Hello again everyone, and welcome back to the next installment of my blog, “Making Music with Mr. Belloto.” This blog is a continuation of the discussion on the video series, “A Whole New Mind, Parts 1-6, by Daniel Pink”. This blog entry focuses on Part 2 of the series.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Reflections on Daniel Pink's Youtube Video on a "Whole New Mind, Part II".
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Washington D.C. Smithsonian Art Trip – May 14 through May 16th, 2010
After enduring a long train ride, some thirteen (13) hours from Atlanta, into our Nations Capitol, Washington, D.C. My colleagues and I finally arrived at our destinations and the Smithsonian Museums. After a brief tour of Union Station our official guide, Dr. Collette Hopkins set us on our own to explore as we saw fit. I made a last minute decision to see the East Building of the National Gallery of Art although I had thought that the Portrait Gallery would be my first stop. Let me say at this point, that, as I now reflect on the totality of our whole trip, I feel a bit disappointed and indeed, even cheated in that we spent twenty-six hours on a train and only six hours exploring museums and discovering great works of art. In my estimation, it would have been wiser to fly into the city and then spend two days visiting museums. Given the sheer size of the Smithsonian, it really is a necessity that you have more than a day to see the many buildings and museums.
Getting back to the National Gallery though, I found a lot of interesting art works to speak about. There were many Galleries that a person could walk through and some of the Galleries even permitted the taking of photos. Others, and unfortunately for me, those that I found the most connection with did not permit photography. Still, overall it was a very impressionable and eye opening experience. The East wing contained art from approximately 1600 through the twentieth century. I was pleased to be able to see in person so to speak, paintings by Van Gogh - Self Portrait and Claude Monet – Woman with a Parasol which is found as a reference in one of the lessons as a part of the Silver Burdett World of Music Grade One Music Books. I gained quite a “rush” knowing that I was standing in front of a picture that was painted by one of the Masters.
All aside, however, I got the biggest surprise from a Gallery and artists that I had never heard of. It was the Spanish Gallery called The Sacred Made Real. Here I found real life size statues carved from wood with absolutely breathtaking detail. The focus of all of these works of art were religious or sacred in nature. What I found so moving about this Gallery was the realism of each of the works. Right down to the tear drops and blood. No detail was left out by the artist. As Blake Gopnik describes it in his review on February 28, 2010, “"The Sacred Made Real" gives us an important push away from our modern tendency to value painting over any other medium. Well into the Middle Ages and beyond, painting was the poor stepchild of deluxe, more durable materials such as tapestry or metal or marble. In 17th-century Spain, the balance had already shifted to make 3-D and 2-D art about equal, but while Spanish painters such as Diego Velazquez and Francisco de Zurbaran are now famous figures, before this show, their sculptor colleagues have never got equal time”.
Probably, the most moving piece in my mind was Christ after the Flagellation Contemplated by the Christian Soul, ca. 1628-1629, and also the Sculpture by, Gregorio Fernández (1576–1636) Ecce Homo and an unknown painter before 1621 which was or is painted wood, glass and cloth. [Christ, having been bound, whipped, and mocked by soldiers, was presented by Pontius Pilate to the Jews with the words "Ecce homo" ("Behold, the man")]. (I am going to attempt to place a picture of both of these on this blog). I recommend anyone reading this to check out this website for more detailed views of what is in this extraordinary collection.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2010/sacred/slideshow/index.shtm#
While the above mention works were among the most moving for me I found that all of the paintings and sculptures that I saw in this Gallery were more moving to me than what I had seen in the other Galleries, and, as I left, I felt an overwhelming sense of emotion that I largely attributed to my Catholic Upbringing. Many of these works have not been seen outside of Spain as they have been largely on display in the Churches in Spain that they were originally created for. Overall, the trip to D.C. had a great deal of meaning for me and I hope to go back again soon to see the museums.
