Mac – Week 4: Reading Reflection – The Art of Possibility

Screen captured image: Topic focus for School Improvement Conference - SPARKING Success!

I didn’t get very far into the reading this week before I found the focus for my blog… lighting a spark. According to Ben Zander, “…our universe is alive with sparks. We have at our fingertips an infinite capacity to light a spark of possibility” (p125). This fits perfectly in with the tech conference I sent a proposal to and seems to be the ‘sign’ I needed that says- this is the place you need to be to help light that spark of possibility in others! Zander went on to list some steps and two of those remind me of what my mantra needs to be: “Offer that which lights you up… [and] have no doubt that others are eager to catch the spark” (p126). This pretty much sums up my passion for what I do and all that I have learned throughout my journey both as a student and a teacher. I have always been full of passion and the desire to pass that onto others has been burned deep inside because of how others have inspired or ‘enrolled’ me in this educational trip. They have been my roadmap and their sparks have ignited mine. By offering to others what I discovered along my personal journey and through my research, I can only hope that my light will spark someone else to carry on their own passion and pass the sparks onto others.

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

Postscript: I just wanted to say I loved this book! It had so many wonderful stories and themes I could relate to. It was a very enjoyable and entertaining read.

Mac Week 4 – Publishing/Leadership Project

I have definitely narrowed my choices down to a presentation but finding a conference was a bit tricky because at this time of the year, there are many who are not accepting proposals from presenters. Ultimately, I was hoping to present this summer but now I realize it will have to be a fall conference due to deadlines for submissions.

Screen capture of Texas School Improvement Conference Website

My first choice is to present my research at the Texas School Improvement Conference in Austin, Texas: October 26-27, 2011, at the Austin Convention Center. The conference is sponsored by the School Improvement Resource Center (SIRC), a statewide initiative charged to work with schools throughout Texas not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under No Child Left Behind and to provide guidance for school improvement. To learn more about SIRC, please visit their website at http://www.esc13.net/sirc.

Please consider the following information prior to completing the application:

I chose this venue because my project addresses what this conference is all about and aligns with the conference theme, SPARK Success!. My project would also support 4 of the 5 strands:

supporting a positive school climate

preparing high quality teachers and leaders

advancing academic performance

reaching out to parents and community

keeping the focus on quality data and learning time

Unfortunately, notification of acceptance will not be sent until July 1st, 2011 but I did confirmation that my application was received.

Screen capture of submission acknowledgment

Screen capture of email acknowledgment w/o correspondence in body of email

Here is the link to the conference Website for anyone else interested in presenting at this location: http://www.sirctexas.net/tsi/index.html

My second choice is Teaching for the NEXT Generation being held in ElPaso Texas May 12-13, 2011. I sent an inquiry email to see if they had any open slots for presenters but have not received a reply yet. This conference would be actually be my first choice if I knew for sure I could get accepted. 

The topics included blogging, teachers and web 2.0, survival skills for the 21^st century, and podcasting just to name a few. All of these could work for my project presentation so if I don’t get a response for this year, I will ask them to put me on the notification list for next year.

Link to Think Out Loud Post #1

Link to Think Out Loud Post #2

Link to Think Out Loud Post #3

Link to my presentation: files.me.com/kathy.valunas/s1ko4e

Mac - Week 4: My Think Out Loud - Part 3

Arghhhhhh...... technology is so awesome when it is working without any glitches! My Publishing/Leadership project is going ok but getting it uploaded to my iDisk was terrible. One day my mobile me account works without any errors and the next, it wiggles with that stupid message "your ID or password are incorrect"! So after several hours of dealing with tech support from Apple, it is working again. I ended up creating a slide show presentation using Keynote even though I normally use PowerPoint. Tried Prezi but it was not going to give me the option of speaker notes so back to Keynote. I was a bit disappointed in that not too many of my classmates were creating presentations; most opted for a publication for their papers. But I love presenting so this is my preference. Managed to keep the slide count down to 15 so that is pretty good. I saw Curt's Keynote slides and his choice for the Zen presentation was such a great idea. Though it was tricky to whittle down the amount of text, I did manage to keep it simpler than usual. Well still have a few slides to complete with details so back to work. Laters loyal followers!

