Educational Technology Coaching Blog

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This chapter is about giving thanks and how it makes you feel.  I actually did what Pink recommends years and years ago.  I had a wonderful mentor my second year to teach that left teaching for the business world shortly after I worked with her.  I looked her up and took her to dinner.  I was prompted to do this from a conference I attended.  I have to admit, I know it did more for me than it did for her.  I poured my heart out to her to thank her for what I now know was the foundation of who I am and what I’ve become in my teaching career.  She was solid and helped me to not only recognize my passion for teaching but to nurture it.  I have often thought about that day as I sat at Olive Garden sharing how and why she impacted me.  I detailed specific instances; I showed intensive emotion for how I felt.  I did it again to my mentor who helped me when I first became a technology coach.  There is no greater feeling than to share, eye-to-eye, personally what someone did to make a difference in your life and the lives of countless others.  I have also been fortunate to hear this from former students.  As Pink says, giving thanks and expressing gratitude is reciprocal and takes on a daisy chain that generates a momentum of its own.  

I have thoroughly enjoyed the book, A Whole New Mind.  I think it has enormous implications for education and our need to teach the current generation.  It’s pretty simple, but powerful and Pink is right on target with each of the chapters.

Well, you better be ready to laugh in Chapter 8.  Pink’s emphasis in this material is that when you’re having fun, you are activating the right side of your brain.  In that side, you can be anything you want while the left side is limited.  That says a lot for teaching creativity and innovation.  In fact, Pink quotes Southwest Airlines mission statement “People rarely succeed at anything unless they are having fun doing it” (p. 187).  This could help teachers be more understanding about the gaming industry and learning.  There is much discussion of that in this chapter promoting that gaming teaches teamwork, values, and responsibility–much needed skills in the workplace.  My favorite quote is from page 193, “Learning isn’t about memorizing isolated facts.  It’s about connecting and manipulating them.”  As Pink further explains, humor and joyfulness is about relationships more than it is about laugher.  I think education needs to consider lightening up… By doing this maybe, just maybe, we could build better relationships with our students which, in turn, improves learning. What do you think?

This chapter stresses why imagining yourself in someone else’s position is so important.  Pink describes it as the ultimate “virtual reality” (pg. 159).  He cites Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence as a book that began to change the way we think about empathy and how it affects relationships.    He goes into detail about the benefits of reading facial expressions.  He credits computers for being able to do lots of things for us, but we simply cannot program them to feel.  We must still have that human element.  Later in the chapter, he talks about how the health care industry is changing because of emphathy.  He also cites how he believes research shows women are more empathetic than men. 

How do all these points relate to A Whole New Mind?  In particular, is empathy important to being a classroom teacher?  Do you have some specific examples you can share about how empathy helped you meet student needs?  Is empathy included in teacher preparation programs?  Should it be?  What are your thoughts on this topic as it relates to education in general and the classroom specifically?

Pink goes into detail in this chapter to discuss how symphony (putting it all together) is important to seeing relationships between seemingly unrelated fields.  This process creates harmony and balance among the parts.  He recognizes that the best way to understand and develop this aptitude is through drawing.  He shows how his own demonstration of symphony improved by learning from the technique developed by Betty Edwards, author of the book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.  I’ve heard Susan talk about this book often.  One of the most powerful quotes from this chapter is “sometimes the most powerful ideas come from simply combining two existing ideas nobody else ever thought to unite”.  That is why we value inventors.  Pink also considers using metaphors valuable for understanding symphony and believes it is important because it helps us understand things at a deeper level.  Lastly, he tells us that symphony is about seeing the big picture and understanding relationships and that is why right-brainers will rule the world.   As you ponder this chapter, respond to the following:

• In what ways can teaching symphony help our students get ready for success?
• Can you give examples of student projects you incorporate that demonstrate the use of symphony?

Storytelling is profound for both the person who tells it and the person(s) who listen.  Pink gives us some interesting resources that can help us understand the power of storytelling in this chapter.  He also gives us some strategies we can use to help students tell their stories.  He even mentions Jonesborough, TN as the grandaddy of the American storytelling festivals (in October).  Finally, he talks about the power of digital storytelling with today’s digital students.  In a way, our electronic portfolio REFLECT project is just that for our students in grades 9 & 10.  For your post on this chapter, identify how you could use these suggestions in your own classroom.

The beginning of Part Two is perhaps one of the most powerful sections of this book for seeing how our R-Directed thinking will be important for the future and how they will shape our world.  Pink introduces the six senses that make that so:  Design, Story, Symphony, Emphathy, Play, and Meaning.  Chapter 4 discusses Design which Pink says is utility enhanced by significance.  For Art teachers, this is so important for your students to understand and as Pink says , you can integrate art with all other subjects relative to teaching design.  He further says everyone is involved in designing something every day–anytime we create solutions.  I thought it was particularly interesting to find research supported data on page 78 to indicate the importance of design in sales.  I also found it interesting that at least one major U.S. automaker (GM) declared it was in the art business because their car designers were equally as important as their engineers.   One of the most shocking statistics in this chapter to me was that consumers spend nearly as much on decorative faceplates for cell phones as they do the phones themselves.  Pink also says $4 billion was also spent last year on ring tones.  My Daddy would say people today have more money than they have sense, but then again we are living is a world where Design is very important (as well as prestige, harmony, and balance). 

I hope you will take the time to tell us how this chapter affects how and what you teach and how students respond.  Make application to the classroom as much as possible.  Share your stories.  After all, in the next chapter we will study the significance of storytelling being a powerful tool in creating A Whole New Mind.

The Conceptual Age has a good deal of potential for us to understand how creativity will allow the right-brainers to rule.  This chapter helps us to make meaning of this new era and how it affects our jobs as teachers.  In this chapter post, share what you gleaned from Chapter 3 that will help you prepare students to become pattern recognizers and meaning makers.

• Pink says we are in the art business today.  Explain how this can motivate your students.
• Today’s new MBA is the new MFA.  What can this mean for helping you guide students into college and/or the economy?
• Why is EQ more important than IQ in creating A Whole New Mind?
• Meaning in our lives is the “new money”, says Pink.  How does this help us prepare for the Conceptual Age?
• Mr. Pink talks candidly about America’s testing system on page 57.  He concludes that imagination, joyfulness, and social dexterity is more important but tougher to quantify.  How are you helping students to achieve these important characteristics amidst the testing frenzy?

The shift in our society from “knowledge workers” to “R-Directed Thinking”, says Pink, is because of of our abundance on things, outsourcing knowledge work to Asia, and the dependence on automation instead of humans for rule-based, logic, calculation, and sequential thinking.  This chapter should spark your thinking and give you insight into why this book is recommended so often to educators.   Share your thoughts on:

• Is abundance helping or hurting us and how does this relate to your students?
• What is your position on US companies outsourcing work to Asia?  What does that tell us about how we need to revise our curriculums?
• How can we help students develop skills that can’t be done by computers (or other forms of automation) to succeed in their future?

Wow! This chapter is powerful.  I’m anxious to read your responsive comments.

Read and respond – Jan. 10-16

• What is something you found in this chapter you’d like to question other bloggers about?
• What would you most like to share with students from this chapter?
• What are the implications for all educators?