Thursday, November 1, 2007

Ideas for Mr. Pink and A Whole New Mind

We have talked endlessly about taking charge of your own learning and now here is the chance to really have a say in what happens with our study of A Whole New Mind. What would you like to do with our time with Mr. Pink? Think practically as well as big picture. What do you hope to accomplish with this unbelievably remarkable opportunity?

65 comments:

amyw said...

I think it would be really cool to have a live blogging session with him. That way, if he thought that it would take too much time to come here and talk to us, blogging would be easier. And it would be a good way to show him how we are taking charge of our own learning and how what we've been doing in this class so far ties in with the content of his book (since it's about how right-brained people will dominate).

phoebef said...

I think that for a whole new mind it would be interesting if we examined our own personalities and figured out if we were more "left" or "right" brain oriented.

Lukez said...

I think that we should do a lot of the fishbowls with him because it would be really helpful to talk to the actually author of the book we are discussing. It would also be interesting for him to come into class and tell us what his book is about before we read it so we can get the big picture.

amyw said...

Also, maybe if the author wanted to, we could actually ask him to come here AND blog with us. I don't know if he'd want to do both things, but it's worth a try...

Brian c said...

I our time with Mr Pink, I hope to learn why he wrote the book and how he thinks society will be in the future, like in Fareinhiet 451, like he says in A Whole New Mind, or something else.

Alyssa S. said...

I think that this a great oppurtunity for us to expand our learning. I think it would be great if Mr. Pink would be willing to come to your class and discuss his book with us and see how we are using technolgy, especially the way we discuss using fishbowls. If he couldn't actually come into our class I still think it would be great if he could participate in our blog.

aaronw said...

Fishbowls definantely (is that right??)...
they are the best thing we've done with F451, and have helped me a lot.
This book will probably have lots of good discussion questions so it will start good fishbowls.

aaronw said...

how do you spell definately?

Liap said...

I think that we should discuss with him some hidden meanings or big ideas that we find in his book and see if he meant to write that in or if it was unintentional. I want to make my own conclusions of the book and compare them to what Mr. Pink origionally thought people's reactions would be.

josed said...

I think that it would be cool for Mr. Pink to come to our school and we could have a little fair. Mr. Pink might do a live reading of his book, we might ask him questions about the book and good writing, etc. We could also have a blog just for him, called "Pinkblog," or "Pinkstock," or another funny name. He would read the blog every other day, and we would have posting privileges to post questions

amandah said...

I think we should have dicussions with him about his book and dicuss about hidden meanings about the book.
I hope to accomplish making connections with this book and other books.

KatherineM said...

I think it would be really neat to have Mr. Pink come in and talk to us about his books and his ideas, and we could have a discussion with him. Or like Amy said, live blogging would also be nice. I think it will be really interesting to be able to interact with this author and learn about different styles of learning.

SerenaL said...

I agree with amyw that we should have a live blogging thing. That way more people will get to talk to him, instead of just one person at a time. It would also be really cool if he could come to answer any questions we had about his book. People may interpret things one way, but it'd be nice to see what the actual author was thinking as he wrote.

Javonm said...
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Liap said...

aaronw- Like you just did :)

Javonm said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Javonm said...

I agree wtih Luke I think it would be fun to have Mr. Pink in here for a fishbowl session or to just to kind of figure out where he was coming from when he wrote this book and what his thoughts and interpretations were. I also think it would be fun to have just come in here or blog with us online so we can ask him questions about his book that he could answer. I wouldn't want it to be him only giving us what his thoughts were when writing his book. It's more fun to do a fishbowl discussion type scenario that lets us give our opinions on what we thought certain aspects of the book meant and we can compare and contrast his ideas to our own and to others among the class.

stefo said...

i agree with Amy. I think it would be an amazing opportunity to have a live blogging session with him. We could see technology at work and talk with him about all his ideas. Also having him in to talk face to face would incredible as well.

chelseas said...

When we start reading A Whole New Mind, I would like to ask Mr. Pink a few questions. I was wondering what inspired him to write this book. What intrigued him so much about the brain to write a book on it? Is this his first book that has been published?

I hope that he would be able to come in and talk to us about this book. Since you have his email address, maybe you could contact him and talk to him about potentially coming it to discuss this book. I was also hoping that he might be able to explain the brain to us, in person, after we have read it on our own.

maddief said...

I like Phoebe's idea of doing a live blog with him. If he's too busy to come here, then it would still be like talking to him. If he does come though, I think that we could do something like the book fair assignment; we each take what we have learned from the book, whether it is about our selves or the book, and do a presentation of it. This would show how we each learned independently. I also agree with Luke, it would be fun to some fishbowls with Mr. Pink. What better way to discuss a book than with the person who wrote it?

aaronw said...

thanx lia...

meganu said...

