Outlier

There are a few books that I've read multiple times (non-fiction) that, because of content, I go back to. Outliers is one of them. Not that there's technical information that's so important it's worth revisiting, but because the stories behind what makes an "outlier" -- in the book's case, a person or people that are far above the norm -- are so unique and important to how we see our world and education.

Take for example, the famous Bill Gates and his fabled story. But closer analysis shows that it wasn't so much his intelligence that lead him to his initial success as it was opportunity and (get this) hard work.

Now when we say hard work, one often thinks of long hours and toil. But just how many hours constitutes hard work. In Outliers, you learn the magic number. It's 10,000 hours or over. 10,000 hours. Think about that. Take that number, divide it by 10 years. That's 1,000 hours per year, then divide by 365 and you're looking at appox 2.8 hours a day to work on something to become world class at it.

This is just one example of the many findings in Outliers. I'll be posting more later.

5 Dysfunctions and the Community

One of our fifth grade teachers referred me to, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and because I'm somewhat of a verascious reader and listener (I have umpteen audio books), I finished it rather quickly. I was both encouraged (mostly) and humbled to see the characteristics of a high functioning teams and low functioning teams.

The old axiom, There's no I in team is said all the time as is But there is ME. Early in my teaching career, I was focused on me, me as an individual teacher and how great my ideas and programs were. And many times, they were unique and interesting, but they were done alone. How hindsight and experience teaches us differently. What I failed to understand in my twenties is that you can accomplish far more, experience greater personal satisfaction and achieve greatness when you function as a team. This was brought home to me in the early 2000s when the school district I worked for received a large federal grant to incorporate vigorous, daily PE.

Before this grant, I worked alone. With the grant, I was able to team with a fellow PE expert, who not only taught me a great deal, but made for an excellent partner. As at team, our teaching improved, our program improved, and ultimately for the final years of the grant, the results were amazing in what children accomplished in terms of their physical health.

Teaming itself is difficult because I think for the majority of us, we don't know how to team. We like the concept, we think we share, but we don't. Why? Well, for one, our society is a society of "me" and not "us". We have, what Stephen Covey refers to as, "the scarcity mentality." In other words, I'm not going to share my creative and engaging idea or thought or program because by doing so, I will lose uniqueness and for some, perceived power. Instead, we should have the mentality "of abundance" which refers to the concept that there's plenty of great things to go around and my sense of worth doesn't come from whether or not I alone have a great idea or program.

But many times when people share great ideas other perceive this as arrogance. "Oh, she thinks she has all the answers doesn't she?" are the thoughts that can cloud the mind. In order to avoid this overcast mentality, we have to create a culture of trust among team members so that such comments are taken in the spirit of team and how that can make the team better, because by making the team better, we're better.

Throughout the school, we have high functioning and low functioning teams. Every orgainzation does. It's my hope and goal that this year we can focus on how to make our teams stronger, thus making us as a whole group, stronger which ultimately leads to better, happy people and just as importantly; better, happier students.