Dave Stuart Jr.

In our social studies PLC, we brainstormed an Everest statement* a couple of months ago, and I’ve been meaning to share it. The secondary social studies department aims to produce productive, contributing, and positive CITIZENS who are: –KNOWLEDGEABLE (historically, economically, and civically literate); –WISE (mature, open-minded, and globally aware); and –ENGAGED (participate in civic duties; […]

We lose all kinds of energy and vitality when we aim to be the best at something rather than trying to be good at it. Aiming at best will guide our hearts toward competition, comparison, and viewing others as threats. It has to. That’s what best means. There can only be one. Best means scarcity. […]

Please note: Names and details in my articles are changed for the sake of protecting students’ privacy. Here’s a moment of genuine connection that stood out to me today while teaching my four classes of 120 students total. While students were doing an independent practice portion of my lesson, I pulled Kandyce into the hallway. […]

…is to actually value, know, and respect them.

I’ve written before about Chris Hulleman’s “Build Connections” intervention, and it’s been featured in more prominent places enough to have earned a growing spot in the “common knowledge” of educators around the world. But rolling the intervention out this year, both with my students and with some of the adult participants in my workshops these […]

Last week, I tweeted an invitation to a free evening PD on student motivation. The title was based on dozens of questions I’ve received from earnest teachers around the planet. Here’s the placard: Within a few moments, an ELA coordinator from the American Northeast tweeted this take: “Um, let’s change the title of this. What […]

Last week, our ninth grade intervention team was having its sixth weekly meeting of the year. There have been plenty of times where these meetings depressed me more than inspired me. All four of us are hard-charging, high-belief, high-will, high-skill teachers, but all four of us were struggling with the motivational mountains that seemed lodged […]

For years, I’ve been marking student birthdays as follows. Let’s say it’s Hayleigh’s birthday today. During class, I call on Hayleigh and I ask her, “Hayleigh, what is one thing you’ve learned about life?” I record what she shares in a spreadsheet, and after she shares I say, “Happy birthday,” with a big smile. From […]

The next time you read a book or a blog written by a teacher-author, here’s something to remember: the reason that things work in their class is likely just as much a function of their credibility with students as it is a function of the quality of the things they do in their class. What […]

The default conditions of work in education, whether you’re a teacher or a coach or an administrator, is that it’s overwhelming. There is, and always will be, too much to do. This isn’t a problem faced only by novices. The difference between experts and novices isn’t that experts find a way to do it all […]

Recently, my district gave me a chance to think about a key area of work for any school system that seeks to maximize its long-term flourishing outcomes for both its staff and its students. That key area? New teacher mentoring programs. Whether you’re in a setting like mine, or a smaller one, or a larger […]

Recently I held the first pop-up debate of the school year in my on-level world history courses. (For my most thorough treatment of pop-up debates, see Ch 4 of These 6 Things.) The lesson began with the following prompt: They had five minutes to write a response, and then I asked them to share something […]

Two of the four groups I teach each day are ninth grade AP World History students. These kids opt-in to the open enrollment class of their own volition, and their most-cited reason for taking on such a daunting challenge — an Advanced Placement course during their ninth grade year — is because they want to […]

The other day I gave my students a scenario to write about as their 100-word warm-up: Ninth graders around the United States are having a hard time caring about school. To some, it’s so boring or pointless that they consider dropping out — even in ninth grade. Imagine you are writing an article to these […]

What would happen if we were to select a literate person from each of the past thirty centuries and ask that person to tell us which of the following reading comprehension skills is most important? What would they tell us? Identifying the main idea Making an inference Sequencing Drawing conclusions Relating background knowledge All but […]

If there’s an emoji to describe my writer’s mind during the last 4-5 months, it would be the one with the nuclear explosion coming out of the top of the head: 🤯 You see, before this past summer started, I scheduled fewer speaking engagements than normal so that I could bury myself in research. When […]