I don’t know if the topic was ironic, (we discussed Symphony) but today it all came together for the kids in both period 2 and 5. Maura also said her kids had dynamic conversations in both sections so our school today was on a roll. I want to make sure I thank all of our visitors who took the time to come in and challenge our kids thinking pushing them in new directions. Period 2 welcomed the wonderful Bud Hunt and Kelly Dignan, and Period 5 had the terrific threesome of Lucie Stanish, Christian Long and Eric Grant. All of them have our big thanks!
Period 2 had such a wonderful conversation centered around changing education to make learning more meaningful and significant for themselves. They even proposed having a fishbowl for the school board and bringing them here or going there to show them how learning can look and be different. I challenge them to do so. Why not? I hope they see that education exists for them not something that should be done to them. The power to change rests in them, not in me, not in Karl Fisch, and not even in our guests that attended today. If they have a vision and a purpose for redoing education, they need to embrace the passion and vision to make a difference. If they don’t do it, who will? If they don’t do it now, will anyone ever make the changes necessary? I wouldn’t be surprised if some AHS kids are emailing the school board and Scott Murphy to come in for a discussion.
Period 5 had a great conversation as well focusing instead of homework with their learning and finding the symphonic connections to school. They also really focused on how school could look different but no one seemed to think about how to change it or what steps are necessary to make the changes that they see need to be made. I would challenge them as well to take some action. In this class I saw the inklings of great thoughts. Kudos to Nick and Justin for making some excellent points! I am so impressed by the entire class for really seeing learning differently and how they are beginning to truly grasp that learning looks different than simply regurgitating facts. Learning is applying the information in new ways so that they understand it.
Some things for both classes to think about:
· Who is education for?
· What role do you play in changing education?
· If you know education/ school should look differently, why not do something about it?
Remember kids, there was only one thing I wanted you to do this year: Change the World. What are you waiting for?
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I think that it was neat that we talked about changing education instead of just symphony. Symphony is an easy sense to define (though hard to master), so I'm glad we talked about how to apply it to school. We also briefly talked about the government and our debt. You can take a look at my blog and cartoon at http://robertc2012.blogspot.com for further discussion...
The Fischbowl yesterday went very well in my opinion. It started out strong and ended stronger, but the middle became slightly dull. Eventually, it was able to start moving fast again and we managed to pick a subject and stay on it that had almost everyone interested.
I liked the conversation. It was one of our better ones on the inner circle. I think it is really cool to be able to talk to other people, outside the classroom and outside of the school. It was nice to be able to hear other people's thoughts on the subject, like Bed Hunt's and Kelly Dignan. Thanks for coming! And it was a great fishbowl!
I don't think that we got too far into symphony and got caught up in the education aspect as Robert said. And certainly, Education is an aspect of symphony, but there is so much more that could be said about that. I partially blame myself for not getting into the conversation. Symphony is hugely impacting. It's a rhythm, a set order that is used to arrive at the big picture. We didn't talk too much about the idea of the order. We didn't talk about the idea of where we see symphony in our daily lives, other than in school. I agree that it was a deep discussion. It would have been better for us to have more time on this discussion. It would have been better, but unrealistic.
I thought the fishbowl went really well, I liked this new idea of changing our school, I'm not quite sure how we got to that however I like the thought of changing our school to make it a better school for everyone. I thought that everyone steped up their game from an B+ to an A!!! Everyone had something important to say, and described exactly what they meant.
I think that the fishbowl went very well. It started off fairly well but we quickly got better and by the end it was getting to be very good. I think nearly everyone was better prepared (I know I was) and more awake (I definitely was). I want to say thanks to Bud Hunt and Kelly Dignan for coming in and/or watching us in our fishbowl. I think the only thing that we could have improved on was having more people come into the inner circle. Otherwise, i think it was good.
I would have to say that I think the fishbowl went over very well. I also liked the fact that we didn't just stay on one subject the whole time. I was on the outer circle and I felt that it was easier to come into the innercircle because of the changing topics on the inner circle.
