MAC Leadership Role Model Reflection - Week 4

A leader I admire is Bill Hybels, the Founder and Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois.  

In 2007, I visited Willow Creek for youth ministry leaders conference. The conference was a service of the Willow Creek Association (WCA), the arm of the ministry that exists to support other churches and ministries. I was impressed by the existence of WCA because as a church, Willow Creek was so confident in its role in the development of other ministries.  


WCA was just one part of the entire operation at Willow Creek. It was apparent that Hybels was not the center of attention. He was concerned with growing a church of active leaders who were connected passionately to the vision of the church. It was apparent that the members were empowered to fulfill their individual life visions through their contributions to develop the church as a whole. The approach seemed to be a model for every organization to follow:  this understood symbiotic relationship where a leader uses his abilities to develop others and to provide opportunities for others - who are committed to the success of the leader's visions because the leader's success is derived from the success of the people.


For two years, I led the middle school youth ministry at my church.  I followed Hybels' example and focused on the empowerment of the adult volunteers who served in the ministry. At the end of my term as leader, I was given a lot of positive feedback from the volunteers. Most of them shared how great it was to work with me because their individual gifts and talents were activated and they were able to grow in their various capacities.  I also use this approach in my classroom by allowing the students to select semester projects that incorporate the course curriculum and their individual interests.


I want to continue this leadership style to develop educational, business and ministry ideas that I have.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

MAC Leadership Post - Week 3

Introduction

Because a defined career development program would enhance the arts program at Hopewell High School, the business and fine arts departments collaborated on a series of career related activities. For data collection and evaluation, student participants answered pre and post questionnaires. While students benefitted from activities involving the use of Web 2.0 Tools, student confidence toward transition to post-secondary education and employment was most impacted by opportunities to engage socially and in practice with business and performing arts practitioners.

This Leadership Project is a presentation of the methodology and findings from the collaborative career development activities by the business and fine arts teachers at Hopewell High School.

I plan to submit a presentation proposal to the Virginia American Choral Directors Association for the 2013 conference and to the American Association for Health Physical Education Recreational and Dance for the 2013 conference.

Links to Leadership Blogs

MAC Week 1 Leadership Blog

MAC Week 2 Leadership Blog

Link to Leadership Document

MAC Leadership Post - Week 2

I plan to submit a presentation proposal to the Virginia American Choral Directors Association for the 2013 conference and to the American Association for Health Physical Education Recreational and Dance for the 2013 conference.

I have chosen these two organizations because I worked with Show Choir students for my Action Research project.  Students in the target audience were interested in singing and dancing, which are the relevant content areas for the organizations. Educators at both conferences could glean from my Action Research to organize career development workshops for their students.

MAC Leadership Post - Week 1

I want to present my project.  I enjoy public speaking and presenting to groups.  I also enjoy meeting people.  If anyone in the audience wants to ask me questions, I will be present to answer, and we can connect on a personal level.  I think personal contact is valuable for this project, especially since one of the findings for my action research project was how much social engagement and networking benefitted the students and impacted their confidence toward post high school plans.

I would like to present to choral and dance instructors.

The Road to Possiblities

MAC Week 2 Reading - Response to Stacey Kramer’s Blog

URL:  http://kvtechnosnake.blogspot.com/2012/06/wk-2-reading-welcome-to-nerd-camp.html