Mac - Week 4: Comments to Andrea Nichols

@Andrea Nichols-

Wk4_Thinking Outloud Post #1

Students Blogging by K. Valunas

I guess I should have posted this sooner as I am thinking a lot about whether to publish or present. I guess I want to do both, in a way. I certainly don't want this project to end at the end of this program.

I've learned so much about blogging through this program. I believe the biggest insight into blogging in education is that the determining factor to whether blogging will succeed or fail in the classroom relies on the teacher's ability to participate in the blogging experience. Kids will do what their told, mostly, and complete writing assignments on paper or digitally, whatever is required of them. The attraction of blogging is the feedback bloggers receive from others, especially the teacher. The more time that a teacher has to make comments to the students, the more excited the student becomes about writing. It's fun to get feedback from your fellow classmates, but it's even more fulfilling to get feedback from your instructor. The problem is (as an instructor) finding time to read and respond to all the blogs. It's more convenient to have all the writings in one place, rather than in a pile of papers on your desk, but the burden is the same: When will you find the time to read and respond well? I guess it goes back to the old adage: The more things change the more they stay the same.

Back to present vs. paper. I think I'm going to work on the presentation (slides) for this week's Wimba. I've signed up for Wednesday night. The process of making the slide presentation will help me get my thoughts in order for a paper. I really want to be published in a journal someday, so this is as good a time to start towards that goal as any!

My comments-

Andrea, you have some good ideas and I appreciate the writing focus for your project. With so much time spent in social networks and texting by students, I could see blogging and tweeting being activities that encourage and reinforce writing skill development.

I worked with a teacher a number of years ago who was involved in the National Writing Project. I know she would agree that the blogging would be a big improvement over having to read all the papers. One nice thing about the blogging is that we can use it like a conversation. If we keep our comments short each time and let it flow as if we were talking with a group of people, then it makes it a lot easier and less time consuming to read and respond to the blogs than sitting and trying to read through all the papers.

I used blogging one year with my student publication students who had to learn to do interviews. They kept the “discussion” on their blogs going by asking questions and then getting answers from others in response to the questions. Then I just facilitated and monitored their conversations. You don’t necessarily have to respond to each one every time they post, but could post general feedback once or twice a week, or respond to a personal post from a student if you feel it is warranted. Also tweeting, having to limit tweets to 140 characters, could be a way to learn vocab and post definitions or a sentence to clarify meaning of a term. Thanks for sharing your ideas and your project! Best wishes as you move into the final presentation/publication phase.

Mac - Week 4: Comments to Melissa Lodhi

@Melissa Lodhi-

Week 4 Think Aloud 1

Image by Melissa Lodhi

For my publishing leadership project, I would like to present at the Florida Dance Educators conference and at the National High School Dance Festival.  Understanding biomechanics and anatomy concepts are so important in effective dance education and with the limited time we have with students in the classroom, we need the most effective means possible to deliver the information.  Both of these conferences will allow me to reach numerous peers and to share a process that was enlightening and informative.  I believe that this audience would be extremely receptive to the findings and would offer their own insights in regards to the project.

When beginning the project I had a strong desire to be published, but based on the results of the project, I believe a presentation offers a much better way to continue the research and to acquire feedback on present and future results.

My comments-

Melissa, what a wonderful idea for your AR project and I agree that a presentation with demonstration would be more effective than publishing although I wouldn’t rule out a published paper later on. After reading your “think aloud” posts, I decided to check out your Website to read more. What a great opportunity for students to have a performing arts magnet school to attend. I also thought the layout and images you included were great! Photoshop manipulations with filters brought a very creative perspective to your project and helps the viewer make a stronger connection to your overall concepts.

