Monthly post at Positive Psychology Daily News
My monthly post is up at Positive Psychology Daily News. It involves a heartwarming story out of Metro Nashville Public Schools.
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Positive Psychology Daily News
My 17th of the month contribution to Positive Psychology Daily News is up. Lots of other good entries also.
Search terms
Both here and at my other site, I enjoy seeing what search terms find my site. Here are some recent ones:
harry potter leadership styles
Do you believe that employees can learn/be trained more emotionally intelligent?
articles on bridges that you walk on (linked to this article)
blueberry story
Individual Strengths
cheap co-ed boarding school in
ohio
grammar replacement "So much for " (#1 result!)
wallmart statistics (The wonders of misspelling!)
jonathan
seagull lesson plan livingston
mindset carol dweck
positive psychology, harvard
Adolesence - Multicultural issues for a student inAustralia to study
poof book note taking (2 of the top 5 results!)
It's a crazy internet out there!
Still here!
I'm still here, just too busy to post muh right now!
But, I did see this tonight while waiting on a batch job to run at work.
New technology is an improvement in proportion to how badly it is missed when it is not available.
Chris Lehmann's New Position, New Blog
Chris Lehmann has a new blog and a new position -- he's principal of the soon-to-open Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia! Maybe we'll be able to get together when I'm up there for one of the MAPP on-sites this Spring. In fact, he'd like my cohort mates, so ...
While you're at his site, check out his post on visiting Benjamin Franklin HS. He's right about engaging kids; it's critical. And he's right about relationships. I'm not sure he's right when he suggests that teachers can't use Like Water for Chocolate in English to support what's going on the culinary institute. I don't know Pennsylvania's laws or what Philly has done on mandating curriculum. There are pros to having a substantive, substantial core curriculum that every student in a system is entitled to receive. Their are cons to taking it to the point where no flexibility is left for teachers. Of course, some of it depends on how much you expect students to read. If it is 25 books per year, I suspect there's room for Like Water for Chocolate and a few others besides!
Under stress, I...
Cut back on newspapers and rely on blogs. Yep. With my new reading schedule, I find I have a lot less time for a lot of things (blogging being one), but that, conversely, I'm getting more things done, even things I was in the habit of putting off. No time to put them off, now.
But, one interesting thing I've noticed is that I've cut back on reading newspapers. I didn't read bunches of them anyway, but most days I scanned or read front page stories, editorials, scanned the letters and read those on topics that interest me, read a couple of coluns, read Metro section articles, and maybe a sports story or two in the Tennessean. Then, I'd find time at work to read several articles in the Wall Street Journal. Now, I find I'm relying on a few blogs to keep me abreast of what's happening and what folks are saying about it.
Why blogs instead of newspapers? Bias and spin and poor reporting. How many newspapers would I have to read to find out what's going right in Iraq, expert analysis of military issues, etc.? I can get all of that and more from scanning a few blogs. And, what the news media does report is often the spin of some "player" in the news -- what good is that? And, they just don't report well. Often, the journalists don't seem to realize there is anything more than "talking heads" -- much less that they should go out and report the other stuff. And don't get me started on how bad most "education" reporting is. So, blogs. Of course, I have to just scan and move and don't have time for the leisurely wandering from link to link as I am amazed by the knowledge, insight, and writing so many blogs make available.
And, now, time for my walk and then some reading!!
Talented Guy
There are some incredibly talented folks bloging in the Nashville are, and this guy is one of them. Be sure to look at the art.
A little help?
Don't you just hate it when you can't find that blog or article with the interesting fact that you just saw? That's me right now. Over the weekend, I was reading posts on aid for Africa, and one pointed to an article about how the answer may be in selling to the poor in those countries. Micro-markets, was the term, I think. Anyway, one company mentioned had developed prosthetics for only $25 apiece. Anyone see anything like this? Or any links to similar stories? Thanks.
Blogs
Went looking for posts about farm subsidies, and ended up at
PaveFrance: the British need more parking
and
Funny! Recommended.
Personal Journalism
I wrote the bottom of this post first and assigned it to the category "media." Then it struck me that I'd written about this before, so I went looking. (And why doesn't Typepad have tools for this? I get the list of posts, but have to go to Google to get the permalinks. Maybe I'm missing something.)
A Reader-Supported Journalist 5/23/2004
Stand-Alone Journalism 6/24/2004
and
Citizen Journalists 10/28/2004
So, I get to see how my personal screening system keeps letting in this topic, and my take on it. Interesting. And probably educational. So, I'm adding weblogs and education to the categories. After all, it's my blog, right? And here's the original post.
An article for the newspaper world gets it:
The newspaper industry has known for a long time that eventually wood pulp would give way to microprocessors. That long-awaited paradigm shift now seems imminent. We may very soon be predominately an electronic medium, and that has many print executives on edge.
Newspapers have enjoyed some of the biggest profit margins of any industry for decades, and it is unclear if those can hold in a Web-based environment.
And,
Moreover, when you no longer need the millions of dollars in capital, the multimillion dollar press, the network of delivery people fanning out across the land, to start a newspaper, the door opens to competition.