Getting back to the National Gallery though, I found a lot of interesting art works to speak about. There were many Galleries that a person could walk through and some of the Galleries even permitted the taking of photos. Others, and unfortunately for me, those that I found the most connection with did not permit photography. Still, overall it was a very impressionable and eye opening experience. The East wing contained art from approximately 1600 through the twentieth century. I was pleased to be able to see in person so to speak, paintings by Van Gogh - Self Portrait and Claude Monet – Woman with a Parasol which is found as a reference in one of the lessons as a part of the Silver Burdett World of Music Grade One Music Books. I gained quite a “rush” knowing that I was standing in front of a picture that was painted by one of the Masters.
All aside, however, I got the biggest surprise from a Gallery and artists that I had never heard of. It was the Spanish Gallery called The Sacred Made Real. Here I found real life size statues carved from wood with absolutely breathtaking detail. The focus of all of these works of art were religious or sacred in nature. What I found so moving about this Gallery was the realism of each of the works. Right down to the tear drops and blood. No detail was left out by the artist. As Blake Gopnik describes it in his review on February 28, 2010, “"The Sacred Made Real" gives us an important push away from our modern tendency to value painting over any other medium. Well into the Middle Ages and beyond, painting was the poor stepchild of deluxe, more durable materials such as tapestry or metal or marble. In 17th-century Spain, the balance had already shifted to make 3-D and 2-D art about equal, but while Spanish painters such as Diego Velazquez and Francisco de Zurbaran are now famous figures, before this show, their sculptor colleagues have never got equal time”.
Probably, the most moving piece in my mind was Christ after the Flagellation Contemplated by the Christian Soul, ca. 1628-1629, and also the Sculpture by, Gregorio Fernández (1576–1636) Ecce Homo and an unknown painter before 1621 which was or is painted wood, glass and cloth. [Christ, having been bound, whipped, and mocked by soldiers, was presented by Pontius Pilate to the Jews with the words "Ecce homo" ("Behold, the man")]. (I am going to attempt to place a picture of both of these on this blog). I recommend anyone reading this to check out this website for more detailed views of what is in this extraordinary collection.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2010/sacred/slideshow/index.shtm#
While the above mention works were among the most moving for me I found that all of the paintings and sculptures that I saw in this Gallery were more moving to me than what I had seen in the other Galleries, and, as I left, I felt an overwhelming sense of emotion that I largely attributed to my Catholic Upbringing. Many of these works have not been seen outside of Spain as they have been largely on display in the Churches in Spain that they were originally created for. Overall, the trip to D.C. had a great deal of meaning for me and I hope to go back again soon to see the museums.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Action Research in the General Music Classroom by Mark Belloto
The theme or subject for my Action Research, I believe, is a simple one. Do students perform on mallet percussion instruments (Orff Instruments in this case) better when they hold the mallets close and slightly above the bars, or when they hold the mallets higher, or closer to their shoulders? It has been my experience that young students at the elementary level pay little or no attention to the proper placement of the mallets or how to hold them and this often results in a less than desirable Orff Playing experience. Often, they strike the wrong notes, hit the bars too forcefully and thus knock them off of the instrument and do not follow or keep a steady beat.
The specific grade levels that I will perform this action research in is Grades 2 and 3. The Georgia QCC’S that will be covered are:
GM2.6: Performs up-down and step-leap patterns on melodic instruments from letter notation.
GM3.6: Performs simple instrumental melodic patterns and rhythmic patterns by ear and from notation.
Some additional Georgia QCC’S that will be covered include:
GM1.6: Demonstrates awareness of steady beat through playing an instrument
GM2.14 and 3.17: Describes personal response to listening selections.
The song that I have chosen to use with the students for this research is entitled, “Every Night” which is an Appalachian Folk Song. It is found on page 190 of our older Share the Music textbooks. This song will make an excellent choice for helping to develop skills in how to hold the mallets. Students will play only on the measures that have long notes and will rest for four counts between each measure that they play.
As of September 6, 2010 I am adding video excerpts of the classes involved in this action research and a summary of the Student Questionnaire given to fifteen students following our efforts in the classroom. This summary is in the form of a Microsoft Excel Sheet.
