MAC Week 4 - Classmate Comment # 2

Kate - 

Chapter 9: Lighting a Spark

On page 126, they talk about what happens when an opportunity that we expected is no longer there. I think I have step 2 down, “Stand ready to participate, willing to be moved and inspired,” but I think my expectation is that the inspiring will come from some outside source. When I understand that willingness and inspiration can come from within as well as outside, I will be on the right track. Maybe asking for help is the best route as Roz suggested. I don’t know why that makes me so mad. I guess that is a clear indication about how I really feel about the troubled relationship.  I have been waiting for an invitation to enrollment. I have wasted so much waiting for someone else to do what I believe is right. No more waiting, I have the opportunity to be invitation, and I am going to take it.

Chapter 10: Being the Board

“When I blame you for something that goes wrong, I seek to establish that I am in the right – and we all know the delicious feeling of satisfaction there. “ “There is nothing I can do about your mistakes – only about mine.”

I used to be so bad at this with kids. It took me a while to see that we are all working together and not working against each other. Getting work done is for their benefit. I am so lucky to work with other teachers that feel the same way.

The Cora story was great. I often run into this with middle school girl’s athletics. There are kids that come to every practice and there are kids that come to a few. We are so small, next week we will play with 6 players that I cannot afford to run anyone off.  I usually don’t make the decision to establish “punishment” for missing practice. I tell the girls that when they can be there, it is best for them and the entire team. When they can’t be there, they can’t be there. Some parents have issue with this policy. That is, until they need to make an orthodontist appointment. If someone misses most of the practices that week, there is a natural consequence that they will not be able to keep up with the speed of the game so I have to take them out of the game.

Chapter 11: Creating Frameworks for Possibility

This one is tough. Especially when it has been in practice for so long. This is such a brilliant way of looking at relationships and being a leader. I love the fact that Zander didn’t point out how each person had some role in the misbehavior. He simply allowed the kids to paint their own picture of their dream and goals. Through that, the kids came to realize that the behavior of the previous night wasn’t in line with what THEY wanted for the experience. How powerful! How interesting!

Chapter 12: Telling the WE Story

This chapter reminded me of a story from a few years ago. We were in a meeting about camp and the upcoming season. We were working together to come up with a list of things that needed to be done before the kids arrived. I suggested that the front entrance be mowed and weeded. My boss and friend of several years said, “We already did that last week. We can have it looked at again before the kids come.” Without hesitation, I broke out in laughter. This woman has a private jet, 6 homes within a 100-mile radius, and all of the comforts that money can buy. When she said, “we,” the picture in my head was of her weeding while Pedro mowed. What I took from that though is that she had this amazing gift of enrollment. She could make a solution that she needed done, seem as though the solution came from you. Everyone works together in the camp setting and she was the master of making things work and simultaneously enriching the very people she worked with. I have never met a more gifted leader.

Overall Impressions

Looking at the bigger picture the book painted; I am reminded of an extension cord. My father purchased my grandmother a lawn vacuum. She was very skeptical of the device. The bag is to small, it isn’t very wide, it is going to take forever, etc. I decided to stop listening to the same story over and over and go out and try it. My mom got the vacuum and extension cord and tried to plug it in. My dad had purchased a 100-foot heavy-duty extension cord with the machine. The cord was so heavy and bulky that we couldn’t get it off the hook. We decided to take pieces at a time and pull it down. Inevitably it became a huge mess. We decided to just plug it in and try near the plug so we didn’t have to try to untangle the entire thing. Well, the vacuum worked well. I picked up at least two large bags of leaves in 10 minutes. The vacuum mulched them into tiny pieces so we could take the scraps and put it in the garden. After seeing the efficiency of the machine, we decided to finish the rest of the yard. We were back to the extension cord. I wanted to finish the yard quickly. I started pulling on one end and my mother started working on the other. We were both cussing my dad for buying the biggest extension cord in the history of forever. Although, my dad’s vision for the extension cord was that we wouldn’t have to worry about finding plug. This would in turn make the work go faster. In our haste, we didn’t work together and we got into this downward spiral. We finally thought we were finished with the untangling and my grandmother came out to let me know I had a phone call. I went in, took the call, and then went back outside. My mom had thrown the entire cord in a pile and decided it wasn’t worth the trouble. I finally convinced here it would be worth it. We finished the rest of the yard in 20 minutes.

