Oh what a journey and what an experience!!! Being a Science graduate and studied in Indian system my exposure to art was very limed. But after completing this course Nature Design Of Compelling experience, I can say that it's was great exposure to various forms of art involved in the various fields. Like Photography, T.V & films, Architecture and Interior designing, Music and fashion and also last 2 weeks the Work of Art involved my projects.
When I am revisiting this modules to make an entry I can see that four months has been so much creative right from the photography module were we studied different aspect of photography and also posted photograph on Face book group. The Krause reading was really nice it was first time I compared pictures and reasoned which is more compelling and catchy.
What are the bridges from these modules I have learned in CEP 882 and how do I connect this to my everyday classroom teaching ?. From photography to teaching I can definitely say focus and the critical angle that a photographer uses to take a good photograph. I think a teacher can definitely use this focus towards the topic he/ she teaches and that critical angle means he/she can teach the topic in such way that students can relate it to everyday life without losing the essence.
From the Film module, We had super bowl Sunday and Doritos commercial. I found that a 30 sec commercial can be so creative and compelling. It was really a challenge to discuss on Face book the opening scene of the movie The Godfather. I learned that we can put passion in our work and be more focused. So much inspiration we Educators can take from the world of film, T.V and advertisement. I can refer to world famous film editor Walter Murch who does not have windows in his house so that he can have the cinema hall effect 365 days a year. So defiantly dedication and passion is what I can bring to my classroom from the film module.
Imaginative bridges between architecture/interior designing and teaching.
Where I stay currently DUBAI is manmade marvel right from the tallest building on the planet to numerous manmade islands the city has transformed itself from desert town to metropolis and skyline which could only be compared to Manhattan and Shanghai. There are many architectural marvels I have seen in Dubai. What I really liked about the Architecture module is the famous American architect Sharah Susanka said in her NPR interview in which she says that “It is not bricks and mortar that make a home, but how we make that place intimate makes it a home”. Similarly the connecting bridges are not books and white boards which make a classroom. It is the experience, which we educators bring to our students that creates a learning environment.
I like the way Susanka said, “Qualities, not the quantities, of space make a difference.” It is the shaping of space, like tailor-made suits that make it more comfortable. I think an appropriate bridge would tailor made lesson plan and more differential learning.
Imaginative bridges between Music and teaching
About Music module was going on I found out that music is very compelling for students. I can connect my passion for teaching with the work of art and the energy these musicians inject into their songs. The highlight of this module was Robert Kapilow's radio interview and Leonard Bernstein you tube videos. Thanks to professor Wong for making us aware of the hidden treasures and joys that Jazz has to offers. The hook, notes and rhythm in music can also be used by a teacher as a hook could be the pull the teacher uses in a class to attract students towards the topic, notes could be the voice modulation to make the classroom more interesting and rhythm could be the pattern the teacher use while teaching.
Bridges between Fashion and teaching.
Fashion was one of the most outrages and happening module What not to where show was really inspiring and defiantly I found my work on What not to teach very compelling.“If Ideas Were Fashion” by David Wong & Danah Henriksen, opened new doors of imagination for me. Many questions were raised in this article like “students rarely find the experience of school as engaging as fashion”? I am trying to find answers to these questions raised in the article. I could definitely imagine some bridges from fashion to education. Plus what I can understand from this module is that an educator should give his/her old ideas and adapt to the newer and finer way of teaching and think out of the box.
Finally my Work of art project it was fantastic expedition. I took to make my toastmasters’ experience made it more compelling. I rehearsed in for my toastmasters club meeting in front of different people right from my students to senior toastmasters and finally gave a live toastmasters session. I was really appreciated at the end of my toastmasters meeting they found it my speech very compelling.
I felt that Journey of CEP 882 is only over as far as the course is concerned but the knowledge and reflection will be there in my mind for long time and I will definitely make bridges and connect all these above mentioned modules to my everyday teaching thus creating a compelling experience for my students and myself.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
From High street fashion to teaching....
