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.

Chapter 6

Jacque and Jeff both mentioned they relate more with purpose than mastery.  Out of all three elements, autonomy, mastery, and purpose, I hope to practice all three. Autonomy may be challenging at times because the government controls a lot of the curriculum with all the standardized testing.  People will always fight for more freedoms, and maybe some day teachers will have more autonomy in the classroom.  Mastery is another good example of how a person should never stop working and conquering goals.  Pink mentions in the previous chapter how children are the best examples of mastery.  Children keep working to figure out their environment and try to master their surroundings and relationships.  I think purpose will be most prevalent in my day to day.  When it comes to purpose, Pink asks people to reflect back on a time when a person is at their best and doing something that mattered.  There is definitely a different feeling when doing something purposeful than doing something for validation.  I was a volunteer Girl Scout leader for three years and it was one of the most rewarding experiences I have had.  I can’t wait to get that feeling back as an educator.

Ch. 6

Like Jacque I as well relate more for purpose than mastery.  I believe it is very important to teach student what they need to know, but also very important to teach them life lessons.  I agree with Pink where he states that deeply motivated people are motivated by a cause of helping the greater good.  People who have goals for wealth are typically unhappy.  If goals are for the greater good people are more likely to be happy.  Happy people tend to work harder showing that having the right goals are what is truly important.

Ch 6 Purpose

Last chapter McDonald related how mastery is something that we try to attain as teachers. I think he is right but I related what I want to do as a teacher more to purpose than mastery. While trying to be good at teaching and trying to master the techniques I think I will find purpose in teaching. I feel like the students from the University of Rochester who have goals of purpose. I want to engage students in learning and help them understand how things work. I hope that when I reach sixty I feel like my life has had purpose. I do not want to feel like pink says the baby-boomers do when they think about if they did something that matters. As a future teacher I like to think that everyday we go to school we are making a difference in some small way. 

Chapter 5

I really liked how Pink defined mastery, “the desire to get better and better at something that matters.”  I think these alone are powerful words and have great meaning.  I also liked how he said motivation 3.0 seeks engagement and only engagement can produce mastery.  I think for us being future educators these words should be something to live by.  The desire to get better and better at something is something to me that you care a lot about and for all of us that would be teaching.  I think desire is just a great word for defining mastery.  Motivation 3.0 says you have to be engaged to produce mastery.  I think this is yet another thing we should live by.  Every day in one of our education classes we talk about how we are going to engage students and spark their attention.  Engagement should not only be for students, but for teachers as well.  We need to be heavily engaged in the changing trends, new learning tactics, and ways to reach out for top student performance. 

Mastery

          As Jacque was saying pain has great influence on kids.  I am not talking about conventional pain that hurts students, but material being hard for them to comprehend and them needing to push themselves to learn it.  Some students become frustrated and give up.  Other students have "grit" and will push themselves to understand the material and really learn it.  I enjoyed rule three mastery is an asymptote.  This means you can never fully attain mastery.  Some students do not try because it is frustrating that they will never attain it.  I believe, as we get older we really develop an appreciation for mastery.  If there is a way to get our students to chase mastery at an early age maybe they will appreciate the material that frustrates them and they will develop “grit.”  In essence this is what will push them to boundaries to which they never thought about chasing.  “In our offices and our classrooms we have way too much compliance and way too little engagement. The former might get you through the day, but only the latter will get you through the night.”  This quote came directly from Pink about Motivation 3.0 and is why I believe connecting students to the material is very important.

Ch. 5

Jacque related mastery is a pain, as letting students know it is okay to be wrong.  That is true; some students want to show that they are better at everything.  I had a classmate that would always say he had the right answer until one time the teacher told him that people make mistakes and that it is okay.  Not a single person is perfect at doing everything they do.  The three laws of mastery are great to be related to education.  One that I relate the most is mastery is a mindset.  As mention in the book there are two different paths; performance goals and learning goals.  The example given is a good example related to education.  Some students always want to get that A in class, but others don’t care.  It all depends on their motivation.  We as teacher should let students know that grades are important, but the most important thing is to learn the material presented to them.  Why? Because for example, if a student does not learn how to solve simple equations he/she will have difficulty solving higher level equations.