PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT…WEEK FIVE

During the summer I will post each Monday. Each post will offer six elements intended to enable you to look, think, explore and imagine. 

 

1. TED talk of the week: “The Psychology of Your Future Self.” Dan Gilbert shares recent research on a phenomenon he calls the "end of history illusion," where we somehow imagine that the person we are right now is the person we'll be for the rest of time. Hint: that's not the case. Watch it here.

2. Article of the week: In a fascinating opinion piece, Jeffrey Selingo says that “in addition to the need for the bachelor’s degree to be flexible in terms of its overall length, it should turn into a true lifelong credential, allowing students to dip back in and then out of the curriculum to update their knowledge and skills. For the right to do that, students would pay an annual subscription fee and pay lower tuition fees upfront.” Read it here.

3. Wild-ass thought of the week: If you’re in a department that has a lot of majors, why not get your seniors together near the start of the academic year and give each person the task of introducing your program to an underclassman who could be a possible major. Have them talk to the underclassman about the program, orient the underclassman to the culture of the program, introduce them to faculty, take them to a class. The objective should ultimately be for each senior to replace themselves with a new student major.

4. Self-evaluation topic for teachers: Are you making constant forward progress in your career as a teacher? Not just progress. Not just constant progress. Those things should be a given. But are you moving forward, getting better every course, every class, every year. Are you also moving forward in a way that makes your career consistently fulfilling? Write down the words CONSTANT FORWARD PROGRESS and look at them every day.

5. Self-evaluation topic for administrators: Are you a motivator? Are you a cheerleader? Are you the number one believer in the area you administrate? How do you express that? Apple Inc. used the following message; “There’s work and there’s your life’s work. The kind of work that has your fingerprints all over it. The kind of work that you’d never compromise on. That you’d sacrifice a weekend for. You can do that kind of work at Apple. People don’t come here to play it safe. They come here to swim in the deep end. They want their work to add up to something. Something big. Something that couldn’t happen anywhere else.” What’s your message? Use Apple’s words as a springboard for writing your own. Write it this week. Make it fantastic. Make it incredible.

6. Shower thinking: If a student, a parent or a visitor walks through the building that houses your department’s main office during a time when the office is closed, is there a place where they can take a small card that gives a well-written paragraph about your program, the web address, Facebook link, and Twitter feed? Is the card small, creative, and displayed in a clever container that everyone will notice?