This coming semester, some of us will be reading the book Drive, which discusses the value of intrinsic motivation. The book is a great read and really helped me strengthen my ideas on the importance of being engaged and committed to the work being done, whether it is the work we create for our students or the work we do as a staff.
The author, Daniel Pink, also created this 2 minute clip that the design team watched the other day at the conference at Tunnel Hill. This short video made me think about my "sentence." What mark or difference do I want to leave? Is it better, as the video suggests, to try to do one simple thing well, instead of becoming muddled by trying to do too much?
After watching the video, please respond and let me know what your sentence is. How do you want to be remembered?
Great blog Ben! The idea of a personal sentence is one concept that really stood out to me while reading Drive and I think Daniel Pink's clip does a great job of illustrating this idea. Actually trying to come up with a sentence isn't as easy as you would think... no matter how I formed mine, it always seemed to come out sounding idealistic and cheesy, BUT I think the process of forming a personal sentence does help you focus your purpose and identify your motivation. Although not as cool as some of the past president's sentences, my personal sentence is "She helped others learn skills to better their lives." Or something like that... it's still a work in progres.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what our school sentence would be if we had to identify how we want our school to be remembered... I think that might even be harder than picking a personal sentence.
Great ideas Jamie. Every sentence that I think of for me sounds a little idealistic as well. However, I don't think that's a bad thing. My sentence would be something like "He made a difference in a community" or "He helped open doors for students" (metaphorically, not literally).
ReplyDeleteThinking about the school's sentence is a great idea as well. I've been thinking about it all weekend!
When I think about summing up a person's life with one sentence, it's much easier for historians to look back on a life and do that. It's much harder to do in the present tense. Professionally, my sentence might be, "She made her students love learning, and they knew she cared about them." You never really know how many or in what way you have impacted people during your life. I always think of the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life". Is the world a better place because you're in it? Hopefully, it is! I think we're always changing and need to be open to learning new things each day. That's what makes life fun and exciting and all of us better today than yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI am a teacher. This is the philosophy that I have lived my life by and I have judged my career by. I have always asked myself, "Am I better this year than I was last year?" Perhaps,I need to change this to a daily question.
ReplyDeleteI could see the school's "sentence" coming from a conversation with the students.
ReplyDeleteThe personal sentence is tough because it's really, and I've written about this before, not about the end, it's about the dash. You know...on tombstones there's the beginning year and the ending year--between those is the little dash, and yet...it's all about the dash. That's what stumps us when we create our sentence--we aren't finished yet. We are within the dash. However, to create the sentence, you almost have to think in a contrasting way---What would I not want to leave as the imprint? Would our sentences vary according to who would say it (i.e. my kids vs. my friends vs. my co-workers)? I'm convinced the sentence is also difficult because rather than wondering what people will say, because so much about what is said is filtered by perception, we should focus on how we make people feel. That's why I'd hope my sentence would say:
She made me feel cared about.