life's way too short to get worked up over stuff that I have no control over. I've resigned myself to the fact that the state legislature is not going to be calling me for my opinion any time soon with regards to education reform. That doesn't mean I won't do what is necessary to try to exact change.

I also subscribe to the premise that part of my job is to provide a little levity to my campus. It is my belief that a happy and jovial workplace is a very good place to work. All too often people get too wrapped up in what they are doing and forget to see that their stresses can be relieved with a joke and a smile. I know the students that I taught were always appreciative that I ran my classroom in a way that learning was peppered with humor.

The other thing that I thought about wen reading Chapter 6 was CBS show "NCIS". I know, it seems a little silly. One has little to do with another. But as a NCIS junkie I've taken to living my life by some of Gibb's Rules. Many of the rules revealed through various episodes of the show have no bearing to real life. It seems a bit funny that the Gibbs Rule that I subscribe to the most is also #6: Never apologize, it's a sign of weakness.  The way I interpret this particular rule is to live my life with no regrets. The decisions I make in life I need to stand behind with confidence.

wk2 Activities Blog Post 4 - Free Post Copyright Update

Thumbs Up by .reid Used with Creative Commons Attribution

This week's anything goes blog post was a no-brainer for me.  After last week's experiences with copyright at my school it seems some of what I shared with the teachers sunk in.  I was working in my back office yesterday on some computers. I was separated by a door with vents on it and was listening to the teacher talking to her students about copyright. This is the same teacher that I spoke with last week when I was walking through the lab.

So I was listening intently as she was trying to work with her class in setting up their bibliography. I think this last page of their powerpoints they are working on was added after I spoke with her. That's just a personal belief and I have no proof of this other than what I think. The part of her conversation with her students that struck me the most was when she said with such emphasis, "If you don't cite where you got your information that is Breaking The Law!" She must have said this 3 or 4 times. I could not help myself but to start clapping from my hidden vantage point.

After a bit of being startled and not expecting to be overheard I commended her on her recognizing the importance of teaching her students the importance of making sure her students understood copyright and what it meant. I sent her links of the video clips for her to look over and use as a resource.

Our school leadership team is in the process of putting together professional development for the start of school next year. I am happy to report that copyright has been added to the PD schedule for the first month when we come back to school in the fall. I shared this story, and the one from last week, with the leadership team. They were instrumental in getting this PD opportunity added to the schedule.

wk2 Activities Blog Post in response to Karl Peterson - Post 3

This post is in response to Karl Peterson's week 2 response to reading blog post. My response will be followed by Karl's complete post.

wk2 Activities Blog Post in response to Brian Thomas - Post 2

The following is my response to Brian Thomas' blog posting on our week 2 readings. His post will follow my response.

wk2Readings_Thomas Turner_The Art of Possibility

Lego Pile by Justgrimes w/ Creative Commons License

These legos to the right of here sum up what I conceptualize what our reading is about for this week. For many, myself included, this pile of legos present an enormous road block in the creative process. Ask someone like myself what they see in this picture and the response is easy, "A pile of legos".  We'll get back to what the other creative minded people will respond with here in a little while.

This week's reading consisted of Chapters 1 - 4 of "The Art of Possibility". I'm a very avid reader, and will enjoy reading this summer once we are done with this EMDT program. I've so missed sitting out in the pool with a book. One tool that I like to use when I read is to imagine someone else's voice as I'm reading particular areas of text. For some reason when I was reading the other night the only voice I had going through my head was that of Dr. Siegel. One of the takeaways for the Gaming Strategies and Motivation (GSM) course 2 months ago was to always imagine the unimaginable and then to make it possible. This is mostly because gaming strategies for education is one of those taboos that mainstream educators and administrators don't want to talk about, think about or dream about. In my mind this is what Chapter 1 was all about. For example, the Zander and Zander shared on page 15 the following:

"What might I now invent, That I have not yet invented, That would give me other choices?"

In my head this SCREAMS Dr. Dan! The entire month of GSM revolved around finding limitless opportunities for our students to create and invent and explore worlds and realms that are not possible to visit in the traditional classrooms.

I was also very intrigued with the third chapter, "Giving an A". I very much enjoyed reading how the instructor of the music class attempted to get the best out of students. In the past I would start off the each marking period with the same statements. That right now EVERYONE has an A in my class. After reading this chapter I can see how I would amend that and utilize a similar method. Zander and Zander believed that giving an A to students would lead to students to take risks that they normally would not take. All with the hopes of after reflecting upon positives and negatives that the creative processes will be unimpeded thereby letting innovation take place (p. 34).