Well, the inner circle conversation was utterly astounding for me. Symphony is my favorite sense from 'A Whole New Mind.' Towards the end, I loved how we actually decided we would try to change education. Scratch that. Not 'try', but we are going to change education. Whether any action is taken by the school board or not, education will change. And, like Kyle (?) said yesterday, no change is a bad change. This is our education. I think I'm going to set up a post on the smith blog for us to brainstorm ideas, set up dates etc; This is a great idea, and like many great ideas, it could always just fall down the drain. For me, this is a chance to change things for my life, and for future generations' lives. I don't want this chance to slip. so I'm going to act. I will present to the School board by myself if I have to. I want action to be taken. Do you?
I think the symphony fishbowl was really beneficiaed off a littl. It startle sluggish but once we came to education, it started to pick up. I think we should have a fishbowl with the school board somewhat involved. I think to change the world, we need to show other schools, and other districts that when the kids are in control, education is more efficient. We talk about changing the education system, but are we really going to take action? We are scared because we are used to being shot down by adults. They think we are less experienced, and don't know what we are talking about. Education is for us, it is for our lives. Why cant we control it?
Hello. I am from Ms. Smith’s 9th grade English honors class. I participated in the fishbowl with Daniel Pink. Although I did not ask him any questions (I was a blogger on the outside) I still felt largely connected with rest of the world. I was not just discussing a book but I was discussing problems that affect people around the world everyday and people cared enough to hear what I had to say. I felt empowered and that what I was doing and thinking was important. That people actually cared and that I was involved. I had never felt that way before. It was surreal and I have an exceeding amount of gratitude for Mr. Pink, you, and all the other people that participated from the outside.
This fishbowl on symphony was, I think, one of the best ones we've had. It started off a little slow, but it quickly picked up speed. I like how by the end we were relating symphony to classroom design to changing the world. It was cool how we talked about the school board getting involved and how we could relate symphony to ideas outside of AWNM. The last ten minutes were fast paced and exciting with everyone just throwing ideas out there.
Symphony- This fishbowl was really good. We covered a lot of topics and it was a great time. I had fun discussing IQ and past history with Bernardo.
Everyone in this class plays a huge role in changing education because we are the future and we are the students learning and teaching each other.
We all know we want things changed at school, but I think the main reason we don't do anything about it is because we can't ever make everyone happy and it is a big deal so it would take a lot of effort. Personally, I don't really want to put that much work into changing the school because in my teenage years, I am really busy. There is too much that is going around with tests, homework, friends, hobbies, and family that it seems like a idea that I can't make real.
Our fisch bowl went extremely well yesterday. Good job everyone! The inner circle had a great conversation as well as the outer circle. Online, everyone was having a great and interesting conversation. I truly want to follow through with our idea of talking to the school board about our education. If we want to change the world, here is our chance. Like Smith said, why not? It is our education! If we don’t say something and take action who will? I say let’s do it!
I thought the conversation we had yesterday went very well in most areas, however we still need to have more inner-outer circle relations. We need to come into the inner circle more, and the inner circle needs to bring up the questions on the outer circle. The conversation yesterday exceeded my expectations, we moved from the wonder of symphony to the challenge of education system. We talked about bringing in the school board, and running some of our ideas agenst them. A day after, do we still want to do so? Or, leave the education system as it is? In my view, the education system must be changed, even if it's with the smallest steps. We could start with color in the classroom, etc. Like Smith said, changing education is up to us, not her. Lets change it. Ideas?
I think that our discussion on symphony went very well. The discussion stayed on topic the whole time and some great points were made on various things like how to reform schools to make them more whole minded and whether homework helps or should be done away with. Overall, It was a great improvement over the last fishbowl.
I think the discussion on symphony went very well. Comments were rarely repeated and the comments were very thought out and relevant. I think everybody learned from that experience and talked on how symphony can be tied in with real life and how that is really important. It was a great experience.
Thanks for the Kudos!!! I think that this was one of our best fishbowls yet. We touch on some revolutionary ideas about our future and education. Ms. Smith said that not even some college profesors have understood what we were talking about! I think that we should take what we talked about and use it, let's not let it sit there, let's change our education. Mrs. Smith says that we are in charge of our education, and yet we complain about it. We're in charge so let's do something about it. In AWNM it says, "asking why can lead to understanding, but asking why not can lead to breakthroughs." Lets ask ourselves why not?
