What makes us feel good about our work? What makes life worthwhile?

       Please read this blog on computer to open the attached videos.

       What makes us feel good about our work?- Dan Ariely's speech at TED              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aH2Ppjpcho&t=1090s

What makes us feel good about our work?

       Behavioral economist Dan Ariely questions the forces that influence human behavior. What motivates us to work? He presents eye-opening experiments that reveal our unexpected and nuanced attitudes toward meaning in our work. The example of IKEA furniture he mentioned in the video reminded me of my experience of assembling IKEA furniture. I did not enjoy those complicated pieces and the time consuming process, but when I completed it, I began to like the furniture I built. This made me reflect on my teaching and students’ learning. I teach Mandarin Chinese at a public high school located in a Latino community. The Chinese language is beautiful but can be challenging to learners. The learning process requires great effort. Teacher’s guidance, direction, encouragement, and explanation can motivate students to achieve the learning goals. The teacher also can show students the learning tools such as Chinese character websites to help students learn the subject efficiently, just like using the correct tools can help us assemble the furniture quickly. Ariely also used the cake mixes as an example to show how easy things demotivate people. All people needed to do is to put its ingredients into a bowl and mix with water, put into the oven, then the cake is done. They did not like the cake even though it tasted good. It was because they did not see enough effort being involved. So the company took out the ingredients of egg and milk from this product and people had to break the egg and measure the milk and mix with this product. Since more effort was made into baking the cake, the guests began to enjoy the cake. This makes me reflect that I should adjust and balance the difficulty level of my teaching for students, not too challenging nor too easy. In order to do this, I need to check students’ comprehension and conduct assessment more frequently and meet their needs with equity. 👍  

       

       Measuring what makes life worthwhile. -- Chip Conley's speech at TED

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UROCz70tlMY

What makes life worthwhile?

      The Airbnb Head of Global Hospitality and hotel entrepreneur, Chip Conley, goes in search of a business model based on happiness, when the dotcom bubble bursts. In an old friendship with an employee and in the wisdom of a Buddhist king, he learned that success comes from what you count. His speech makes me think about what really counts. I was shocked when he compared and contrasted what GDP counts and does not count. It counts the economy, air pollution, ambulances to clear highways of carriage, napalm…, but does not count the health of our children, quality of their education, joy of their play, beauty of our poetry, strength of our marriages…. This impacts me powerfully. We should learn to build a positive mindset of counting the ones that can not be counted by numbers such as physical and mental health, joy, peace, and love. Students need our endless unconditional care, patience, and dedication. It is our mission to provide our best to them because they count on us! 👍

The following slide he shared in his speech inspired me tremendously and I hope you could find the inspiration as well! 👍