The results of the survey did not yield the conclusions that I had hoped for or expected. For example, one of the most important questions in the survey was question number two (2) which asked students "when holding the mallets close to their shoulders do they play notes more correctly or incorrectly". Thirteen (13) of fifteen (15) students responded by indicating that they played more notes correctly when holding the mallets close to their shoulders. On the other hand, question number eight (8) asked students if, "holding the mallets closer to the bar caused them to play notes more correctly or incorrectly". In this case, ten (10) of fourteen (14) students indicated that they played more notes correctly than incorrectly with one (1) student not answering either way. This shows that either the students were untruthful in their answers, did not fully understand the question and the purpose of our research or were unfocused on the task. It was my hope that the students would recognize that they performed more accurately when holding the mallets closer to the bar as had been my observation as instructor. See if you do not agree with my conclusion by observing the video excerpts.
The specific grade levels that I will perform this action research in is Grades 2 and 3. The Georgia QCC’S that will be covered are:
GM2.6: Performs up-down and step-leap patterns on melodic instruments from letter notation.
GM3.6: Performs simple instrumental melodic patterns and rhythmic patterns by ear and from notation.
Some additional Georgia QCC’S that will be covered include:
GM1.6: Demonstrates awareness of steady beat through playing an instrument
GM2.14 and 3.17: Describes personal response to listening selections.
The song that I have chosen to use with the students for this research is entitled, “Every Night” which is an Appalachian Folk Song. It is found on page 190 of our older Share the Music textbooks. This song will make an excellent choice for helping to develop skills in how to hold the mallets. Students will play only on the measures that have long notes and will rest for four counts between each measure that they play.
As of September 6, 2010 I am adding video excerpts of the classes involved in this action research and a summary of the Student Questionnaire given to fifteen students following our efforts in the classroom. This summary is in the form of a Microsoft Excel Sheet.
The results of the survey did not yield the conclusions that I had hoped for or expected. For example, one of the most important questions in the survey was question number two (2) which asked students "when holding the mallets close to their shoulders do they play notes more correctly or incorrectly". Thirteen (13) of fifteen (15) students responded by indicating that they played more notes correctly when holding the mallets close to their shoulders. On the other hand, question number eight (8) asked students if, "holding the mallets closer to the bar caused them to play notes more correctly or incorrectly". In this case, ten (10) of fourteen (14) students indicated that they played more notes correctly than incorrectly with one (1) student not answering either way. This shows that either the students were untruthful in their answers, did not fully understand the question and the purpose of our research or were unfocused on the task. It was my hope that the students would recognize that they performed more accurately when holding the mallets closer to the bar as had been my observation as instructor. See if you do not agree with my conclusion by observing the video excerpts.
Some thoughts on "5 Minds for the Future"
Welcome to the next installment of my blog, "Making Music with Mr. Belloto". As you may recall, in my last blog I examined some issues and concepts involving Brain Dominance Theory, and Daniel Pink's assertion of the merits, great advantages and so-called outright "superiority" of , "Right-Brained" thinking. In that discussion, I used the real-life example of a brilliant engineer, Mr. Mark Tomion, who, while not exhibiting the typical characteristics of a Right-Brained thinker, nonetheless accomplished a great technological achievement. Yet, in spite of his brilliance, he never got a chance to see his invention realized. In this current blog, I am going to delve even further into the "mysteries" of the human mind by investigating the Theory of "Multiple Intelligences" created by Howard Gardner. Yet again, Mr. Tomion provides a real-life example, or, I might say, once again, "Life imitates art." Could it be that there are correlations to be found in the intellectual skills employed by Mr. Tomion during his lifetime, and Gardner's Multiple Intelligences?
