Book Share on the iKid

"Look around at today’s youth and you can see how technology has changed their lives. They lie on their beds and study while listening to mp3 players, texting and chatting online with friends, and reading and posting Facebook messages. How does the new, charged-up, multitasking generation respond to traditional textbooks and lectures?  Are we effectively reaching today’s technologically advanced youth?" 

After our PD exploring our generational differences as a staff, it made me start wondering more and more about what was out there about the current generation that is sitting in our classrooms. What do we know about their generation and their learning / working styles? 

I also just so happened to enroll in a class that had a great "textbook" list. One of those books was Rewired by Larry D. Rosen. In it he outlines what we as educators (and parents) can expect both socially and academically from the wired adolescents in our school. In the first couple of chapters, Rosen lays out why these students are disconnected from school and states that for teachers to make the curriculum relevant to the iKids, we as teachers need to do some catching up in terms of our own familiarity with technology. Not that we need to be using it the same way as our students do in our daily lives, but that we need to understand how they are using it and be able to relate to them. This better understanding will allows us to build better relationships and create lessons that they find more relevant. Rosen points out that education could utilize technology in a way that makes meaningful connections to the students' real life. According to him, it could be the most effective way to motivate students to participate and engage in active learning. 

I'm looking forward to reading more in this book and seeing if it has practical suggestions for how to make connections with my students.

Book Share on Motivation

Daniel Pink is one of my favorite inspirational authors right now. Mostly because after reading his books ("A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future" and "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us") I found a lot of really useful information that has helped me rethink the way I do things in my classroom.

If you are looking for an easy, somewhat entertaining read to learn more about what motivates people, then Drive is the answer. Here is some more information about what it is about:

"Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money--the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink in Drive. In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction--at work, at school, and at home--is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. 

Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does-and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation--autonomy, mastery, and purpose--and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live."