How Influenced by others are you?

Interesting story on Dateline NBC tonight. The title of the show was "What Were You Thinking" and it was all about a few social experiments that tried to prove that most people will follow a crowd, despite feeling that it may be risky or not the right thing to do.

http://insidedateline.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/04/23/2233419.aspx

Here are a couple of their experiments: The first one (on the link above) was that they tried to convince an entire 5th grade class that their teacher had ESP. They showed the class and their teacher a video where a guy on the video was thinking about a kitchen utensil. The teacher appeared to guess correctly every single time, because when the moderator clicked on the corner of the "play" button for the reveal video it corresponded to the answer the teacher gave. The ENTIRE class was convinced she had ESP!

Another experiment consisted of a room full of people, only one of whom didn't know what was going on, filling out an application. Smoke began to fill a room from under a door and the people who were in on the experiment remained totally calm and didn't do anything but continue to fill out their forms. Although most of the subjects, victims, whatever you want to call them, became visibly disturbed by the room filling with smoke, they didn't do anything because everyone else appeared unconcerned.

Yet another one, and a little more disturbing, was one where a guy was hooked up to an electric probe in another room and he had to answer questions. When he got the answers wrong, the "unknowing subject" had to flip a switch to administer electric shocks, each one getting a little stronger for each wrong answer. There was a moderator in the room with the subject who continued to encourage the "shocker" to keep going, despite increasingly agonizing screams from the other room. (The guy in the room was never being shocked, just acting like it.) At some point as the subject increased the voltage up to 200, then 300, then 350 then 450 volts (regular house current is 120 volts), the guy being shocked quit responding to questions and the shocks, making the subject think that he or she was really hurting the guy in the other room; yet they continued. Only one person stopped the shock treatment saying that they refused to hurt someone any more than they already had.

Studies show that we are incredibly social beings and will go along with a crowd, despite our best defense that we make decisions individually. Sigmund Freud first theorized about it and called it "Crowd Psychology". Carl Jung called it "Collective Unconscious". A laymen's term that I've heard is "Mob Mentality" and although this collective thinking can bring about big social change, it also is very dangerous because individuals become unaware of the true nature of his or her actions. When you look at what is actually happening, it is not the crowd that is making a decision, it's really a few like-minded individuals or one person who is the leader who ultimately convinces others that his idea is worth supporting.

Standing out from a crowd is difficult when everyone else seems to be doing something different from you. It takes courage and strength to stand on your own against the majority. Most people want to fit in and follow the crowd; after all there is power in numbers.

However, here's some advice: I ask you that every decision you make be made with some thought, despite what others may do, or think. Don't just go along with the crowd. Stand on your own. If your decision is consistent with the crowd, then you can always say that you made the best decision for yourself, not what everyone else wanted you to do. If your decision doesn't go with the crowd, so be it. That doesn't mean you can skip Changing of the Chairs this week! Some of the best decision-makers in our history have stuck to their beliefs despite overwhelming opinions to the contrary. Isaac Newton and Galileo Galilei come to mind.

For this blog week, I would like you to describe two things: a moment in school (or in video production) where you went along with the crowd or with someone else even though you knew it wasn't the best thing to do.

Then, describe a moment in school or in video production where you stood up to the common opinion and expressed yourself even though it may not have been the popular decision. When you went against the grain, so to speak.

And, still.....NO you can't skip Changing of the Chairs!

Be the Change You Want to See in the World...

You have a lot of power. Even though we've all been through a tough span of time lately, I see change. I see you getting more and more excited about the senior video, your video projects and your future. This change has begun a domino effect of EVERYONE changing. I feel it. It feels good. You're attitude and the way your carry yourself affects all of those around you. In that way, you have enormous power.

The thing that I've wanted you to realize this year, with some of our struggles, is that in order for things to change, you must change yourself, not others. You have to change the way you look at things, the way you interact with others, the way you think about things; you can't wait for others to change....it has to begin with you.

