I had the chance to participate in a really interesting #edchat on social media and its benefits for teacher connections. This was a particularly great education chat for me to join because social media is definitely not my strong point and I'm really working to expand my knowledge of different social media sites and giving myself a greater web presence! I made a Storify page for some of the tweets that really stood out to me. Check them out below!
“Social connections motivate” (184).
It’s pretty crazy that this is the last post I will ever make as a University of San Diego student! The timing is perfect with my reading of The Happiness Advantage because the last aspect of the book that really stood out to me has to do with social connections, and that’s a big topic I’ve been thinking about as this two-year graduate program comes to an end. In this particular class, developing a web presence has been imperative in completing our assignments. To be honest, I was very reluctant in the beginning but it had to be done. I was not a blogger or a Twitter user before this class and I had definitely never posted any YouTube videos. I felt like this class was forcing me to plaster my name and face all over the Internet and I was not too thrilled about that. That said, I turned to other classmates for support when I felt confused and we were all able to morally support each other through various assignments by following similar blogs and sharing class notes along with our own classroom experiences. In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor states, “We have such a biological need for social support, our bodies can literally malfunction without it” (177). I can attest to this as I have definitely had a good amount of stress hit me throughout the last two years and turning to my professors, classmates, family, and friends really allowed a physical burden to be released from my shoulders. Achor adds, “The most successful people I’ve worked with know that even in an extraordinarily competitive environment, we are more equipped to handle challenges and obstacles when we pool the resources of those around us and capitalize on even the smallest moments we spend interacting with others” (183). As this class and Masters program conclude, I just cannot stop thinking about how far I’ve come from entering this program with a degree in Public Relations, marketing experience in New York City, and very little knowledge of educating others, to now – having experience student teaching in grades 2, 3, and 4 and having four semesters of education courses. I could never have done this without the support of those around me and I completely agree with Achor that “when we enjoy strong social support, we can accomplish impressive feats of resilience” (177). I cannot wait to be a teacher and support my students by creating an enthusiastic, optimistic, motivational, and safe environment for them. I hope to give my students the guidance they need to set expectations and goals that we can strive toward together. I am prepared to make the adjustments my students need me to make in order to allow them to feel comforted, guided, and genuinely happy as they head down their learning paths. “By making changes within ourselves, we can actually bring the benefits of the Happiness Advantage to everyone around us” (210). “Simply put, by changing the fulcrum of our mindset and lengthening our lever of possibility, we change what is possible” (65).
Shawn Achor’s ideas behind true success continue to fascinate me as I delve deeper in his book, The Happiness Advantage. One main aspect that has stood out to me throughout his book is the importance of our mental mindset and its affect on our happiness. Achor claims that “the mental construction of our daily activities, more than the activity itself, defines our reality” (71). If we choose to be happy, we can be. If we are continually telling ourselves we are failures and mentally believe we cannot achieve anything, we won’t. To add to this, Achor states, “Just as your mindset about work affects your performance, so too does your mindset about your own ability” (74). Our mental mindset and our belief that we are able to achieve greatness remind me of the story, The Little Engine That Could.” It may sound impractical to compare the work of a Harvard grad to a children’s story, but after all, I do teach second grade so for me it’s perfectly fitting! Basically, it doesn’t matter how old you are or what book you’re reading, what you belief has a strong affect on your effort and outcome to succeed. As Achor states, “Beliefs are so powerful because they dictate our efforts and action” (77). He also mentioned that studies have shown that the simple act of believing we can bring about positive change in our lives increases our motivation and job performance. Therefore, as Achor states, “Success, in essence, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy” (74). In my future classrooms, I want my students to believe in themselves because that small act will allow them to achieve their classroom and even life goals. Achor describes the Pygmalion Effect that our belief in another person’s potential bring that potential to life and the expectations we have for others can, in fact, become a reality (84). I firmly believe this and want to provide my students with guidance and support in order to give them the confidence they need to achieve greatness. As Achor says, “When we believe we can do more and achieve more (or when other believe it for us), that is often the precise reason we do achieve more” (86). I don’t want my students to be afraid to fail, rather I want them to see they can learn and grow from their failures and succeed because of it. Here are some quotes on failure that really stood out to be, especially because of the people who said them: “I’ve failed over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.” –Michael Jordan “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy “I failed my way to success.” – Thomas Edison I love Achor’s point that “most successful people see adversity not as a stumbling block, but as a stepping-stone to greatness” (111). Viewing failures as opportunities for growth are what will truly allow for that growth and while that is something I hope to work on for myself, I hope to develop that strong mindset among my future students as well. After all, it is that positive attitude and belief in yourself that permits true success and greatness. Today I had the opportunity to look over an educational tweet chat that took place in Australia! I chose the Australian chat because I'm moving to Australia in September and wanted to get a sense of teachers' attitudes toward education on that side of the world! I was really impressed by all the thoughts people had on student assessments and the purpose for them. I put my favorite tweets together by adding them into a Storify page I created just for this discussion. Feel free to look at the great points and comments made! On March 26, I left my Learning and Technology class early to attend a fabulous talent show for some of my students and on April 9, I had to miss this class altogether, as I was home in the Bay Area interviewing for a summer job. To make up for my absence in class, I was able to watch several educational YouTube videos, recommended by my professor, and I’d like to share my reflections about them!