I think what you did with this project will open up doors for exploration beyond what you ever expected. The fact that you had some very favorable results will be the springboard for further discovery. I also think you have chosen the perfect venue for presenting your project. Not only will you be sharing and encouraging others but you will be providing options for engaging students even more. The deeper understanding and critical thinking skills that students will gain will be so important for their physical well being when utilizing the kinesiology concepts. What an asset your work will be for others! Thanks for sharing and best wishes as you finish up and for your presentation at the festival.

Mac - Week 3: Extra... Extra... read all about it! (aka Think Out Loud #2)

Screenshot of AR Project Website by Kathy Valunas

Tweeking at the end of my Journey...
This week's extra post focuses on my AR project Website. When I started this month's class I thought- eh... piece of cake when it came to completing the parts of my AR Website in preparation for the final month with Dr. Bedard. I had all pages populated with almost everything required and assumed it would just be a matter of cut and paste a few last minute additions. Wrong- I had a number of changes and tweeks to make to my cycle and critical friends pages that I didn't expect. But now that I have completed everything except the final entries for the assessments and data, and the final summary, I realize that these changes made everything flow much better.

Interestingly, as a Web designer, I was always taught and continue to guide my students to design pages that don't go on forever and ever with so much information that it takes forever to reach the bottom of the page. So naturally, I had split up the information related to my critical friends. I got too creative and made a photo album page to introduce this group and then created "about me" pages with their bios and more personal information. Well, needless to say that created too many pages and I had to consolidate all of the details onto one page. I didn't like the idea at first, but could see why it was much easier to just have one page that focused on everything. Actually, now that it is done, I do like the new page much better; it is very organized, has a pleasing and easy to read balance of information, and is simpler for the viewer to "see the whole picture".

Now on to the final leadership project. Still not 100% certain as to what direction to take for sharing my project. But, since it was a project focused on professional development through the use of an online community of educators and students, I will definitely being creating a presentation. After completing some research and looking at other examples from past EMDT students as well as others who have done action research, I will be choosing some type of professional development conference or inservice meetings where I can share the project and data in hopes of helping others who might want to develop a similar project.

Mac - Week 3: Comments to Torrey Proctor

Image & manipulation by Kathy Valunas

Using software alternatives for manipulating and editing digital photos can be expensive or impossible unless you find an alternative. Why not try GIMP? That's what one teacher is considering with his digital photography students. Read more...

@Torrey Proctor-

http://torreyproctormac.blogspot.com/

Week 2: Podcasts in Education

I intend to use the following podcasts to teach a new digital photography class at my high school next year. Here is a website that lists 25 great podcasts for digital photography: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/24-1-photography-podcasts-that-will-inspire-you

Podcast #3: Meet the Gimp: Free Tutorials for the Free Graphics Software Gimp

http://meetthegimp.org/

Podcast #3 was chosen because my schools head IT suggests I use Gimp instead of Adobe Photoshop for editing photos.  If I can’t get Adobe Photoshop for my digital photography students than I’m going to learn the plan b software; Gimp. 

My comments-

Thanks for sharing all of these great resources and podcasts for teaching digital photography. I teach Photoshop and digital publishing and my students are always asking about using GIMP. About 5 years ago, one of my best students used GIMP at home as well as Photoshop at school to complete all of his work. This free software program is the best option for classrooms and students who cannot afford the high price of Photoshop. It works just like the industry standard and the concepts, techniques, and processes are almost identical. I think the best part of using this option is the fact that now students can continue using the same program on their home computers so the learning and creativity never ends. I looked at the podcasts for GIMP and find the information at meetthegimp.org to be be valid and easy to follow. I know once you start using this it won’t matter if you teach face-to-face or online, you and your students will be editing digital photos with ease. Just make sure you get full approval from administration and your IT department to download and use this on your lab computers. This is the one issue that so many teachers face when they find a free software the want to use. Good luck!