This book reminds me of that. We are often given a huge extension cord that would unleash the possibility in our lives. When life becomes a mess, we try to figure it out from our individual perspectives. In the end we find that when we meet in the middle, one or both parties has made a mistake and it doesn’t work. It is easy to declare that the relationship isn’t worth all of the effort so we cast it aside to deal with later. Working together, understanding that we are all different, keeping the conversation from a downward spiral, keeping an eye on the end benefits instead of the struggle that is in front of us, understanding that each person wants what they think is best for them, remember that we each play a role in problems, our perceptions of problems can make a huge difference in the way we feel about them, remembering that few things are matters of life and death, and sharing the positive parts of our life can transform the world and the way we live in it! Here’s to the possible!

Working together, understanding that we are all different, keeping the conversation from a downward spiral, keeping an eye on the end benefits instead of the struggle that is in front of us, understanding that each person wants what they think is best for them, remember that we each play a role in problems, our perceptions of problems can make a huge difference in the way we feel about them, remembering that few things are matters of life and death, and sharing the positive parts of our life can transform the world and the way we live in it!

MAC Week 4 - Classmate Comment # 1

Marquita Gulley:

Chapter 9

Enrollment. Wow.  Creating that spark.  I honestly hope that when people meet me they feel the spark of life that I try so hard to give off.  Enrollment is being positive so that others pick up your positivity.  It is like how my family portrays blessings. When someone you know has received a blessing just know that yours is right around the corner. Be happy for people and be positive.  Influence others to want to be positive as well. Spark a light is someone so they can spark a light in someone else.

Chapter 10

The board.  Having the option to change the course of action before it occurs.  Instead of placing the blame on someone else, be responsible to take the blame yourself.  Even if you know it is not your fault you could still have some fault.  Now that I think about it, there are some situations where the blame could have been on me.

Chapter 11

The Framework.  Making ways better for everyone. I really enjoyed the story about the second grade student that lost her hair from chemotherapy. Her classmates picked on her and she did not want to go to school the next day.  The framework is all about bringing people together with no divisions. Also, we have to be able to see the true vision and not just state false ones.  A vision could change how someone feels about an idea.

Chapter 12

WE!!!! Instead of looking at the world as if it only affects you, think of things in the perspective of how it impacts all of those around you.  That is so powerful because quite frequently we have thought that our worlds were so bad but we never really take to time to look at the world through the eyes of some who is really going through things.  There are so many people that do not have job, have been diagnosed with cancer, who are innocent in jail.  We sometimes seem to get upset about the crazy stuff and forget there are bigger issues in the world.  Look at how you can make the world better instead of how the world can be so hard on you!!

MAC Week 4 - Leadership Project

The Leadership Project I am presenting deals with leadership as it relates to the closing of the achievement gap.  The achievement gap is a problem that has plague our country for decades and beyond.  Closing the achievement is imperative to improve communities and increase the international competitiveness of our children.  In this season when the world is becoming smaller every day through the use of technologies such as the internet.  Therefore, as educators, we are charged with the task of implementing strategies that will begin to chip away at the achievement gap.  This presentation will introduce (or reintroduce) a few of those strategies.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1sQcrsAt-b3ZGI2ZTViYTktNzhlNy00MzAwLWIzZDgtOWM5ZDg1N2M0NDQx

Prior week's leadership posts

Week 3 - http://chonnie-blair.blogspot.com/2012/01/mac-week-3-blog-post-2-leadership.html

Week 2 - http://chonnie-blair.blogspot.com/2012/01/mac-week-2-blog-post-2-leadership.html

Week 1 -http://chonnie-blair.blogspot.com/2012/01/mac-week-1-leadership-post.html

MAC Week 4 Wimba Post

Most unfortunately, I was unable to attend this week's Wimba because of a speaking engagement.  However, I did solicit feedback from two of my classmates about my presentation and below is the shared feedback.  I took the suggestions into consideration with making adjustments to my presentation.

Gail Mebane said:

I just reviewed your presentation and I think that your CBR project was amazing.  I learned a lot about the achievement gap that I didn't know before; Thank you!  I think that more educators should work on closing that gap.  You have the makings of a fantastic presentation.  I love the pictures on the second and third slides; beautiful!  I found a couple of typos on the slides. (slide 2, second bullet point: as well [as]; slide 8, last bullet point: organizers that [are] informative).  I know that you used an abbreviated format and not complete sentences on the bullet points and I think that works fine.

In addition, here are my suggestions for improvement of the presentation:  (1) Add more slides so that you can have less text on each slide and add some more graphics to break up the text and make the slides more fun to look at.  This was a suggestion that was given to a lot of people during the Wimba session.  (2) When you talk about differential selection and processing, I don't know what you mean by that.  Are you talking about something that happens outside the school or inside the school?  I need clarification on that and exactly what you mean by those terms?  I imagine that there will be others who don't know also.  It would be helpful to give a definition and perhaps some examples to clarify what you are talking about here.  (3) Add a conclusion to your presentation to summarize what you talked about and tie everything up neatly for your audience.