But first, let's define exactly what Gardner's theory entails. In his ground-breaking text entitled, "Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Perspectives for the 21st Century", Gardner tells us that Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Musical, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Spatial, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Naturalistic are the eight types of Intelligences that comprise the basis of his theory. For example, a brief overview of his theory states that Linguistic Intelligence includes a love of language, a curiosity and fascination with words, meanings, and grammatical structure. What has any of this got to do with Mr. Tomion? To begin to answer this question, let's take a look at Tomion's own book, entitled, "Stardrive Engineering", published in 2002. Although a world-class visionary in his own right, this revolutionary technological volume, numbering about 400 pages in length, certainly demonstrates a high-level grasp of the full spectrum of the English language, both scientific and prosaic. In his book he succeeds in explaining many complex scientific concepts in a manner that is accessible to everyone, lay persons such as me included. These actions clearly demonstrated his possession of a great level of Linguistic Intelligence as described above. This type of Linguistic Intelligence is also borne out in another of Gardner's books, entitled "5 Minds for the Future", in which he identifies an intellectual entity called the "Disciplined Mind", which also focuses on scientific discovery.
Many other such telling examples and corollaries with Gardner's Multiple Intelligence theory, hereafter referred to as MI theory, may be found in the life span of this special man. As
previously stated, although not living long enough to see his great scientific and technological inventions come to fruition, he carried out many intellectual processes and skill sets during the process of discovery and invention which demonstrated many of Gardner's Intelligences. For example, many of Tomion's scientific theories, especially those having to do with future space flight at light speeds and beyond, involved the use of an extremely high levels of mathematical equations. Here we see a clear use of Gardner's MI theory's Logical-Mathematical Intelligence at its most effective. Moreover, Tomion spent many hundreds of hours researching the relevant technological and theoretical information necessary for his scientific endeavors, thus calling upon the use of both Linguistic (research) and Logical-Mathematical (scientific) Intelligences concurrently.
Moreover, Tomion's book, "Stardrive Engineering", mentioned above, contains an abundance of explanatory and detailed graphs, charts and diagrams, directly reflecting his use of Spatial Intelligence, (keen and accurate perceptions of the physical world through lines, angles, etc.). Spatial Intelligence was also evident in his grasp of not only technological information, but also of vast amounts of astronomical data as well, as this type of intelligence pushed his knowledge of the physical world to include the world of "outer space" too. Also present in his works was Interpersonal Intelligence, as seen in his magnetic leadership ability, encouraging others to follow and support him in his visions for future space flight and also clean energy production.
Already we have been able to identify several Intelligences (Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Spatial, and Interpersonal) outlined in Gardner's theory in the brief but meteoric life of one individual, Mark Tomion. Deeper investigation would no doubt reveal many others. But, finally, applying the MI perspective to classroom teaching, I now believe that Gardner's theory can indeed be used to create, modify and improve my own teaching methods by using this newly gained understanding which reveals that students will excel in the areas of academic growth only when their wider range of skills, talents, and "intelligences" are recognized and nurtured. For example, as a classroom music teacher, I can now see how one pathway to asses Musical Intelligence in students might be to expose them to a new melody in a familiar idiom, and determine how readily they can learn to sing it. Who knows how many hundreds of "intelligences" may be discovered sitting in my own music classroom? I think it’s worth a try!
But first, let's define exactly what Gardner's theory entails. In his ground-breaking text entitled, "Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Perspectives for the 21st Century", Gardner tells us that Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Musical, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Spatial, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Naturalistic are the eight types of Intelligences that comprise the basis of his theory. For example, a brief overview of his theory states that Linguistic Intelligence includes a love of language, a curiosity and fascination with words, meanings, and grammatical structure. What has any of this got to do with Mr. Tomion? To begin to answer this question, let's take a look at Tomion's own book, entitled, "Stardrive Engineering", published in 2002. Although a world-class visionary in his own right, this revolutionary technological volume, numbering about 400 pages in length, certainly demonstrates a high-level grasp of the full spectrum of the English language, both scientific and prosaic. In his book he succeeds in explaining many complex scientific concepts in a manner that is accessible to everyone, lay persons such as me included. These actions clearly demonstrated his possession of a great level of Linguistic Intelligence as described above. This type of Linguistic Intelligence is also borne out in another of Gardner's books, entitled "5 Minds for the Future", in which he identifies an intellectual entity called the "Disciplined Mind", which also focuses on scientific discovery.
