I chose one of Pink's senses to look into a little further. The first thing I did was to google Symphony. I also did something I read about in the "meaning" topic. I played 6 degrees of symphony through the internet. Symphony comes from a Greek word meaning "agreement or concord of sound" or simply "harmonious". In music a symphony is a composition, often extended and usually for orchestra. Symphony does not imply a specific form. However Daniel Pink puts Symphony into context in his book "A Whole New Mind" saying:
".....Symphony is the ability to put together the pieces. It is the capacity to synthesize rather than to analyze; to see relationships between seemingly unrelated fields; to detect broad patterns rather than to deliver specific answers; and to invent something new by combining elements nobody else thought to pair"
Symphony is focus, specialization, and analysis. It has been a large part of the "information age", but in the "conceptual age" synthesis and the abiltiy to take seemingly unrelated pieces (like music) to form and articulate the big pucture before us is crucial. And even a differentiator. Symphony requires that all of us become better at seeing, truely seeing in a new way. Symphony is not about totally simplifying a presentation or a problem in life, instead utilizing your whole mind (i.e. logic, analysis, synthesis, and intuition) to make sense of our world or in many cases for us, specific situations.
** What is needed is a symphonic approach to our material and our ability to bring it all together for our audience. This will ultimately be greatly appreciated by all !**
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4 comments:
Matt - I agree with you completely!If only we could find a little symphony in our content!
I didn't realize how important the "symphony" element was until I read your blog, Matt. It really is the big picture that brings everything into play. So often we tend to focus on the details and forget to zoom out and look at how everything works together. I will keep this in mind as I teach and I will work hard to turn my lessons into beautiful symphonies that will touch each of my students in a thier own unique way.
Hi Matt!
I loved reading this. I like the way you phrased what symphony really is. For me, it gave meaning to the use of symphony in our lives and in lessons. I am going to be more conscious about looking at the whole picture from now on. :)
Matt, your post was really interesting. After reading what you had to say, I had a better understanding of how symphony actually can relate to us as educators. The idea of symphony really relates directly to differentiated instruction in the classroom. We as teachers should make sure that we use all different resources to teach students even if they don't seem directly related to one another. In doing this, we are able to teach to the various learning styles of our students. Good info!
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