Taking inspiration from What Not To Wear (WNTW) regarding fashion, we have come up with our won video of What Not To Teach (WNTT). Like Stacey and Clinton in (WNTW) were highly opinionated about fashion and ridiculed Pam for her dressing sense, I think many times even teachers are also divided in two different schools of thoughts. Many like the Rote way while few like to experiment and others try innovative ways of teaching. I have to use the old Rote learning and indoor classroom approach of chalk and blackboard, sometimes even though I believe in experimenting and innovating in class.
Unwillingly or unknowingly I have to follow the old school of taught because most of the time I follow a rote way of teaching. In that case, I follow the method of (TTT) Teaching, Testing, Teaching and it works, as I teach the British system and we have very little chances to experiment. I teach A levels that’s grade 12 and we have to finish 6 modules in 10 months time, so only rote learning works here although I would love to experiment but cannot due to academic pressure of completing the syllabus. However, I have seen in more progressive educational systems like IB and the American systems that the teachers are encouraged to follow inquiry based learning and disapprove of (TTT).
While doing my course work reading of Madison Avenue’s “30-Second Spot Remover” I liked how Mr. Robert Greenberg described information, He said “Because of advances in technology and communication, we're surrounded by information we see and hear. Overload is a huge issue.” As he continued, he said "I think things are going to get infinitely more complex," he adds on, "and the challenge is about taking things that are infinitely complex and making them simpler and more understandable." I think that’s the problem with our education he said everything about the present state of education system. We have too much amount of research that has gone into education and teaching and we have a lot of pedagogy and it has complicated the whole educational system. We need to simply take a middle path in which we can make education a fun filled activity, as Greenberg describes it, and still achieve the objective of learning.
Like high street fashion is exclusive for the elite, rich and famous people, similarly I believe higher education is also for a selected few in many parts of the world.
I also came across the article “The aesthetic imperative” while doing course reading, that’s chapter 1 in the book "The Substance of Style" by Harper Collins where the author, Virginia Postrel compares a lot of things and try to correlate them using various parameters . I particular liked her comparison of IBM with Compaq and she gave a reason as to why people are ready to spend more for the MAC book. I also liked the example of the grocery at Salt Lake City where the owner does a makeover of her grocery shop and notices that after the makeover and the opening of a new Starbucks Café opposite to the grocery, it has not only added to the ascetic value of the shop but has also given a very welcoming atmosphere to her shop. I think similarly, if a school does a makeover and designs its classrooms, it will add to the ascetic valve and give a welcomed change to students. I can conclude that even teachers should change their teaching strategies and do a much required makeover to their teaching style.
Unwillingly or unknowingly I have to follow the old school of taught because most of the time I follow a rote way of teaching. In that case, I follow the method of (TTT) Teaching, Testing, Teaching and it works, as I teach the British system and we have very little chances to experiment. I teach A levels that’s grade 12 and we have to finish 6 modules in 10 months time, so only rote learning works here although I would love to experiment but cannot due to academic pressure of completing the syllabus. However, I have seen in more progressive educational systems like IB and the American systems that the teachers are encouraged to follow inquiry based learning and disapprove of (TTT).
While doing my course work reading of Madison Avenue’s “30-Second Spot Remover” I liked how Mr. Robert Greenberg described information, He said “Because of advances in technology and communication, we're surrounded by information we see and hear. Overload is a huge issue.” As he continued, he said "I think things are going to get infinitely more complex," he adds on, "and the challenge is about taking things that are infinitely complex and making them simpler and more understandable." I think that’s the problem with our education he said everything about the present state of education system. We have too much amount of research that has gone into education and teaching and we have a lot of pedagogy and it has complicated the whole educational system. We need to simply take a middle path in which we can make education a fun filled activity, as Greenberg describes it, and still achieve the objective of learning.
Like high street fashion is exclusive for the elite, rich and famous people, similarly I believe higher education is also for a selected few in many parts of the world.
