An article from Inc.com caught my eye this morning: "Three Habits of Highly Unsuccessful Businesses." The article, written by Karl Stark and Bill Stewart, managing directors of the strategic advisory firm, Avondale (Chicago, IL), suggested that rather than look at the Successful Habits of businesses, it might also be useful to look at the unsuccessful, so as to tack away from harm. The deadly three are, according to Start and Stewart:
1. Unsuccessful businesses believe that their circumstances are unchangeable and therefore don't act.
2. Unsuccessful businesses do not set milestones for their journey.
3. Unsuccessful businesses do no re-evaluate along the way.
I agree with these observations. I have had quite a bit of business experience, and recognize that these three mind games trap well-meaning managers and owners. As I thought more about the unsuccessful three, I recognized that they are also the habits of unsuccessful students. Let me explain.
1. Unsuccessful students believe their circumstances are unchangeable and therefore don't act. Too often, students have come to believe the negative things that others say about them. You are too young (or old), you can't study, you can't write, you can't read, you can't concentrate, and, finally, you are not college-material. Students hear these voices so often that they believe them and remain stuck in one place. Henry Ford once said, "Whether you believe you can, or whether you believe you can't, you're right." Successful teachers work to persuade student that their circumstances can change, but only if they believe in themselves. Students need to act in order to have change.
2. Unsuccessful students do not set milestones. We try to celebrate every victory in the Basic Skills lab: a good score on a math pre-test, breaking 500 on the GED Social Studies predictor, grasping the idea of factoring fractions. These are mini-steps taken every day. Each student also needs to have a larger goal in mind in order to drive them through the days when they don't want to be studying. A student who does not have an end in mind, soon drifts away from the lab and from the promise that he or she might have in their future. As someone once said, "If you don't have a goal, how will you know when you get there."
3. Unsuccessful students do not re-evaluate. When I went to college, I changed my mind on majors at least a half-dozen times in the first couple years. After taking a class, I would decide economics is not for me, philosophy is not for me, biology is not for me. Since I seemed to be more of a generalist than a specialist, journalism seemed the best option and the choice has done well for me. When my students begin their study, they have one goal in mind. Too, too often when that goal becomes unlikely, they give up rather than reassess what they have learned about themselves. Goals change in life.
Usually, like colleagues, I promote the good habits of successful students, but, as the Inc.com article suggests, it is useful to examine what might not be working, as well as what is. Keeping the habits of unsuccessful students in mind, keeps a critical eye on the curriculum and direction that students are taking. It makes teachers more aware of course corrections that we can suggest along the way.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Saturday, September 15, 2012
This Young Trio Believes in You
We walked through the art/craft tents on Green Bay's Broadway this morning after coffee at Kavarna, one of our favorite places. We saw button jewelry, pencil sketches of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, funnel cakes, coffee can lawn art, and other hometown miscellanea in tents scattered on either side of the street. We crossed from the Kavarna side of the street to the east side and stopped at a booth with inspirational messages ("I Believe Me") printed across T-shirts. The designs were original art and very nicely done.
A young lady manning the booth walked right up to us and explained that the shirts were made to spread the message that kids had to believe in themselves She finished her 60-second elevator speech, dropped a card in our shopping bag, and wished us a good day. That was an impressive young lady.
Later on I read the card and brought up the website (www.ibelieveme.org). The young lady was the oldest of three siblings who founded this company to counteract the negative message that kids receive everyday: "Have you ever been told you're not good enough, that you'll never be good enough? Have you been cut from a team, not gotten the part, or been made to feel inferior?"
Rather than give in to the critics, the principals of this kitchen-table company, made up of Callie (our young lady), her brother Leo, and her younger sister Molly, want kids to believe in individual gifts, personal worth, and inspirational dreams. For every T-shirt you, buy the trio with give another T-shirt to a child who would also benefit from promoting the "I Believe Me" message.
Working from a screen printing press in the basement of their grandmother's Allouez, WI, house, the trio know that they can't change the entire world, but are working to do what they can to spread a message of positivity in a very negative world one T-shirt at a time. They write, "We are hear to help, to let you know that you ARE good enough, and that you CAN do whatever you put your mind to."
Impressive indeed.
A young lady manning the booth walked right up to us and explained that the shirts were made to spread the message that kids had to believe in themselves She finished her 60-second elevator speech, dropped a card in our shopping bag, and wished us a good day. That was an impressive young lady.
Later on I read the card and brought up the website (www.ibelieveme.org). The young lady was the oldest of three siblings who founded this company to counteract the negative message that kids receive everyday: "Have you ever been told you're not good enough, that you'll never be good enough? Have you been cut from a team, not gotten the part, or been made to feel inferior?"
Rather than give in to the critics, the principals of this kitchen-table company, made up of Callie (our young lady), her brother Leo, and her younger sister Molly, want kids to believe in individual gifts, personal worth, and inspirational dreams. For every T-shirt you, buy the trio with give another T-shirt to a child who would also benefit from promoting the "I Believe Me" message.
Working from a screen printing press in the basement of their grandmother's Allouez, WI, house, the trio know that they can't change the entire world, but are working to do what they can to spread a message of positivity in a very negative world one T-shirt at a time. They write, "We are hear to help, to let you know that you ARE good enough, and that you CAN do whatever you put your mind to."
Impressive indeed.