Lego Millenium Falcon Built by Richard Jones w/ Creative Commons

The great thing about this philosophy to learning is that it breaks down the barriers to learning between student and instructor. This frees up students to be as creative as they can be and for teachers to maintain a facilitative role (Zander & Zander, p, 36).

Now, back to that pile of legos above. If that pile was placed in front of student in an environment where they are not given the freedom to take chances would it be possible to end up putting together a design such as the Millenium Falcon? I am highly doubtful that students would be willing, or wanting, to put the effort needed to create something as elaborate as the falcon (or a building tower, car, etc) where they didn't feel their teacher was supportive to their learning and risk taking.


Zander, R, & Zander, B. (2000). The Art of Possibility. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Wk1 Free Choice - Wimba Rewind

Image by Bredgur with Creative Commons License

 

Due to family obligations I was unable to attend Tuesday night's WIMBA class session. I'm looking forward to Monday's session so that I will be able to attend in person.

This week's WIMBA served as a HUGE wake-up call for me that we are truly almost done with this year-long journey. That's not to say that this is a month that I can just skate by to get things done. So very not the case.

I took advantage of spring break to read ahead on the first three weeks of the EDM613 course (thank you Joe for sharing it with us early). I did want to enjoy spring break so I didn't spend any time working on the work until Saturday and Sunday. Listening to the end of the session about the final leadership project is what helped me the most. That was one of the things that I did not read about last week.

Image by Luxamart with Creative Commons License

As of right now I have not made a decision on what type of presentation style I will go with. I'm leaning towards utilizing Prezi.com, but that's not really a definite right now. I have a few more days before I need to make a final decision.

I also realized that I had more work on my ARP web page than I previously thought. I will be needing to make some minor tweaks throughout the site, however, I don't see it as a major endeavor that will need to be undertaken. 

Wk1 Comment 1 Copyright Issues Response to Janene Neal

My first comment for week 1 is to Janene Neal's Blog

Wk1 Comment 2 Copyright Issues Response to Meghan Bassett

My response to Meghan Bassett's Blog Post. Here original post is below my response.

Wk1Readings_Thomas Turner_Copyright Issues

Image by TilarX via Creative Commons Attribution License

It's as if the readings/viewing for week 1 was meant to be this week. The third and fifth grades at my school are in the midst of doing some end of the year 'research' projects with their students. I'm using the term research loosely here as all that I've seen over the last few days has been copying, and not research.

I began my conversations with the teachers with strictly conversation. I didn't want to pull a holier than thou attitude with them, however, I knew that what they were having their students do was breaking the law.

I took my verbal rebuke from the teachers in stride. Frankly, I'm the 'new' guy on campus and what do I know? I'm supposed to be the tech expert on campus. I don't flaunt this fact. I offer up my services when needed and I give advice when I see fit. But I couldn't keep my mouth shut on this one. Not when I saw 4 classes in a row using google images as their personal image gallery.

This isn't the first time that I've seen this sort of research happening in a public school. Most primary and intermediate teachers (again I say most that I've encountered, not all) conduct their research projects in this way. I've already spoke to my administration about educating our classroom teachers on copyright and fair use as we start the next school year. At this point it is moot to embark on it because the information would just sit there for 3 1/2 months and just go to waste.




Used with Permission
© 2011 Jupiterimages Corporation

 I was able to glean a few bits of new information from our reading for this week.

1. First was learning that there really is no "time" frame limit to music or video that can be used as fair use. I was always under the impression, and had always been instructed that it was a 30 second or 10%. It amazes me that this misinformation has been allowed to permeate through numerous ed tech conferences and workshops that my district has given. 
2. I understand the concept of remixing. As I was watching "Good Copy/Bad Copy" and the part of the film discussing Techno Brega from Brazil I was having a hard time wrapping my head around how what they were doing with the original works was not copyright infringement. I agree with one of the comment that what they are doing works to increase the original artist's name recognition.
3. One of the most important things that I've learned during the EMDT program is the use of and attributing my work through a Creative Commons License. I love having the choice of how I want to copyright my work. As an educator it is in my nature to want to have what I create out there for people to use in a way that will help others learn. 

I can understand where the professional music and movie people take a hard line when enforcing copyright of their work. They are in the business to make money. It is understandable in a capitalistic society that artists will want to make money from their hard work. I don't think less of them for this, however, I do question the level of zealousness that they take. If only they would recognize the level of learning that could take place if they would step back and allow learners more access to their work. Until that day, creative commons (http://www.creativecommons.org) will be the place I will go to get work that other like-minded people have shared.


Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages Blog by Tom Turner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.