Friday, May 15, 2009

Chapter Reaction: Symphony

Please comment if you would like to share your overall impression/reaction to the chapter "Symphony."

6 comments:

  1. "...putting the pieces together, or what I call Symphony. What’s in greatest demand today isn’t analysis but synthesis – seeing the big picture, crossing boundaries, and being able to combine disparate pieces into an arresting new whole" Daniel Pink.
    This was so interesting to me because I see young people and adults who constantly struggle with this and I have to remind myself that this doesn't come naturally to most people and I have to constantly be more patient. (mostly with adults, the kids pick it up quickly).
    Especially with technology and problem solving, I see lots of people just pick up the phone and say"it doesn't work, or why try..., or we have always done it this way"
    Most technology projects involve many different applications/equipment and skills and few people seem to "put the pieces together" easily. So my question is how do we afford the opportunity to students to "figure it out" . We move so fast that we TELL them how to complete most projects because there is little time for experimentation, revision, improvement, getting feedback from peers or adults, and more experimentation so that they can create unique designs, create a story or experience symphony.
    My goal each year is to let kids use technology to motivate themselves and others to READ and to THINK, and when we have the time to let them "play" with technology and our curriculum, they are EXCITED and fun to watch and retention goes up quickly!

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  2. I teach Global History and symphony is what I try to do with the events, geography, themes of the course is to connect them across time and place. I believe it is the best place in the curriculum for the symphony to occur. The only thing that gets in my way is the TEST. I believe educators let non-educators tell us what to do and what we got was No Child Left Behind. There is too much testing of students and not enough time to let them hear, play and experience the symphony of learning.

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  3. I agree with Peg and Jill. As Jill said kids and adults will often give up before even trying because it takes too much effort and time. Teachers are often forced to teach to the test because the student's results reflect back on the teacher. While it may be difficult to get kids to synthesize and problem solve within a time frame, it is possible and I hope teachers will continue to try.

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  4. I posted a comment, but it might not have gone through becasue my computer is terrible. So, I'll try again.

    The chapter on symphony was very uplifting to me because I am an artis, art teacher, lover of mucis and creative pursuits. There were lessons in this chaper which I could apply to my classroom such as the emphasis on negative space, making a collage out of pictures which describe feelings, the 5 line portrait, and the inspiration board.

    I also liked the pharagraph on dyslexics. Several students struggle with this. I also switch letters and sometimes whole words around. In addition, I have to concentrate to stay on one line of text at a time. This makes me a slow reader, but I am a visionary, too.

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  5. I particularly loved two aspects of this chapter: the fact that some of life's greatest ideas simply come from the combining of two already existing ideas (something I find all the time in my job of teaching) and the whole concept of seeing the big picture ---something I feel I still have a lot of room to grow in --- I am so aware of having to give kids the big picture in order to bring relevance to their learning

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  6. This chapter is so fundamental to us as educators - we really need to find ways to support, extend, challenge, design, nurture - opportunities for students to create. I believe that we need to ask our educators to synthesize as well - and it's a lot to ask, to be sure. But there could be no better example of big-picture, synthesis than our book study blog. It really is a coming together of people, ideas, technology, literacy, commitment to learning.

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