Week 4 Reading

Reading Blog

Once again the Zanders have many well-expressed ideas on the art of possibility or what can and should be. The concept of being the board seemed odd at first but I came to adopt it as my own philosophy. The game of life is played in a universe of possibility. We only need to create the right frameworks and consider all of the players. I will revisit this book in future. I went to the Boston Philharmonic website and found I can continue to indulge in the works of Ben Zander there. I was also fascinated to see this book is available as an audio book…

Week 4 Post 3: California Dreaming

My dream teaching or presentation environment …

I had the privilege of putting together two Macintosh computer labs to teach a new “Tech Lab” class in middle school. In the years that followed the lab evolved from 68030 and 68040 Macs to iMacs, eMacs and G5 teacher workstation. During that time I also added OS X server software to G3 and G4 Mac Pro computers, projectors, Apple Remote Desktop and variety of application software. I was living a dream during anyone of those years J I now find myself in a 7 year old PC lab wishing I had my Mac lab again. Maybe 20” iMac or laptops would be the student workstations this time. Unfortunately it would have to be in another district.

What stands in between me and my dream job…

Hopefully only one more class J I have to say I have a very good job now as a Magnet Computer Lab teacher in an elementary school and this after teaching in a middle school computer lab is very agreeable. While at the middle school I was given a job teaching Computers in Education in the teacher credential program for the University of LaVerne. As a county tech mentor and a computer lab teacher with a computer lab, I was a stopgap measure that helped them to meet new teacher credentialing standards for their program. The job lasted one year. After that the course was made into a prerequisite for the program. Sometimes I think I would like to teach college students again, maybe online. I would also love to get back into a Macintosh lab. I think having my EMDT MS will open new doors…

Week 4 Response

LAURIESTUBBSHAMMOND wrote: A dream job??

I loved many of the aspects of working with low socio-economic 5 year-olds, but the admin was hellacious. So I traded in that nightmarish dream job.

Response:

Laurie I am working with low socio-economic 5 year olds and I love it. After working with middle school students for 16 years it is a pleasure to be working with the very happy and grateful little ones. With all of the pressure of NCLB administrators are not as much fun as they used to be, but I imagine the little guys are. I also have the luxury of working on my own little island, the computer lab, away from the vigors of pacing calendars, annual yearly progress goals, state tests, NCLB, and even report cards.

Week 4 Project

Final Presentation

This week’s final project presentation was a successful venture. I worked tirelessly on it from time I submitted my thesis final draft to the day it was due. Most of the video was recorded in the weeks before but the editing came down to the night before with fixes the morning of the presentation. I spent every available minute on presentation day reviewing the projects from other members of my group. The presentation was successful and rewarding experience. Looking forward to month 12…

Final Project Share

With the final thesis draft behind me (at least for now) I have turned my attention to the final project share this Thursday.

The URl for my project is www.eterno.info

This iWeb site has the full text of my thesis and will host the media project presentation video by this time tomorrow.

Notes on my thesis

It is done! The final draft that is. I find myself focusing more the word draft than final. Like everything I have done in this program, the effort and product was constrained by time. I could have done better. I think I’ll get the opportunity to make it better in month 12… ☺

I finally let go the idea of maintaining a 4.0 GPA. I never inspired to do so, it just happened that way. I always knew the thesis presented a wall in the road to my success in this program. There were times I thought I might not get to it, over it, or around it. I have earned all of the professional growth hours I needed and more. A master’s degree will not do much more for me in my district. But in the words of Zander, I am stepping into a universe of possibility and giving myself an A as I smash through the wall.

Week 3 Reading Part 2: Giving way to passion and lighting a spark

Chapter 8 Giving way to passion begins with a great quote from Soren Kierkegaard in which he writes about the passionate sense of what can be and asks “what so intoxicating as possibility?”

Two good points on giving way to passion: Find where you are holding back and let go. Participate wholly, BTFI

This flows into Chapter 9: lighting a spark, in which passion is the spark of possibility, and enrollment is the art and practice of generating a spark of possibility for others to share. Something we all must do as teachers.

Good reading. I am almost sorry it is going to end in week 4.