EDM613 Wk3 Reading Post

After reading chapters 7-9, I can’t help but conclude that these chapters were all about motivation. I think motivation is an under-rated concept when it comes to education. Teachers never really take the students’ desire to learn into consideration; they instead forge through the curriculum because they have standards to check off. I will admit that I am guilty of this at times, but I try to think about what my students would want when doing my planning.

This program has really inspired me to think of lesson design with a student-first approach. I know I often slant lessons in a way that will make it easier for me to teach, but sometimes that’s not the most productive method for my students. I have kept the idea of multiple intelligences in mind as I have explored each course and it has taught me that there are so many options in whatever you plan to do. No lesson is ever perfect or done, and each lesson should have the flexibility to cater to different ways of thinking.

“Mistakes can be like ice. If we resist them, we may keep on slipping into a posture of defeat. If we include mistakes in our definition of performance, we are likely to glide through them and appreciate the beauty of the longer run” (102). I like this metaphor because it creates a good visual. I picture someone ice-skating and can easily see the difference between a good skater and a poor one. This section of the reading reinforced how quickly something that isn’t so bad can become something terrible. It’s never as bad as it seems, and you should always be trying to figure out what went wrong.

This section of the book also described how there is too much focus on “should-be” instead of trying to understand how things are. In general, I think people are more pessimistic than optimistic, thus creating situations in which they focus more on what could have been rather than trying to figure out why it didn’t happen. This situation is especially prevalent in teaching because teachers often tend to immediately blame the students’ lack of maturity whenever a lesson doesn’t work.

The idea of downward spiral talk is in every industry or profession. It’ what makes things go from bad to worse. Again, the metaphor of ice underlines how negative thinking creates an almost impossible environment for improvement. Being aware of downward spiral talk is the best way to overcome it. Knowing how it can influence things is critical for shutting it down.

The final concept that caught my eye this month was the idea of enrollment – don’t say no, motivate others to want to do what you’re saying. This is perhaps the greatest sign of a good teacher or leader in general, the ability to get people to buy into what you are saying. In order for enrollment to occur, one needs to do everything the book outlines on a daily basis.

References:

Zander, R. & Zander, B. (2002). The art of possibility. London: Penguin Books.