MAC_Wk4_Post3_Response2

taken by S. Noack

Torrey,

Great you are taking the book lessons to heart and applying them to your life.  I am also trying.  I think if we do not do so… it is not worthy to read the book. I am also glad you only have one student who makes you angry for me there three in the same classroom! But it also made me think of it as a positive way things are, and that I also need to work on it with a new vision. 

I also like the quotes you cited, specially the one that says, “Your playing small doesn’t serve the world”… inviting us to give our best not you’re the minimum effort.  God help us to keep transforming our lives and others.

Original from Torrey Proctor

http://torreyproctormac.blogspot.com/2011/04/week-4-reading.html

I learned in chapter nine that I should enroll people for positive missions, and expect to give of myself in return.  Our perception is like a nudge to a kaleidoscope in that it shifts instantly.  All of the self-help information that is being provided in this book is easy to swallow.  I found myself taking the books lessons to heart and applying them to my life.

Chapter ten was about naming yourself as a board and note a chess piece.  Being the board releases the stresses that come with the measurement of who wins or loses the game.  This chapter made me think of a high school student that makes me angry at times because he contributes nothing to class.  I sometimes feel the student doesn’t belong in class.  Now I’m seeing it in a new light.  He belongs and has more to learn then the students that already get it. I should take this student on as a challenge to help him or accept that his behavior is the way things are.  My favorite quote of this chapter is, “there is no great music-making without such risk taking.”

Chapter eleven reminds us to do things that are on-track and not off-track.  This books definition of off-track means doing things that contribute to downward spiral behavior.  I’ve listed my favorite quotes from this chapter below.

 “I am here today to cross the swamp, not fight all the alligators.” 

“Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.”

“Leaders who become their vision often seem uncommonly brave to the rest of us.”

Chapter twelve is about focusing on WE as a team or group.  Never label a human being as the enemy.  The only enemy is revenge, fear, hate, and righteousness.  I like the idea that truth, no matter how harsh it is, is better then revenge bottled up and consequently released. 

MAC_Wk4_Post2_Response1

Woburn Pond, MA by S. Noack

Kathy,

It is very encouraging to read your reflection.  I cannot imagine how many people you have touched with your sparkling and passion that even yourself have not realized it.  Definitely that is why we are educators, our willing to leave a fingerprint in others.  The possibility to share what we know and see the transformation in others.  Keep that passion!

Original from Kathy Valunas http://ramblingsfromkj.blogspot.com/

I didn’t get very far into the reading this week before I found the focus for my blog… lighting a spark. According to Ben Zander, “…our universe is alive with sparks. We have at our fingertips an infinite capacity to light a spark of possibility” (p125). This fits perfectly in with the tech conference I sent a proposal to and seems to be the ‘sign’ I needed that says- this is the place you need to be to help light that spark of possibility in others! Zander went on to list some steps and two of those remind me of what my mantra needs to be: “Offer that which lights you up… [and] have no doubt that others are eager to catch the spark” (p126). This pretty much sums up my passion for what I do and all that I have learned throughout my journey both as a student and a teacher. I have always been full of passion and the desire to pass that onto others has been burned deep inside because of how others have inspired or ‘enrolled’ me in this educational trip. They have been my roadmap and their sparks have ignited mine. By offering to others what I discovered along my personal journey and through my research, I can only hope that my light will spark someone else to carry on their own passion and pass the sparks onto others.

Zander, R. & Zander, B. (2000). The art of possibility. Harvard Business School Press: Boston, MA.