Reflection on Daniel Pink's "six senses"

As I read the six senses-story, design, symphony, meaning, and play, I asked myself what does this mean for what we do in our schools as teachers and leaders. 

 Applying the notion of symphony to me is creating strong and productive collaboration among teachers. From leaders' perspective, it is about motivating, influencing and capitalizing on human resources in schools which will lead to  powerful teamwork.  Without  powerful collaboration, teaches will be doing their own thing and the end result would not be beneficial to teachers particularly to our students.

Symphony is also about putting pieces that may seem to be unrelated together and creating a useful  product. When I think about applying this concept to my work place and colleagues, I can think of something new that we are doing to improve our teaching practice.  I volunteered in a cadre (group of teachers cross grade levels and curriculum) come together and decide on a topic that they need to improve on.  A language arts teacher and I got together and decided to observe each other regarding to teaching critical thinking skills to our students.  She observed me and I observed her yesterday.  It was amazing to see how this concept of critical thinking can be reinforced in all subjects and teachers cross curriculum can learn from each other.  We will get together next week to discuss our observations and provide each other with feedback.  Next we will share that with other groups of this study team.  I think this is a great example of symphony and design for improving teaching practice.

Applying the notion of design to schools means becoming aware and intentional about the changes we want to make and the details of implementing those changes.  For example, implementing PLCs as a new form of professional development for teachers needs time, planned activities, specific targets and accountability. We need to be aware that process of innovation in our schools requires time, money and strategic planning.

One idea to motivate colleagues and constituents to participate in the symphony of collaboration is by turning them loose but keeping them accountable.  For example, a new idea about visiting each other's classroom can motivate teachers to participate in this activity if it is voluntarily. This design is actually developing at my school by the new principal. He has asked for volunteer to visit each other's classrooms one day a week and he is providing visiting teachers with subs