I think we should blog with Mr. Pink about his book. It would be cool if he came to our class but it might take too much time and he would be able to blog from anywhere, just as long as he has a computer. We should discuss with Mr. Pink the main ideas of his book, and any hidden meanings there might have been.

Louiseb said...

I think that it would be really great if Mr. Pink would be willing ot come to our class and discuss his book with us. Maybe we could have a fishbowl that he could participate in with us so that he sould see both what we thouht of his book and how we use technology in our classroom. Even if he couldn't come here maybe he could participate in a fishbowl with us using just bolgger. That way we could get his thoughts and input without actually being here. We could tell him what we thought and he could respond.

nicolek said...

I would really like it if maybe after every few sections we always have to blog it would be really cool if Mr. Pink would answer the questions too and give his point of view. Also, when we finished the book i think it would be amazing if he came in and we could talk to him or have a fishbowel with him about it. I think that would be so amazing and help me get a deeper and better understanding of the book

alexd said...

I think that it would be cool if we could show him how we can blog and show him how we like to talk to eachother over the computer and in the discussion circle. It would be cool if he could contribute to the conversation so he could better understand it. And then maybe he could talk to us about his veiw on writing and books.

ZachH said...

I think there are 3 things we could do with Mr. Pink.

1.) Before we start with the book at all, i think we should figure out if we personally are right brain or left brain.

2.) We could either go to a museum or have some scientists come talk with us about how the brain works/functions.

3.) We should do a fishbowl on the blog and have Mr. Pink participate in the conversation.

4.) We should have Mr. Pink come out and talk to us about the inspiration for his book, any difficulty or research that went into writing it, and answer any questions we have for him.

ZachH said...

Obviously I can't count. I meant 4 things we could do with Mr. Pink.

JohnB said...

Mr.Pink is really coming to talk? Sweet. I predict many discussions on its way...
I guess I would ask him why he wrote the book in the first place.

rsabey said...

I hope to learn more about my mind and the people surrounding me minds. I have five brothers and I am always confused and often anoyed by them. Being written by a male author I am excited to see the differences between male and female minds. I would also love to read this book and learn more about minds so that maybe I can better understand my thoughts and how they affect my body and acton.
I often have negitive thoughts about myself so I am hoping that by reading this book I will have the chance to have a broader view on my mind and how and why it works like that.
I would hope that we might beable to have a fishbowl conference with Mr.Pink either over a conference call and on blog or in person and on blog. I would love to meet Mr. Pink so that I can understand his book more fully. I think this is a great opportunity fo my class and myself. I hope to learn some interesting things, and make progress in the way I think in order to become more effective.

Tylerg! said...

i agree with phoebef, it would be interesting to find out if we are more left brained or right brained

Laurenc said...

When we talk with Mr.Pink, I would like to discuss his ideas on "challenging the system" and why he thinks taking charge of your own learning is so important.

I hope to learn even more about higher level thinking and just enjoy talking with a famous author

ParkerH said...

I would like to discuss brain materials and some of how it works. Basically, what the brain is and does. I like to know that sort of stuff.

alexf said...

I am very excited about live blogging with Mr. Pink because it will give us a chance to see the point of view from a famous author. It will be very interesting how he interprets his book compared to how we interpret it. I hope to accomplish a great understanding of his book and to see from his perspective. This live blogging, I hope, will be very fun!!!

Anonymous said...

I would definately like to live blog with him so we could have to opportunity to ask him questions about the ideas in his book and just discuss them. Also have a blog where we could just post questions and he could help answer them.
I would like to learn more about how the human brain functions with thoughts and certain skills. And why some of us are smarter then other's. I would love to learn how I can utilize my mind to its greatest potential and increase my learning and my ability to think and process the world in which I live in. I guess in other words, to become a more intelectual person.

mattw said...

I dont know who Mr. pink is really, but I know he's the author of "A Whole New Mind". I'm not sure what I'd ask him, because I never really have heard much about him. But I guess I'd say; When you wrote this book, were you challenging a "system" that was in use or were you directly going agaisnt a "norm" or typicality?
I guess it would be nice to learn more about what challenging the system means, because I dont think that it always has to mean you need to form an underground rebel society. I think it would be cool if he watched us doing a fishbowl about his book, like the first few chapters, depending if we can all start reading before he comes.

maddisonm said...

I think it is really amazing that we will get to communicate with a famous author. I enjoy reading books such as these and I think it will be really neat to see this book from Mr. Pink’s perspective. With our time with Mr. Pink I hope we can lean more about his ideas in writing his book. Also I hope that while we blog with Mr. Pink is fun and organized and we get good, valuable information out of these blogs and conversations.

morganw said...

