MAC – Month 11 – Week 3 - Comments on Dana Kohls’ Blog

Dana,

I think you really touched on something here. Distance from the source of the energy plays a dramatic role on the way we are affected by it. You mentioned not having serious conversations through electronic means, because the intention of you message can be misconstrued. I could not agree more. I think for people to truly relate and understand where you are coming from on a particular topic, they need to be within your personal sphere of influence. Much like a spark can only catch other things on fire if they are close enough, perhaps proximity to a persons energy field aids in the transfer of the idea.

On Tuesday, September 14th Dana Kohls wrote:

It was difficult for me to choose between chapter 7 and chapter 9 of this weeks readings. Ultimately, I chose chapter 9 to write about: Lighting a Spark. The quote in the opening story struck a cord with me; "Certain things are better done in person." When conveying passion for a subject it is always better to do it in person, that way the audience has a feel for your expression, tone, excitement, interest and these elements draw them in. This is especially true of technology leaders. Often times we feel that we are not heard and that we are swimming upstream, so the subject and the change we are trying to implement deserves our attention. When we display our knowledge and passion in person we have a greater chance of being heard and understood. This is why I don't have serious conversations via text or email. The tone is so difficult to tell and the affect is non-existant, so it has such great potential to be misunderstood, not taken seriously or even ignored.

I love the concept of enrollment as an idea or spark for others to share. This idea that person to person I can affect change and be ready to be affected by it in return, is such a positive concept of sharing passion rather than forcing ideals. I think what also needs to be considered is how the message is delivered. I understand how over-zealous people can kill even the best of intentions or the slightest spark. I think as human beings, many of us have a uneasy or reluctant feeling to get involved with people and their ideals when they appear extreme in their passion. It's a fine line between being passionate and appearing a bit nutty.

You can find Dana Kohls' blog here.

MAC – Month 11 – Week 3 - Reading – The power of "The Force"

Most of my life I have been intrigued as to the possibilities of the human psyche. Probably from the first time I watched the Star Wars movies, I have wanted to cultivate “The Force”. Over the years, I had come across literature where people were performing supernatural acts that defied the laws of science. Humans that could regulate their body temperature, slow their heart rate, or move objects with their mind, functions that by previous definition were involuntary or impossible. When it was found that there were definitive changes in the brain wave patterns of individuals who could perform these acts, it was evidence to me that we were discovering an unknown energy. What else were we not seeing? At CERN in Switzerland, it was shown that the paths of subatomic particles were being influenced by the presence of scientists observing them. This seemed to link the power of our minds to our physical reality. If our presence were capable of having an effect on the outcome of a controlled experiment, what would happen if we were to focus our intentions? And how to we approach achieving this level of ability?



This weeks reading of “The Art of Possibility”, seemed to touch on where our minds need to be in order to focus our personal powers. Much like the Jedi, if we dwell on fear, anger, hate, or other emotions that rise from the Calculating Self, we move ourselves further from the light to the dark side of the Force. By being ever-present and aware of what is happening right now, we are able to see possibilities that we would have missed if we were “stuck in our own heads”. From this balanced point, we can also take on any conflict in our path effortlessly because we are only dealing with one thing at a time. We do this without fear of losing to the obstacles up ahead, or how we dealt with conflict in the past.

This type of focus also seems to generate ripples that radiate outward into our world. When we encounter a person who has experienced extreme hardship yet doesn’t seem rattled, we are inspired. When we witness a performer who is so adept and passionate about they are doing, we cannot help but be moved to our cores. This spark could be the result of waves of energy emanating outward and touching us. Much like a struck tuning fork can make another still tuning fork vibrate when they are placed near each other, perhaps our personal energy level can influence all those around us. If you watch the way waves interact in water, waves that are in harmony with one another will amplify each other’s power. By radiating waves of harmonic energy we have the potential to affect everything in our paths. What kind of world would you create if you were able to tap into this power?

MAC – Wk2 – Open Project

Just this evening I received an email from our Chief Information Officer stating that the long anticipated Moodle system was installed on our server at school. This is very exciting for me as our campus’s CMS administrator. For several years now I had hoped to offer this free alternative to our current CMS, Blackboard Learn ver. 9, to those faculty members who admonished the system for whatever reason. Now we have that chance.

