Monday, July 06, 2015

Today's Reads, Views, and Links

The new Entreleadership podcast kicks off with this interesting article from Forbes.com:  How to Hire Top Talent in the Membership Economy.

Because I've become fascinated with leadership lately, I'm very interested in the characteristics employers covet in employees.

I'm also intrigued by the term "the Membership Economy."  What that means is that an economy of "membership" is replacing (quite rapidly too) the former economy of "ownership."

When I was young, "owning" something was the key.  Once you purchased a product that was mainly the end of the relationship.  If you wanted to "own" another product, you basically repeated the entire process over and over.

Outside of the old "tape clubs" where they sent you a number of tapes for a penny and then locked you in to buy so many other cassettes thereafter or maybe the phone company where you "rented" your phone for the remainder of your life . . . there wasn't much membership available to my generation.

That all, though, has changed.

Look at this - amazon.com (I build up reward points and have recommendations offered via my past purchases),  Etsy (a company which constantly sends me new updates - thematically related - for new products), Netflix, and so on.

Consumers now, mainly millennials, strive to have a relationship with everything in their lives.  They don't want a single experience.

How does this relate to education?

I think today's students will buy in to your class far more if you offer them a membership experience: you tailor knowledge to them, you engage and interact with them outside of class (usually via social media), you create a "brand" for your class that they feel proud to belong to and contribute to, and you stay in contact with them after they leave your class (again, social media is an excellent way to do just this).

If the student just exists for you when they are in your class - that is if you're offering them an ownership experience, they will not have a maximum experience in your class.

Pretty cool, huh?

Now on to the other aspect of the article: the traits employers are seeking from their new hires in this membership economy:

1.  Problem solvers.

2.  Strong communicators.

3.  Conscientious.

4.  Enthusiasm.

5.  Even keeled.

Again, since I've become fascinated with leadership, I cannot help but think how this relates to hiring new teachers.

In fact, this is a great article that I'm going to share with my UND class next month.

Here are my thoughts on how these five things relate to teachers -

1.  Problem solvers:  now that the teacher evaluation system is here to stay (for how long, though, is anyone's guess), the ability for all teachers (not just new teachers) to problem solve is essential.  Teachers will be given feedback on how to improve.  If they cannot take that feedback and improve their craft, they will struggle.  Mightily.  Thus, problem solving is more important than ever.

But solving problems isn't just limited to teacher evaluation.  

Teachers (new and veteran) must solve discipline problems, ed policy problems, common assessment problems, interpersonal problems, and curriculum problems.  And that is just to name a few.

2.  Strong communicators: again, tied to teacher evaluation - both administrators and teachers have to clearly communicate.  The administrators must clearly communicate the areas in which teachers must improve; thus, teachers must clearly communicate how they plan to improve.  Then, the have to implement their problem solving skills in order to earn their tenure and their next contract.

3.  Conscientious: Teachers must take pride in their work.  Millennials (not to mention the Gen Y's coming up) connect more with businesses and products that have a larger purpose.  We all want to be part of something larger than ourselves.  How can we offer this to our students?  

Again, here is where social media (Instagram, Blogger, Twitter, and Facebook) come in handy.  I use those areas to show my passion and pride in what I strive to get my students to accomplish and create.

4.  Enthusiasm:  Teachers must be positive.  This ties right in to many of our core values ("we're not here for us" and "our work matters" and "fear doesn't get a vote" come to mind).  

How can we both make our school a positive place as well as our classrooms?  

For me, and I'm sounding like a broken record here, it comes down to social media: I use Instagram to document how much I look forward to Monday mornings or how much I love my kids or how much I enjoy learning. 

If I can't be enthusiastic about what I deem to be the greatest job in the world, how can I expect my students to show any enthusiasm for my class?

5.  Even keeled: Teachers can't hold grudges.  They have to let the negative things that happen roll off our shoulders.  As Mr. Zutz constantly reminds us, we can have bad days, but we can't let our students know it.  Sometimes you have to fake it to make it.  

In other words, we can't take our frustrations out on our students.  Talk about ruining an experience!  

I'm going to share this with my Teaching and Learning 250 class and challenge them to think about how they can begin building these key skills.

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This is one that I'm definitely going to make mandatory reading in College Comp 2 next year.

Here are the 10 skills. How many do you have?  What did they leave off the list?  Are any of these ten skills overrated?  Which is the most vital?

1.  Time management.  Absolutely vital.  Students today need to know when to put all of their digital distractions away (just as teachers need to know too) and when to get to work.  One thing I'm changing in my CC class is I'm building in daily writing time.  I think students think writing is something to procrastinate and put off and off and off until it finally has to get done (sounds like me in college), but I'm challenging that by making students write a certain amount every single day (and they will read a certain amount every single day too).  It's just like exercise or work or athletics: you have to put your time in and grind at it.

2.  Empathy.  I think this might just be the most vital one on this list, just because it's a skill that is sorely lacking in our society.  Don't believe me? Just tune in to CNBC or 

3.  Mastering your sleep.  I'm skeptical of this one.  Can you master your sleep?  I don't know.  Sounds kind of new-age for me.

