Just joining us? We’re in a series on depressurization methods. You can see all the posts so far right here, and I’ve got a whole playlists of supplementary (and brief) YouTube videos on these kinds of ideas right here. There’s this line from Dallas Willard, shortly before he died, that goes like this: It isn’t […]
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Let’s Make Teaching Better.
Dave Stuart Jr. is a husband, father, and high school teacher who writes about education. He reads extensively across the disciplines so that he can create uniquely satisfying professional development experiences for his colleagues around the world. His mission is to encourage and equip educators on the journey to long-term flourishing and professional excellence.
Professional development. (The good kind.)
If we’re going to make teaching better, we’ve got to improve professional development. I’m not the guru, but I have spent thousands of hours practicing and researching the art and science of educator-centered, high-impact PD. My hope with all of these is that they help.
And oh yeah: I’m still a teacher. I’ve never left the classroom. With 120 students on my roster each year, it’s impossible for me to detach theory from practice.
Online PD
My schedule-friendly, all-online professional development courses are designed with busy educators in mind. Whole staff or district applications are available — email support@davestuartjr.com with your needs.
In-Person PD
I speak and lead education workshops for a limited number of schools and organizations around the world each year.
Books + Blog
My best-selling book, These 6 Things, has been read and cherished by secondary teachers around the world. My blog is read by over 35,000 educators each month.
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The Latest from the Blog
New — Dave’s Faves Holiday Gift Guide 🎁
Hey there, colleague! This morning, in lieu of writing a blog post, I completed a long-requested feature on my website — a list of some of my favorite books. Seriously — folks have been writing in for YEARS asking me to do this. So, I did it. And, since it’s holiday times far and wide […]
Let’s Be on Pause: A Thanksgiving Message from DSJR
For folks stateside, it’s time — Thanksgiving break. Before it starts, let me take five or so minutes to try to make your break even better. We’re on pause Several years ago, I wrote an article about being on pause. Recently, I turned it into a video. It’s less than three minutes. Check it out. […]
Depressurizing Emotion: How to Calm a Hostile Written Conversation Using BIFF
Just joining us? We’re in a series on depressurization methods. You can see all the posts so far right here, and I’ve got a whole playlists of supplementary (and brief) YouTube videos on these kinds of ideas right here. Life in our communication-laden, emotionally unhealthy, morally disengaged times makes it almost inevitable: a person you […]
Depressurizing the Body: The Bummer about Bedtime Revenge
Bedtime revenge isn’t as edgy as it sounds. It’s when you arrive at the end of a long day of responsibilities — the kids in bed, the dishes done, the laundry folded, whatever — and you see that it’s your bedtime, and you say, “You know what!? Forget you, bed. I’m done doing what life […]
Depressurizing Our Relationships: The Day Mr. Rogers Stopped Judging
(This post is a quick interlude in our series on depressurizing the teacher soul. Don’t skip it! Its ideas will help with subsequent posts.) Early on in his career, back when he was still a seminary student, Fred Rogers was stung by the judgment bug. As part of his studies, Rogers and his classmates visited […]
Groups Where We’re Known
Just joining us? Here’s the series anchor post and here’s the last article I wrote on exercise as depressurization vs. exercise as achievement pursuit. And if you’re not subscribed to the newsletter, do that! You’ll get all the posts in your inbox, and you’ll be the cool teacher who gets to forward these to your […]
“All or Nothing” Exercise Exhausts the Soul
For this series on depressurizing the teacher’s soul, I’m going to keep a few things consistent: All links for the series will be in the anchor post — the one I linked to above. I’ll have a few standard footnotes for folks who are like, “Wait, I have no TIME for these depressurization things!” [1]. […]
A Strategic, Smart Approach to Depressurizing the Teacher Soul
Hey there — here you’ll find links to the whole series on depressurizing the teacher soul: Intro, Part I: The Teacher’s Journey: A Deeper, Better Way of Thinking (and Doing Something) about Burnout and Demoralization Intro, Part II: Efficiency Hasn’t Saved Us Intro, Part III: The Mechanics of Teacher Burnout (AKA the Workload-Pressure Cycle) Intro, […]
The Mechanics of Teacher Burnout (AKA the Workload-Pressure Cycle)
Burnout… I hate writing about it because it’s all the rage right now. And you know me — I dislike the edu-fad hamster wheel. But it’s just true that: I teach from who I am. And when I’m burnt out, that means I’m a worse teacher. I live from who I am. And when I’m […]
Efficiency Hasn’t Saved Us
Recently, I epigraphed a blog post with a line from David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs: The Rise of Pointless Work and What We Can Do About It (paperback | audio). Graeber’s title isn’t exactly a Mr. Rogers riff, but his heart in the book is for folks like you and me — teachers who sometimes feel like we’re […]
The Teacher’s Journey: A Deeper, Better Way of Thinking (and Doing Something) about Burnout and Demoralization
This year has been hard. In some ways, what I just said is teacherspeak for October. But in other ways, this year has been uniquely difficult for educators. It’s gone worse than we expected. The needs are greater than we thought. The professional literature is a cold and barren thing compared to the raw humanity […]
Need Help with Student Motivation or Teacher Time Management? Start Here. (Plus: What’s Next on the Blog🤘)
Hey there, colleague! Here’s where we’ve been on the blog since mid-summer: July through August, we did a series on student motivation and the five key beliefs methodology. The Will to Learn series was super cool. I had a blast writing it. If you’ve got a warm-up cup and an hour to dive deep, here’s […]
How to Heal a Divided World: 🌎📝 Argumentative Writing that Actually Listens to the Other Side
In today’s political climate, discussions can easily turn into verbal combat. From Congressional debates to divisive Thanksgiving dinners and angry-emoji-laden Facebook brawls, each voice ends up yelling louder and viler without ever actually listening to the fear and motivation behind the other person’s heart. Unfortunately, the same corrosiveness emerges when we teach argumentative writing to students. In […]
This Is How I Teach Students to Take Notes for Learning
At the time of writing this, I’m five weeks into school, and my students are showing that they understand note-taking much better than they did at the start of the year. During a recent post-assessment reflection, I asked students to respond in writing to the following: What’s one piece of evidence that you can find […]
A Shift then a Skip: Here’s How One Teacher’s Job Changed with a Simple Change in Thinking
Robert Macfadden is a history teacher at Palmdale High School in Palmdale, CA. A while ago, Robert wrote in with the following story. There’s a very important moment in this story that I’d like to expand upon after Robert is through. So, I’ll be back in a minute. Here’s Robert: Four years ago I had […]