I would again like to implement the work from my Action Research project and create tutorials that can be placed on the Media Services website to train users on the Moodle system. If the tutorials are successful in supporting learning on this new system, and the system itself is welcomed into the hybrid and online learning environments, I could see making a case to switch over to Moodle entirely. This could allow more control over customizing our learning environments, and ultimately save the college a lot of money in the process.

I hope to put into place systems that will measure the usage of the Moodle system in comparison to Blackboard to determine the rate of adoption. This will also be a great chance to track the usage of the Media Services tutorial website on a system from the ground up, to see if the availability of reference materials improves the overall acceptance of the new CMS system.

MAC – Wk2 Comments on Tamara Collins’ Blog

Tamara,

We are never able to see ourselves the way others perceive us. If a person has a thousand acquaintances, they will have a thousand reputations. Perhaps you were the ultimate disciplinarian to that student because that is the contribution from you that he needed? Perhaps other students of yours, even in the same class, would perceive your lessons differently because of their individual needs. Either way, it sounds like you are doing a fantastic job in the classroom, one that will make a difference to everyone who has the fortune to experience it.

On Saturday, September 11th, Tamara Collins wrote:

As an educator I often wondered what my students and trainees see when they look at me. Do they see a person whom is calm, relaxed and ready to tackle anything or do they see one who gets caught up in a fit of rage when things do no pan out the way they see fit? I would to say that I am somewhere in between. For the most part I am patient with others, but most times while in the classroom I was most definitely the ultimate disciplinarian. And guess what? That is exactly what one of my students who just entered his first year of college (Yale, might I add) said to me the other day when I saw him. I wasn’t sure how to take it. Was I to be proud or a little embarrassed? Well, when he hugged me and thanked me for making him work on his reading strategies over and over again, I was filled with joy and a sense of accomplishment. The Art of Possibility Chapters 4-6 spoke to me in a very familiar manner.

I realized that it was not the amount of time I invested in being “the ultimate disciplinarian,” but what I taught those students on how to act in and out of the classroom. Like the author in The Art of Possibility that was my “contribution” to society. I made sure that not only did my students learn the subject area, but also that they knew how to respect everyone. Or rather I became the “the contribution.” Of course I continue to read on, and come across Rule Number 6, thus far the most interesting.

The Rule Number 6, Lighten Up. This is most definitely easier said than done; however I continue to read because I am intrigued. According to the book when we follow the Rule Number 6 and lighten up over our childish demands and entitlements, we are instantly transported in a remarkable universe (Zander & Zander, p. 97). I think it’s safe to say that many people want to take things less seriously, but they often get caught up in what may go wrong. I believe this is one of those rules that take practice.

I suppose taking a chance is what it’s all about.

MAC - Wk2 Comments on Jeff Kohls' Blog

Jeff,

I find myself doing the same exact things. Often times can’t walk away from a project or an escalation at work until it is complete, even when I am no longer being efficient at working on the project. There is a little too much ego involved, “I am a person who always gets it done”, is something that often runs through my mind. The words from this chapter made me realize that there is no sense in pounding your head against a brick wall just to prove that you have a hard head. This is something that eluded me for so long because I wanted to be perceived as a problem solver. But what good am I doing for anyone, especially myself, when I end up taking other peoples’ monkeys home with me to mess up my house. By laughing it off, and attacking the problem without fear of judgment, the problems seem to resolve themselves. Great post!

On Saturday, September 11th, Jeff Kohls wrote:

Sometimes I believe in fate.

Sometimes I believe in chance.

I'm not sure which vehicle it was that placed The Art of Possibility in my hands, but it seems to belong there in so many ways.

I'm going to discuss the Rule #6, the Calculating Self, and Central Self.

Last week, I read a Tweet from a member of my PLN that stated, "I try not to take this place too seriously." I thought for a moment, wow, what a concept. Here I am, in all of my busy, high stress, time-managed glory, dealing with high school students, family relationships, graduate school work, leadership committees, assessments, irate parents, and car issues, and these 9 words that are so simple, rang an internal gong so loud, it frightened me. Then, I read about Rule #6.

You see, I tend to be a driven individual, often narrowly focused on the outcomes as opposed to the contributions. After all, it is the contributions that make the outcome. When facilitating a student-lead project, I'm very, very serious, and tend to get irate at the smallest problems or issues. The focus of the chapter is to lighten up, use humor and laughter to "get over ourselves," while keeping in check our calculating selves which could impede progress. The Zander's make a great point that "children grow up in a medium of language and have a long, long time to think. A child comes to think of himself as the personality he gets recognition for or, in other words, as the set of patterns of action and habits of thought that get him out of childhood in one piece." Habits remain from childhood into adulthood and become very difficult to break. This is me.