The videos I watched were: · Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation · Shannon Deegan: How Google’s 20 percent Time Fosters Innovation · Why You Need to Fail – by Derek Sivers · Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work · What is personalized Learning? I chose Dan Pink’s video because one of my biggest goals as an educator is to provide students with the motivation they need in order to want to learn. Without motivation, students will not find time to be creative and enthusiastic about learning and education. One of Pink’s main arguments is that there is a “mismatch between what science knows and what business does.” He explains that incentives narrow minds and restrict possibilities rather than promoting success. Higher incentives often “dull thinking and block creativity” along with leading to worse performance because they do not allow the brain to open itself to new ideas; the ideas that matter and change the world. Pink suggests a new approach to motivation that allows people to work toward things they find interesting and that matter to them; things that allow them to feel important and apart of something. He gives three keys to intrinsic motivation: 1) Autonomy – the urge to direct our own lives; 2) Mastery – the desire to get better and better at something that matters; and 3) Purpose – the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves. Giving students choice in school grants them the enthusiasm and excitement they need to want to perform and engage in educational activities. Self-direction gives students motivation and provides interest and significance to educational activities. In Dan Pink’s YouTube video, he refers to Google and its 20 Percent Time idea that brings me to my next video from Shannon Deegan. Deegan explains that Google offers its employees 20% of their time to work on anything they find cool or interesting outside of their day-to-day job. I especially found this video interesting because it directly applies to my own 20% Project in this class, in which I’ve dedicated 20% of my time studying for this class to learning the guitar instead. Deegan states that innovation and the “next big ideas” come from people actually spending time toward answering the question, “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” In fact, this 20% time is when Gmail and Google Sky were invented! This shows that when people are given the time to be creative and original, they are able to show productivity and success. We live in a world where success does not come from repeating the past, but rather it comes from inventing the future – just look at Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates ~ they invented something they were interested in and dedicated their time to something that excited them. We need to provide this sense of importance to our students if we want them to succeed and further their learning. The next video I chose to watch was “Why You Need to Fail” because I thought this would tie in with the motivation theme and hopefully allow me to know how to help students get the inspiration to persevere, even when they feel as though they have failed. Sivers gives three reasons for why failing is needed: 1) It is required for learning, 2) It keeps you in the growth mindset, and 3) It shows that everything is just an experiment. Sivers claims if we are not failing, we are not learning and in order to learn something effectively, we must make mistakes. These mistakes are the ones we remember and pay more attention to and because of that, we are more focused on improving them. Sivers states that doing what we already know is fun, but it does not improve you and it is the difficult activities that help make us better. This really resonated with me in terms of my 20% Project for this class with learning the guitar. I got so excited when I was finally able to play the introduction for Taylor Swift’s “Safe and Sound” but I have found myself continually playing what I know and not allowing myself the pain in my fingers to move on and learn more. I am stuck on that introduction and am not motivated to move on because I am afraid I will not sound good enough. However, I have to keep reminding myself that those terrible guitar sounds were what allowed me to learn the introduction in the first place. I love Sivers second point that the growth mindset is where improvements continue and students are able to realize they can master anything. He claims that the growth mindset comes from praising one’s effort rather than praising intelligence. In my future classrooms, I hope to establish an environment of continual growth and I plan to do so with my praise and enthusiasm toward my students’ efforts. Siver’s third point wraps everything together by noting there is no such thing as failure, there are only experiments. Making mistakes make our work improve and if we are not failing, we are simply not trying hard enough. The next two videos I chose to watch were mostly because of the work I have done in my own courses. For example, for my technology class I read Shawn Achor’s book, The Happiness Advantage, and I thought hearing and seeing him would make the book and his theories seem more real to me. I don’t want to go into too much detail here because I already have posted about his book, but I would like to reiterate how happiness results in success and not the other way around. Statistics show that if our brains are in positive mode, we perform better. Looking for the positives in the world rather than dwelling on the negative will bring us true happiness. My last video was a quick discussion on personalized learning. As you can see throughout my Web site, my action research for my Masters program was based on differentiation in the classroom, so I was interested to hear yet another viewpoint on the importance of individualized learning. Steve Wheeler explains that everyone getting the same information at the same time, regardless of his/her learning needs does not work with sustainability and practical uses. Rather, what the individual learner actually creates for himself/herself with the tools, services, and learning environments specific to his/her needs is what will allow the student to excel. I love this theory and try to model it with my own students, and will continue to do so in my future classrooms. For my Learning and Technology class, my good friend, Sara Stillman, and I worked together to develop a Digital Pedagogy project where we did our best to teach beginning tennis by making several (somewhat) educational videos and