Comments on: Leading a Tribe

By: Educational Technology and Life » Blog Archive » Links for 11/27/2008

Educational Technology and Life » Blog Archive » Links for 11/27/2008 — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 08:30:23 +0000

[...] The Thinking Stick | Leading a Tribe [...]

By: Meli Launey

Meli Launey — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 02:48:02 +0000

What an interesting concept. I always love innovated ideas and ways of looking at things. Thank you for the recommendation. I’m on my way to amazon right now….

By: Jabiz (Intrepid Teacher)

Jabiz (Intrepid Teacher) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:14:17 +0000

This is a timely post Jeff. I am currently working at a tiny school with very little resources, bandwidth that could lead to suicide, homicide or worse, and a staff that appears to be quiet behind when it comes to web 2.0, social networking, or technology in general, but recently I have created a very simple in-house wiki for communication and collaboration between classroom teachers and myself- the ESL teacher.

I presented the basics to the entire staff today and there was a small group of teachers that seemed to buy what I was selling. We will be meeting once a week to start out journey down the networking road. I hope to teach them about Blogs, wikis, RSS, delicious, Twitter etc…

Anyway, I like this idea of starting small and really getting a few people, who are interested on board and excited. Like you said, first and foremost you need passion and vision, everything else is just an excuse. I hope to introduce a few of these people to the network once they take the training wheels off.

By: Angeles Berman

Angeles Berman — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 04:43:53 +0000

I have not read the book but this post about it.
I loved your reflections and took notes about them in order to reread.
I agree when you say about it’s WORK, and a special work which probably not be recognized but the most important is in the heart of the passionate teacher.
Thanks for sharing

By: Scott McLeod

Scott McLeod — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 20:24:35 +0000

I loved, loved, loved Tribes. Godin’s more recent writing has moved from marketing to leadership and it’s FANTASTIC. Thanks for sharing your reflections, Jeff. I’m going to do the same and will link over here when I do…

Check it out: inside cover, 5th column from top right corner, 6 rows down (3 squares below the V for Vendetta guy). =)

By: Clarence Fisher

Clarence Fisher — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 11:47:20 +0000

Such a short book but I still haven’t finished my copy. What has struck me so far in it pulls right back to classrooms. Can a classroom be a tribe? It is a space where everyone is placed (sometimes not very willingly) instead of being a place where people choose to be or choose to belong to. I think the ideas behind branding classrooms (aka Idea Hive) speaks in this direction. But I still have a lot to figure out about how this fits together.

By: The Energy to Focus on Change | always learning

The Energy to Focus on Change | always learning — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 05:40:31 +0000

[...] starting to think about how I can use the Understanding by Design process with my seedlings (or Tribes, if you prefer). Maybe taking the ISTE Standards for Teachers and designing “units of [...]

By: Learning Journey » Blog Archive » we need passion…and to be able to care

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:38:42 +0000

[...] I read Jeff Utrecht’s latest post, and thought it was a great reflection on educators being linked with passion. This is actually a [...]

By: Cristina Costa

Cristina Costa — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:30:30 +0000

Loved the reflection Jeff, and unfortunately have not much to add to your great thoughts.
just the idea – and the feeling – that I too am led by passion. I have always been.
And I have to find it in everything I do to be able to do it right. In school, I only felt I had really learned something (and not only memorized stuff) in classes I really liked. The teachers, who were able to achieve this, had a great impact on it, I must say.
I believe any professional, educator or not, will conduct his/her activity better if they do it with passion. It’s so much easier to accomplish something when your heart is in it. You feel so more impelled to go on. You also feel more confident of yourself and of the others. And confidence is also necessary to be able to admit we don’t know everything, that we are human, that we have flaws and that those are OK. What matters is that we care enough to keep learning in any field we participate in. This will bring the people together, because people will identify themselves with this too and consequently will be more susceptible to care.
And passion and care come together. If we are passionate about what we do, we will care about that part of the world, in which we contribute to – that includes the people and the cosy environment/atmosphere we will unconsciously help develop. And when the students understand you care, them they will care too. Caring is a chain reaction which only very few achieve to ignore.
Passion an care are affections. Learning / life is strongly based on those…I guess!

By: Warren Ediger

Warren Ediger — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:26:17 +0000

Yes!

You may want to look at a precursor to Godin, Frank Smith, who wrote “Joining the Literacy Club: Further Essays into Education” in 1988. It’s been foundational to my work with adult ESL students. Here’s an excerpt from Smith’s introduction:

“Learning, I propose, is primarily a social rather than an individual accomplishment. We learn from other people, not so much through conscious emulation as by ‘joining the club’ of people we see ourselves as being like, and by being helped to engage in their activities. Usually we are not even aware that we are learning.”

Though Smith’s focus is literacy, his ideas are widely applicable. It includes an