Friday, May 27, 2011

MAC - Week4 Blog Post #1 Reading Chapters 9 - 12


 (Image is property of David Steinke and used with permission)

Ch. 9 Lighting a Spark

The concept or practice of enrollment provides someone with the idea that the people around you have the potential to inspire and only require the lighting of a spark. People can influence others in unlikely and unexpected ways

Ch. 10 Being the Board

Being open to suggestion and accepting of bad experiences for the purposes of personal growth seems to be one important concept in this chapter. If your focus is too narrow, you cannot see all that there is to see in a situation and you are liable to miss something important or not understand how bad experiences have a way of providing for positive future outcomes. It becomes a self-reflection and an inward look at the implications and results of your own actions. In context to the reading, the focus is on maintaining relationships.

Ch. 11 Creating Frameworks for Possibility

The importance and clearer understanding of Vision makes a difference in determining your own perception and the value of things around you. In context, the power of possibility creates for opportunities that would not otherwise exist without the vision to see it first.

Ch. 12 Telling the WE Story

This chapter speaks largely about the consideration of group interests. It helps to breakdown the controversy of opposing view points and interests and instead looks to connect people by creating a mindset that makes everyone feel apart of the group and reinforces a thinking that is selfless or at least mutually beneficial.

2 comments:

  1. David,
    I like the idea you refer to of influencing others in ways we may not realize. It is important for all of us (humankind) to bear that thought in mind as we interact with each other. I know how much I am amazed when I hear students (current or former)students repeat my words to me months after an encounter. I rarely remember the exact situation and am always shocked when they explain how it was important enough for them to remember (thankfully it has always been positive words that they have taken to improve themselves).

    I spend a great deal of time studying the trees and know that I am often missing the forest because of that. I hope to change my perceptions and attitudes (thereby changing my world) as a result of using the ideas in this book.

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  2. David,

    Your response to Chapter 10 made me think of a Helen Keller quote I have in my office at school that says, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” The idea of being to narrow in focus that one loses sight of an entire situation can be detrimental to the growth process as educators, as parents, as students. I too am guilty of this very behavior when taking a look at my own work at school due to the personal nature of it. To admit that there is a better way to do something than what we are currently doing sometimes feels like we have failed in some weird way, which is not the case at all. The way you stated that self-reflection allows us to look at the implications and results of our own actions falls directly into the counseling field and how I work with my own students in terms of accountability and ownership. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.

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