I, personally, am siked to be able to do live blogging with an author. I want to find out Mr. Pink's reasons behind writing his book, why he thinks they're relevant to our study of challenging the system, and what kind of worldly connections he can make that we as high school kids may not be able to. I hope to learn as much as I can from him. I want to be able to spend time blogging with him and doing a fishbowl with him. If possible, I would like to be able to ask him questions in person or have an inner circle type discussion with him. I only hope that we'll have enough time to accomplish most, if not all, of our goals.

mattf said...

I would like to blog with Mr. Pink. This would allow us to see what he thinks about how we are interpreting his book and his thoughts. We also could get additional imput from him. I think we could acomplish great things and increase our cognitave abilities.

Anonymous said...

I really want to get a professional opinion (other than Ms. Smiths) to comment on our blogs do that we can see what we do that's good and what we can improve on. I've always felt it's the best thing to have an unbiased opinion from an outside source.

jordanh said...

I think that the oppurtunity to expand our knowledge of our own brains with Mr. Pink is a huge honor. He has come out with a revolutionary new book about our minds, an dthat is incredible. the fact that he actually wants to blog with us is incredible. I see this as a huge oppurtunity to increase my knowledge about my own knowledge.

macm said...

Well, I think that this would be a great opportunity for us to understand some of those hazy areas in a book. When you read and discuss, there's always a part where you wonder what it meant and what the author meant for it to mean. Now we can actually ask him! And we, being honors students, can disagree with him to. I'm really excited to have this great of a chance to talk to someone who has written a book based on the human mind. I think that the inner-workings of our mind is one of the last great frontiers to be explored, and blogging with Mr> Pink also gives us the chance to show off our highly advanced thinking skills. I also think that you could ask him a lot of great questions, or do an activity to see if you will someday rule the world!

katyj said...

Like some other people have said, it would be really interesting to find out if we are right or left brained. It would also be interesting to find out if Mr. Pink is right or left brained.
also i think it would be a lot of fun to ask Mr. Pink about some underlying meanings in his book.

ryanm said...

I think this would be a great opporunity to blog with one of the experts in this field and take this chance to speak with an author and then base our own opinion after listening to what he has to say, and making our own observations of the book.

melissaz said...

To tell you the truth, I think that Blogging with Mr.Pink is the thing that I really want to do with him. It will be so interesting to learn all abotu his personal opinions, and I think I will learn so much from being able to talk with him. The only thing that may be a problem would be that he will be talking with so many people we may not be able to give him our point of view, but I;m sure it will be fine. I hope that I can kind of understand a little more how our brain works, not so much the technical scientific stuff, but the thought process and the creative part. With a book all abotu the brain, I'm sure he has a great position abotu it. I just think it will be so amazing to say in Colledge that I got to talk/blog with an amazing author about his ideas, it's amazing!

hannahl said...

When I heard about this author, I realized how relevent his ideas are to where we are in our lives. In high school, we have to learn to take control of our learning. That is why I think that it might be an interesting idea to write letters after reading the book to the administration and/or our teachers talking about how we understand the importance of learning and the importance of the right kind of learning. Maybe we could give them ideas pertaining to what we could do in class to help foster creativity and diversity in our learning. This would help us be proactive about what we learned in the book. Also, it might be interesting to compile a book of our thoughts (essays) on how this book affects us as students, and communicate with other schools to talk about how the ideas in this book are universal. I am very excited about this opportunity, and I hope to get from it a better sense of responsability for the furthering of my own education and a feeling of independance from the educational system as it is today. Blogging with Mr. Pink will be an amazing experience because that interaction will help me to achieve the above goals. I hope to come out of this a better learner.

clarao said...

I think it would be cool if we could see our potential of acheivement depending on which side of our brain we use the most. Maybe we could do some activity to see which side of the brain the majority of our class uses. I would like to be able to apply what learn later on, maybe practice being more of a certain side of the brain thinker. Either way, I would like to know which side of my brain I use the most, so I can use what I learn about the kind of thinker I am in the future.

Anonymous said...

I really want to show that teenagers are capable of making good connections and are able to take charge in our comprehension and learning. I think it is really cool that he is willing to listen to what we have to say and take us seriously. I want to be able to have a great conversation with someone who knows all about why people think the way they do and take advantage of being able to speak to him and get a new point of view.

kristinah said...

I agree on the opinions that it would be really awesome to live blog with this author. I have taken a look at his book and what is in it and what it is about and it really got me excited to read it. It seems like it is really going to help advance us in our learning and in our daily lives. To be reading it this early in our lives is going to be really benefishal. Most people, I think, only read this once they get into college. I also think, I dont know if this is a possibility, that it would be cool if he could come into the class room and talk to us personally so that he would be able to answer some of our questions more directly becuase with so many people blogging many questions and statements that could be quite profound will be ignored. But I still think that the live blogging will be amazing!! I am soooooo excited. I think I might read the book once now and then when the time comes that we get to blog with him I will read it again because I dont know how much longer I can wait to read this book. It just sounds so interesting and I cant wait to talk with the author himself about the ideas within this profound and amazing book. I think that it could even be life changing.

lesliel said...