As most of you embark on the next chapter in your life, I want you to remember something: when things don't seem to be going well, look inside yourself first. Don't blame all the others around you for your discontent. As you look inside, you might discover that you didn't understand your perception at all and that the problem was with you all along. Most of the time, we are not always the best judges of ourselves.

I want you to read the article attached. http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/spirit/archives/be-change It's a short article. I want you to carry these ideas with you as you head into your next adventure. I hope that you always enjoy learning new things in your life, but that you stay grounded and remain the person that you are; aiming to improve yourself each and every day.

You can do this...I've just seen us make a big change in class and I think it took us looking within ourselves to be able to make it. The senior video deadline looming was probably a motivating factor too! :-) We're still not out of the woods. We have another 5 weeks, but we can forge ahead with this newfound energy.

Let me know what you think about the article and tell me what thoughts go through your head as you read it and reflect on how it applies to you. How can you be the catalyst for change in your life and in the lives of others around you?

Dreams and Aspirations

Let's talk about something that's doesn't have anything to do with Video Production lessons. We will be completely immersed in it for the next 6 weeks, so I thought I'd give you a short break and start off the last few weeks of the school year talking about.... dreams.

Face it...our Eagle TV seniors will be leaving us in the next month and a half to pursue the rest of their lives. Certainly, we've all had dreams about our future and as a tight-knit Eagle TV family, it is our responsibility to propel each other into greatness. We need to see to it that none of us falter as we pursue that hard-knock road to success.

Even as you go head first into your future, there will be other things that you'll want to accomplish in your life that aren't necessarily career-related. Please don't ever tell yourself that you can't do these things. You MUST do them. It's your bucket list, of sorts. Always follow your dreams with enthusiasm and vigor and guide your life towards those dreams.

What is it that you want to do as a career? What are you most suited to? What do you want to do for fun? What do you want to be good at? What experiences do you want to have? What parts of the world do you want to see and why? How can you make your mark in the world?

I'll start:

All of you know I love to write and am working on a novel and another book. I would like to be a published book author.

I want to be a mommy.

I want to learn to surf.

I want to go to lay on a beach in Tahiti.

I want to ride on the back of an elephant and swim with a dolphin.

I want to be a public speaker and continue to teach others.

I want to travel overseas with my dad and brother again.

I want to hang glide.

I want to see the great pyramids.

I want to bike ride through France.

I want to learn to dance to African drums with an African band. (Actually, I've attempted this one!)

The list can go on and on.

I've thought a lot about my life lately and what would I do if I didn't have much time left and I can't imagine not doing all these things. I also heard a favorite author of mine say last week at a book signing that if you don't do those things that grind at your very being before you turn 80, it will be very sad for you. You will have had a lot of good things that happened in your lifetime, but you will be focused on the regrets. Lastly, another author...Wayne Dyer, says that "it is rarely those things that you do in life that you regret, it's the things that you didn't do."

So tell me what you're going to do. You have your whole life in front of you, don't waste it! What do you want to do? What are you thankful for and who are you thankful for? Have you told them? Tell me what you are passionate about and how will you fulfill your dreams? Then, get back to video production!

Spring Break

Friday is the last day before spring break. When we return, we will have about 30 days of the school year left. If I think I've had a hard time motivating you up until now, just wait until April 12th!

It has been a difficult year in advanced class. I can't seem to get some of you to understand the importance of deadlines, of the responsibility of doing a service for our school, the concept that once you miss something, that's it...it's over..you can't recreate it; like the entire swimming season, for instance, the relationship between shooting outside school events and the quality of our senior video; our ONLY fundraiser of the year for us.

We're missing taping opportunities and news stories right and left. Senior nights, the teachers cheering on juniors last week during testing week, plays and chorus concerts, GE tutoring for juniors and the list goes on and on. These are stories that are laying down right in front of your feet, and you have to practically trip over them to get to the computer to check your email.

All that being said, I'm still optimistic. There is so much incredible talent in the room, that there just has to be some way to tap it. I can nudge you by saying, "hey...why not do the best news story of the year in the next few weeks?" or "you can hardly believe the power you hold in your hands by doing this news story on the dangers of....fill in the blank!" "The entire school will be looking at our senior video and I hope that you're proud of it." "You have the Eagle TV legacy in your hands, let's go out this year with a bang!"

