I am in the habit of posting on Sunday evening after reviewing e-mail and my RSS feeds. If I don’t have anything that I want to share about our district or myself, I review my blog file folder to see what might be of interest to share. The file now has over 20 items so there is much to potentially share.
As I review them this evening, I find myself reflecting on what, out of the hundreds I review, do I end up putting in the file. There is the latest on the common core standards that were released last week in final format; Race to the Top, leadership, merit pay, and the list goes on. I choose things that are of interest to me and that at some time will have an influence on my work as a leader in our system and/or that will influence decisions we will be making in our system.
With that said, I’ve decided today to share this 10 minute video about Daniel Pink’s book Drive. The focus of the book is on motivation and the video shares some of his thinking about motivation, performance and innovation. I wonder if those pushing for merit pay have read the book. There is much for us to consider about motivation as it relates to students and to the work that we are doing to align our Classroom 10 and teacher supervision documents.
If you could influence the content of my posts what would you want see?
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3 comments:
Great video. I just bought this book yesterday and I have only read one chapter, Autonomy. Though I do not tend to skip chapters, I was very interested in this one. I look forward to reading the rest of the book.
As far as content of your blogs, I think they are great and I do not have any suggestions for topics. I may not always agree with what you have to say but I do respect your thoughts and I think that you have a unique perspective on the topics at hand, especially since the thoughts you share do not always align with other superintendents. I look forward to the posts on Sunday nights and your mid week posts also.
Unlike Scott, I actually began at the beginning of the book… it just seems a more of a time-honored way to read.
Chapter 4 Autonomy, made me think of two things:
1. How can I better present lessons in my classroom to allow my students more autonomy over their work and learning?
2. What could our teachers create, imagine, and innovate if they were given more autonomy?
Pink explains, “The secret to high performance is our deep-seated desire to direct our own lives, to extend and expand our abilities, and to live a life of purpose.”
Purpose - Luckily, many teachers have the purpose piece in practice. It is the reason that many became teachers to begin with. We hope not to be 60 years old wondering what impact we could have made on the world.
Mastery - Coupled with the ideas presented in “Talent is Overrated,” by Geoff Colvin, our hope of mastering the art of teaching is practiced daily. Ideally reaching the point of mastery (10,000 hours) after around eight to nine years of teaching.
Autonomy - The piece I believe many are missing to be truly motivated and creative at work is autonomy. Companies like 3M and Google have followed the science behind this initiative and it has boosted their bottom line. The development of the “sticky note” and many of Google’s finest programs were developed during their free self-directed time.
As for your blog content ideas, I enjoy seeing what books you are reading in relation to the work that we are doing as a system. One of my favorites was Influencer, which I picked up after you discussed it in a teacher leader meeting.
I appreciate the topics you bring forth, Mike, and I hope you continue to write about things that you find are important.
I would also like to engage in a discussion on the pedagogical logistics of educational reform and discuss possible ways to implement the myriad of suggested practices within the system we have right now.
Maybe even more people would engage in this forum if pragmatic strategies were sprinkled in with the theoretical discussions?
For example, one possible solution for the implementation of best practices generating inertia is the GLAD training. I can imagine a blog entry relating an article or book about GLAD research to the ongoing support of the district, then connecting those ideas to the new national standards, and finally illicting best practices from your teaching staff. This format could generate discussion that could inspire and/or guide a shift in classroom practice. Then subsequent entries could address these ideas.
Thank you for considering my input, and keep up the great work with your blog.
Sincerely,
Jonathan
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