I’ve been fortunate enough to have had many music educators as my students and they tend to respond very strongly to the book we read in my class, The Art of Possibility by Conductor Benjamin Zander and Psychologist Rosamund Stone Zander. The following video was brought to my attention via one of my students’ blog …
by emdt student, by Saray Taylor-Roman I was touched in so many levels by the first four chapters of this book. And, I feel like sharing this personal anecdote. In 1996, my whole family moved to the U.S. from Mexico because my dad was getting his master’s degree. My sister and I did not know …
Pretty much every month someone in class has a problem with Zander’s chapter about Giving an A. This month’s dialogue questions the motivational power of grades (with little Beatles whimsy thrown in for good measure). One student wrote the following in their blog:
Another student take on Zander’s giving student’s an automatic “A”: Grades in middle school are controversial, especially now that students earn credits to be promoted to the next grade level. Ask a teacher at my school to “give an ‘A’” and their response is likely to be one of confusion, disbelief, laughter, or even …
I’m back to teaching my Media Asset Creation class and Ben Zander’s The Art of Possibility is back on the menu. It never ceases to amaze me how his approach sparks debate with classroom teachers, particularly when it comes to “giving an A.” One of my students wrote: Do I give my students all A’s? …
I just finished updating the reading part of my course and I somehow ended up telling my own story of Possibility. At this point in the course my students have read the first nine chapters of the Art of Possibility and are finishing up their final week in my course. They are just about to …
One of the books that I use for my course is the inspirational The Art of Possibility and in one of the opening chapters the authors, Ben & Roz Zander, propose getting rid of grades. This usually invokes strong pros and cons reactions from my students. For example… “The author of the book, “The Art …
Sometimes the reflections on the Zander book, The Art of Possibility, are much more… “ground level.” One student commented: I loved Benjamin Zander’s analogy of the conductor and orchestra. Too often educators forget that we are not there to fill there little brains with information all day long. This is where the NCLB act has …
My students continue their reflections on the Zander book, The Art of Possibility. This time the musing is about the possible ramifications of the realization that “Reality” is not what we thought it was: I try not to allow Zander’s conceptualism bother me–it goads me like a poker when he says “language is replete with …
Students in my course are assigned to read Ben & Roz Zander’s The Art of Possibility and over this past week I’ve been reading and grading their reflections on the book in their blogs. The book, which espouses the notion that we will find more success in life if we recognize that we live in …