Mac – Week 3: Comments to Melissa on iWeb problems

Screen captured image from Apple iWeb site: http://www.apple.com/ilife/iweb/#design

@Melissa Lodhi-

The AR website has been a great source of frustration this week.  While all of my information was already posted, I had major issues with formatting.  Actually, the formatting and alignment looked fine in the application, but every time I published, it went haywire.  In iWeb, the numbers and paragraphs were perfectly aligned but the published site had lines waving in and out.  First, I tried to put in additional text boxes and move them around to line up.  FAIL.  Next I tried to go back and forth between the published site and iWeb, moving things left and right to match up with where things belonged on the published site.  FAIL.  Then I went in and deleted the preference files and cache for iWeb.  FAIL.  Finally, I consulted discussion boards online and read that sometimes the text boxes themselves can be the problem.  I had to copy and paste all of my text in a Word document, reformat in Word, delete the old text box, then put in a new one and copy and paste all of the reformatted material.  SUCCESS.  Who knew the text would be the hardest media item to integrate into the site.

At this point, I think I have just about maxed out my Mac.  My machine is not the one supplied by Full Sail because I already had one before starting the program and opted out of the new purchase.  While my machine is adequate to complete the program, I am asking a little more than it is capable of.  At this point, I need to run a disk utility, or wipe it clean, or set it on fire to stop all of the bugginess but I am afraid to kill it before the end of the program.  For the remainder the program, I guess I will have to keep going through FAIL, FAIL, FAIL, SUCCESS.

My comments: 

I feel your pain too, Melissa because this happened to me months ago. I contacted FSO support first because I got my computer with our program. They gave me the contact info to talk with support at Apple for iWeb issues. After a few changes in settings, I was also publishing again without any problems including alignment. I would also suggest getting an external hard drive or at the very least backing using Time Machine and backing up everything to your iDisk. You could also back up everything on your computer to the "Cloud" through Google. That one is FREE and from what I understand, easy to use. Have not personally tried it yet, but just read a great article about that option in my MacLIFE magazine. Hope this helps and good luck!

 

Mac – Week 3: Reading Reflection – The Art of Possibility

Leonard Bernstein - the conductor who personifies The Art of Possibilities Image from Flickr Photos Licensed by Creative Commons

The possibilities are endless... or so one might believe after reading this week's chapters in our book for reflection. But what it really boils down to is attitude and perception. It was so easy to visualize from chapter 5 how the conductor- detached as the ultimate leader- was to provide the ultimate guidance as his orchestra played. But their jobs were probably even more stressful and complex because it was the instrumental players who were responsible for interpreting the every move of the conductor so that every note and accent was flawlessly played. They had to be totally in tune with his direction of the piece would fail.

So it is with educators, or business managers, corporate big-wigs, etc. etc. etc. The list of players could be any group you wanted it to be and the maestro or ultimate leader could be that president, administrator, CEO, the one we place on the pedestal- the unreachable or untouchable bronze statue, etc. Regardless of who those people are, there has to be a leader who can nurture and mold his group, direct them in such a way as to encourage perfection with their craft. Ultimately, that perfection is evident when we see the final outcomes, the reactions of the audience as well as the performance of the players.

But the process doesn't end with the performance- that might be just the beginning of the interpretation or understanding. It is the facilitator who leads with compassion. This is the one who exhibits just the right mix of expertise and humor, but who is willing to admit when they too are not perfect but just the vessel used to hold all of the strengths necessary to fill up the whole pitcher of perfection. With that, we then need to ask ourselves, what is perfection? What one might consider perfection may be failure for another. The trick then is to find the right balance or mix of all the ingredients necessary to make the presentation of skills and talent delectable, cherished, and unscathed in the eyes of the beholders, the listeners, the audience, the evaluators, and the critics.

So I will consider my purpose as an art and let my mind wander around the sea of possibility until I complete my journey and lead others to achieve their possibilities... let this art experience begin!