Well, like others in this blog, I feel like just being able to blog with him is so amazing. I think it would be cool to be able to ask him questions and see how a real author thinks. I feel that seeing his point of veiw could teach us a lot. Also, I think it woud be so cool if he could possibly give us tips on writing that'll help us with this year and the years to come. Since this could be once in a life time, I want to get as much out of it as I can. Of course, without totally draining Mr. Pink.

lesliel said...

Actually Lia and Aaron,
it's spelled

definitely.
:D

Ryad said...

I agree with everyone else on this blog. It is such an amazing opportunity and we should do major fishbowl type of discussions because that is what we are good at and seem to get the most out of. We should also find out if we are left or right brained.

catem said...

hannahl~Let me start off by saying that your idea of creating a book of what we learned is a really great idea. Though here at Arapahoe, we are very fortunate to have many teachers that believe that we can take charge of our own learning, I know that not everyone agrees. Most adults think we are simply teenagers; when our compacity to learn, comprehend, spread ideas, and form new ones are often just as high if not higher than the level of some adults. How better to spread, and learn more about "taking charge of our own learning" than by discussing the future, and how to succeed in our constantly changing world with an acomplished author. Testing his theory's may prove to all those who underestimate us by our age that if done right, kids may WANT to learn. After all we are "the future of this country" and why can't the future start right now?

MollyS said...

Well i like Pheobe's idea about connecting the learning to ourselves, and seeing how his ideas affect us personaly.

Also I think it would be cool for as, as well as Mr. Pink if he came to one of our blogging sessions, and if that wasn't possible, at least have one with him joining in with us would be fun.

I think it all depends on how involved he wants to be in this, I also think indoor skydiving would be a blast. haha, but seriously...

kristenw said...

I think it will be so cool to have an online fishbowl withmr. Pink. I think he will be surprised at how intellectual we can be. It will also be interesting to see where he got his ideas for his book. Also what was going through his head.

mitchl. said...

I agree with mattf. Talking to the author of any book we've read can really increase our views and recieve better input about the book. Also I think that we could really impress him about what we have to say about his book even though we are only a freshman honors english class.

NickB said...

I agree with Zach in that before we start reeding, we should find out if we are left or right brain dominant, because that would let us really think about the book. If you can't relate to a book, it's hard to get a lot out of it, so that would make the book more personal.

Also, I agree that we should have a live blog (or skype?) session with Mr. Pink, and ask him what point he tried to get across with specific sections of the book, and tell him how we saw that section.

Overall, though, I'm just pumped to do this whole thing.

NickB said...

And Molly, I support you 100% on the indoor skydiving idea.

beckyg said...

I think the most amazing thing would be to actually get to talk with him in person, but because that is probably very unrealistic, I think the next best thing would be to live blog with him. I think that it would be very interesting to hear his ideas about a book that he wrote! How cool would it be to actually know the authors perspective not just guess at consepts that you think he might have meant. Blogging wiith hi would give us that opportunity, and I think that would be so cool!

ashleyf said...

A book about the human mind....already gets me interested. But to ask about the thought process of how these conclusions were made, would just be amazing! An opportunity for an author to elaborate on ideas that we read would just be able to create so much more thinking.

On blog, we always ask each other questions about our books, and then we answer them with a possiblity that might kind of sorta be on the right track.....But blogging with the person who wrote the book!??!?!?!Whoa

Unknown said...

Like a lot of people, I think that maybe we should have a fishbowl. That would be really cool, because that is what we do best! It's kind of cool to meet an author because they were that mind behind the book, so I would like to learn from Mr. Pink something like, what propelled him to write a book like this? Or, What did he hope to accomplish? Questions like that would be good to ask him.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
DawnielleN said...

I think it would be bennificial to all of us to have a question ad answer session. Not for the whole class just for part of it.


I also think that if he wanted to we could do a fishbowl and he could be blogging AND talking in the inner circle.

Selenam said...

I think having a blog/fishbowl like we do when we discuss "Farenheit 451" would be cool.

stephenf said...

I think we should all try to set up an out of school blog so that everyone can particapate. I think this would be a fun way to learn and study A Whole New Mind.

Unknown said...

I would like to be able to sit down and talk to him about all of the ideas that he has. It would be cool if he could come and watch us, but it would be super cool if he would interact with us. That would be a huge learning opportunity, because of the book that he has written. We would be able to understand so much more about the book if we could talk with him. Also, it is also a good idea to have him listen to us if he is willing to give us feedback about our conversations.