Many other such telling examples and corollaries with Gardner's Multiple Intelligence theory, hereafter referred to as MI theory, may be found in the life span of this special man. As
previously stated, although not living long enough to see his great scientific and technological inventions come to fruition, he carried out many intellectual processes and skill sets during the process of discovery and invention which demonstrated many of Gardner's Intelligences. For example, many of Tomion's scientific theories, especially those having to do with future space flight at light speeds and beyond, involved the use of an extremely high levels of mathematical equations. Here we see a clear use of Gardner's MI theory's Logical-Mathematical Intelligence at its most effective. Moreover, Tomion spent many hundreds of hours researching the relevant technological and theoretical information necessary for his scientific endeavors, thus calling upon the use of both Linguistic (research) and Logical-Mathematical (scientific) Intelligences concurrently.
Moreover, Tomion's book, "Stardrive Engineering", mentioned above, contains an abundance of explanatory and detailed graphs, charts and diagrams, directly reflecting his use of Spatial Intelligence, (keen and accurate perceptions of the physical world through lines, angles, etc.). Spatial Intelligence was also evident in his grasp of not only technological information, but also of vast amounts of astronomical data as well, as this type of intelligence pushed his knowledge of the physical world to include the world of "outer space" too. Also present in his works was Interpersonal Intelligence, as seen in his magnetic leadership ability, encouraging others to follow and support him in his visions for future space flight and also clean energy production.
Already we have been able to identify several Intelligences (Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Spatial, and Interpersonal) outlined in Gardner's theory in the brief but meteoric life of one individual, Mark Tomion. Deeper investigation would no doubt reveal many others. But, finally, applying the MI perspective to classroom teaching, I now believe that Gardner's theory can indeed be used to create, modify and improve my own teaching methods by using this newly gained understanding which reveals that students will excel in the areas of academic growth only when their wider range of skills, talents, and "intelligences" are recognized and nurtured. For example, as a classroom music teacher, I can now see how one pathway to asses Musical Intelligence in students might be to expose them to a new melody in a familiar idiom, and determine how readily they can learn to sing it. Who knows how many hundreds of "intelligences" may be discovered sitting in my own music classroom? I think it’s worth a try!
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Eleventh Hour Rush
Monday, May 3, 2010
Eleventh Hour Rush
Well, here we are just a few weeks from the end of the 2009/2010 school year, and I am going to try to capsulate some of the things that I have been reading, doing, and thinking about pertaining to APS a.r.t.s. and life in general over the past several months. I must say that there has been one thought that has dominated my thinking since June of 2009. That one thought is that Mr. Mark Tomion, inventor of the Stardrive Device (a device or invention that may finally allow mankind to travel to and explore the stars) has tragically died. His Starship design, in essence, was/is something that any lay person could understand. Basically, the ship itself is surrounded in an electric "arc" discharge that is created and held in place by spinning magnets. This electric arc discharge takes the shape of a protective "bubble" around the ship thereby opening up a, "wormhole" and allowing the ship to travel faster than the speed of light. The ship itself is powered by a "reaction-less" drive as opposed to the law of motion we are all familiar with as established by Sir Isaac Newton. Mark labeled his invention, the “Electrodynamic Field Generator”. I had the good fortune of being able to speak to Mr. Tomion over the phone on several different occasions not long before his death. I must say that I was honored and impressed that he would take the time to talk with me. I was also fortunate enough to be able to purchase a copy of Mark's book entitled, "Stardrive Engineering", and I was able to digest a good portion of it, save for some of the more technologically complex aspects, but one of the things that I noticed in the book was that there were no references to Daniel Pink or Howard Gardner! I thought that this was especially telling since titles like, "A Whole New Mind", and "5 Minds for the Future" would seem to go hand-in-hand with a man who had just been awarded a patent for inventing the world's first Starship.As I pondered the possible implications and contradictions of this however, I wondered also how Mr. Pink's book, "A Whole New Mind", whose major assertion and subtitle is that "Right-Brained People will Rule the World" might apply to so brilliant a mind as that of Mr. Tomion's. But in pondering this question, I had to ask myself, "just what is a Right-Brained person?" In searching for the answer to this question I remembered back to my undergraduate Education and Psychology classes at Youngstown State University, where I