4.  Positive self-talk.  I couldn't agree more with this one, but I'm a die-hard optimist though.

5.  Consistency.  Perhaps #3 in terms of importance on this list.  As Sarah Lewis says in her amazing TED Talk - success doesn't matter if you can't do it again and again and again.

That's what's vital about consistency.

You can have the greatest interview in the world or the greatest first day of class or the greatest unit, but if you can't do it consistently day in and day out, you won't last.

6.  Asking for help. 

This is vital too.  I was reading somewhere (or most likely listening to a podcast) that the #1 reason so many employees fail is that they simply don't ask for help.  I think this is linked to how we have stigmatized failures.  No one wants to admit they failed at something or are struggling with something, so they don't ask for help.

7.  Knowing when to shut up - and actually doing it.  This might just be my favorite one on the list!

8.  Listening.

The hardest one for me.  The best teachers and coaches I have ever had have the ability to tune the world out when I come in to talk to them.  They just focus on me and the problem or issue at hand.

I need to detach from what I'm doing and focus more on my students.  One thing I'm doing more of in CC is individually conferencing with students during their daily writing time.  It will be during this time that I listen to them and strive to help them more with their drafts.

9.  Minding your own business.

This reminds me of Dave Ramsey's classic No Gossip Policy.  At his company, Ramsey Solutions, you can get fired (yes, it's that serious) for gossiping.

Think of what their culture must be like.

Tim Ziglar, at his company, deals with this in another way.  He teaches all of his employees that at any time if a co-worker is venting or struggling with something or about to gossip about someone else, they can say, "it looks like you need to take a quick time out right now.  You need to schedule an appointment with administration."

That is code to the person venting that they are about to cross the company line about gossiping and dealing frustrations.  

That person then makes a moment to collect themselves and realize that venting to someone who is on the same level as they are does no good.  

Then that person can make an appointment to talk to someone higher up than them (someone who can actually do something about the problem at hand) to remedy the frustration or let them vent.

10.  Mastering your thoughts.

Again, this one may seem a little new-age, but I think it's been vital  About 20 years ago I spent a lot of time in the summer tarring roads and driving a bus on the weekends.  I often found myself thinking about one of my passions: the Bengals.

The only problem, what good did it ever do me?  I have no way to impact that organization.  My love for them and my knowledge of their draft picks and players has zero impact on their ability to win and lose games.  And believe me, back then they were losing almost exclusively.

So finally around around 2011, the summer of the NFL's lockout, I decided that it was a total waste of time to spend so much time thinking about the Bengals (this was a time when things looked more dire than ever before for the Bengals too).  

Whenever I began thinking about the good old black and orange, I made a conscious effort to immediately switch my thoughts to something else (my family, education, health, literature, and so on).

I can't tell you how this has impacted my thought process.  I spend far more time thinking about things that actually matter now.

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It's Shark Week!!




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Here is another one I'm using with my Teaching and Learning 250 class next year at UND: 10 Pieces of Advice for new Teachers.

I won't list all 10 pieces of advice (after all, you can click on the link yourself, right?), but I will include the pieces that I think are the most important.

1). Strong student relationships will be your best friend. Get to know your students and get to know what makes them tick. Learn about their interests and hobbies and make sure they know you care about them. When students know you care about them, they will trust you. The strong relationships you create in the first few weeks of the school year will set the tone for the entire year.

3). Don't be afraid to say, 'I don't know.' The people who always have an answer and the people who go to great lengths to make themselves sound smart or sound like they have every answer typically come off fake and insecure. You're new and it's ok not to know everything. Sometimes not knowing allows you to see things from a different and unique perspective which can be a positive. Embrace what you don't know.

5). Plan for more and prepare for more than you think you need. When designing lessons and thinking about learning activities, it's often hard to know how long it may take. This is especially difficult for new teachers since in most instances they've never done that particular activity before. You'd rather have too much than not enough... but be careful and recognize that quality will always supersede quantity. This is especially true for student learning.

And finally . . .

10). Take responsibility and ownership for sharpening your own saw. Sure, you will have some conference and learning events you can attend, but don't let your learning and growth be limited to what your school or district provide. There are so many informal learning opportunities available to you, so be sure to take advantage of them. When it comes to your learning and growth, you know yourself best and you know your needs best, so take control of your own learning.

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We saw this in football during Coach Mumm's final season.  It's one of the most inspirational short clips I've seen.

Now, this is how you survive (or lean into) a dip!  Seth Godin would be proud.




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One of my favorite bloggers is Gary Vaynerchuk.  Here is a post on What are your Strengths and How can you find Them?

My favorite tip is simple: read everything.

If you aren't reading, you aren't getting better in your field.  As this applies to me as a teacher, I need to get better each year.  I teach too smart of kids to think I can possibly get by on teaching standard curriculum or to think I can coast without constantly pushing them.

This is why I read constantly.  And when I'm in the car, I try to create what Zig Ziglar calls a rolling university.  Thanks to podcasts, I can still stay plugged in and get better.

