Comment on just some pics by Askarbabu

Askarbabu — Tue, 22 May 2012 04:13:33 +0000

Trey it’s your old buddy from Wilmington i searched your name and found these pics candrogulations on everything marriage, chloe, your wife is beautiful i hope all is well. i am still here in wilmington i got married 11/06 and now have a 9 month old son (Kaden)i started my own Mortgage business in 2002 Atlantic Mortgage things are going well for me and my familyKeith Krowl 910-231-0192

Comment on Taking a little break! by Ayush

Ayush — Tue, 22 May 2012 00:45:41 +0000

kai n fantastei kaenis oti molis eixame ena trikouverto kavga m t mama! entelws tuxaia anatrexontas t adiavasta mail emele n vrw k auth tn prow8hsh ap t medie sumpantikh sumptwsh 8arrw .e3airetikh douleia!

Comment on Spring Semester 2010 by Molugu

Molugu — Tue, 22 May 2012 00:36:46 +0000

I am so, so sorry everyone. This is about to be long for relaeiss.From the TEACHER blog, Cisum states:“As applied music teachers, students sometimes come to us as near-blank slates, although I find there is always some instinctual connection or jumping-off point to be found. Yes we want to eventually be the “guide on the side”, but there is no getting around the fact that at some stages the learning occurs as follows: the teacher will introduce certain concepts to the student, work with the student until he/she grasps them and then can employ them. As Randall mentioned in a class discussion several weeks ago, he felt that young children who are beginning musicians should be allowed to explore instruments, but the teacher should (at some point) make the student aware that there is only one right way to hold the bow, and so on. As the teacher-student relationship grows and the musical content becomes more detailed and advanced, the straightforward teacher-passing-information-to-student is (hopefully) eventually coupled with the students’ desire to extend beyond the lesson time and research/apply what he/she has learned. This is one of Dewey’s key hopes – while the teachers and the curriculum are certainly of importance, a sign of success is a student’s desire to use the information learned in the world or to make further inquiries.”~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~I found great interest in reading several posts around students guiding their own education, ones I’d like to tie into through another source. I recently began reading this book called Moonwalking with Einstein, which is about the author, Joshua Foer, a man who has one of the world’s most incredible memories. In the Epilogue, Foer highlights something that I think greatly relates to why our students’ lives are so relevant to what and why we teach.“How we perceive the world and how we act in it are products of how and what we remember. We’re all just a bundle of habits shaped by our memories. And to the extent that we control our lives, we do so by gradually altering those habits, which is to say the networks of our memory. No lasting joke, invention, insight, or work of art was ever produced by an external memory.” And later, “Our ability to find humor in the world, to make connections between previously unconnected notions, to create new ideas, to share in a common culture. All these essential human acts depend on memory. Now more than ever, as the role of memory in our culture erodes at a faster pace than ever before, we need to cultivate our ability to remember. Our memories make us who we are. They are the seat of our values and source of our character. ” (Foer, p. 219)It really is an astounding book, but the point being that the memories we make and the experiences we cultivate in our classrooms shape our students’ identity, not completely but certainly have a significant impact. How we teach them, how we treat them and perceive who they are models for behavior and those memories will incorporate into their culture should they accept to adopt them. Do you remember how your good teachers made you feel? Do remember what they did that made you like them? Were they interested in what you had to say, do or think? How do you react to thinking about them now? Do you remember your bad teachers? How they made you feel? Why did you dislike them? Or hate them? What are thinking about when you are reminded of them? My point in asking these questions is that they draw reactions, very specific behavioral and/or emotional reactions. We as teachers consider those feelings and either decide we want to make other people feel that way too or that we do not want other people to feel that way. We like to hope that our students will always choose the better option, but we must fill their environment with opportunities to make memories from within and from those which are ‘moral’ and most of all meaningful to them.~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~On another note, I pondered an idea that I’d like readers to consider. I think Cisum’s blog quote also ties in very well to earlier discussions surround the “jack of all trades, master of none” concept. Having a healthy balance of what is considered the formal discipline of musical facility and its inherent free-flow creative qualities is incredibly important for our students to experience music. As Cisum notes, Randall brought to our attention during one class session, “young children who are beginning musicians should be allowed to explore instruments, but the teacher should (at some point) make the student aware that there is only one right way to hold the bow, and so on.” This may sound farfetched, but I suggest that these ‘formal processes’ have not always been the ‘formal’ we currently perceive. What we call ‘disciplinary’ processes have already gone through their ‘creative’ stages, stages in which important people during important moments in history were trying to figure out the best and most efficient ways to play these things called instruments that are capable of making music. Metaphorically speaking, we don’t want our students to have to reinvent the wheel, but we also do not want to deny them the possibility of discovering it anyway. If they get stuck along the way during that discovery process, then that’s where we step in to ‘guide’. Only until recently did I explore this idea, so it may seem still in the “rough draft” stage. In summation, the things we consider ‘disciplinary’ were once the ‘creative’. I think it’s somewhat of a reflexive process. By exploring the creative, we realize processes, and by exploring the processes, we expand what was once creative into new discoveries and refashioned processes. This is that application of past knowledge to developing present and future experiences that Dewey emphasizes. I feel like I’ve talked in a lot of circles so I apologize if I’ve made anyone reading this confused at all. C’est la vie… In relation to ‘validating’ our roles as teachers, I think by inherently teaching one method we do open great opportunities for the other, but only if we encourage exploration. How cool would it be if we could talk to our students about how the formal processes were realized! Therefore, if you ever got the “why do I have to learn this?” quote from any of your students, wouldn’t it be neat if you could actually tell them why? “So and so musician came up with this key system to make it easier, etc. etc. etc.” I don’t know – in a way I almost think you can make learning the formal processes creative also. Anyway, that’s kind of what was on my mind reading this comment. Thanks Cisum for the inspiration!

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