Week 3-Skocko Comment

Without thinking, I leapt to the stage and said to the young Cuban players through an interpreter, “Your job is to teach those rhythms to your stand partner.” And to the American players I said, “Just give yourselves over to the leaders sitting next to you.”
— from The Art of Possibility (p. 75)

It would be so easy for me to use that passage as an opening to speak to the power of peer mentoring, link to Mac Lab Mentors, and embed a video to hammer the point home:

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And to be completely honest, that was my plan. I’ve finished the book and just want to get these posts out of the way. Yes, I enjoy writing and yes, I believe in the power of blogging and sharing ideas, and commenting on one another’s posts, But dang it! a part of me complains, This in Month 11 of our Masters program. Why are we blogging again? After all, we already did this in Month 4. And besides, as I’ve already said, blogging has been in my blood for a while now.

(Probably a good time to swallow a little Rule Number 6.)

Anyway, when I write, it takes forever. My Week 2 posts were extremely time-consuming. The more I care about a subject, the more deeply I’m invested, the longer it takes to write about it. Or at least that’s how it seems to happen. And I’m leaving for San Jose on Monday for a week at Adobe’s HQ and need to finish the Week 3 and 4 posts now. Best to stick with my plan and crank posts out like widgets on an assembly line.

So, with notes from the book in hand, I picked the no brainer topic: peer mentoring. I found the passage and began copying the key lines to introduce the topic and WHAM! The first time through I didn’t catch the implication of Ben’s first two words…

Without thinking…

And I was transported back to a recollection of that oh-so-fateful day…

Someday I’ll have to animate the process of creating content for the blog. It begins with at least a half-dozen false starts. Sentence after sentence falls onto the page, short-lived attempts to shape (or discover) the story I hope will capture your imagination and set the tone for the day. There’s almost always a chicken or egg scenario with the picture that accompanies the story. Today was different. I knew I’d be using Zack T’s Cinema 4D/Photoshop, perspective-defying WIP. Well, unless I switched at the last minute and used Alex S’s Bugatti. But Gravity (Kyle H) got the nod a few minutes ago.

That’s not only how the blog is written, it’s how the Mac Lab functions. Like it says in the excerpt from DYC right here, improvisation’s planned. I knew how this second semester was going to unfold when I stood before the class the day we returned to school back in January. I remember, quite distinctly, how I took a breath and began to speak, but the words weren’t anything I’d planned on saying. Sudden inspiration altered our direction that day. The blog was born the following week. We’ve had one constant though, from that first post right up to yesterday’s. We experiment. Every creative act involves a measure of uncertainty. We don’t move from A to B in a straight line. We learn though process. We ponder, reflect, imagine, adapt, improve, refine, present, and begin again. We actively seek out inspiration, always reaching higher.
— from Resourcefully Yours

I wouldn’t trade my meandering path of discovery for seven magical posts to complete this semi-onerous task, but am I wise in trusting impulse, intuition, or whatever is driving me away from my pre-planned escape route?

Acting without thinking seemed to have served Ben, the musicians, and his fellow conductor well in the excerpt from the reading. And I certainly can’t complain about the results of my rash behavior in January of 2009. But how does one learn to trust and act, to give oneself over to spontaneous improvisation?

Innocence, sometimes leaps to correct conclusions
when knowledge makes one resist with all one’s might.
— David Brin & Gregory Benford / Heart of the Comet

Pay attention to the whispers of your soul.
Trust them as you would a map, because that’s what they are.
— Andrew Heller

And because Dream Yet Complete has connected so clearly with The Art of Possibility:

Long ago, far and away, or always somewhere near
Conductor’s instrumental, sends notes to inner ear
Harmonic reconvergence, improvisation’s planned
To amend the broken page, pour melodies from band
Watering the wildest flowers, a second-handed chance
To trade in white-washed paddock walls, for suit and horse and lance

Posted by Mike Skocko



My comment...

Mike,

Thanks for sharing this video. It is always awesome to see what goes on in your classroom. The commentary from the students is great. You have really created an environment where they feel comfortable and they have ownership over the instruction. Through the collaborative process that you have fostered through your peer mentoring program, students are learning skills and gaining confidence that will transcend just your classroom and push them forward into all endeavors that they take on. You are definitely an inspiration and a model teacher that we should all strive to emulate. Thanks again.