EDM613 - WK 4 Comm2 - Jessica Goodenow

You know, especially as a teacher we can affect others with the slightest thing.  Whether a word to a student, or watching a class for a colleague, the little things count in our daily lives.  That is awesome that your encouragement through your observations made the difference in someone following a dream forgotten.  That para-pro has settled and you helped to ignite a fire.  Thanks for the reminder that I can offer the possibility back into someone's life.

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Wk 4 Reflection on Reading

Chapter 12 spoke volumes to me. When considering myself and the road I have traveled, I sometimes forget to realize the affect I have on others. Has there been a time where I have had the pleasure of lifting a teammate, student, or stranger up enabling them to realize their dreams and exceed anything that you could have imagined? I HOPE SO! I hope I am positive to my team every day of the week. One circumstance where I looked outside of myself to uplift a colleague was with a para-professional. She is fantastic para. She has the presence of a teacher in the classroom. When she comes into the room, with a one-minute prep, she could co-teach the classroom. She is one in a million in the realm of para-professionals. One day I asked her if she had every considered being a teacher. She looked at me like that thought had never entered her brain. After explaining to her how wonderful she is with the students and in the classroom, she opened up to me about a disappointment she had had when trying to get her degree in education. She had gotten pregnant with her now 20 year old daughter and never thought she could be a mom and finish a degree. Life got crazy, but now is settling down again. I told her about how universities are trying to make degrees more accessible to older students and gave her a couple universities to look into. A couple weeks went by. She surprised me one day by saying she signed up for an art class to go towards her general requirements. I was so happy. She told me that I had been the bug in her ear. She needed to get back to her passion. She loves kids. Anyone could see that. It was all about honesty and appreciation.

I hope I live every day sharing honest appreciation with my family, colleagues, and students. You never know when a person might be needing a little bug to encourage them to seek what is possible!

Posted by Jess

EDM613 - WK 4 Comm1 - Sandra Colby

It is refreshing that the authors understand that they do not have the fixes for our messy lives; but they do have great examples of how we might try to change our mindset so as to see a possibility of the fixes for our messy lives.  I agree that they have given us plenty of suggestions to not remain where we are.  Thanks for the insights.

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The art of possibility has a lot of wisdom between its pages.  I was finishing the reading and was thinking about Dvorzak’s New World Symphony.  It is one of my favorite pieces as well, thinking that I have a copy on tape somewhere in my collection of music.  It was another gem that we performed either in high school or in college or both.

Photo by SL Colby

The Art of Possibility actually reminds me of spring flowers coming up through the earth and giving others the chance to start again. 

In the coda, the authors suggest: The book had no intentions of solving your problems or even letting you browse”.  (p. 198) I read it all the way through and thought there were more gems that I missed.

What they may have meant that is this book has a lot of suggestions for you to take into your life to help you, but it is in no way a solution to how you live your life.  For me I think that there are enough guidelines that I can use to move from this point forward.  I will think of myself as a new spring flower getting ready to greet the sun and turn myself into a different direction.  That is something that Full Sail University has given to me.

Posted by colbys

EDM613 - Wk4 Publishing_Leadership Project_Intro Paragraph

So I had a dream about being in front of an audience much like the ones in the TED videos.  It was very quaint, personal, and I was able to move through the room freely.  I have always enjoyed being the person with the answers, and teaching teachers could not be a better way to make a difference.  I can only speak for myself, but I love conferences.  I could sit and listen to a great speaker all day long.  This is where the nerves come in, I so desire to be that presenter that engages the audience.  I will not have wordy slides that are boring to look at; and I will not put every word that I want to say on a slide either.  I will be placing only the attention grabbing information of each section, and allowing my relationship with the audience dictate how the rest goes.

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Presentation

EDM613 - WK 2 - Wimba - Creative Commons

Boston Commons

It is nice to see how people can come together and force the legal community to follow their rules.  People should have the right to allow the use of their works how they might like.  The laws are for the people and should be by the people, so creative commons seems to be a nice area that allows some "free play".  Because the laws can be so rigid that we become locked into a relationship-less world, we need to make sure that there is always the ability to connect with each other.  There also seems to be the need for others to be able to recreate using the already created of others.  The question that comes to mind is "why can't we all just get along?"  We should give credit where credit is due and trust that others will do the same with our work.

EDM613 - WK 4 Reading - The truth hurts sometimes

For me, being the board has all kinds of difficulties that come along with the notion.  I have been able to find solace in the blame game for my entire teaching career.  The students that come to me are usually several grades behind in their mathematics knowledge.  Much of this is due to (here comes the blame) teachers being "run off" by the bad acting children.  In fact the students brag about how many teachers they have been able to get to leave.  Having to accept responsibility of how I react to the situation will make me a better teacher from here on out.  Instead of being able to write off the students that are not understanding what they ought to have learned in the past, I now have sparks to light.  The students are on my board and I get to bring them to new places with new learning experiences.  I can fight the facts that they are behind, or I can find out where they are and bring them as far around my board as possible in the time we have together.  I can be just another voice telling them what they can't do, or I can be a refreshing fountain of encouragement.  The art of possibility is just that, an art.  Some people are naturals, others have to work hard at it.  The great thing about the art of possibility is that everyone can grow.

EDM613 - Wk4 Publishing_Leadership Project_Pt_2of2

I have found two conferences that I would like to present for.  The first is the Florida Distance Learning Association (FLDA).  The theme for this years conference is "Distance Learning - Best Practices and Beyond".  How appropriate to have just finished a master's degree through a distance learning system.  If accepted to this conference, I would change some of the material to highlight Full Sail's process of guiding me through this action research project.
The other conference that I will be applying to present at is the Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics (FCTM).   
This years conference is about bringing people together to advance the field through distance collaboration.  My project about teaching students how to use technology to advance their own understandings of the content could be beneficial for others who might want to use distance learning in their districts.