Honestly, when I walked into the classroom on Tuesday, I thought the fishbowl was going to suck. But as we got going and got into the idea of education, it got really good!! I have been noticing with our discussions that they get better when we spontaneously discuss random, yet important, topics. I remember the fishbowls more vividly when we talked about religion, the meaning of life, death, even the Yin and Yang than the fishbowls that "stayed on topic" and stuck to a "plan". I am going to contradict myself from the last fishbowl debriefing and say that maybe straying from the topic is okay as long as we still find the connections between them.
I liked the Symphony fishbowl. However, I felt at sometimes the discussions got off topic, also I felt like symphony was a very vague chapter that was hard to explain. Therefore, it was pretty amazing that ligitmate discussions were going on. All and all the fishbowl was not one of our best, but it was a hard fishbowl to completley deliver on. Also, I was barely ever engaged in the blogging, however I'm sure we did quality work as always.
I thought our fishbowl the otherday went really well! I was so excited that everyone was finally focused on the inner circle conversation, not just the blog. I looked up and noticed that everyone was listening intently to the inner circle, as well as keeping up with the blog. I also saw many people go into the inner circle.
I was very pleased with our conversation, I thought we nailed hitting the little details and the big pictures, and it was cool to see people bring in quotes from the book. The blog was great and I especially liked Kailyn's question,"What isn't symphony." It was a great discussion topic. :)
Good job guys!
I thought that the Symphony fishbowl went pretty well. There was alot of great comments from evryone at the table. I felt like it was such a broad subject that we had a hard time narrowing down the conversation but I liked how it was so broad. Symphnony is so large a subject to tackle because it does pertain with so many other senses and aspects of the book and life. The cover it live went well from what I saw. I only got to leave a few comments and questions since I was in the inner circle. The only thing I'm wondering is if the cover it live really delivers the points that the writer is trying to make. Its hard to write down your opinion in a few short sentences. (But not impossible) I think that the next fishbowl I will be in the cover it live so I can really see detailed how it workd.
I thought the fishbowl yesterday when pretty well, better than last time I would say. I think the inner circle was more prepared than the last time, and the outer circle had a lot of good conversations, but just like it seems like every other fishbowl, we end up circling around and around, talking about the same thing over and over. But yesterday, I think people realized what was going on and were able to steer us in another direction, which shows that we have improved from the last few fishbowls. I think with each fishbowl we are getting better and better, there has been a steady improvement each week in my opinion. I know that I am a presenter in the next fisbowl and will try to have a lot of questions so that if we do start circling again I will be able to stop it and turn the discussion in a new direction
The fischbowl seemed to go very well the other day, I noticed that people who weren't presenters came up with information that was productive and all together really good. I have noticed that as the fischbowls have progressed, I have become less and less interested in the blog and more interested in the inner circle. I really love to monitor the blog but really listen to what the inner circle has to say. I look forward to being in the next fischbowl!
I think that the discussion was much better than it has been. More of the people in both the inner and outer circle talked about more things that related to the topic and the conversation flowed much better because people would stop talking about a topic after they made their points and they just didn't keep carrying on about the same thing. I also think that more people were asking better, more thought provoking, questions. It was also really cool to talk to people that design schools and education for the future, and they listened to what we had to say and they could do something that about what we were talking about that needed to be changed, so that was very amazing.
I think that we all did well in the fishbowl. The class had very good points in the discussion. I do have to say, that symphony is a very hard topic to narrow down. We all did a good job in not repeating ourselves, and in keeping the discussion relative. Mr. Fisch had a very insightful comment for period 5, and I found it interesting, especially the part on using extra time to pursue our passions. I really only wish that we had more time to discuss this topic with the guests,Lucie Stanish, Christian Long, and Eric Grant. It was a topic that I actually found interesting.