Original Post

I took my daughter to spend the next month at the University of Columbia, Missouri for the Missouri Scholars Academy. It is for the top .5% of 1% of Missouri's sophomores. The head honcho welcomed everyone by saying," Welcome to Nerd Camp" and sang the camp song: Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda, Here I am at Camp Gernerda.... We listened to previous attendees talk about their experiences and one of them said, "Embrace the next month because you are stepping into a world of endless possibilities." This took me back to the chapter I read in Ben Zander's book, "The Art of Possibilities." The speaker told the students they were the nerds of nerds and asked them how many times they had failed at something in the past month. Only a few hands went up. He told them that over the next month, they were going to make them fail more times than they had their entire 10 years of schooling. Groans came from the scholar section, but cheering came from the parents. He wasn't trying to be mean, but pushing these bright, young scholars into areas they don't enter because of fear. We see nerds and assume they are good at everything. This usually isn't the case. They find what they are good at relatively quickly and stick with that sport or hobby because it is safe. The fear of failure keeps many of these students from expanding. They fear that people won't think they are smart if they fail, and they fear judgement. I am excited that they are forcing my daughter to try endless possibilities and look at the world around her in different ways. I can't wait to see what possibilities my daughter experienced. 



Another chapter that fascinated me was the one on giving As.  I taught 6th grade English for 10 years and I rewrote the curriculum when I took the job. I created a "Writer's Workshop" model, and ditched the drill and kill. I wanted my kids to LOVE to write, not just learn how. I kept detailed grades and notes on each student my first year, and I didn't see many flourish like I wanted them too. I wanted students to take risks, try something new, be adventurous. I read lots about grading over that summer and came up with a new solution. I did give everyone an A to begin with. If the students completed their writing tasks for the week, they kept the A. I conference with each student within the week and set up goals with them to work on. If the student showed they worked toward those goals, they kept the A. I received flak from others in my building, even the principal for a short time. Over the remainder of that year, and the 8 that followed, I had students writing 25 page stories, comic strips, songs, poetry and by the end of the year most had written over 200 pages of rough draft material. Most of my students made As. They flourished, took chances, became brave - and in the end... their state communication arts scores went up as well. Now, I am the middle school computer technology teacher and I just wrapped up my first year. I am still in the process of trying to figure out how to Give A, and make them be adventurous with the digital age.

My Comments

Stacey, thanks for sharing your experience with taking your daughter to camp.  I love the story.  In Natasha Beddingfield’s song Unwritten, my favorite line is “I break tradition, sometimes my tries, are outside the lines. We've been conditioned to not make mistakes, but I can't live that way.” It’s very freeing to be released from the pressure of having to be successful, a place where it’s okay to make a mistake.  It’s always interesting to me to hear success stories.  I’m always intrigued by the stories of people who were very average or even low achieving students in school and end up accomplishing great things…the kids who totally mess up the senior superlative “Most Likely to Succeed” predictions.  They surprise everyone.  Perhaps it’s because they learned from not doing well.  Perhaps they learned something their high achieving classmates weren’t afforded the luxury of learning:  how to learn from failure.  I’m glad your daughter has been set-up to fail.  Undoubtedly, it will bring her many successes from a new freedom to explore possibilities.

MAC Week 2 Reading - Response to Tamarah Costen’s Blog

URL:  http://tamarahcosten.blogspot.com/2012/06/mac-week-2-reading.html?showComment=1339577065390#c8277882908511761985 


Original Post

" The Art of Possibilities" What a great read! I really enjoyed the first four chapters of this book. I look forward to reading the rest of this book! What I like about the choice is the wide range of subject matter. It was not a book about EDMT or LMO's or filmmaking techniques. It was a self discovery and a motivational story. I also enjoyed Ted's inspirational video. I'm always informed with his presentations.

Chapter 1 & 2 " Stepping into the possibilities "and " Inventing what was there"

I gained a lot of nuggets from this chapter. This is when the book introduced the metaphor, "out the box". I also liked how the author described then frog and their way of seeing things. This idea brought a lot home to me about perceptions, half pictures , and whole pictures. Everything is created in and for its purpose. How we view things is based off of our culture, upbringing, and perception. If you see a square with dots, do you see a shape, or a lot of dots? Everything and everyone has its own unique purpose. Positive thinking about a job, relationship, assignment, or task can change the entire outcome. If you think you are in a bad circumstance, you are, but if you take that circumstance and create a positive outlook about it. According to the reading, Society plays a huge role in our perceptions as a while. If you feel like life is a struggle, as a society, and its only about making money and paying bills, then struggle, then society will allow that belief to become a reality. I can relate to the author throughout the 4 chapters. If you look at situations and tasks with an attitude of victory, then your results will be victorious, regardless of what appears on the surface.