I also came across the article “The aesthetic imperative” while doing course reading, that’s chapter 1 in the book "The Substance of Style" by Harper Collins where the author, Virginia Postrel compares a lot of things and try to correlate them using various parameters . I particular liked her comparison of IBM with Compaq and she gave a reason as to why people are ready to spend more for the MAC book. I also liked the example of the grocery at Salt Lake City where the owner does a makeover of her grocery shop and notices that after the makeover and the opening of a new Starbucks Café opposite to the grocery, it has not only added to the ascetic value of the shop but has also given a very welcoming atmosphere to her shop. I think similarly, if a school does a makeover and designs its classrooms, it will add to the ascetic valve and give a welcomed change to students. I can conclude that even teachers should change their teaching strategies and do a much required makeover to their teaching style.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Bridges between Fashion and Teaching........
While travelling from Dubai to Mumbai on my Easter break I was scrolling through the channels on my video in the Aircraft. I found a documentary called “September Issue” being played on one of the channels. The September issue was a short documentary and the plot was of Vogue magazine’s September month issue and people involved in publishing that month’s issue. The documentary also gives you bird’s eye view of the fashion industry and the controversies involved in fashion world. I was doing NDCE Prof. Wong Fashion Module and to my surprise I found that this documentary has come in a right time to give me an exposure about fashion world, after watching this documentary I got idea about high street fashion.
It was bit out of my league to identify with high fashion of Madison Avenue and Rodeo drive or couther fashion week in Paris. So what is the point of me as a high school teacher trying to talk about elite fashion world. I am trying to make connecting bridges from the volatile and glamour’s world of fashion to placid and down-to-earth world of teaching. Is there any connection between teaching and fashion or I am trying to make some connection in a hypotical manner this was a million dollar question?
Some of the offbeat articles like “If Ideas Were Fashion” by David Wong & Danah Henriksen, opened new doors of imagination for me. Many question were raised in this article like “students rarely find the experience of school as engaging as fashion”? I am trying to find answers to these questions raised in the article. I could definitely imagine some bridges from fashion to education before it would take sometime for me make those bridges.
After watching the episode of what not to wear (WNTW) I could draw some analogies between fashion and teaching.
Pam in (WNTW) I found Pam attitude similar to many teachers. Many of the teachers are like Pam, are old fashioned and follow age old technique in teaching. Many students don’t like the way their teachers teach a lesson but due the reluctance of the teacher’s mind to accept the change in their teaching technique leads to down fall and uninteresting classroom lesson. Many times teachers behave like Pam does in episode they are not ready to accept that there can be any problem or flaws in their way of teaching they feel that it perfect or it is alright to continue to the teach a lesson as they were doing in the past. They always self praise themselves as Pam does about her dressing style and in fact some teacher know how to escape out by blaming their students and at time school management for their inability to change or improve their teaching standards.
I am waiting for the next week’s article on NDCE of fashion make some more connecting bridges from fashion to Education….
It was bit out of my league to identify with high fashion of Madison Avenue and Rodeo drive or couther fashion week in Paris. So what is the point of me as a high school teacher trying to talk about elite fashion world. I am trying to make connecting bridges from the volatile and glamour’s world of fashion to placid and down-to-earth world of teaching. Is there any connection between teaching and fashion or I am trying to make some connection in a hypotical manner this was a million dollar question?
Some of the offbeat articles like “If Ideas Were Fashion” by David Wong & Danah Henriksen, opened new doors of imagination for me. Many question were raised in this article like “students rarely find the experience of school as engaging as fashion”? I am trying to find answers to these questions raised in the article. I could definitely imagine some bridges from fashion to education before it would take sometime for me make those bridges.
After watching the episode of what not to wear (WNTW) I could draw some analogies between fashion and teaching.
Pam in (WNTW) I found Pam attitude similar to many teachers. Many of the teachers are like Pam, are old fashioned and follow age old technique in teaching. Many students don’t like the way their teachers teach a lesson but due the reluctance of the teacher’s mind to accept the change in their teaching technique leads to down fall and uninteresting classroom lesson. Many times teachers behave like Pam does in episode they are not ready to accept that there can be any problem or flaws in their way of teaching they feel that it perfect or it is alright to continue to the teach a lesson as they were doing in the past. They always self praise themselves as Pam does about her dressing style and in fact some teacher know how to escape out by blaming their students and at time school management for their inability to change or improve their teaching standards.