putting them together on a Blendspace page! If you're interested in learning some new tennis tips and watching my friend and I prance around a tennis court, check out our project below! This semester, as you can see from previous posts, I've been working on learning to play the guitar. To be perfectly honest, my motivation to play and my improvement on the instrument has somewhat diminished since the beginning and middle of the semester. School started to get busier, I started to travel more, different events (some happy, some sad) with friends and family came up that caused me to take time away from practicing, and the drive I had to learn the guitar so intently slightly faded. The unfortunate thing is, this happens in so many aspects in our lives, well beyond playing the guitar. We start so many things and think we have time for everything, yet we find we slowly fade away from finding the success we were so determined to find. However, it is up to us to find the time for the important things in life - not just the things we need, but the things we want as well. Recently I found a "GroupOn" certificate for guitar lessons and I immediately purchased it, remembering how important and exciting my want to learn the guitar had initially been. Throughout the semester, I have been archiving artsy pictures of guitars as well as helpful Web sites that will hopefully improve my guitar-playing skills. I have used Pinterest as my source for allowing me to see all my pictures and sites together and every so often I check back on my Pinterest page and am reminded of how much I love the guitar. Below is the site for my Pinterest page and every time I see it, I remember how important hobbies are! Along with archiving these pictures and Web sites for guitar playing, I have done so with elementary school classroom ideas as well. It is so perfect to see a great idea and be able to archive it so it is remembered forever. I love Pinterest for this reason and for the reason of seeing ideas that get me motivated and excited for the hobbies and career that I love. I chose a career where creativity plays a big role and I want to share my creativity with others as well as enjoy ideas from fellow educators!
Throughout my Twenty Percent project, I have learned how important it is for me to find time for myself. I believe that goes for all teachers as well! I think it is so interesting because as a teacher, I am always finding ways to help my students "master" a subject, yet I cannot even find the time to master something myself. Whenever I talk to other teachers or make my own lesson plans, I am always thinking about what I can do to get my students motivated enough to become experts in something. I have been trying to play the guitar now for two months and I have found myself in a rut already. I have been busy traveling or doing homework and substitute teaching, and found that I have not picked up my guitar in over a week. I hate to admit that because I truly am so excited to learn the guitar and this project has been really motivating for me as a reminder that we can, in fact, make time for ourselves to find a passion outside of school and work. That said, I find it hard for me to schedule that time for myself and weeks go by and I realize I have not had the success and growth in my personal life that I would have liked to see.
How can I strive to help my students becomes experts and masters when I am having a hard time doing so myself? When starting my Twenty Perfect project, I went into it thinking I would learn to play the guitar. But instead, I have learned about time management and priorities. This project has gone far beyond teaching myself one new skill of the guitar, but rather it has taught me to find time for myself and make priorities that help me become a more well-rounded person because that is what will help me teach my students. I cannot help my students become masters if I am unsure how to become one myself. I am realizing how much I love this project because I am finding it delves into such deeper learning and understanding of multiple skills on top of the one skill I picked to learn from the beginning. Ladies and Gentlemen ~ The moment you've been waiting for! Click this link to see the first documented video of my playing Taylor Swift's "Safe & Sound" on the guitar. The truth is, I haven't felt comfortable with my progress so I was a bit timid to share with the public. However, after seeing other videos from my classmates and how brave they are to share their improvements, I realized I needed to do the same. After all, I'm a beginner! Of course it's okay if I don't sound like Taylor Swift (right now)! As they say: if you don't make mistakes, you don't make anything! I know I will have those days in my future where I feel like nothing went according to plan, but all I can do is learn from that and fix it the next time. So enough with embarrassment and that uncomfortable feeling of sharing personal improvements and progress... here is mine for the world to see! As you can see from my blogs, I've been working on a "20% Project" for my Learning and Technology class where I'm learning to play the guitar. While I'm taking the time to learn my own skill, my classmates are also taking the time to develop a skill for themselves. I have had the chance to read several of the blogs from fellow students and even comment on some of them. As I'm seeing what others are working on, it gets me motivated to learn even more. I've seen people learning the piano and trying new ways to cook and exercise. While I can play the piano a little and have cooked a small number of healthy meals, these blogs motivate me to try something new! I have found that I'm picking new songs I want to learn on the piano and I am inspired by other students to cook new things and find ways to live a more healthy life!
As I was thinking about other students and how their projects have sparked a sense of excitement for me to try new things, I realized this is what we do as teachers every day. We are motivated by other teachers and inspired by other lessons. Of course creativity is always encouraged and incorporating our own personality into our lessons is important, but collaboration with those around us is just as significant. This "20% Project" has allowed me to see just how crucial it is to learn from others and work collaboratively to develop more ideas for our future students! Learning from others is a gift and we develop our curriculum when we are open to new ideas! |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
May 2014
Categories |