Chapter 3 "Give an A" This is my favorite chapter so far. I've never heard of the give an A to everyone concept before. This was empowering on so many levels. I loved the stories, the testimonials, the revelations, and the triumphs. This concept was implemented well in the instructor's music class. The class was all given an A, but it was not the point to just give the students an A, just because. The purpose was to allow the students to explore their passion, and not to focus on only the grade or competition. The art was able to be ignited and not compromised. I related to this "A" concept because, I have assignments, tasks, duties that come about, whether during EDMT, work, or social. Sometimes I over think the task and overwhelm myself, rather than explore and have abundance with my imagination. I feel like this can be a handicap to me or anyone who does this. I am at a point of my life, where passion, love, and happiness about my profession and purpose is what I'm striving for. Reading this book is confirmation to me.

Chapter 4 - Contributions I appreciated this chapter as well. I took away gratitude and giving back from this chapter. The smallest thing to the largest thing can be considered a part of contribution. Assisting a friend with moving from their old residence to a newer one is considered a contribution. I like the activity the author mentioned in this chapter. He asked his students. He asked them to write on the board every contribution made during the week. The students were initially thinking music or orchestra related, but the idea was to express anything that they might have contributed to. The reading was very beneficial to me! I took a lot of nuggets from it!

My Comments

Tamarah, I am glad you appreciated the “Give an A” concept.  I agree that is it very empowering.  From the reading, I must say the “Give an A” concept was probably my favorite part.  I think it is a wonderful strategy to help the students focus on learning, instead of focusing on the grade. A couple of weeks ago, I had a very frustrating conversation with a student. He was concerned because of his interim grade. When he came to inquire about his low grade, I explained why his grade was low.  (By the way, I set the grading up, to communicate to the students how important it is to stay on task in a workplace setting. So, I was attempting to make a point.)  As we were speaking, I kept thinking, “These poor students.” This student was a senior in high school. He was days away from graduating and was so blinded by his grade, that he wasn’t even concerned about learning the concept.  I wondered just how many good grades –he had – that weren’t supported by a substantial amount of learning.  "Give an A" really has me thinking about ways to tailor the concept for my practice. 

MAC - Week 2 Reading

Wow!  The Zanders have really tapped into elements of the true Gospel.  From some of their comments, it doesn’t seem they credit Christ for their philosophies. However, spending some time in the scriptures will reveal that Christ's Kingdom is The Universe of Possibility. 


The basis of their ideas are actually from the spiritual or - what some may call the religious history they practically discredit. They should know they are presenting copyrighted material and failing to credit the Author. Whenever I have to read books like this, I am intrigued that mere men have the audacity to tell others that they need to change the way they think and let go of their beliefs. These mere men credit their own experience and intellect as the source of their great philosophies. Men have great mental capacity because God blessed man in the Garden of Eden. Even after Adam's fall, God had to honor his promise to bless and prosper Adam. Why? Because God is incapable of lying, and He is incapable of "going back" on His word. 


Man's God-given ability to do great works is evident in the scriptures. The Tower of Babel is an example. In Genesis 11, verse one reads "And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech." Verse 4 continues, "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven." Man endeavored to build a tower that would reach heaven. It could have been done, so God confounded the language, thus the project became known as the Tower of Babel. After that point, man spoke in different languages. Man's power united was so powerful. That power came from God blessing Adam. The reasons for this restraint are another topic. The issue here is that man's capacity to achieve great things and to realize new possibilities is from God, not these authors who even credit the art and music which also originated from God as equal to things spiritual and "religious." 

