Reflection Post

After researching the books, checking reviews and recommendations and finally choosing randomly from the books I had narrowed it down to I began “A Whole New Mind.” I’m glad this is the book I ended up reading, as I thought it to be thought provoking and useful to my teaching.

One key concept I enjoyed reading about was the essential ability of Play. I used some of these thoughts as a comment to the summarization of that chapter, but after finishing the book this element is the one of the key elements that stuck out in my mind as useful to incorporate in my teaching.

There is so much truth to the importance of play that I think we often tend to overlook in our “work day.” Learning doesn’t have to be ‘work!’ I remember going to a presentation at a leadership conference in college about integrating play/fun/laughter into the work place and about how much more successful the people who do this are. In trying to accomplish all that needs to be done in a school day, play often gets reserved for special occasions rather than as a way to teach.

Pink used a quote from Katarina about happiness being conditional, joyfulness unconditional. One of the most popular teachers in our district (by students, parents, other staff, community...) is a joyful person. He is not always happy, but his outlook on life is positive and he is fun! We had an inservice before school this year where we all had to create igoogle pages. One of his links is a joke of the day. He starts his class with a laugh and the students seem to have a special connection with him and are generally successful in his classes. Students respect this teacher, but are also comfortable with him. I think this supports the South Western mission statement also quoted in chapter eight, "People rarely succeed at anything unless they are having fun doing it."

I hope I will use this essential element of play as I strive to teach my students the requirements of our district. When doing my lesson plans I need to remember that adding the element of play and humor can not only help teach students but also create an environment conducive to learning in general.