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LEADERSHIP, LEARNING, &  PErsonal Growth

How much 'flow' do you experience in your teaching and life?

3/6/2015

8 Comments

 

The transformative work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Daniel Pink 

Over the past few years, I have been digging deeper and deeper into the work of Mihail Csikszentmihalyi and Daniel Pink and must say that it has played a profound role in shaping who I am as an educator. It has also helped to better shape the way that I deliver the learning experiences that I have my students engage in as well as the learning that takes place with the workshop participants that sit in on the PD sessions that I lead. 

Much of what Daniel Pink has written about is based on the life work of Csikszentmihalyi and has to do with the concept of flow. Flow is considered to be the state where a person is so involved in what they are doing that all consciousness of time is lost. I'm sure that we have all experienced that place where we are totally absorbed in what we are doing. Csikszentmihalyi's life work revolved around and focused on finding out as much as he could about what causes states of flow in our personal and professional lives. To me there is nothing more profound or rewarding than being in that state of flow in my own personal life and when I am teaching or planning my teaching.
"Being in flow is the time when the mind and body work best together producing the best work possible, often times surpassing ones own expectations" ~Kaiser 2011
Personally for me, when I look at what being in flow means, it's what I want every single one of my students to experience when they are in my classes. It's where the best learning happens and the most progress is made, but helping our students to find this place of flow requires that we set up an environment that helps to identify where the best challenge lies for each and every one of them. Whether it is a student engrossed in a doing a painting, reading a book, writing a story, tinkering away with a project, or learning a new skill in PE, it's ultimately that special place and zone that we want all of our students to find themselves in. Is it possible? YES it is and I would argue that it is imperative to create teaching and learning environments that allow flow to flourish. 
Picture
Over the past couple of weeks, I have had some in-depth discussions about my teaching practice with some researcher buddies such as Dean Dudley, Doug Gleddie, and Tim Fletcher. They are always there to provide me with their great insight and to add some valuable research to support my pursuit of knowledge related to my own teaching practice. Better understanding how to optimize the impact that I have on my students is a priority, so I'm delving deeper and deeper into exploring what flow means and how to better establish it in my PE classes and the workshops that I lead. 

I'm trying to gauge what flow means to other educators and how it may look in their professional and personal life. So this is when I ask you all a favor. If you have time, and I promise that it will only take a few minutes. I'd really appreciate it if you could answer the questions in the comment box below. The questions are:

When do you feel most at flow in your own personal life? Can you describe the types of things you are doing and how it makes you feel? 

When do you feel most in flow with your teaching? Can you describe what is happening and how it makes you feel? 

Can you describe moments or give examples of when you feel that your students are in flow? 

As I prepare for upcoming workshops, I want to learn more about how flow plays a part in other teachers' lives. I will be using the information but will not use any personal names, just the stories that are being shared in the comment box below. I thank you for taking the time to help me out with this. Thanks and have a wonderful week.
8 Comments
Dom link
3/6/2015 07:46:46 pm

Hi Andy, I don't have permission to open the doc

Reply
Sonya link
3/7/2015 03:44:40 am

I can't either :(

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Luc
3/7/2015 04:29:30 am

I can't either

Reply
Jbpe123
3/7/2015 11:45:44 am

When you are excited about what you are teaching and students are excited about learning.........FLOW happens naturally. You can't hide FAKE on either side.

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Pat
3/26/2015 01:25:09 pm

I love dance and often feel in the flow when I am dancing. I notice when I teach dance to my elementary school students in P.E., they also seem to be in the flow. Perhaps flow is a bit contagious. I also noticed that our wonderful music teacher gave the 5th graders a ton of freedom to create their collaborative self expression projects. I saw a lot of flow going on during the creation process, and pride in the presentations.

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Rich W
3/7/2015 08:11:49 pm

When do you feel most at flow in your own personal life? I feel that my personal flow occurs when I am outside in nature. When I am riding a bike or sailing. I feel happy and lose track of time. I also believe that I can create this flow state when working on written projects too. I have about a year in project but it only feels like yesterday because I enjoy the work.

Can you describe the types of things you are doing and how it makes you feel? These things challenge my thinking and allow my mind to be in the moment. I stop thinking about other tasks and stresses in life.

When do you feel most in flow with your teaching? I feel that units with a natural rhythmic movement make my teaching style the best ie. Jump rope activities, yoga and recreation games outside. Can you describe what is happening and how it makes you feel? The environment just seems to be perfect. The students work together with little to no communication verbally but physically can perform the activities correctly with student giving feedback that is postive. Students ask all the time that was our whole period? I believe my student centered style of teaching allows this to occur. I talk less this year and question more.

Can you describe moments or give examples of when you feel that your students are in flow? I believe that peer and small group activities allow this flow state to occur if the partner combination is correct. Also cultural game and yoga seem to show flow the best. The flow state is even better in the months that we are outside. I believe that physical education needs to be outside more often for this flow to happen.

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Evan
3/8/2015 12:48:08 am

Hi Andy,
This is fascinating content for me. I read "Drive" last summer based on your recommendation, but need to re-read again to deepen my understanding. I wonder if kids feel in flow the most when they are deeply involved in video games, and that is what makes them so attractive? Making our mission even more important :-)

When do you feel most at flow in your own personal life? Most often it is early in the morning - during a run, or right after. Playing golf is also this way for me, simply being free on the course. Strangely enough the act of cleaning and organizing the house also gets me into flow quickly - perhaps because you can see progress/results so immediately. Can you describe the types of things you are doing and how it makes you feel? To me flow is when I am feeling success, engaged in what I am doing, or also when I feel at peace and un-burdened like on a run or playing golf. It seems that I think more clearly and get less distracted when in this state.

When do you feel most in flow with your teaching? When students are engaged fully in whatever activity it is, and I am free to support/coach/question/challenge and give feedback. I am learning to create an environment where students can be more self directed and it allows me to reach more students. Can you describe what is happening and how it makes you feel? It makes me feel success when I see the students working together to practice/complete/create/learn whatever the task is at that time.

Can you describe moments or give examples of when you feel that your students are in flow? This is honestly something I have not thought about before. I am very keen to learn more about what it would take to get students into a state of flow. I am thinking it is that feeling when they say "is PE over already?" and they have been completely engaged for an extended period of time. Typically this happens when students are working co-operatively on whatever the activity is, so I don't have to step in and reteach to the whole group. When there is less interruptions to the whole group, they get their best learning in? I am learning to create better questions to guide the flow of the lesson also.

Thanks Andy for this work, looking forward to learning how to get kids into flow more often in my classes.

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Ben Landers link
4/7/2015 04:51:30 am

Hey Andy,

I haven't read anything by Csikszentmihalyi, but you are the third person that's recommended it so I will check it out this summer. I read Drive by Dan Pink this year and loved all applications for teaching - the reminders that people are motivated essentially by Autonomy, Purpose and Mastery all have huge applications for us as educators.

I feel like I'm "in flow" when I'm doing lots of things - photography, videography, teaching, surfing, hiking. I think that a good indicator is when you realize that an hour has passed and you felt like it was about 5 minutes. We get this from kids all the time, when we tell them that it's time to clean up they say... "already!!" That's a great indicator that they were having so much fun and engaged in the lesson that they didn't notice the time passing.

Great post!

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Helping Kids to Achieve Their Best
  • Welcome
  • The Aligned Leader Blog
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  • Run Your Life Podcast Series
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