Tribes

For class this week we listened to the audio book version of Tribes by Seth Godin and tweeted out quotes that either defined a tribe according to the author or that resonated with us (#usdedutribes). Let me start by saying that the last time I listened to an audio book was as a young child, trudging through The Lord of the Rings on tape during one of our many long car trips with my dad. That experience, while awesome in retrospect, had biased me with a fairly negative view of books on tape. After all, LOTR does not exactly top most children's list of fun things to do on road trips--at that time I was much more interested in playing "I Spy" or beating up my brother :)

Listening to the Audible version of Godin's book this time around was definitely a different experience. For the most part I enjoyed the book-on-tape assignment--I'm a big multi-tasker so the audio version allowed me to check email, clean up around the apartment, and even do some of my listening with my eyes closed on the beach. I enjoyed hearing the author's voice inflection as he read and felt that his reading definitely gave it a more authentic feel than if I had read it on my own. I did struggle with not being able to see the text itself though--I had to listen & relisten multiple times to catch the quote I liked correctly and I didn't have the visual reinforcement of the text that often helps me remember material better. I was also a little worried about bombarding my Twitter feed with 20+ quotes, but I think that goes along with Stephanie's post idea of who really wants to get to know me & who really cares what quotes/ideas are important to me?

With all that said, I thought that Godin had some great insights into our world today and influence that each of us has if we choose to use it, if we choose to lead. I feel like as teachers we are automatically leaders whether we want to be or not, so we really need to use that opportunity to make the biggest difference in the world today that we can. I really loved the section where he talked about working on his vacation and how there was nothing else he'd rather be doing at that moment. Imagine how different things could be if all people had this kind of passion about their work rather than just fulfilling their role as walking sheep?
And though I only tweeted out one or two quotes from the section, I really liked his analysis of faith and religion--both in the Religious sense as well as the secular/everyday sense. I would really love to get a tangible copy of the book and go back to that section to analyze/process out further.

The biggest take-away I have from the book is that leading can be difficult and change will always be met with resistance, but if it's something you believe in then there's no better time than now to step out of your comfort zone and do it--all of the best ideas and greatest impacts have started the same way.
What's holding you back from leading? From trying that new idea in your classroom or sharing your insight with the world?