Tag Archives: possibility

Week 4 Comment #2: Kevin Fancher

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Wk 4: Reading

This week’s reading was just as amazing as every other thus far. I am so blown away by the stories. Unlike almost everything I’ve ever been required to read, I actually enjoy this. People who know me well know that I don’t usually read for fun. While this is technically assigned reading, it is so interesting that I might reread it for leisure sometime.

I’m really glad to be reading this book right now. I needed this alternate viewpoint of my current situation. On the one hand, I’m really glad to have a job. On the other hand, I had to relocate and I’m still getting used to that. I enjoy my job, but it is more frustrating than any job I’ve had before. The Zanders have a really great outlook on life. I wish the entire book could be presented on TED talks or something similar, because seeing and hearing Ben talk is what really makes the whole thing come to life, and seem possible.

The constant use of music in the stories also helps. Music is my life, so explaining how to view my life differently through musical allegories just makes sense. I wish that Ben could come to my former school and present the way he did for Eastlea. The students at the school in innercity Cleveland, OH are very similar to the students and school described in the book. I tried to give the students that kind of experience, but the school’s financial means were preventing anything from happening. Now, through this book, I can see that perhaps I should’ve gone to someone and asked for the money, though it would be more than the 50 cents from the station story.

My Comment to Kevin:

In this busy month, it was so nice to read a book that was fun, interesting, and applicable to this transition period that we’re going through as graduate school is coming to an end. After listening to you describe your new job and the number of students that you have to teach, I have a huge respect for you doing your job while finishing up this EMDT program. While I couldn’t always relate to every musical story in the book, each chapter drew me in and I kept wanting to read more. You being a music teacher reading this book probably took your understanding up to a whole new level. I totally agree that it would be so interesting to watch Ben Zander present the different chapters on TED talks. Watching that first video was so powerful and I had to show my husband because he never listened to classical music. As he listened to Moonlight Sonata, he was in tears as he listened to the music as he thought of his dad who passed away last year. It was so amazing watching the power of Zander’s words in action before my eyes. Zander’s passion for what he does is so inspiring. Even if we cannot have him come in and speak to our students, we can take pieces of what he’s taught us to inspire others through our passion and love for teaching. Best of luck with your new job! I hope this new outlook brings success and joy to your workplace.

Week 2 Reading: Rethinking Letter Grades & Becoming a Contributor

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Rethinking Letter Grades

This week we read the first four chapters in Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander’s The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life. This really got me thinking about letter grades and the pressure that it puts on students.

I teach 4th grade to 32 students who start the school year full of excitement, wonder, potential, and possibilities. Throughout the school year, while I know that they still all have those characteristics inside of them, that same spark and fire gradually fades in students who see themselves not meeting up to the standards that we measure them up against. As much as I try my best to encourage them, some of them get so used to seeing bad grades that they stop working up to their potential and stop trying so that they don’t disappoint themselves. Why try and fail when you can not try and get the same results?

What could I do to take the pressure off of these 4th graders? Would it be realistic to tell 4th graders that they all get an A in my class if they show up, do the work, and then write me a reflection about everything that they learned? I can imagine complaints from other teachers at my school and the numerous amount of complaints that I would get from parents. Maybe taking grades away completely isn’t the solution, but there has to be a better option for these students.

As my school begins to align our standards with Common Core, we are now moving into a 4 point rubric, and our students won’t even see letter grades on their report card this year. Our upper grade teachers, myself included, are so used to putting percentages and letter grades on everything. As a result, students see those letter grades on all of their papers, tests, and progress reports, however they will not see any of that on their actual report card. Would writing a score of a 1, 2, 3, or 4 on a paper make a difference, or would it be the same as writing a letter grade? I plan on testing this out for our next trimester so that I can see for myself if it makes a difference.

Becoming a Contributor

If you’ve never heard the words of wisdom from a young Steve Jobs, I recommend that you watch the short YouTube videos Steve Jobs: Secrets of Life and Steve Jobs on Failure. In the first video he talks about how we all have the ability to change and influence this thing that we called life. The video on failures talks about the difference between doers and dreamers, which relates perfectly to Zander and Zander’s chapter about being a contributor. Steve Jobs was definitely a contributor who definitely left his mark in this world. I’ve always been a dreamer, but Steve Jobs and this EMDT program have inspired me to become a doer, a contributor in this world.

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