As adults, especially ones in a field where we are charged to care for the youth of our great country, we have a responsibility to be honest to our students, no matter what age, our clients, and our selves. How can we do so if our calculating self, our pride, our egos get in the way. Zander's go on to say, "when one person peels away the layers of opinion, pride, and inflated self-description, others instantly feel the connection. As one person has the grace to practice the secret Rule Number 6, others often follow. Now, with the calculating self revealed and humored, the central self shines through."

The most important paragraph in these three chapters, to me, is the final paragraph of the 6th Practice:

"When we follow Rule Number 6 and lighten up over our childish demands and entitlements, we are instantly transported into a remarkable universe. This new universe is cooperative in nature, and pulls for the realization of all our cooperative desires. For the most part it lies a bit above our heads. Angels can fly there because, as you may have heard, they themselves lightly. But now, with the help of a single rule, so can we."

MAC – Month 11 – Week 2 Reading – Taking Myself Too Seriously

I was told once that if you are to shine a light on a negative behavior that you exhibit, it cannot exist under your observation. For instance, if a person has a tendency to be dodgy with their eyes while in conversation, and no one ever tells them that it is often perceived as insincere or untrustworthy, they may never be able to alter the action. Something that stuck with me from the reading of “The Art of Possibility” by Zander and Zander this week was Rule Number 6.

In the weeks prior to the start of the fall semester at Keystone College this year I was the most stressed I think I have ever been. It was to the point that I was quite short and downright nasty to my coworkers when they would pick on me for being in a bad mood. I kept tabulating all the reasons I had to be stressed out, and why none of them could understand because they weren’t in the same situation as I. The work environment had become a place of eggshells and thin ice, because my temperament was spilling over into the attitudes of everyone else. My supervisor had on several occasions tried to speak to me about lightening up, but I couldn’t hear him through my mind’s voice screaming about all that I needed to get done in the upcoming weeks. It wasn’t until reading about Rule Number 6, that I realized that it was exactly what I was doing. I was taking myself too damned seriously, thinking that my life situation and my problems were more important than all of those around me.

This leads me back to my opening statement. It wasn’t until reading this passage, that it was revealed to me that I was taking it all a bit too seriously. Once I was able to see that this was the root of my transgression and negativity, I was able to laugh at how ridiculous I was acting. After that, the problems that I thought were the most serious in my world suddenly became like a book of fiction. They were only as real as I made them, and by looking at them with a bit of levity, they went from being impossible problems to fun challenges in a game that I was inventing as I went along. Who needs all that stress anyway?

MAC Wk1 Project Post – Open Topic

For this assignment I decided to perform the exercise of “Giving myself an A” as described in “The Art of Possibility” by Zander and Zander.

Tuesday, December 21st

Dear Full Sail University,

Today I will walk at graduation knowing that anything is possible. Like any of us who are reflecting, my journey began a long ago and only now am I able to see why every single moment of my life had to happen for me to be right here, right now. In the formal years of my early education I never performed as an “A” student because I didn’t think I was one. It probably wasn’t until my junior year at college that I really realized why I was in school at all. I actually wanted to learn. There wasn’t a definitive moment when the light bulb went on, but at some point I started becoming absolutely fascinated with the subject matter we were studying. Then my marks began to improve. At some point I realized that I could get an “A” and that it wasn’t impossible for me to be an “A” student. From there more and more doors opened up in front of me.

When life had presented me with a reason and a motivation to pursue a graduate degree, I thought, “If I could choose any school, where would I want to want to learn from?” So I applied, and was accepted. Never before would I have thought that possible. I knew that I would have to step up to the challenge. And as challenging as it was, I did it. There were plenty of times throughout that I wanted to give up, but I made it here. Now I am poised and ready for whatever life can throw at me.

I am receiving an “A” because I realize now that anything I focus my attention on can be a reality. It is all about scraping away the inessentials from the block of marble. We are all capable of becoming a work of art, if we are willing to shed the parts of ourselves that are keeping us from revealing this true nature. I appreciate everything I have learned throughout this journey, and the resonation it has created will carry me on a wave throughout the rest of my life.

With sincerity,

Justin Kraky