Before we get started, I have two quick announcements

1.     I’ve been hearing a strong interest in how to support beginning teachers. I went into some key practices last year in episodes 214 and 215, so if you are in the mode to think about how to support your BTs (and ECTs), give a listen to episodes 214 and 215

2.     The July 22 episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast we feature a panel discussion with myself and five assistant principals. Some are national/state AP of the Year awardees and others are just wrapping up their first year as assist principals. The focus of our discussion is being a first year AP! We would love to hear from you. If you have questions, topics, advice, or stories, please consider sharing. Please email them to me at [email protected]. I would love to be able to name contributors but will only do so if you explicitly give permission for us to include your name and affiliation. We are recording on July 15, so don’t wait.

Okay, now onto the episode…

Show Notes, Episode 93: Cultivating Motivation with Mike Anderson

About this show: 

There once was an old man who didn’t like baseball. He likes quiet and solitude. But every day all summer long, the neighborhood kids would gather at the empty field next to the man’s house and play ball all day long, yelling, screaming, and sometimes crying. The man put up with the noisy kids for years, until finally, he came up with an awful, evil, dastardly plan. And if you want to hear what that plan was, stay tuned because today we are taking on the complex issue of motivation!

Notable Quotes

Mike:

We are programmed to seek out enjoyment and fun. And so, the key to all of these six motivators (autonomy, competence, belonging, purpose, curiosity, and fun,) is that the learning itself should tap into these. It's not the something that we dangle as the carrot… that if you finish your regular work then you can choose an activity to do. Or if you do what I want you to, then we'll have an ice cream party. It's the fun itself, the autonomy itself, the belonging itself needs to be woven into the fabric of the learning.

The way we offer the feedback is so important as the administrator. You go in and say, “I really loved how you were keeping your direct teachings short”. The energy is coming back to you without meaning to. Probably you are making this about your approval, which can actually feel like an extrinsic motivator. It takes a little bit of the power away from the teacher. So instead, you might say “Your goal was to keep your lesson short. I observed you kept your direct teaching to 7 minutes. That's totally in line with your goal congratulations”.

We need to build relationships outside of feedback, but not give feedback in terms of relationship.

I think about the first principle that I ever had, Cherry Jones in East Lyme, Connecticut. The nameplate on her office door did not say “Cherry Jones, Principal”. It said “Cherry Jones, Chief Learner” since she viewed herself as the lead learner of the building and that made such an impression on me as a young teacher. And she did try lots of things. She was always experimenting and learning and growing and making mistakes and it was open and sometimes raw and public and it was awesome, and it was such a great example of somebody who was truly a lead learner.

Part of what you got to do if you're going to help lead adult learning is you have to feel the same joy in working with adults that you did in working with kids and recognize that everybody's going to be in different places and some days are going to be hard. But you need to see the people you're working with as learners and you're there to support their learning and get this sort of joy and satisfaction from watching them grow and learn.

Frederick

Well, and when people have choice, they're going to choose the things that are valuable to them. And then when we serve them. And support them. We're decreasing that effort and creating a little bit more safety so that they can push the envelope and take risks because they know we have their back.

I think one of the challenges is that a lot of us have this mindset. Of professional development is something we do to our teachers. And so, the planning and everything is coming from the top. And that's one of the things I'm trying to breakthrough, and it seems hard. I think we need to really flip that on the head, and we need to be serving our teachers and our teachers need to be pushing and saying here's what I need, here's where I need to grow.

So, one of my big new points of emphasis is that it's people before purpose and I used to be a purpose driven, you know why? Type person. But it's people before purpose and that's exactly what you just said. I have to invest in you as a person and when I build that relationship because I care about you, and I value you. In that process, you're going to tell me what you need, you're going to tell me what you want, and then I can serve you.

Links:

Mike Anderson Links:  

Website: https://leadinggreatlearning.com/

Online Courses: https://courses.leadinggreatlearning.com/

Frederick Links:

My email: [email protected] 

The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html 

Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition 

Website: www.frederickbuskey.com

Blog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)