Yes, I know you have senioritis....it's a bad case, but we still have work to do. In fact, it's more work than we've had all year. When all other classes are winding down, we are ramping up. We have another package to produce, a senior video segment, a report on our favorite news story, videos for Mr. Hosey and others, preview DVD of the senior video, the DVD format for the senior video to begin, the VO/SOT that is due, more Friday Live! shows and Morning Updates to do. Your senior video needs to be complete in about 15 days after we return from Spring Break!

So, finish this week up by turning in a great assignment. Then, take your much-deserved spring break and rest up. because you will be doing your best work in the next couple of weeks. You're going to need to show me what you got; and I don't mean the sand in your shoes!

What Will You Make of It?

Time is blowing by. Before long, many of you will be walking across a stage and shaking hands with our principal and dreaming big dreams. Eagle TV will be in your rearview mirror and the image will get smaller and smaller. Although, hopefully, it will never disappear!

There is no denying that we've had our ups and downs this year. For the first year in the last 5, we were not able to go to the STN Conference; an amazing experience for any young broadcast student. I regret that we weren't able to attend and that we missed that opportunity to jump start and re-energize our skills as student journalists.

I also regret that, nationwide, they have done away with the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Student (Emmy) Award competition. I'm afraid that our economy hits us all hard and because of that, there will be many missed opportunities to showcase our best work.

We've had a few tense moments and disputes within the four walls of our classroom, a process that happens to the best of ALL families. Many times those disagreements have had a negative impact on our work and our productivity.

Eagle TV members have experiences grief in the loss of a couple of our teachers and a couple of our friends. On top of all that, each one of us has had many a personal crisis that we've dealt with that we can't help but carry into the school with us every day. We've had a change in administration and the school "feels" different. It's been a very difficult year.

But I refuse to have a "bad" year. My 2009-2010 school year will not be defined by what happened to me, but how I react to it. The richness of the experiences that I've had can't be denied. We all have plenty of time left in the year to build many more good memories and fuel numerous personal successes.

I can't ask for a better group of students and a better program to be in charge of. Eagle TV has given me so many profound experiences as a teacher, colleague, friend, mentor, mother, coach that my life is so much richer because of it. Because of you. Because of the wonderful opportunities I get by spending time seeing you, my students, succeed. By seeing you stumble, but get up again to brush yourself off and plow ahead to try again. By the intense drive to "move on" that you exhibit when things don't go your way or succeed the way you hoped it would. By the support that you give to each other and to me. Complete with our ups and downs that we experience together, we are the Eagle TV family.

So, with months left to go, I intend to make the most of it. I will continue to push you to do better, to try harder, to experiment and to plow ahead when you feel like giving up. The best part of the year is coming up. I feel it. Just like I felt the energy in the show on Friday. It was palpable and electric. No one had to say anything....it was a common electricity felt by all of us. We are linked to each other. We are a team and we have to keep moving ahead together. Let's let go of the petty stuff and grab hold of the powerful. I can't wait to see what you bring to the TV screen! What you do to move people, to make them laugh and cry and then laugh again with your stories. The power you have to move people with your video and your writing can't be denied. You have the power, use it!

So I leave you with two things: the first is the question....what are you going to do with the time you have left this year in class to make your mark? To make the best of the semester? To produce your best work? Can you feel the energy? I can.

The other thing is a story that I got from Dave Davis, video production teacher from Hillcrest High School who recounts on his blog a comment made by the Nebraska football coach, Tom Osborne at their football banquet. He was recalling a conversation that Osborne had with another high school football coach in the area and Osborne had asked that coach what kind of year he had. The high school coach listed the wins and losses and commented that they just missed the playoffs.

Osborne looked at the other coach and said, "I didn't ask how many games you won. I asked you what kind of year you had."

Despite wins and losses, what kind of year will you have?