I am waiting for the next week’s article on NDCE of fashion make some more connecting bridges from fashion to Education….
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Very exciting Musical week
Yes I know you are curious to know what the outcome of Michael Jackson concert was.
The Michael Jackson concert on 26th march was a musical extravaganza with 500 students taking part in it and so over 2000 thousand plus audiences I could see the enthusiasm and the very overwhelming response of the audience.
Coming back NDCE the second week of Music module was really interesting, I gained so much knowledge about Music.
I never studied Music and was unaware of the basics of music. But while NDCE music module second week,I learned a lot of stuff. It was two weeks of intensive Music crash course.I was surprised after finishing this module the amount of reading and listing I have gone through ,It was a true musical journey and by till know the most interesting module. The highlight of this module was Robert Kapilow's radio interview and Leonard Bernstein you tube videos. Thank you professor Wong for making us aware of the hidden treasures and joys that Jazz offers
But after reading and understanding music I wanted to know, what is that I have achieved is a million dollar question? Can I transform this knowledge and passion the musician use to create those compelling moments for their listeners that is their audience? I observed Music has patterns and every great song or piece of Music has rhythm that follows throughout the pieces and hook which are build up and repeated again and again.
Similarly in teaching we have some basic which follow through out and then we have hooks like tips tricks so that we can pull in our students. We also have to do voice modulation and add humor notes to make our lessons interesting.
I also experimented with my students by making them listen to various music composition like Beethoven and Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff while teaching them a lesson. And while asking them response or the effect the music has on them was mixed. I also played 104.4 Virgin Fm in my class it was surprising to see students singing and doing math.
I learned for the first time musical jargons like a hook, beats, rhythm, notes and also understood how to identify them in a music.
Slate’s NPR interview Of Bob Abramson was really inspiring how much passion he put in teaching a lesson in music, I hope I can transfer my passion for teaching like bob does for his music students. I liked the way he said That playing music is as easy or hard like speaking a language nice connection.
Over all I learned a lot I need some time or gestation period where revisit all this musical knowledge and make those musical bridges from music to teaching using all of valued information CEP 882 musical module as a teaching tool.
The Michael Jackson concert on 26th march was a musical extravaganza with 500 students taking part in it and so over 2000 thousand plus audiences I could see the enthusiasm and the very overwhelming response of the audience.
Coming back NDCE the second week of Music module was really interesting, I gained so much knowledge about Music.
I never studied Music and was unaware of the basics of music. But while NDCE music module second week,I learned a lot of stuff. It was two weeks of intensive Music crash course.I was surprised after finishing this module the amount of reading and listing I have gone through ,It was a true musical journey and by till know the most interesting module. The highlight of this module was Robert Kapilow's radio interview and Leonard Bernstein you tube videos. Thank you professor Wong for making us aware of the hidden treasures and joys that Jazz offers
But after reading and understanding music I wanted to know, what is that I have achieved is a million dollar question? Can I transform this knowledge and passion the musician use to create those compelling moments for their listeners that is their audience? I observed Music has patterns and every great song or piece of Music has rhythm that follows throughout the pieces and hook which are build up and repeated again and again.
Similarly in teaching we have some basic which follow through out and then we have hooks like tips tricks so that we can pull in our students. We also have to do voice modulation and add humor notes to make our lessons interesting.
I also experimented with my students by making them listen to various music composition like Beethoven and Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff while teaching them a lesson. And while asking them response or the effect the music has on them was mixed. I also played 104.4 Virgin Fm in my class it was surprising to see students singing and doing math.
I learned for the first time musical jargons like a hook, beats, rhythm, notes and also understood how to identify them in a music.
Slate’s NPR interview Of Bob Abramson was really inspiring how much passion he put in teaching a lesson in music, I hope I can transfer my passion for teaching like bob does for his music students. I liked the way he said That playing music is as easy or hard like speaking a language nice connection.
Over all I learned a lot I need some time or gestation period where revisit all this musical knowledge and make those musical bridges from music to teaching using all of valued information CEP 882 musical module as a teaching tool.
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