I thought that the fishbowl yesterday was alright. I thought the inner circle conversation was excellent and focused on symphony but also how we could change education. While changing education was a little off topic, it was a very nice discussion that relates to the whole book. I thought the blog conversation was lacking. I wasn't really focusing on the blog, because the inner circle conversation was so enthralling, but when I did look at the blog, there weren't many points where the conversation was stellar. As I read back over our conversation, we didn't really broaden our horizons and it seemed like we repeated ourselves. We all agreed on what symphony was but we never moved on. I didn't see any of the awesome connections that I did see in the inner circle. But if the inner circle is the focal point of the conversation, then I guess its not too bad. I just hope next time the conversation is awesome inside and out.
I thought the fishbowl went very well yesterday. The discussion was strong and we didn't keep looping the topics. I really enjoyed the discussion about changing the way we learn and schools in general. The inner circle did a marvelous job at bringing the conversation back to the topic when it started to stray to topics totally unrelated to symphony. Nice job everyone.
The fischbowl on symphony went very well. The inner circle got into some very deep topics with what learning truly was. I think because of the very of the very difficult topics that the inner circle covered that the symphony fischbowl was one of our best fischbowls. The inner circle also did a great job of not going off topic and starting to talk about politics like they have in the past. The outer circle was also having great conversations during the fischbowl.
I thought that the fischbowl went well and everyone made good connections about symphony. I also liked how we made different, new discoveries about symphony and how they reflect on everyday life. I also thought that the outer circle did a good job coming in to the conversation and expressing what they had to say. Overall I thought that the conversation that we had with the inner circle and the outer circle.
The Symphony fishbowl two days ago was an interesting one. I thought the inner circle did a decent job and there was definitely debate and discussion over specific issues which in my opinion is great because it gives us a chance to learn each side. And like Mr. Fisch said there was an issue with our inner circles' support to to the statements we made mostly because it was based off more of personal stories than fact. And although those personal stories are beneficial and sometimes what experts say is just plain crap, it is important that we remember to examine both aspects and have those sources contribute to our opinions. What I thought was neat about this specific fishbowl was that we mainly were really able to connect symphony to our lives right here and right now. And even though Dan Pink's book was not discussed as much I think it was great that we made those kind of connections, because as we progressed we actually had a discussion not just about why we need to apply symphony and the rest of the new six senses into our lives, but what we were going to do to make that change, and in the end our fishbowl we brought everything back to symphony which indicates to me a successful fishbowl.
The Symphony fishbowl two days ago was an interesting one. I thought the inner circle did a decent job and there was definitely debate and discussion over specific issues which in my opinion is great because it gives us a chance to learn each side. And like Mr. Fisch said there was an issue with our inner circles' support to to the statements we made mostly because it was based off more of personal stories than fact. And although those personal stories are beneficial and sometimes what experts say is just plain crap, it is important that we remember to examine both aspects and have those sources contribute to our opinions. What I thought was neat about this specific fishbowl was that we mainly were really able to connect symphony to our lives right here and right now. And even though Dan Pink's book was not discussed as much I think it was great that we made those kind of connections, because as we progressed we actually had a discussion not just about why we need to apply symphony and the rest of the new six senses into our lives, but what we were going to do to make that change, and in the end our fishbowl we brought everything back to symphony which indicates to me a successful fishbowl.
I thought this was a great fishbowl. I was not here at school so I cannot comment on the inner circle conversation but the live blog was fantastic. We covered a lot of ground and I think we came away with a stronger understanding of the text and came out with a lot of new ideas. However one thing I think people should be doing is thinking a little bit more about what they are going to say before they post something because otherwise the conversation breaks down and this benefits no one. If everyone does a little more thinking about things and posts less rapidly I think the conversation will improve. This is because the posts will add something and will be high quality. Also people need to be more thorough in their responses and back things up with examples and proof. Also they need to be more open and less combative. Overall a great job done by most however those are two things I have been noticing and thought I should bring up.
as a remote participant in the outer circle, i could barely pay any attention to the inner circle. i concentrate on keeping up with the great threads in the outer circle.
some of the comments seem to want more cohesion between previous sessions so that the same topics don't get rehashed or so some topics can be expanded upon. perhaps students could take ownership of this by adopting issues that they like and seeing them through to following sessions. as guests, it takes too much time to try and catch up on everything said before.
I think that the fishbowl went really well, we stayed on topic and everyone had some good things to say, but at times it felt like we were staying in one place, and not going as deep as we could, but overall great job, inner and outer.
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