MAC Week 3: Reading

My daughter read to the class during Read Across America week.
This encourages my daughter and my students to be active participant and contributors. 

I feel the need to write about this book by chapter because it is a phenomenal reading. Feel free to comment just on a section of my post and not the entire post. Enjoy!

Leading from any chair

In this chapter, the conductor of the orchestra reflects differently on his ability to conduct. By empowering the players to be complete participants in the interpretation of the music. After reading this chapter, I know that I will look at every student in a chair has the ability to lead. Not only can they lead, but also they should be given the opportunity to lead. Students who learn to lead or share their knowledge become contributors in the classroom. This gives students great pride in our class.

Rule Number 6

The title of this chapter immediately put me in a scene on NCIS with Special Agent Gibbs as my “Boss”. During the explanation of the rule, I chuckled and pictured Gibbs uttering those very words.  Believe it or not, Rule Number 6, is harder then it may seem. Until you learn not take yourself or life too seriously, everything in your life, good or bad, seems  “Big” and  “Dramatic”. As human beings we can make these matters worse by giving our problems too much attention or by involving others in our situations. The concept of the calculating self and the central self gave me an ah-hah moment. One self identifies the problems and the other self adds the emotion (good or bad). This is why Rule Number 6 was invented. It is saying do not let your emotions get the best of you and do not take yourself too seriously.

The Way Things Are

This chapter reminds me of the saying, “It is what it is, so I must…” It is important to accept the way things are so you can allow yourself to look at the positive side and be happy. Do not hold on to what you have no control over because it will only eat you alive and make you miserable. I loved the small section about the “cosmic laughter”, the laughter that comes from the surprise and delight of seeing the obvious. Also, learning that making mistakes is good for most of my students. In class we will say, “Mistakes are opportunities to learn; otherwise, they are just a waste of time.”

Giving Way to Passion

I discovered this when I was about 16 years old. I no longer wanted to be a competitive dancer. I wanted to be a performing dancer. I wanted to move people with my dancing. To do that, I had to let go of the tense anxiety of being perfect and participate with the dance. I feel the same way about teaching. I do not want to stand up and teach the words. I want to go through the whole discovery with the learners. I want to feel what they are feeling all the way to the "I got it!" moment.