MARCH 13, 2010 Reflections on Class

Today's class has been more of an enlightener throughout the entire day, as more information has been distributed. During our initial session, the class was given a presentation from Courtney Bryant, a member from the first Cohort who went documented her class's Descriptive Case Study of the Art Room: The Remix of Creativity and Technology. In her study she was able to document all of her findings from Preproduction Planning, Peer Conversation, Interpersonal Behaviors, Symbolism? Metaphor, Peer Conversation, Motivation, and insight. The video the students put together demonstrated their complete understanding of their tasks, and how well they worked together to achieve their end result. She made constant reference to SQ1 Preproduction Planning and why it was important. " Give them enough direction. Do NOT make the assignment to broad so they won't be all over the place" trying to make sense of what it is they should be doing.

The thing she really found insightful was the peer interactions and the sense of motivation they derived from this assignment. They were deeply engaged and invested their time well.

We concluded that this presentation utilizes the 6 aptitudes from Daniel Pink: 1 Story- kids were connected to their work and gave ownership and personal experience 2. Symphony- all students see how it comes together- both visual and auditory 3. Design- they designed their own work of art incorporated characters/ music! 4. Empathy- they can see from other's perspective, shared through peer conversation. (Synthesizing- product was layered per Gardner) 5. Play- the work took on human characteristic so you could see how they felt( they used masks, computer animated graphics 6 Meaningful- of course this was a real life portrayal that had significant meaning for the students.

Break Out Session #1

Dr. JansevanRensburg shared with the group that we may subscribe and view her blog should we have concerns about what items we were unsure about. At this point, the entire class admitted we were still foggy about what was needed from us for this course. I was unclear about what a Action Research really was and how to apply it to what I do in the classroom everyday, but when I received a form on which to place my aim, things began to clear up.

Break Out Session #2

Natalie Colbert is instructing the participants of her session to compose an original work that we will perform at some point in public. She shared a performance that she observed which was a tribute to the composer's deceased brother. Based on things in life he enjoyed, the original work was crafted to sound as aestetically pleasing yet remind her while sharing with the audience these things. The piece featured sounds of a cathedral and swirling glass as the constant sound. By the way she described it, one could tell it was indeed remarkable.

So then, shall we, the members of this session create a piece along the same lines as what she heard. No instruments will be used, unless absolutely necessary. In our session today, we all came up with a list of sounds that we hear in everyday life. We also came up with events that provoke feelings and thoughts. Somehow, we educators will create something meaningful for an audience to enjoy.

According to the work of Daniel Pink, we are incorporating The Six Senses, Six R-Directed aptitudess that will enable us as teachers to develop a "Whole New Mind" and become more creative and perceptive in our approach as educators.