Summer Reading

  

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Here are a couple of books I’ve found interesting that you might want to put on your list of reads for the remainder of the summer. Daniel Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us makes the case that it’s time to shift to what he calls Motivation 3.0. The carrot and stick approach to motivation may work well for repetitive tasks like those on an assembly line, but for 21st century tasks that involve real problem solving reward and punishment can get in the way. Pink points to research that support the importance of three critical elements of motivation: autonomy, purpose, and mastery. You can find a fun summary of his main points on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc). The style of presentation is worth a look on its own. Pink makes some suggestions in his book about the application of his ideas to education, but it’s pretty cursory. It’s up to educators to take his compelling ideas and expression of the research and figure out what it can mean for driving students forward in their math learning and elsewhere.
 
And Alex Bellos’ Here’s Looking at Euclid: A Surprising Excursion Through the Astonishing World of Math is a fabulous reminder about how incredibly cool math is. Bellos’ recounting of the origins of counting and arithmetic, along with the continued push by a few stalwarts (like the The Dozenal Society of America) for a switch to a duodecimal system, illuminates how our number system works. From that base (pardon the pun) Bellos travels the world to bring us engaging stories that unravel the working of mathematics. For a glimpse into the content, check out http://books.simonandschuster.com/Here%27s-Looking-at-Euclid/Alex-Bellos/9781416588252.
 
Happy Reading!

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