The backbone to any motive or leader is purpose. There is a purpose, whether altruistic or egoistic, that drives people to do what we do. In education, we are constantly surrounded by liked-minded people who are pushing through the hard times because of their moral purpose.
The strategies that I see naturally come out because of my moral purpose is teaching to the whole student. My value’s make it so that I am always teaching children who are growing rather than students who need information. I use strategies to teach, such as mindfulness, yoga, and metacognitive practices. Educational jargon can get in the way of the root of what schools’ purposes are, but I completely agree with the article by Nel Noddings that education’s purpose should be happiness (Noddings, 2005). I know personally that my moral purpose ultimately makes me do the things I do because I want to bring (or teach) happiness to my students. With this in mind every day, I am able to use strategies common to other educators such as,
I know that I have a big influence in shaping each student I meet into a kind and purpose-driven citizen. Every day in my classroom I look at ways to accomplish this by shaping my voice, lessons, body language, classroom environment, and student interaction around social emotional learning. Activities that develop children’s ability to, “recognize and manage emotions, build relationships, solve interpersonal problems, and make effective and ethical decisions,” are a huge part of my teaching because it shapes SEL (Yoder, 2014). Of course, the motives behind it stem from an altruistic and egoistic mindset. As Learning in a Culture of Change states, all effective leaders are driven by both (altruistic and egoistic) what Sober and Wilson call "motivational pluralism, which is the view that we have both egoistic and altruistic ultimate desires (Fullan, pg.28). I believe being aware of which part is altruistic and which is egoistic (and which weighs more) steers a person to the other areas of leadership. Being cognitive of the fact that it isn’t all a holy deed out of righteousness makes a person balance the other areas of leadership. When I think of overall leadership, the driving force behind it is moral purpose. A leader who is completely altruistic and tries to lead a group may become overshadowed by the moral purpose and burn out because of their needs not being met. However, a person who knows what part of it is intrinsic (or extrinsic) motivation for themselves may keep a clear eye on the goal during any successes and failures. ASCD Whole Child Bloggers. 2012. Educating the Whole Child: The Top 5 Strategies. Retrieved from http://www.wholechildeducation.org/blog/educating-the-whole-child-top-5-strategies-for-educators Fullian, Michael. 2001. Leading in a Culture of Change. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED467449.pdf Noddings, Nel. 2015. What does it mean to educate the whole child? Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept05/vol63/num01/What-Does-It-Mean-to-Educate-the-Whole-Child%C2%A2.aspx Yoder, N. 2014. Teaching the Whole Child. Retrieved from http://www.gtlcenter.org/sites/default/files/TeachingtheWholeChild.pdf
5 Comments
Natalie
3/11/2017 02:04:28 pm
I love the word "happiness". It makes me think of children laughing.:) I liked the strategies you mentioned in looking at the whole child approach. I taught primary so I had the time to know all of my students. From some of the other blogs, the increasing class sizes or teaching in middle/high school would be more difficult in knowing all of your students. I wonder how they accomplish this?
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Tristan
3/11/2017 02:07:07 pm
I like your statement from the first paragraph about how we push through the hard times because of our moral purpose. That couldn’t be more true! Knowing your kids is so important and making sure you listen to them, you can gain so much valuable insight to why they do what they do. I also like the other strategy about being data-driven about all factors affecting the students, I don’t think, like many, that achievement tests tell the whole story and I try to make sure my students know that their worth is not based off of their achievement tests.
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3/11/2017 04:40:33 pm
You had many great thoughts in your blog. I really like how you talk about SEL and teaching to the whole student. We cannot epect students to leave who they are at the door. We must meet them and teach them as they grow. Here's an awesome article that adds to SEL. It talks about how SEL increases self awareness, self management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. You seem like you are driven by your moral purpose and have many strategies to keep yourself on the straight and narrow path of leadership!
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3/11/2017 08:32:45 pm
I am glad that you are a second grade teacher and that you are consistently happy and getting to know your students and using your strategies daily in the class. Sometimes I wonder how I would be in an elementary classroom. I know that before I had my own kids, I was terribly terrified about young children, especially teaching them. I had the chance in college to choose between elementary education, or secondary and was able to observe each type of class before my choice. Well, secondary was my initial and final career path, but now that I have had children of my own, I wonder what it would have been like if I chose elementary ed. Regularly I get questioned by parents, and elementary teachers, how I could deal with high school students. It is quite different than elementary kids, I admit. One thing that I constantly reflect on is what type of experiences did my high school student have to become who they are? I “see” them towards the end of the required K-12 education, and can’t help but wonder if they like school, hate it, or have no strong opinion. A lot of high school teachers say that there are 3 types of kids: ones who work hard and do their best, others who are okay just to pass, and those that really don’t give a ****. Do you see this in lower grades? And how do you respond? You don’t have to reply, but I do wonder about these sorts of things in elementary ed.
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3/13/2017 11:38:27 am
Jule,
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Author2nd Grade teacher at Keet Gooshi Heen in Sitka, Alaska Archives
April 2017
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