Final Blog

I like how Jacque, Jeff and Barb stated that we should let students make mistakes and learn from them.  I think as far as teaching goes we should learn from our mistakes too, because we are all not perfect and really won’t be in our first couple years of teaching.  We will just have to take notes on how our lessons or experiences go and take notes of them, next time we are in the situation.  I agree with Jeff in that Pink could have done a better job of labeling and naming things throughout the book.  I got confused when he would make new motivations or started labeling things with Roman numerals.  One that I really enjoyed about this book is what it was about overall, motivation.  Motivation is what drives me every day to who I want to become and how I need to set goals to get there.  Chapter six really hit me with profit and purpose goals.  “Intrinsic aspirations” help others improve their lives, to learn, and to grow.  I can’t get enough of that and how it directly relates to our own lives as we move closer to becoming teachers and influencing students of our own someday.

Final Blog

Purpose is more like an intrinsic reward instead of an if-then reward, which may be part of why it is so powerful.  Barb you stated that there should be no more if-then rewards.   That I disagree with, I understand where you are coming from, but there is still a place for if-then rewards maybe use them less would be a better statement.  I like how Jacque and Barb stated that we should let students make mistakes and learn from them.   I think when we learn from a mistake it will be engrained in our heads forever in our long-term memory.  These are the life lessons that we will pass on to our students and our children.  I as well as Jacque like the three laws of mastery and will remember them from this book.  What I did not like about the book was what I found confusing.  I think Pink could have found better ways to label his ideas.  All of the numbers, roman numerals, and letters confused me at times.  I believe if he would have had specific names for them and it would have been less confusing it would have made more sense, but overall I would say the book had more positives than negatives and it showed how motivation really works.

Final Post

I believe I learned many things of what Pink mention in the book.  I learned that people have type I and type X behaviors, about autonomy, mastery, and purpose.  I agree with Jacque that there is always room for improvement and students should know that their grade is important but not as important as gaining the knowledge of what the teacher is teaching them.  Students have to learn the material and gain the knowledge because they will use it in the future. Grades might help them get in college, but the most important thing that students will use is their knowledge and they can always add more and improve it.

 Overall the reading we did, I found purpose and motivation to tie more with education.  Education has its purpose, as an educator I have the purpose to help students learn what they are going to use when they finish their education and start working on the real world.  For example on pg. 190, take a look at the section that says to help kids see the big picture.  I believe that is a purpose to educate students.  To show them and not to just teach them what’s on the book, but to go beyond that.  In some of my classes in high school and in college I asked myself, “why do I need to learn this, how I’m I going to apply it in the real world?” I always wanted the teacher to explain the use of the things we did in class.  We as educators should ask ourselves how is this relevant to the world we live in in now? and apply it to our lessons.  I like the examples that Pinky gives.  I like them because it’s true that if students are learning Spanish they should practice it in the real world. 

I also like what Pink said on pg. 189, see the section that says offer praise the right way.  The first bullet point says “to praise effort and strategy and not intelligence.”  We know some students are really intelligent, but do they put much effort on what they do? Or how much effort do intelligent students put into their work?  We know some students spent many hours studying for a test, but then they don’t get a good grade on a test.  Are we going to praise them for their effort they put on?  As an educator, I will find the best way to praise students and to treat each student as a unique individual because not everyone has the same ability to learn. 

Final Thoughts on Pink

I agree with Barb that it is important to let students make mistakes and learn from them. Through out the book I found that there are many great ways to use motivation by differentiating with task, time, technique, and team. When people feel they have control over what they are doing it becomes their project instead of the project they are doing for the teacher. These are things that we have learned about in our education classes and Pink gives us a better understanding of the importance of changing things up a little. Students will make mistakes when they have autonomy but they will be able to learn from them as they would not if they did not get to pick for themselves.

The other major idea that I will take away from Pink is the three laws of mastery. When people want to do well at something they have to believe that they can and have the right mindset. Going through my content class I know that mastery is pain. My classmates and I often get things wrong and have to redo them. It takes a mental sweat and it is important to keep in mind that too much can be a bad thing as well as too little. It is also important that we think of learning goals so that as long as the student is getting better they are doing well. The last law is my favorite because it reminds me that I can always do better as a teacher. Mastery is an asymptote means that we are always able to get closer to being the best but there is always room for improvement and it is important to remind students that it is not the grade but the knowledge we are trying to achieve. 

Final Post

This section was an easy read, summing up a lot of what we previously read.  The fact that the section had specifics geared directly towards teachers and parents is helpful when relating it to our aspiring profession.  In the last post everyone seemed to agree that teaching has purpose, and we as teachers have an important job to be there for our students.  Kimberly referred to something Susie mentioned in class: Susie said when she was a new teacher she wanted to reach every student.  Now with her experience she is grateful to have at least connected with one student.  That makes sense to me, and being remembered years later by a former student will reinforce my purpose.  If I can reach just one student, I am doing my job.  Dan Pink mentions how children begin as Type 1 behaviors, but the brainwashing from educators and parents unfortunately transforms them towards more Type X behaviors.  The examples he gave about schools that are conforming and letting students have autonomy, take risks, and work independently is inspiring news.    I saw a news program that tried to pay students to go to school and get good grades.  It worked for some students’ part of the time, but most students none of the time.  That program reinforces what Pink says about time for a change.  No more “if-then” rewards, this is the wrong way to motivate.  Give students encouragement and attention, let them take risks and make mistakes.  That is all part of growing up, and I believe this type of approach will make them better people.

Chapter 6

I agree with everyone else in that this chapter relates best to me, but as Barb said she hopes use practice all three, I agree with that and plan to do the same.  I think this chapter related so well to me because I have always been a goal setter in life and that’s how I have accomplished everything up to this point in my life.  In both teaching essays we have had to do, I have put goal setting as one of my top strengths.  I have used goal setting in sports, academics, work, getting through college, and to graduate and for student teaching.  I really liked what page 141 talked about.  It said some people have “profit goals” and others have “intrinsic aspirations,” which are to help others improve their lives, to learn, and to grow.  I think this right here is what teaching comes down to.  It’s all about helping students reach their maximum learning potential and helping them grow into who they want to be.  I think between goal setting and intrinsic aspirations, this chapter related very well to my own life.

CH. 6

I agree with Barb, “Anatomy is challenging” it is because the government controls the curriculum.  Some teachers teach to the test.  They teach specific lessons allowing students to get familiarize with the CFA questions rather than teaching other lessons containing material that would be useful for students in their lives.  I also relate on purpose as Jacque and Jeff.  I believe us as educator will always have a purpose to educate students, because everything we do in this world has a purpose.  Maybe some people don’t really see how their life is changing and by the time they reach sixty they just see that they have wasted their life.  For example, the quote on page 139, gives a good example, we have to lead the time from the time we are born until we die.  My purpose as a future educator would be to at least make a difference in a student (as Susie mentioned in class, her goal was to make a difference in students, but then just to a student).  In other words, I want to make a student knowledgeable of what he/she learns in class relating it to a real life situation that he/she might run into.