Week 4 Wimba Sharing

Overall, my critical friends and other classmates liked my presentation.  They said that I did a good job of covering all the aspects of the project and that they could clearly understand what happened in the action research project. 
Some of the suggestions made were to add more specific data to my results section rather than just giving basic/general results.  Another suggestion was to change the background color of the slides to make the presentation more visually appealing.
I agreed with the comments and made the changes suggested.  I think these changes have made my presentation much better. 

Week 3 Publishing/Leadership Project Thoughts

I am still interested in doing a presentation rather than a paper and have looked at several different conferences.  I have attended several educational conferences and have really enjoyed participating in them from that perspective.  I am very interested in getting a chance to present at a conference.  The conference I am looking at is The Science of Success: Optimizing Student Performance and Reducing Failure.  I think that my AR project fits well into the topic of this conference.  My AR project focused on student goal setting to increase student achievement. 

Week 3 Wimba session 3

This week’s Wimba session was very helpful with the publishing/leadership project requirements.  I know that I was unsure as what to do and how the week 4 Wimba was going to go.  The questions that were asked were very good.  I feel much more comfortable about what needs to be done and what is going to happen in the week 4 Wimba.

I really enjoyed the discussion about the book. It is interesting to hear everybody’s perspectives about the reading.   A lot of people’s comments were about the “duh” moments as they read and I feel the same way. 

Week 3 Comment 2 to Ashley Nottis

Ashley’s post:

While reading this week Rule #6 stood out to me with blinking lights and whistles sounding, don’t take yourself so seriously! This year was my first year in a co-teach setting and working with another person all day everyday is not an easy task. The story of the business partners really made me think. We both want the same thing; we just reach that goal in different ways. My co teacher and I do really like each other, and have a lot in common. The fact is we both want to be right and we both want the best for our students. Over the past year we have figured this out, although it has not always been easy. Team work almost ALWAYS requires Rule #6!!

Comment to Ashley:

I think this is one of the best things to take away from the reading.  We all struggle with taking ourselves too seriously sometimes and it is hard to relax and let go at times.  I know I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself and stress out about things that shouldn't be that big of a deal.  This book has really made me take a step back and look at my attitude, behaviors, and way of looking at things!

Week 3 Comment 1 to Ashlee Park

Ashlee’s post:

While reading chapters 5-8 this week I enjoyed reading about the “silent conductor” and how you don’t have to have a special chair or podium to be a leader. Chapter 5 said that anyone can be a leader.

These words reminded me of a little girl in my classroom.  This particular little girl is very small and soft spoken. She is 7 years old and weighs approximately 35 pounds. She is very sweet and everyone loves her. She struggles with class work and with reading especially, but she always tries her best and her classmates are always willing and ready to help her complete any given task.

At the end of the year in my class 1^st graders learn how to do String Art. String Art is difficult but once you get the hang of it, it is fun. Typically I have several students who catch on quickly and typically these are students who are higher achieving.

This year this wasn’t the case.  Most of my high achieving students struggled with learning String Art, and I had a “silent conductor” step up to help these students. My “silent conductor” was the little girl who typically relied on others to help her. I have seen this little girl struggle for a whole year with almost everything we have done, and now she was coaching and encouraging students who rarely ever need help with anything.  Needless to say she was doing this with a huge smile on her face!!! I have never seen her be so proud of herself.  I watched several students praise her and ask her for help and the look on her face brought tears to my eyes.

This story goes back to Multiple Intelligences and the importance of teachers being aware and providing ample opportunities for students to thrive and have the chance to be a leader. I’m so glad I was able to see this little girl thrive on being able to give back to others and be a leader.

Comment to Ashlee Park:

Wow, what a success story! That girl will probably always remember your class and that project because of the way it made her feel.  I think that is a great lesson for the higher achieving students to see as well.  Positive thinking and being ready to be a leader whenever the opportunity arises is so important.  Great story!

Week 3 Reading

Being a leader doesn’t necessarily mean that you are standing in front of a group of people and physically leading them to do something.  You can be a leader by your actions, words, and behaviors.  I think this is something difficult for students to understand, especially at a young age.  It is hard to think of yourself as a leader sometimes when you are not in the lead.

I think everybody needs to “lighten up” about themselves.  I really liked the joke about the cow falling on the orchestra if they made a mistake.  Most of the things we do would be better if we weren’t so worried and stressed out about the outcome.  I am an avid golf player.  I easily get frustrated with myself on the golf course.  It takes a lot of effort for me to not get mad and get a bad attitude about a shot.  However, I know that the only way that I will ever have another good shot is to stay calm and just enjoy being outside on the golf course.  Golf is very much a mental game and remaining in a “light” mood is a must!

It is hard for me to always look at things in a positive way and tell myself that things happened they way they did and there is nothing I can do about it.  I think it is human nature to complain and put a negative spin on things that we don’t like.  It takes a lot of effort to accept the ways things are and find the good it what happened.  I am going to work harder to be think of things as a starting point to make things better rather than in a negative way.

I think chapter 8 goes back to the discussion about “lightening up” and letting the tension and stress go.  I really enjoyed the story of the “one-buttock player”.  I think this shows how passion and emotion can help you accomplish things you didn’t think possible.  Learning to be a “one-buttock” teacher will take some time, but I think the results will be worth it!

Week 2 Publishing/Leadership Project Thoughts

At this point I am looking at making a presentation rather than writing a paper.  I think that a presentation will be better for showing the results of the project.  I am also more interested in getting the opportunity to possibly present at a conference.  This seems like a great chance to share all the hard work that has been done over the past year.  I have looked at the conference links provided but have not narrowed it down much.