Positive Psychology Bookshelf
Fred Luthans: Psychological Capital: Developing the Human Competitive Edge
Discusses the composite construct of "Psycap" in the business world -- combining hope, self-efficacy, optimism, and resilience. (*****)Kim S Cameron: Positive Leadership: Strategies for Extraordinary Performance
Great book by a great management author. Distills research in positve psyhology and positive organizational studies into four strategies. Provides provides implementation and leadership development tips. (*****)Martin E. Seligman: The Optimistic Child: Proven Program to Safeguard Children from Depression & Build Lifelong Resilience
Outstanding. Teachers, parents, and anyone concerned with children can get a lot from this book. Covers some of the same territory as The Resilience Factor, but lots of unique material. Worth your time even if you've read Learned Optimism. (*****)Karen Reivich: The Resilience Factor: 7 Keys to Finding Your Inner Strength and Overcoming Life's Hurdles
If little things get to you more than they should... If setbacks get you down and keep you down... If you'd like to develop more emoitional intelligence... Read this book. Based on Martin Seligman's pioneering work in explanatory style and the authors' research, coaching, and counseling experience, this is a step-by-step action plan to more flexible and accurate thinking, more hope, and more of what you want. (*****)Gary Gordon: Building Engaged Schools: Getting the Most Out of America's Classrooms
Great Book! See my review at Amazon.com. (*****)Kim S. Cameron, Marc Lavine : Making the Impossible Possible: Leading Extraordinary Performance: The Rocky Flats Story
Outstanding book in the field of Positive Organizational Studies. The authors report on research into how Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant was cleaned up 60 years ahead of schedule, $30 billion under budget, and to standards 10 times more stringent than originally set! (*****)Carol Dweck: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
Absolutely a must-read. What's really interesting about Dr. Dweck's work is how inuitive it is. The growth mindset seems almost trite and sugary until the layers upon layers of real effects in academics and athletics and couples and corporations start to pile up. Then, reading the science behind it (which is NOT presented in depth in this book) one starts to realize the power of this construct, and part of that power comes from how easy it is to grasp. (*****)Stephen C. Lundin: Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results
Good book. Short and written as a story, but the principles make sense and will work. But, they'll challenge the leadership skills of many managers. (****)John Tabak: Probability And Statistics: The Science Of Uncertainty (History of Mathematics)
I'm starting to improve my capabilities in statistics and thought this would help me put some of it in context. It is NOT a statistics text -- it is a history of probability and statistics, and VERY well done. I don't know if it will help me improve my statistics skills, but I really enjoyed it. (****)The Arbinger Institute: Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box
Also very good. Not much in the way of citations and they want to sell you follow-on products, but the story format is powerfully communicative. (*****)Robert E. Quinn: Building the Bridge As You Walk On It : A Guide for Leading Change
Good. Really good. Really, really good. Buy it. Read it. Think about it. It's worth your time and money. (*****)Jane E. Dutton: Energize Your Workplace: How to Create and Sustain High-Quality Connections at Work
Several chapters in this book were assigned for my Positive Psychology and Organizational Leadership class this semester, but it was so good, and I was so interested, I read it all. Very readable, but with very useful references to research for those who are interested. Jane Dutton is coming to speak to our class and I'm looking forward to it! (*****)Barry Schwartz: The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
Took me a while to catch on to this one, but, once I did, the points made a lot of sense. "Satisficing" is a concept worth understanding! (*****)Howard S. Becker: Writing for Social Scientists : How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)
Hey! I finished a book! (Too many articles and chapters in my reading right now to say this very often.) This work is especially good in dealing with the issues, both real and less real, of scholars. Is stilted language necessary to get published? Who can you trust for honest but caring feedback? Are you going to work in a "get it out the door" or "masterwork" mode? How can these questions impede your ability to get something written, much lesss written well? Dr. Becker also pays a great deal of attention to good writing, and the book can help here, though, as he notes, it's not a replacement for the classics in this field.George E. Vaillant: Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Harvard Study of Adult Development
Second book read for MAPP. Amazing. Simply Amazing. Dr. Vaillant not only provides insights from decades of studies following three different cohorts from adolesence through old age, he writes beautifully. Even poetically. And so do the subjects of the studies in many of the quotations that appear from them in this book. This book is not only informative, it is a great read. Story after story drawn from the lives of real people. Most inspiring. A few testifying to the possibility of wasting this life. Strongly recommended. (*****)Martin E. Seligman: What You Can Change and What You Can't : The Complete Guide to Successful Self-Improvement Learning to Accept Who You Are (Fawcett Book)
First book read for MAPP program. (c) 1993 -- This is a broad review of the evidence (and a proposed theory) for the possibility of changing the things we often want to change in our lives, from being fat to alcoholism to anxiety or depression or phobias to sexual performance, orientation, or identity. Dr. Seligman covers the evidence of research and provides expert interpretation and inferences. Would be nice to have an update since the book is now more than a decade old, but that's asking a lot of a full-time researcher and teacher. He describes the book as sort of a Consumer Reports on these areas, but it would take something like that organization to provide continual updates. (*****)Steven Johnson: Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
Good enough I wrote a book note with the same title as the book. Worth reading. The book, and maybe even my book note! (*****)Joseph Jaworski: Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership
I thought this was pretty new-ageish (Jonathan Livingston Seagull was influential at one point in Mr. Jaworski's life), but it ends up much more legitmately spiritual and God-centered. It's a book about leadership, stepping out in faith (to use the jargon I grew up with), and one man's story in a very interesting context, beginning with Watergate and ending with Auschwitz. And that time sequence is very appropriate. (****)Howard Gardner: Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People's Minds
I admit to pre-judging Howard Gardner without reading him. I've felt the education community's adoption of his unprove theory of "multiple intelligences" has been a mistake. I read this book as a first effort at trying to understand his influence. Some interesting frameworks, but way too little in the way of reference to research. Ironically, "research" is one of his "seven levers" for changing minds. (***)- William W. Lewis: The Power of Productivity: Wealth, Poverty, and the Threat to Global Stability
A thought-provoking report on more than a decade of research into the conditions that help and hinder the creation of wealth in rich and poor countries. It's not luck that makes America wealthy, it's good policy. David Perkins: King Arthur's Round Table : How Collaborative Conversations Create Smart Organizations
Currently reading. Book note soon.
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