What Drives Us?

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I'm really enjoying Daniel Pink's book, "Drive". It is about what motivates us.  I'm half way through.

He starts by outlining Motivation 1.0, when the need to survive drove us to hunt and look for shelter.  Motivation 1.0 was all about survival.

Motivation 2.0 is known as the "carrot and stick" model of motivation. Pink suggests that while this model worked in the past, up until and during the industrial revolution, it no longer works today.  He outlines the work of behavioural theorists who suggest, with good evidence, that what motivates us are three states: autonomy, mastery and purpose.

Pink talks about the two personality types: Type X and Type I.  While Type X is motivated by extrinsic outcomes ( money) Type I is motivated by intrinsic factors.  Money is important to both, but once needs are met, the creative Type I works for the satisfaction of creating and solving problems.

ROWE form the new business model: "results only work environments", where autonomy and choice are the norm.  Set hours and workplaces are gone.  Pink shows us that when people are not given set goals and deadlines, they are far more creative.

What does this tell us about how we should approach learning in schools? How we treat our teachers? What is the role of the leaders in schools? Is there a place for management and rigid, traditional models?  How does this conflict with how government is approaching improvement in education?

I'll keep reading...

Lead the Change, Follow the Change, Be the Change...

Can teaching ever be a 9-3 job? I don't think so.  I love connecting with other passionate educators and debating some of the issues that are at the forefront of our pedagogy.

This week the #edchatnz discussion (fortnightly at 8.30pm) was on "change":

Failure to Launch

https://www.flickr.com/photos/paxson_woelber/5434541912

I didn't take a lot of big risks as a child.  I was shy and my mother was happy to let me sit back; she was disabled and couldn't run after us.  She adored being a mum and doing everything for us.  I remember being scared about learning to swim, playing with children I didn't know and catching a bus by myself into town.

All that changed when tragically, I had to stand on my own two feet.  I became a risk taker. I had to. I couldn't wait for someone else to do it for me.  I couldn't wait for someone else to lead me gently by the hand.

My husband to be took it to another level; he was happy to kayak over water falls or leap out of an aeroplane.  I white water rafted and took a kayak course (not my thing but I had a go).  I went from the initially scary arena of publicly speaking in a classroom to speaking in front of a hall full of people.

Having my own children brought home to me how much I needed to demonstrate risk taking: I tried things I had never dared do: luging, roller coasters, water skiing, leaping from a high jumping rock. I wanted my children to be risk takers.  I wanted them to give things a go.

The New Zealand Curriculum document has a similar vision for our young people:

Ministry of Education, New Zealand Curriculum, Crown 2007, page 8.

Being enterprising, seizing opportunities, developing life competencies, being confident, connected and actively involved, are all features of risk takers.  And as actions speak louder than words, it is up to us to model these attributes.  Teachers, like parents, need to role model risk taking.

It's something I think about a lot as I watch the widening digital divide and the polarities between traditional schooling and "modern learning" pedagogy.  Take the news article from AGS in the Herald last week:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11446451

The reporter misses the point about "bean bag lessons".  It's not about the furniture; it's about being lifelong learners and owning the learning; having a growth mindset and always telling myself that I can still do better, that I can't be complacent with the traditional. That regurgitation type assessment is not going to equip our children to come up with the creative solutions our ever-changing world needs.  Sure, our education system works for some, but other news articles in our media remind us that we haven't got it right for everyone.

And it is about me.  Everyone counts.  I first heard the term "imposter syndrome" a few years ago when I laughed when it was suggested that I could hold the workshop on "teaching as inquiry" for our cluster principals.  I didn't think I was good enough. But I took the risk and took the step.

Educamp Hawkes Bay brought this to forefront to me.  At educampnz, a group of New Zealand educators, who aren't complacent with accepting the traditional "winners and losers" model of education, join together to share and explore new ideas.  Just being there is the first step; they are there in their own time and they share without financial recompense. Often it means long travel and a tank of petrol.