The Zanders are correct, it is all invented.  The writers’ comments are interesting. “Markets in free societies are rapidly replacing governments and religious institutions as regulators of the highest authority…” (p. 3) 

I’m not interested in that game. In fact, reading this book heavily reminds me of resources I had to read in my first masters degree program. I was accused of being close-minded because I disagreed with the new age philosophies that were presented in the course. I was practically criminalized because I wasn’t looking for a new reality.  I already have a new reality.  His Name is Jesus Christ. A real understanding of the scriptures provides for a life of creativity –from God the Father, the author of creativity and invention - and limitless possibilities.

In the Book of Genesis when God created man, He created man for relationship. That relationship was destroyed when man fell by partaking of the fruit that God told them not to eat. One perspective may think that God’s command NOT to eat from the tree was symbolic of limits. Not so!  Adam and Eve enjoyed total access to paradise.  In reality, the fruit represented much of what the Zanders are trying to instruct people away from:  limits, passionless attitudes of scarcity and complacency.  The fruit was and represented knowledge of all the bad stuff that has since held man back.

After the fall, man was separated from God, and God’s plan to reconcile with man was in full effect. The plan was masterfully carried out through the ages. Judaism, one of the religions that have structured our society, was born.  In fact, I would ask the Zanders, what seems to be the problem with governments and religions contributing to the shape of human thought?  Are not the foundationsand pillars of a society the structure and infrastructure of its modern existence?   Could we have arrived where we are without our origins?  Man’s limited mindset is not from the structure, it is from the garden – when he partook of the fruit that represented limitations and scarcities.

Through ancient Judaism, Christ was born.  In the Bible, II Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17 is about the new creation in Christ, that is the new being that Christ receivers become from receiving Christ.  This is the great mystery.  Many an intellect and doubter in general have joked the new birth and people who profess to be born again.  People mock what they don’t understand.  The new being that Christ receivers become is explained in the Bible.  It’s called the Pauline Revelation. Upon reading it, one will see that the Zanders beliefs are not new.  They have actually been inexistence for thousands of years.  Bible loving and understanding Christ receivers know that the true nature of Christ is not confined to the dictates of religious practice.  It is a life of limitless possibilities and abundance, not from inconsistent and unpredictable world markets but from the Creator of all things, the One who designed the Garden of Eden – which by the way had it’s own unique sprinkling system.

My mindset is not of scarcity. It is of possibility and abundance and all things positive and good because that is the true nature of God. I have received that nature through Christ. My faith has proven itself through the ages and stages of my life. So, I will continue believing and receiving new life and new thinking, not from modern self help authors but from the Author of the Universe who inspired Paul to write “let God transform you by changing the way you think (Romans 12:2 New Living Translation).

So, yes, I agree with the Zanders.  There is a new way that we need to think, but it is not based upon their limited and finite experiences and resources. It is based upon man knowing that God has given us Christ as the vehicle back to Him and the abundance of creative ability, thought, provision, and health in the Garden of Eden. We are supposed to experience Heaven on Earth, but it's not through man’swisdom and his philosophies. It is through a new and complete understanding of God’s true intent for man. 

Some may say, Katina, what's the big deal? Well, the big deal is the motivating factor behind any such teaching that seeks to claim God's creative and inventive nature - without siting the Source: it is the spirit of the Antichrist that the scriptures warn us about. I never knowingly agree with anything that so confidently speaks of purpose and possibilities while failing to acknowledge the Intelligent Design of Father God. It would be comparable to looking my precious and loving parents in the face and saying, "You get absolutely no credit for my existence on the Earth."


I know all things are possible for me because I believe in the Jesus in me...who is the same Jesus who is in Heaven - currently seated and praying for me at my Father God's right hand. He is praying that my faith doesn't fail. Consistently at my weakest, most vulnerable moments when everything seemed impossible and during times of great triumph God's power has been with me - making all things possible.