Poteet ISD Sneak Peek
October 3 - 7
A tale of two classrooms...
Think about the classrooms you were in as a young student...
Think about the college and graduate classes you were in or are in as a current student....
Think about your current classroom or the classrooms in the school where you work...
I'm sure you can think of the those awesome classrooms and those classrooms that might not fall in the 'awesome' category.
What's the difference?
What makes one classroom more effective than another?
Is it just the teacher in the classroom?
Is it the teacher and the administration together in the building?
Is it the individual students in that particular classroom?
Is it the support of parents of the students in that classroom?
Or is it something else...
No Bones About It - Elem Students are the BEST!
Showcasing Special Olympic Athletes
Do you know what F.A.N.B.O.Y.S. means? PJH students do...
When was the last time...? by Justine Tarte
- You asked someone for help...
- You laughed so much that your jaw hurt...
- You made a point to "pay it forward..."
- You tried something new...
- You encouraged a friend, family member, or colleague to do something great...
- You made a list of the great things going on in your life...
- You took a walk & simply observed the world around you in a non-judgmental way...
- You said something positive to someone who was obviously having a bad day...
- You rekindled a strained relationship by being open & honest...
- You listened to some up-lifting music driving toward no particular destination...
- You thanked someone you had forgotten to thank...
- You exercised and broke a sweat...
- You helped someone because you knew they were struggling...
- You pushed yourself to be great...
If we all did just one thing from this list on a daily basis...think how much better the world would be!
Approach every day with the goal of making the world a better place than it was yesterday...
Googleable? or Not Googleable?
Is the learning in your classroom 'googleable?'
Sure, we need to know some basic things before we are able to elevate and take our learning to the next level.
And yes, absolutely, there are questions we will ask and tasks we will assign that could be easily solved via Google.
However...
What's that ratio look like in your classroom?
Is it a 50/50 split between 'googleable' answers vs. 'not-googleable' answers?
Or, is the divide even wider...?
Better yet, would you be willing to do an activity with your students and have them post the questions being asked in your class in one of these two categories like Ewan McIntosh did?
http://notosh.com/lab/googleable-vs-non-googleable-questions/
Would you be brave enough to do this type of vulnerable, transparent and reflective activity with your students?
Would you have the willingness to change what you're doing based on the findings of this type of activity?
What motivates you, me and students?
As a human being I am inclined to believe that we are self-motivating and self-driven. We yearn to explore and discover as much as possible about the magnificent world around us. We derive our energy and power from our self-motivation and drive, and without this ability to discover and explore on our own, we will most certainly become zombies.
Now, to some people, becoming a zombie might be really cool, but I refuse to live my life with a zombie state of mind. Merely floating through existence with no purpose or reason is not a viable option for me and many others. So, the question is, how do we make sure people continue and don't lose their self-motivation and drive? As much as it saddens me to say, I feel at times we are preventing the natural course of our existence by stifling our love to explore and discover. When we think about some of the best and most creative inventions throughout time, I would be willing to bet most were created out of shear curiosity and inquisition. Parents, teachers and administrators, think about some of your best childhood memories... were you allowed to do whatever it was on your own? Were you able to do whatever it was well? Did whatever you did have some kind of purpose or reason? I would be willing to bet you answered yes to these questions.
The human brain and psyche are widely complex, but Daniel Pink has isolated three main factors that allow us to be self-motivated and driven: autonomy, mastery and purpose. As with most things, it starts with education, and as educators we need to give our students the autonomy to master information and tasks they feel have a purpose and importance to them. A progressive idea being used by companies to challenge and motivate their workers is to allow them "free time" to work on something in which they are interested. Why can't we try this in the classroom? Why can't we give our students a set of guidelines and let them discover and explore something they feel is important on their own? The carrot and stick model is dead when it comes to really fueling drive and motivation. Let us now concentrate on ways of tapping into our natural state of discovery and exploration. Let us tear down the walls and release the fury of self driven motivation.