My final semester as a masters student has begun. Last week, I attended the first face-to-face meeting for EAD 269 - Site-Based Leadership - with Dr. Buster, Dr. Wise, and Dr. Darrow. I feel privileged to have such amazing professors and guest speakers for this course, and I am looking forward to the collaboration between Sanger, Clovis, Kingsburg, Visalia, and Tulare cohort students. With a focus on communication and technology, I feel that this course will indeed help "prepare credible and relevant leaders in education" and provide us with the tools and insight we will need to be successful leaders throughout our diverse communities.
One of the highlights from our first class was watching the RSA Animate video about motivation. In this video, Daniel Pink cleverly illustrates (literally) how higher incentives and extrinsic motivation/rewards yield poorer performance, especially when asked to complete cognitive tasks.
After watching this video, it was decided that we need better motivation strategies in schools, especially in a season heavily influenced by high-stakes testing, changing populations and communities, new school initiatives, and pressure to do more with less.
Although there is no magic bullet or quick and easy solution to implement, it is important for every school leader to learn about their staff, students, and community. By focusing on staff/student morale and the school environment, existing motivators can be exposed. Helping people build autonomy, achieve mastery, and discover their purpose can be the biggest motivation of all. Building capacity within all levels of a school community is extremely important, and helping individuals discover their "purpose" is a pivotal role for contemporary educational leaders.
Such a great point! With times, budgets and populations changing so much, it seems almost impossible that we are asked to do so much more with half of the resources we've typically had. Finding the right motivation can make a world of difference... not only with our staff and students, but with the community in which we serve!
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