Inspiring Student Motivation: October 2012

Ever wish your students were more motivated? If you’re like most of us, you have tried an array of rewards and punishments to motivate kids. There’s only one problem: it doesn’t work. At least it doesn't work well enough. People (yes, even students) aren’t motivated from the outside so rewards and punishments only work to a point. We are internally motivated. That’s why it's essential to engage and inspire students to be motivated to succeed in school (and life.)

If you’re ready to move beyond the reward/punishment model and embrace a whole new way to understand motivation, I encourage you to come back regularly. It’s time to challenge the status quo and create schools and classrooms based on what really motivates behavior.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Reality and Perception: The US Presidential Election

Practitioners of choice theory appreciate that it is our perception of reality that matters. While each of us may claim to know reality, our understanding of reality is modulated by our senses, knowledge, and values.

Many people don’t like to hear that something as basic as reality is so nuanced. “I understand that we may see some things differently,” they say, “but surely there is an objective reality we can all agree upon.” With the US Presidential election only a little more than a week away, let me share an example of how large groups can agree about reality and still cling to very different perceptions.

Here’s an excerpt from the September 7 edition of The Colbert Report:

It’s what they agree on that divides us the most. You see, they agree that he created Obamacare. They agree that he bailed out Detroit. They agree that he passed the stimulus. That’s where the clear choice comes because all the Republicans are saying is, “Our country needed help and look what Obama did,” while the Democrats keep saying, “Our country needed help and look what Obama did.”

The words are identical. Reality is the same. Despite that, as any “informed” partisan will tell you, the all-important perceptions couldn’t be further apart.

When Americans go to the polls next week, the results will tell us much more about perception than reality.

I’m not saying that reality doesn’t matter. But I reject the simplistic mantra that “It is what it is.” More accurately, “It is what we perceive it to be.”

***

As always, if you enjoyed this and found it useful, please send the link to your friends. Thanks.

Bob Sullo

PO Box 1336

Sandwich, MA 02563

bob@internalmotivation.net

www.internalmotivation.net

www.twitter.com/bobsullo

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Beyond Personality: The Importance of a Systemic Approach to Staff Development

As someone who provides staff development, it has been my experience that most professional development is driven by a single personality within a school or district. While there are an increasing number of schools who delegate decision-making to a staff development committee, it remains more common for the course to be charted by one individual, often the building principlal. For example, if a building principal reads one of my books or hears me present at a national conference and develops an interest in internal control psychology/choice theory, they may engage me to work with their staff over a period of time. While “over a period of time” is head and shoulders ahead of the “drive by” staff development I wrote about recently, too much staff development is personality driven as opposed to system driven. Let me give an example to illustrate what I mean.

Several years ago, I was contacted by an elementary school principal who had read Activating the Desire to Learn. Over the next three school years, I provided a series of staff development sessions at her school that included summer workshops, multi-day workshops, and regular visits to the school that included meeting with teachers, visiting classrooms, and modeling lessons. Even though I’m not a big fan of NCLB and AYP, I was pleased that our efforts contributed to the school achieving AYP every year we worked together. (It’s worth mentioning that there are over two dozen schools in the district and this was one of only two to make AYP last year.) My work on internal motivation, student engagement, and choice theory was woven into other staff development initiatives so that teachers received integrated professional development. Because the school provided comprehensive staff development and ongoing coaching to teachers, they had a lot of well-deserved success.

But…. (all to often there’s a “but,” isn’t there?)….the principal left. The incoming principal has her own ideas. I don’t know how closely they align with what we have done the past three years. I do know that principals are granted considerable autonomy, charged with “putting their stamp” on a school. It will not be surprising if this principal charts her own, different course.

Unless practices are formally adopted by a district, schools will continue to repeat the cycle of improvement, change in leadership, and change in direction. It takes a lot of effort and willpower to raise things to the level of district policy. That’s why most schools don’t do it. Years ago I worked with a district in upstate New York. They stood out because they took the choice theory principles we worked on together and wove them into the district mission statement. That ensured that the ideas would continue even after an energetic, passionate principal left the district.

If you want your staff development to be more than a reflection of the personality leading a school or district, consider how you can incorporate key ideas and applications into formal policy. When you start looking at staff development as something that impacts policy, you’ll begin to take it more seriously, carefully consider what it is you want to pursue, and give your school/district tools to effect change extending beyond the personality of an engaging leader.