learned about a concept known as Brain Dominance Theory. Brain Dominance Theory teaches that both right and left brained people are characterized by certain tendencies in their thought processes. Specifically, this theory says that right-brained people (also known as "Global" thinkers) are characterized by highly developed imaginations, creativity and visualization skills, a love for the use of bright colors, a high level of the use of pictures, photos, graphs and charts, a grasp of complex rhythms, an unusually sharp sense of intuition, a love of continual and extensive interactions with other people, and a tendency to express themselves verbally in broad generalizations rather than specifics. However, my limited observation of some of the scientific body of work of the brilliant mind of Mr. Tomion led me to believe that he did not display these major characteristics of a right-brained thinker, thus contradicting Pink's assertion of right-brained superiority. Conversely, I observed him to be much more of what the Theory of Brain Dominance refers to as left-brained, some of whose major characteristics are highly developed logic, structure, sequence, specific details, a highly developed grasp of the use of verbal language and enumeration, and a reliance on analysis and predictability at all times. Indeed, the attributes of left-brained (also known as "Linear" thinking) much more closely match my observations and impression of Mark Tomion, causing me to question even further Pink's assertion of right-brained "superiority".In attempting to reconcile this apparent contradiction, I also remembered that Brain Dominance Theory teaches us that none of us rely exclusively on one hemisphere of the brain only. But rather that the right and left sides of the brain are not only linked together neurologically, but that each hemisphere dominates specific kinds of mental activities and learning patterns. Moreover, the theory also tells us that not only do people tend to have a preference for initially processing information through the left or the right hemisphere, but that once information is received and processing begins in one hemisphere, the information is then shared with the other hemisphere for total processing.This basic understanding helped me to begin to "put the pieces together", somewhat validating Pink's theory of right-brained "superiority". I began to see that while such a scientific genius as Mark Tomion might be classified as predominantly classic left-brained, as discussed above, he must still have had to highly utilize his right-brained skills, i.e. imagination, creativity, intuition, etc. to bring such a great technological invention as the Stardrive Device (or Electrodynamic Field Generator) to full fruition.Moreover, an even greater understanding of the relevance of right-brained thinking is revealed in Chapter 9 of Pink's book, entitled, Meaning. In this section he uses several examples which clearly illustrate the attributes of right-brained thinking bringing great personal meaning to life even under the most challenging and difficult circumstances. For example, we learn of the case of Victor Frankl who, even while a prisoner in a World War Two concentration camp states that, "I now understand how a man who has nothing left in the world may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, when anticipating his Beloved", inferring that the use of right-brained attributes such as the Visualization of a loved one can bring great meaning to such a horrific situation. In the same chapter, Dr. Robert Firestone, author and psychotherapist tells us that, "you're not going to find meaning in life hidden under a rock or written by someone else, you'll only find it by giving meaning to life from inside yourself", again implying that right-brained attributes such as intuition and creativity play a strong role in gaining a "superior" grasp on life itself. Maybe then, I need to see Pink and Gardner in a whole new light!After some thought, I feel that perhaps I had only been peripherally aware of the ideas set forth in either of the books authored by Pink or Gardner. More importantly, however, as I have not seen the type of increasing success in my public school teaching that I would like to see, I began to wonder (and question) how these books (and APS a.r.t.s.) might help me to not only improve, but feel better and more secure in my delivery in the classroom. Might a greater expression of my right-brained skills help the situation to improve? Certainly there may be other factors at work here as I often feel that my upbringing and culture are not such a good "fit" for the current environment in which I find myself teaching. I also have noticed a tremendous difference in my comfort level between the students with whom I work with privately (teaching piano), and those that I teach in the music classroom. Perhaps I do better in a "smaller" educational setting which allows me to feel more at ease as a teacher. Or maybe it is because my private students and their parents are paying me good money to teach them and they want to get the most out of their hard-earned dollars.All of this aside, however, in perspective, some of the core concepts put forth in Pink and Gardner, specifically pertaining to right-brained thinking, have begun to show me that it may have practical applications when it comes to the classroom. For