MAC – Week 4 – Reading Blog – CH 9-12 – The Horse
I am continuing to read
Zander’s book, The Art of Possibility.
As I read, I take notes on parts that stand out to me or analogies that
I wish to reiterate. Here are my gems
from chapters 9-12.
Chapter 9 - Lighting the Spark
In Chapter Nine, Lighting the Spark and Enrollment are the key
points. Zander’s theory is that the universe
is alive with sparks. Passion rather than fear is the abundant force. Once you
realize the spark exists it is like playing catch in a field of light. Offer others the spark you carry. I
appreciate the analogies especially being a teacher. I have observed several other teachers in
action, and it is always very obvious who is carrying a spark, who is
smoldering, and whose fire has long ago died.
I have always tried to convey my passion for English
Literature. I show excitement about what
we are about to read. My one area that
always concerned me was Animal Farm. I don’t like it, yet it was district
required. My outlook however, was trying
to make it exciting for the students. I
never walked in and said, “We have to read this book.” Instead I have tried several projects to
“spark” the book for my students and myself.
Once I held a “meet-and-great” where all students pulled the “Hi my name
is” tag out of a bag with a historical figure or party member on the tag. They had time to research their roles and
then attended the party. It was quite
funny to see how they would interact with one another based on research.
The point is lighting the spark.
I also think it is important to allow others to ignite yours. Sometimes in a hectic and chaotic life, we
tend to shutout “sparkers” because of the flames that they might ignite. Ignition means work.
Three more key pieces of advice from chapter nine that I plan to
incorporate in my life are as follows:
- Analogy of the service station – Changing a scene of all misery to one of possibility.
- Sometimes the best things are done in person.
- Practice giving an “A”, not as a type of judgment, but as a gift.
Chapter 10. Being the Board
If you are at wit’s end – This is the graduate study of the Art of
Possibility. I am the framework of what happens in my life – Do not give away
your power. This also reminded me of my Conscious
Discipline training. When working with students, it was advised that you accept
your feelings and deal within yourself.
For example, if you tell a student, “You are making me angry.” You are giving that student all of the power
over yourself. You are powerless to control
the outcome. Once viewed this way, you world does change. However, you might not want to openly share
this theory with your 4-year-old. It
again changes your world, when your 4-year-old reiterates that she “can’t make
me angry, unless I give her all my powers.”
Analogy of the chess set – A chess piece must only move by the
rules. The board creates the rules. I thought about negative things that have
appeared on my chessboard. I thought
about my past and feeling like I too could only rely on myself. I needed control over every aspect of my
life. However, as the Zanders claim,
this leads to a blame game. If you are
able to blame you feel in control. I
watch the news of the night and it never fails that something somewhere
horrible happens. After reporting on the
incident, the next question is always, who is blame?
After reading, Being the Board, I turned it into an icebreaker. I asked several random people, the waitress,
the store clerk, and another man pumping gas at a service station, “If you
could be any piece on a chess board, which would you be?” I am a very shy person, and the experience
was very random. I started with the
waitress and randomly asked. She asked
me to repeat. When I did, she selected
the “horse”. I asked why assuming she
didn’t know the game and would respond with a “horse” reason. However, she responded that the “horse was
very tricky and could do quite a few special moves. The responses varied. The lesson I learned was normally these
random people are silent or simply chat about the weather. They all light up after thinking a few
moments and responding. Now I know this
is off the point of the chess set. It
was simply a random exercise. However, I
think I will do it more often with different questions. I had conversations with them all and I would
never have.
I imagine that I could have asked any of them for two quarters,
and they would have been happy to oblige.
Chapter 11. Creating Frameworks for Possibility - TBA
Chapter 12. Telling the WE Story - TBA
Source: Book Link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Possibility-Transforming-Professional/dp/0142001104
Source: Photo: Flickr Commons
I think you've done a wonderful job here of breaking down the essence of Zander's ideas. His chapter on Lighting the Spark is especially relevant to teachers, and you clearly embody this idea when you teach. However, like you, I'm sure we've all had those lessons that we just don't have a passion for ourselves. Oh, what a wonderful world it would be for teachers if only we could teach what we wanted to, how we wanted to. We educated professionals, but as time goes on we're trusted less and less to create our own lessons. I understand why, but one can still dream, right? I suppose the solution, as you have learned to do, is create that spark within yourself first. Get yourself excited about how you're going to teach the subject, and then passing the spark to others doesn't seem so hard!
ReplyDeleteI loved reading about using the idea of, Being the Board, as an icebreaker. First my hats off to you for putting yourself in an uncomfortable position. Good for you. What a great way to spark a conversation. I see this easily transferring into the classroom environment.
ReplyDeleteCherylee Gruber, you are so talented, invested in your students, and creative. You go so far beyond what is necessary because you really enjoy doing this and you inspire me to do my best.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to having to teach something that you don’t connect to and having to do a total mind-shift. You took Animal Farm to a wonderful creative level. I wish I could conjure up quick ideas like you do in the moment; it would have made this year much easier to live with.
You state, “I also think it is important to allow other to ignite yours, (the spark), and that we tend to shutout the “sparkers” because of the flames that they might ignite. Ignition means work.” I know that with my students, if I ignite them, the room bursts with energy and it gets loud which in my current school wasn’t allowed or understood.
You have certainly not only ignited my spark, but you have helped me continue to let it spark when at times, I really wanted to snuff it out. To rise above the system also requires much work and gets tiring. Thank you.
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ReplyDeleteCherylee,
ReplyDeleteYour blog is insightful. We were taught that we had to earn an A. I had some professors start their classes off with the same concept as Benjamin Zander. I had professors say that you all have an A. Now you have to keep it. It is difficult implementing curriculum that you do not agree with based on its content or lack of interest for your students. It is great that you took the high road to see how you could get the most out of the literature even though you had strong professional and personal reasons why it was not valuable literature. I agree with your emphasis on creating a spark for others and recognizing individuals that try to create a spark for you. We spend so much time “controlling” life around us that we forget that in order to grow and be creative, we must have humility and also not try to be in control all the time and let people impact us as we impact them in a positive fashion.
Cherylee,
ReplyDeleteYour words and and visuals are outstanding in describing the final chapters of this book. I love your analogy for lighting the spark and being the board. The Being the Board icebreaker was very cool! I like how you chose random people and asked them the question. It did remind me of the young girl asking the random guys for the two quarters at the gas station. Another interesting thing about your icebreaker, was the random people you chose stood the chance of not knowing how to play chess.
What a great way of describing your outlook for the last chapters of the book, "Art of Possibility".
Wow, great review and reflection on the reading... it's more than a few thoughts. Excellent summary of Being the Board, a very tough chapter for many to grasp.
ReplyDelete