The content is determined by those who take the risk to stand up in front of their fellow to share ideas. Workshop timetables are determined by the audience of teacher learners. Presenters present the workshops with little warning.  They are just happy to share and discuss.

You still meet people in the group who are "first timers" and feel nervous.  I hear the words, "Oh, I'd have nothing to offer." Yet others embrace them into the flock and remind them that there are no celebrity presenters, that we are all learners together.  

New faces appear on the Twitter feed and are followed by the old hands. Risk is encouraged!

And some of the content is about taking risk and trying something new.  Nick Mason (@fuse711) and Troy Duckworth (@tewakatroy) talk about developing learner agency and pedagogy in their collaborative working practice at Russell Street in Palmerston North.  They have gone much further than "beanbag lessons".

Sometimes it's about changing up something traditional to make it fit better with today's learners, as with Jo Makinson's Literacy Evolution (@JoMakinson).

Phil Jones (@MrPhilJones) leads discussion about the place of 3d printers - using today's tools today. 

So come on folks, have a go. Don't wait for the help sheet.  Don't wait for the directions. Take the first step.  The view will be worth it!

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A Fly on the Wall of Virtual Learning

"Beam me up Scotty!"

If only! I loved the idea that people could translocate instantly in space when I was 6 years old and still do now.

I've nearly achieved that dream virtually - though even with technology, I know I'm missing out on the full multi sensory, face to face experience.

Thanks to Kassey Downard, who is at the "Writing Effectively" conference, I've got to experience some of the magic.  Here are her notes which she tweeted out from Day 1 and 2:

Ungeeking the Geekery - #EducampRotovegas 21 February 2015

I love educamps. I loved this one the most. And not because I was one of the hosts and the convenor.

Several aspects stood out for me as we went through the agenda for the day: the welcome, introductions, smackdown and workshops.

Among the people who arrived were a lot of unfamiliar faces.

I love my tweep colleagues and many of us are now educamp groupies. We enjoy seeing each other

again. It's our tribe and it's like coming home.  It's also amazing to meet online friends face to face for the first time (hey there, Justine Hughes @cossie29 and Leonie Bennett @leonie_hastings).

One of our aims when Marnel van der Spuy @1MvdS and I thought we could do this three years ago, was to bring a professional learning opportunity to Rotorua that was available to all local teachers for no cost except their time. What struck us at the 2013 day was the lack of local teachers.  But it was so much fun and learning, with great connections made from around the compass.

So even more exciting were these new faces; newbies to educamp who came from as far away as Auckland, Hawkes Bay, Tauranga, Hamilton, Tirau, Tokoroa and south Waikato. And Rotorua. A lot of Rotorua teachers.  Hallelujah!

Everyone looked as if they were having a great time.

I'm conscious of that celebrity status that well known presenters get; the in people, the ones who have a reputation for having a lot of knowledge and are far too super geek to talk to. It's easy to feel like an imposter who doesn't know enough to share.  But the room embraced everyone.  It was made quite clear that nothing was dumb, everyone had something to offer and it was okay to sit back and absorb. When someone said she was only a BT, the crowd loudly disagreed with her label; similarly when some one else said she was "only a teacher aide".  Everyone had a place in the room.  And it showed as the smackdown extended through many slides as people gained confidence to share.

The range of workshops appealed to everyone.  Newbies joined Twitter. What was once pure geek is becoming mainstream. Hooray!

Thanks to Kimberly Baars @MissesArtech from Taupaki School for talking about Maker Culture; Diana Wilkes @DianaWilkes for her workshop on Teacher Dashboard at Ormiston School and Jo Makinson @JoMakinson for leading the group through Literacy Evolution which she started at Richmond School..

Now an established event that drew fifty people, Network for Learning through  Andy Schick @Andy_Schick stumped up for refreshments. Thanks folks!

And thanks to Juliet Revell @Juliet_Revell who demonstrated that it was possible to attend by GHO from Napier and Leanne Stubbing @fivefoot3 who watched from afar in Wellington and completed a Storify of the day.

The geekery was well and truly ungeeked. Good on you all. Welcome to twenty first century learning at last!