Friday, September 7, 2012
In Praise of Teaching by Walking Around
The theory of Management by Walking Around (MBWA) is being compared to the notion Teaching by Walking Around (TBWA) in today's teaching blog "Tomorrow's Professor" by Rick Reis of Stanford University. The comparison and study by Shantha P. Yahanpath and Shan Yahanpath of the Sydney (Australia) Business School looked favorably on the idea of moving around a classroom rather than gluing both hands to the lectern in the front of the classroom. Well, yeah.
As a former manager who successfully and purposefully used the MBWA theory when it was first in vogue I won't say how many years ago, I understand that moving among the people you work with inevitably creates relationships that smooth the work process. And, as a manager, how can you tell when something is not working when you are holed up in your office?
Agreed, in some classes where the student numbers are well north of 24-30, the lecture may be a tried and true way of conducting a class, but I doubt that it is the most effective. Every teaching study that I have read shows that lecturing is the least effective way of teaching. That begs the obvious question, "Why do we continue to do it?" Probably because it takes less preparation time in a busy teaching schedule. In a pinch, you open the text book and read the chapter of the day. Don't laugh, I once had an instructor do that on a particularly bad day. BTW, I count reading off a text-filled PowerPoint slide as little improvement over reading from the text. The PowerPoint should be a visual, interactive teaching aide, not a teleprompter for the instructor.
My most effective classes are those when I am working directly with the students. In small classes, this many be one-on-one or one-on-two. In larger classes, the students are broken down into larger smaller groups and directed to complete projects. This method takes advantage of the most effective way of teaching, allowing students to teach each other. When I see a student tell a student, "No try it this way," I smile, because I know that a teaching moment is developing. A student will easily accept learning from classmates.
And, just as in management, how can you tell when something is not being learned, when you are attached to the lectern at the front of a traditional classroom? Teaching, as well as managing, is an interactive activity.
As a former manager who successfully and purposefully used the MBWA theory when it was first in vogue I won't say how many years ago, I understand that moving among the people you work with inevitably creates relationships that smooth the work process. And, as a manager, how can you tell when something is not working when you are holed up in your office?
Not surprisingly, the Sydney researchers found that when the instructors moved around the classroom working with individual groups of students who were working on directed projects, the learning effectiveness and morale of the students improved.
Agreed, in some classes where the student numbers are well north of 24-30, the lecture may be a tried and true way of conducting a class, but I doubt that it is the most effective. Every teaching study that I have read shows that lecturing is the least effective way of teaching. That begs the obvious question, "Why do we continue to do it?" Probably because it takes less preparation time in a busy teaching schedule. In a pinch, you open the text book and read the chapter of the day. Don't laugh, I once had an instructor do that on a particularly bad day. BTW, I count reading off a text-filled PowerPoint slide as little improvement over reading from the text. The PowerPoint should be a visual, interactive teaching aide, not a teleprompter for the instructor.
My most effective classes are those when I am working directly with the students. In small classes, this many be one-on-one or one-on-two. In larger classes, the students are broken down into larger smaller groups and directed to complete projects. This method takes advantage of the most effective way of teaching, allowing students to teach each other. When I see a student tell a student, "No try it this way," I smile, because I know that a teaching moment is developing. A student will easily accept learning from classmates.
And, just as in management, how can you tell when something is not being learned, when you are attached to the lectern at the front of a traditional classroom? Teaching, as well as managing, is an interactive activity.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
My Son is NOT Going to a Technical College
The first time I worked for NWTC, I worked in the marketing department as a minor administrative functionary. A manager I worked with worried about his son who was just graduating from high school. The boy was bright, graduated with good grades, but didn't seem to have focus. He was planning to enter a UW-system campus in the fall, but the dad worried that a campus far from home would be more destructive than instructive.
Ever helpful, I suggested the son try some classes at NWTC first, to get his college legs under him. The dad was shocked by the suggestion, "My son is NOT going to a technical college." You would have thought that I suggested that the dad bankroll him for a career as a professional poker player in Las Vegas. The tech college was suitable for kids from other families, not his.
Times have changed.
It's been almost 20-years since that exchange. I left the college for a time, and now have returned as a member of the faculty. I have seen the stigma of a technical college degree wear away to such a point where now it is sought after by students. Our general education courses are accepted by the UW-system and our graduates in nursing, manufacturing technology, digital wonders, leadership, and the trades are recruited and highly paid by local businesses. The technical college degree is no longer the poor stepchild of the state post-secondary system, but an equal partner with our four-year brethren.
What happened to the son? I believe the boy bounced around, as the father feared, but eventually got a degree in something or other. I would not be surprised if he has found himself back at NWTC at one time or another to get an advanced training to supplement and enhance the baccalaureate degree. It happens all the time.
Ever helpful, I suggested the son try some classes at NWTC first, to get his college legs under him. The dad was shocked by the suggestion, "My son is NOT going to a technical college." You would have thought that I suggested that the dad bankroll him for a career as a professional poker player in Las Vegas. The tech college was suitable for kids from other families, not his.
Times have changed.
It's been almost 20-years since that exchange. I left the college for a time, and now have returned as a member of the faculty. I have seen the stigma of a technical college degree wear away to such a point where now it is sought after by students. Our general education courses are accepted by the UW-system and our graduates in nursing, manufacturing technology, digital wonders, leadership, and the trades are recruited and highly paid by local businesses. The technical college degree is no longer the poor stepchild of the state post-secondary system, but an equal partner with our four-year brethren.
What happened to the son? I believe the boy bounced around, as the father feared, but eventually got a degree in something or other. I would not be surprised if he has found himself back at NWTC at one time or another to get an advanced training to supplement and enhance the baccalaureate degree. It happens all the time.
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