Tribe by Sebastian Junger: Book Club Meeting Summary from 10/25/17

This morning the ECV PD Book Club had an excellent discussion about the ideas Sebastian Junger raises in his book: Tribe. Some of the main points we discussed were:

• We feel disconnected from our students and each other.
• What do we do/have that shows we are part of the same tribe here at ECV?
• Lack of balance in our lives and how people use technology is contributing to this feeling of disconnection.
• Work is stressful--we have many demands on our time and attention. It's easy to become isolated when everyone is so busy.
• We want a community where everyone knows they are valued and needed, but we are guarded, and that keeps us from fully trusting each other.
• The book discusses the unification that happens in communities in the wake of disasters (natural and man-made).
• We don't want to have a traumatic event, but we do want to build more community--especially among our staff members.
• Our school used to have more get-togethers, and that helped build trust and community. We have gotten away from that. We should strive to get together more--outside of work--and just get to know each other better. This is an important step toward showing each other that we are on the same side--we are part of the same tribe.

Thanks for reading!

Anthony

The Innovator's Mindset: ECVHS PD Book Club, Discussion 1 Notes #IMMOOC

Thanks to Amber, Sheilah, and Steve for your participation in a great book club conversation this morning in the library! Just as a quick summary of the talking points of our discussion:

• Our use of technology leaves a lot of room for innovation. We frequently use our Chromebooks as expensive pencils.
• Being a creative educator is challenging, given the system we are operating in. We could be experimental, but at the end of the day we still divide classes into periods, we still have to issue grades, we still have nearly 40 students in our classes. Factors like these make innovating difficult.
• Perhaps our school system (district, state, country) is not build with learning as the focus. That is, perhaps out education system isn't designed for learning and for learners. If it were, it would look different. We would collaborate with other teachers differently. We would have a different number of students. We would give students feedback differently.

I hope to see more ECVHS PD Book Club members at our next meeting on 3/29 in the library (calendar invite coming soon).

Also, George Couros is having another Innovator's Mindset MOOC, which started on Monday, February 27th. You can view the conversation here, as well as a few guiding questions. We used some of those questions to drive our fantastic conversation this morning.