Tribes and Teaching

I highly recommend Seth Godin's new book Tribes. It is a paradigm shift from the traditional thoughts on leadership. My question is how do we as teachers implement and develop our "tribe" as we move through the school year.

Leadership is not management. We try to manage our class and our students, but in doing this we are not effectively leading our students. Our administration may be impressed with the lack of students we send to the office, but are we training our students to think. If we are not being criticized then maybe we aren't taking the chances that we should.

The best way to grow used to involve reliability and consistency, while the enemy was change. While these values are important, change is coming, and we can either lead or be left behind. The Internet is a resource we must learn to use and embrace as we develop ourselves and our students.

We are really talking about a mindset. The status quo is not good enough. Taking initiative is fulfilling and rewarding. We can react or respond, but to be happy and achieve results, we must be proactive and take initiative. We need to be willing to take a chance. We will face blame and criticism, and that is the true fear that we face.

So amidst my rambles and thoughts, my question is this:

How do we as teachers develop our tribe and the tribe mentality with ourselves, our students, and our administration?

Comments welcome-