The heartfelt nature of your work comes through in the presentation and I believe you are a big asset to your students and to your school.  This information is desperately need.  So, it is great that you have decided to share what you have done, to educate people about this topic and how to implement some solutions that work.  Great job!


Marquita Gulley shared:


I have taken a look at your leadership project and it was amazing.  I love how you added visuals and kept it to the point.  Your slides were great and concise. Your speakers notes provided much detail to the information in the slides.

MAC Week 4 Blog 1

In Chapter 9, the book, The Art of Possibility, talks about the concept of enrollment.  This process is one that charges you with viewing others as a possibility for enrollment, having a willing spirit ready to be inspired, when something moves you, have the courage to grasp onto the spark that Is ignited within you and expecting others to also respond to that spark.  It charges you with fearlessly allowing the excitement of a new idea to inspire you to action in collaboration with others.

The practice of being on board that is presented in chapter 10 is an empowering practice.  You are here to make a difference.  You are the captain of your own ship and the owner of your circumstances.  When you have an idea that is rejected by others, you have the ability to persuade them by presenting evidence of the benefits of the idea as opposed to retreating and releasing an idea that may benefit others.

The practice of framing possibility is a powerful, visionary one.  I dream big and set goals far beyond that which others consider normal or attainable.  To that end, there has to be a plan to attain that goal that others can buy in to.  The plan must be implemented in such a way that it gives evidence along the way of it effectiveness to increase the number of people willing to buy in.  The implementation must be focused in a way that eliminates hinderances and presses toward successes.

Telling the We story is an inclusive practice that presents historical, current and future circumstances collectively to make all parties feel included and part owner of what has happened, so that they will participate in what is happening to affect what will happen.

MAC Week 3 Blog Post 2 - Leadership Project

The Leadership Project is one that I have contemplated at length over the past week.  I initially intended to submit a paper for publication, but have since decided to do a presentation.  My decision was based primarily on the ability to share the presentation not only at a conference, but via internet to educators of interest that are able and willing to begin making changes in the classroom to improve the performance of the students.


The first organization to which I would like to submit a proposal is the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics for their 2013 Regional Conference in Baltimore, MD.  I considered applying for a conference scheduled for this year, however the proposals for 2012 conferences were due in November 2011.  I would like to present at this particular venue because I am a high school math teacher and we, as math teachers, often attend workshops about technology that have little instruction about how we can integrate it in our specific content area.  Therefore, I would like to present at this conference to an audience of math teachers.  The website for this organization is http://www.nctm.org/.  


The second organization to which I would like to submit a proposal is Educon 2.4 whose website is http://educonphilly.org/.  The reason I have interest in this organization is the list of axioms they have on their website are aligned with my own beliefs and goals.  Therefore, I'd like to have the opportunity to not only present, but also network at their conference.

MAC Week 3 Classmate Comment #2 (J. Hudson)

Chapter Five (Leading From Any Chair) tells of how the author changed his own philosophy about leadership from that of the sole conductor of the orchestra to the facilitator of others passions and expressions. To be a true leader, as he states, you must be able to admit when you are wrong and show those you are leading that you are wrong. As the conductor of a chorus, I would have to say that one of the first things you are taught is that the singers are to express the meaning of the song and that you, under no circumstances, get in the way of the singer and the audience.

Chapter Six (Rule Number 6) tells a few stories, but the two that stood out to me most were the first two. Number one tells the story of where Rule Number 6 comes from. Two Prime Ministers are interrupted three times and each time, the interrupter was greeted with “REMEMBER RULE NUMBER 6”. Rule Number 6 is very simple…DON’T TAKE YOURSELF TOO GODDAMN SERIOUSLY!” The second is that of how to relieve tension in a band rehearsal, simply talk about falling cows. As a conductor of a chorus, I would have to agree. If my humor was not involved in rehearsals, I know we would not have as many members.

Chapter Seven (The Way Things Are) discusses two ways of looking at situations. You can either look at a bad situation as “this is what was planned and then this happened and this is how I feel about it” or you can look at it as “this is what was planned and then this happened, but I will do something else and not let the change bother me.” To quote a friend of mine: CHANGE IS INEVITABLE, EXCEPT FROM A VENDING MACHINE.

Chapter Eight (Giving Way To Passion) discusses ways to change accomplishments that others would find ordinary into truly magical and amazing feats. The example given about Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata is absolutely true. In order to truly appreciate the music, the player must draw the audience in by not only mastering the triplet feeling, but also the beauty and texture of the melody line above it all.