Are you a leader/mentor/teacher? Please read this book!

Several years ago (ok, we're going back to the mid-90's here!), a mentor of mine encouraged me to read a book called, Don't Shoot The Dog. I was teaching US and World History, and Spanish Language at a high school in California. I had up to 34 students in each class, and I was also managing a "new-teacher induction program" through our District Office.

The weekend I spent reading this book, changed my life; changed the way I relate to other people, to myself, to the learning process, to the goal-setting process.

I STILL talk about this book, and here's a note someone sent me recently (thanks Erik!(

I took your advice and grabbed Don't Shoot the Dog from our library. Nice read. I don't think that I would call myself an expert, but for the amount of time I spent skimming it, it had great value.

For part of my job, I give presentations for a local building industry group that my company belongs to. The presentation essentially tells kids about options for work in the building trades.

This week I did things a little differently. The class I was presenting to, which was made up of 11th graders, were pretty short on attention. Earlier in the day while prepping the room (powerpoint/seating) the admin said that she had some candy in a bowl to set out for the class. I thought better of it and kept it on the podium with me. While starting my presentation I fired questions at the kids in order to get them involved. As hands came up- candy started to fly from my hand out to the students. I was trying to test out DON'T SHOOT THE DOG with these kids- training them to raise their hands and ellicit feedback.

To my surprise it worked. The attention was kept, and the kids got their candy. Even when I put the bowl down for a while- the response was maintained.

All in all, great book suggestion.

Comments

[Rick Dassler, Alliance Science]

Jason, thanks for the suggestion. It's Saturday morning and I'm headed to the library now.

Rick

[Nick Wagner]

Thanks for the tip Jason. I'll check it out. A book that had that kind of effect on me was Teaching as a Subversive Activity, which was recommended on Jim McGee's site (mcgeesmusings.net) a few years ago. I've never taught kids, but it helped me a lot with an adult training course in Catholic liturgy that I teach every year.

Nick Wagner
TeamRCIA.com