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Tag Archives: Education

Books to read…

The following list are recommended by Daniel Pink and his readers in his book, “Drive”.  First, if you haven’t read Pink’s book, put it at the top of your list.  Because I love the insights and strategies Pink submits, I am definitely going to try to read some, if not all, of these books.  If you have any insight about which ones I should read first, I welcome your feedback.

Daniel Pink - PopTech 2007 - Camden, ME

Daniel Pink – PopTech 2007 – Camden, ME (Photo credit: Kris Krug)

Pink’s Reader’s Recommendations:

  1. The Talent Code – Daniel Coyle (This was just recommended to me by a friend)
  2. Encore – Marc Freedman
  3. Rework – Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
  4. Linchpin – Seth Godin (I love this author and blogger – This may top my list)
  5. Just Listen – Mark Goulston
  6. Switch – Chip Heath and Dan Heath
  7. Delivering Happiness – Tony Hsieh
  8. Teach like a Champion – Doug Lemov
  9. Mastery – George Leonard
  10. Employees First, Customers Second – Vineer Nayar
  11. How full is your Bucket? – Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton
  12. Wellbeing – Tom Rath and Jim Harter
  13. Learned Optimisim – Martin E. P. Siligman
  14. Do More Great Work – Michael Bungay Stanier
  15. Start with Why – Simon Sinek
  16. The Motivated Student – Bob Sullo
  17. Good Boss, Bad Boss – Bob Sutton
  18. Intrinsic Motivation at Work – Kenneth W. Tomas
  19. Wooden Leadership – John Wooden and Steve Jamison

Pink’s Recommendations:

The reason I am putting two of the books at the top of my list is because I have heard a few people talking about them.  I suppose this is why I read most of the books that I do-either recommendation, talk around the water cooler, they are on a list for school, and now because they are on a list from an author who I respect and enjoy reading.

Personally, I would add Freakonomics, SuperFreakonomics, Blur, and any books that Malcolm Gladwell or Seth Godin wrote to this list.

 

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Connecting around the world (within Timezones)

One of the projects on the back of my mind for our school is to buddy different classes or grades with “sister school” throughout the world.  Where this most often becomes is through technology, authentic needs and projects, and through meeting synchronously at the same time.  To alleviate this last worry, I was examining the idea to limit the schools we would connect with to those within our own timezone (for now).

Time Zones

Time Zones

This would mean that we could still get a cross-cultural feel for how things are in different parts of the world, but never have mix-ups or hiccups because of timing.  I can envision it now:

“Ok, great.  We’ll Skype with your class at 2pm then.”

“Wait, 2pm your time or mine?”

“Oh, ours.”

“Oh, we will already be gone home.”

This preplanning could fix all of this hassle down the road.  Because I am in Istanbul, this gives me a wide gamut of places and schools to consider, for example, Finland, Kiev, Bucharest, Cairo, Lubumbashi, Pretoria, Cape Town, and the list goes on.

Asynchronous conversations would end this worry and could be done through ideas like: Edmodo, Wikis, Blogging, Google Docs, Twitter, Twijector, and more.  However, there is definitely something about connecting in real-time.   I am excited about the idea and will comment further about the progress and the new problems we may face.

 

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Creating a Wiki?

Some advice that I would give to someone creating a wiki specifically for a class working synchronously:

  1. Students must write their information in Word first – for better grammar, but especially for back-up.
  2. Create separate designated pages for each student to work on – possibly name the pages with their name embedded to be changed out later – as the wiki creator, you may be the only one to have the page creation rights.
  3. If you know multiple people will be working on the same pages at the same times, allocate time buffer zones that people may post – for example, if 4 people work on the same page, one may post between 4-6pm, another between 7-9pm, another between 10-12pm, and another between 6-8am.

There are always Revision histories, but having 15-30 students post on the same page at the same time DOES NOT WORK. Separate the tasks and times as best as you can.

I would actually recommend Google Docs or Microsoft One-note if you are networked and have that option.  It depends on your final goal of the project.

 

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14,000 hits

14,000 hits

Woohoo!!  I remember when I was going on 1000 hits.  It was an exciting time.  Now, I have been blogging, tweeting, Scoop.iting, Scribding, Youtubing, Linkedining, and connecting for a few years now.  I just looked down and noticed my hit count.  Pretty cool.  I (we: Pla and I) are about to hit 14,000 hits for the site.  This is an exciting time.

I am nearly half way through my PhD, which definitely slows down the blogging process, but my next goal will probably be to write a few books.  Keep coming back.  I try to add content that is interesting and useful to any educator.

Cheers and thanks for popping by.
Tom Johnson and Pla Sankhum

 

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