Educational Discourse

Well, for those of you who have been waiting for some inspiration to get moving with the A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, it is here. The book club is up and running with a few of the senses having chapter leaders and some discussion posts already going. I’ve been over at Classroom2.0 to see what is happening. I’m going to do some more looking and thinking before I make my first post. I am going to start a discussion there and send people to the wiki and mention that people who want to join the conversation can look there to see how things are going.

A Whole New Mind

This book really has me thinking about many different things, not just the 6 senses that Pink describes. As I was reflecting on the book, I realized that someone at a different point in their life/career/education might see things differently than me which had me thinking that these topics would be great to discuss with my classes which then led me to think about how I might work them into my class for discussion. By this time I had way too many things running around in my head so I began to make notes about what I was doing. I then remembered that Dave Truss had posted a mindmap on the wiki so off I went to look at it. This mindmap helped me as it creates a visual representation of the book’s main parts, allowing me to think about how I might be able to use this as a teacher/principal.

For me, the section of the book that really “touched” me was the final section on “Meaning”. I’m not at the point where I can put into words why or how but it spoke to me about how we all are looking for meaning and that school needs to help students with this.

So, if you’re interested in joining the discussion, wander on over to the wiki and join us in the discussions. If you’re so inclined, volunteer to be a chapter leader or just begin a discussion. Let’s see where things will go.