example, we know that many of today's children come to the classroom bearing the unfortunate burdens of neglect and abuse, which negatively affects their behavior and learning ability. These children often experience difficulty in even being able to focus their attention for any significant amount of time on the content of material being taught. This then often results in their inability to focus and manifests itself in behavior which is destructive, disrespectful, self-damaging and self-defeating. The end result of this cycle often leaves the child feeling so defeated that he or she refuses to even attempt to engage in the educational process any further or only gives it a half-hearted effort at best.Yet, as I draw my first blog to a close, I have begun to see that by applying some of the concepts of "superior" right-brained thinking and actions to the classroom; such as a greater use of color, more materials including pictures, charts, and graphs. Also, by using my own sense of intuition and perhaps, more focus on rhythms, I may be able to bring more "meaning" into the classroom and thereby the lives of some of my students. Who knows, one of the students sitting in my music class today may just be the next brilliant Mark Tomion.Mark Belloto, CAGO
Eleventh Hour Rush
Well, here we are just a few weeks from the end of the 2009/2010 school year, and I am going to try to capsulate some of the things that I have been reading, doing, and thinking about pertaining to APS a.r.t.s. and life in general over the past several months. I must say that there has been one thought that has dominated my thinking since June of 2009. That one thought is that Mr. Mark Tomion, inventor of the Stardrive Device (a device or invention that may finally allow mankind to travel to and explore the stars) has tragically died. His Starship design, in essence, was/is something that any lay person could understand. Basically, the ship itself is surrounded in an electric "arc" discharge that is created and held in place by spinning magnets. This electric arc discharge takes the shape of a protective "bubble" around the ship thereby opening up a, "wormhole" and allowing the ship to travel faster than the speed of light. The ship itself is powered by a "reaction-less" drive as opposed to the law of motion we are all familiar with as established by Sir Isaac Newton. Mark labeled his invention, the “Electrodynamic Field Generator”. I had the good fortune of being able to speak to Mr. Tomion over the phone on several different occasions not long before his death. I must say that I was honored and impressed that he would take the time to talk with me. I was also fortunate enough to be able to purchase a copy of Mark's book entitled, "Stardrive Engineering", and I was able to digest a good portion of it, save for some of the more technologically complex aspects, but one of the things that I noticed in the book was that there were no references to Daniel Pink or Howard Gardner! I thought that this was especially telling since titles like, "A Whole New Mind", and "5 Minds for the Future" would seem to go hand-in-hand with a man who had just been awarded a patent for inventing the world's first Starship.As I pondered the possible implications and contradictions of this however, I wondered also how Mr. Pink's book, "A Whole New Mind", whose major assertion and subtitle is that "Right-Brained People will Rule the World" might apply to so brilliant a mind as that of Mr. Tomion's. But in pondering this question, I had to ask myself, "just what is a Right-Brained person?" In searching for the answer to this question I remembered back to my undergraduate Education and Psychology classes at Youngstown State University, where I learned about a concept known as Brain Dominance Theory. Brain Dominance Theory teaches that both right and left brained people are characterized by certain tendencies in their thought processes. Specifically, this theory says that right-brained people (also known as "Global" thinkers) are characterized by highly developed imaginations, creativity and visualization skills, a love for the use of bright colors, a high level of the use of pictures, photos, graphs and charts, a grasp of complex rhythms, an unusually sharp sense of intuition, a love of continual and extensive interactions with other people, and a tendency to express themselves verbally in broad generalizations rather than specifics. However, my limited observation of some of the scientific body of work of the brilliant mind of Mr. Tomion led me to believe that he did not display these major characteristics of a right-brained thinker, thus contradicting Pink's assertion of right-brained superiority. Conversely, I observed him to be much more of what the Theory of Brain Dominance refers to as left-brained, some of whose major characteristics are highly developed logic, structure, sequence, specific details, a highly developed grasp of the use of verbal language and enumeration, and a reliance on analysis and predictability at all times. Indeed, the attributes of left-brained (also known as "Linear" thinking) much more closely match my observations and impression of Mark Tomion, causing me to question even further Pink's assertion of right-brained "superiority".In attempting to reconcile this apparent contradiction, I also remembered that Brain Dominance Theory teaches us that