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Speaking of reading, here is a list from one of my favorite bloggers (right up there with Vaynerchuk): Guy Kawasaki.  Here is his required reading.

I must confess I haven't read any of them . . . yet.  But they sure look interesting.

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Here is a great op-ed piece from Mark Bauerlein (you might know him from the nefarious The Dumbest Generation): What's the Point of a Professor?

I'm going to use this in CC 2 next year as it raises some great points, especially about how to get the most out of your college experience when it comes to engaging with your professors outside of class.

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This blogger applies the idea of Genius Hour to his own work habits.  This is a great idea, one I'd like to try.  How might this impact us if all teachers applied this once a week during our prep periods?

Here are his guidelines -

Each Thursday night, I go somewhere to do creative work. Sometimes it's Starbucks (I know, I know, it's a chain place) and sometimes it's a microbrew and sometimes it's a local Mexican food joint. But wherever it is, I sit down alone and pursue my own creative work. This is my Genius Hour. This is my Twenty Percent time. I have a few rules for myself:
  1. I can't work on anything related to school. I can't grade papers. I can't plan lessons. But I also can't work on a presentation for a keynote or write a blog post or write an article. This time can't be connected to teaching. 
  2. There are no deadlines. So, while I love to write fiction, this is bonus time that isn't part of a scheduled writing process. 
  3. I have to be learning something new. A few years ago, this was coding and programming. Last year, this has included story craft (where I have studied up on what makes a story) as I write a novel. Lately, it has been illustrating and animation. So, while I might be working within my strengths, I am also pushing myself to try something new. 
  4. The audience is optional. I may someday create a short animated film for students. I will most likely partner with my wife again and publish another novel (my last one was Wendell the World's Worst Wizard.) However, the goal in my own Genius Hour is to work without worrying about audience. 
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With a title like "The Race to Nowhere in Youth Sports," I couldn't help but click on the link.

As I read the article, I was reminded of the film that inspired the column: Race to Nowhere.

The trailer for the film is here -




I first came across this film when I read Tom Friedman's That Used to be Us.  The author takes issue with the film.  He has little sympathy for kids who are pressured to study and get straight A's.

After all, Friedman observes, you want to know pressure?  Try showing up for a job and your boss speaks fluent Mandarian Chinese because it has been outsourced.  Try working three part-time jobs because you don't have the skill set to hold down a full-time job in the knowledge economy.

Point well taken.

But still . . . this article raises some good points.

I like this point from the article -

We are so scared that if we do not have our child specialize, if we do not get the extra coaching, or give up our entire family life for youth sports, our child will get left behind. Even though nearly every single parent I speak to tells me that in their gut they have this feeling that running their child ragged is not helpful, they do not see an alternative. Another kid will take his place.  He won’t get to play for the best coach. “I know he wants to go on the family camping trip,” they say, “but he will just have to miss it again, or the other kids will get ahead of him.”

We had a football player years ago who used to miss some practice time around Labor Day because his family always took a vacation around that time.

Some coaches commented that his family needed to realize that he was on varsity now and needed to make a greater commitment.

Then the young man's mother - a few months later - developed cancer and - unfortunately - passed away.

I'm sure glad that he did have those times at the cabin to remember . . . as opposed to some time spent on the football practice field.  Those latter memories are fine, but the former ones are priceless.

I miss the glory days of sports - when I played - when we needed damn near everyone to just make up a team.  We didn't win a whole lot, but I enjoyed the hell out of both practice and the games.

I played at least two sports: football and baseball.

There wasn't a ton of pressure to lift and train and do outside stuff, which left plenty of time for me to just be a kid.  I read a ton and wrote a ton.  Now those are some skills I use every single day now.

What about the skills I learned in sports?

Nope.

The one thing sports taught me was that practice is vital.  I loved practice because I constantly tried to get better with each rep.  If we were implementing a new play (I recall trying to put in a shotgun shovel pass either during my sophomore or junior year), and we couldn't get the play down.  The snap was always high, and when it was perfect, I couldn't pull and get the block down in time.

The same was true for when we tried to get our audibles down.

We had a hot color that changed per week.  So if Harry called "Orange," the play was changed.

As if that wasn't hard enough, we had it so if it was changed to a specific run play, it wasn't on the regular snap count of one.  It was on two.

Well in one game, against Warren at home, I think, I got the play right, but I jumped the snap count.

I didn't put in enough practice time and I didn't have the mental discipline to get it right.

All of those skills are vital.

But leadership?

I knew nothing about leadership!  I was a spoiled, entitled jerk half the time.

Exercise skills?

I was in great shape.  But not anymore.  For anyone who says athletics teach you health skills just needs too look around at a 20 year class reunion and compare waste sizes.

I wish there wasn't the emphasis on winning and specializing.  But there is.

I wish we'd recognize was sports are - a time for a kid to simply be an amateur.

They will never get a scholarship.  The parents should show up and support the kids.  The coaches should be fair and build the kids up, not just in the sport but teach them how to lead and grow.

Best of all, a coach and parent should adopt one of our core values: "it's not about us."

No one ever shows up to a high school athletic event for the coach.  They show up to see their kid play.


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