none of us rely exclusively on one hemisphere of the brain only. But rather that the right and left sides of the brain are not only linked together neurologically, but that each hemisphere dominates specific kinds of mental activities and learning patterns. Moreover, the theory also tells us that not only do people tend to have a preference for initially processing information through the left or the right hemisphere, but that once information is received and processing begins in one hemisphere, the information is then shared with the other hemisphere for total processing.This basic understanding helped me to begin to "put the pieces together", somewhat validating Pink's theory of right-brained "superiority". I began to see that while such a scientific genius as Mark Tomion might be classified as predominantly classic left-brained, as discussed above, he must still have had to highly utilize his right-brained skills, i.e. imagination, creativity, intuition, etc. to bring such a great technological invention as the Stardrive Device (or Electrodynamic Field Generator) to full fruition.Moreover, an even greater understanding of the relevance of right-brained thinking is revealed in Chapter 9 of Pink's book, entitled, Meaning. In this section he uses several examples which clearly illustrate the attributes of right-brained thinking bringing great personal meaning to life even under the most challenging and difficult circumstances. For example, we learn of the case of Victor Frankl who, even while a prisoner in a World War Two concentration camp states that, "I now understand how a man who has nothing left in the world may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, when anticipating his Beloved", inferring that the use of right-brained attributes such as the Visualization of a loved one can bring great meaning to such a horrific situation. In the same chapter, Dr. Robert Firestone, author and psychotherapist tells us that, "you're not going to find meaning in life hidden under a rock or written by someone else, you'll only find it by giving meaning to life from inside yourself", again implying that right-brained attributes such as intuition and creativity play a strong role in gaining a "superior" grasp on life itself. Maybe then, I need to see Pink and Gardner in a whole new light!After some thought, I feel that perhaps I had only been peripherally aware of the ideas set forth in either of the books authored by Pink or Gardner. More importantly, however, as I have not seen the type of increasing success in my public school teaching that I would like to see, I began to wonder (and question) how these books (and APS a.r.t.s.) might help me to not only improve, but feel better and more secure in my delivery in the classroom. Might a greater expression of my right-brained skills help the situation to improve? Certainly there may be other factors at work here as I often feel that my upbringing and culture are not such a good "fit" for the current environment in which I find myself teaching. I also have noticed a tremendous difference in my comfort level between the students with whom I work with privately (teaching piano), and those that I teach in the music classroom. Perhaps I do better in a "smaller" educational setting which allows me to feel more at ease as a teacher. Or maybe it is because my private students and their parents are paying me good money to teach them and they want to get the most out of their hard-earned dollars.All of this aside, however, in perspective, some of the core concepts put forth in Pink and Gardner, specifically pertaining to right-brained thinking, have begun to show me that it may have practical applications when it comes to the classroom. For example, we know that many of today's children come to the classroom bearing the unfortunate burdens of neglect and abuse, which negatively affects their behavior and learning ability. These children often experience difficulty in even being able to focus their attention for any significant amount of time on the content of material being taught. This then often results in their inability to focus and manifests itself in behavior which is destructive, disrespectful, self-damaging and self-defeating. The end result of this cycle often leaves the child feeling so defeated that he or she refuses to even attempt to engage in the educational process any further or only gives it a half-hearted effort at best.Yet, as I draw my first blog to a close, I have begun to see that by applying some of the concepts of "superior" right-brained thinking and actions to the classroom; such as a greater use of color, more materials including pictures, charts, and graphs. Also, by using my own sense of intuition and perhaps, more focus on rhythms, I may be able to bring more "meaning" into the classroom and thereby the lives of some of my students. Who knows, one of the students sitting in my music class today may just be the next brilliant Mark Tomion.Mark Belloto, CAGO
Saturday, October 17, 2009
What Music is to Me
Music was and is a universal language. A perfect harmony. That place where my deepest emotions lie. It is my hope and inspiration. It is my solitude in times of chaos. My joy in times of sorrow. My humility when I am too bold. My strength when I am weak. It is my connection to the spirit world.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)