The late USC philosopher Dallas Willard used to describe the body like a battery pack for the soul. For about a year, that definition didn’t make much sense to me. But lately, it has started to click and has been helping me think better about rest in my life as a husband, father, teacher, and […]
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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
The Case for Lumpiness
All right: finite creatures, only 24 hours in a day, only 4,000 weeks or so in a life. Got it. We’ve looked at DECIDE, CONSTRAIN, OBSESS — now today, a riff on the discipline of ELIMINATION. (You may already be noticing that the disciplines overlap one another. Quite right. There’s really not a ton to […]
Let’s Pick Some Sled Dogs
During a five-year period in the 2010s, researcher Morten Hansen conducted one of the most comprehensive surveys of worker performance ever. He found 5,000 managers and employees, from all types of professions, and he analyzed their work habits, tracked how many hours they worked each week, and followed their performance. The highest performers, it turned […]
We’re Too Hospitable to Pointlessness
“In the year 1930, John Maynard Keynes predicted that, by century’s end, technology would have advanced sufficiently that countries like Great Britain or the United States would have achieved a fifteen-hour work week. There’s every reason to believe he was right. In technological terms, we are quite capable of this. And yet it didn’t happen. […]
A Simple Syllabus Language Change that Helped a Teacher Get the Breakthrough
This past school year, our colleague Tanya Ramm shared a simple shift in her syllabus language that gave her added life and agency as a teacher. Here’s all she altered: Practice: (50% of Marking Period grade) – This category includes student participation such as in-class practice with speaking, listening, reading & writing activities, as well […]
To Decide is to Cut
I was speaking with our colleague Tanya Ramm this morning, and she was describing her holiday weekend. (We had four days off for the US’s Labor Day.) Over the break, she came in to work for five hours on Friday while her husband and sons were off fishing. Then she came in to work a […]
Not a Lot of Time
There’s this thing that the stoics say: Memento Mori. “Remember that you will die.” It’s a little dark for my tastes. 😉 BUT I do think something like it very frequently, and it has guided a lot of my decision-making during this past decade of teaching high school, building a writing career, grasping the diverse […]
Guide: Three Simple, Robust Methods for Establishing Belonging in the First Weeks of School
You ever get to a point in a project where you’re so doggone close to being done, but that final bit just feels super hard? That’s how this final installment in the “Student Motivation Like a Champ As We Head Back to School” series of guides has been for me. We’ve covered some super fun […]
Get To
Last Friday I was walking into school early in the morning, and I was feeling tired. I muttered to myself, “All right, buddy — gotta do it. One more day this week.” And then I caught how it sounded, and I said, “Wait — GET TO, not got to! GET TO, baby!” It was so […]
Guide: Three Simple, Robust Methods for Establishing Efficacy in the First Weeks of School
Hello, colleague — what in the world do you think we have in store for us today? Who can know, right? But here’s one part of today that I know we’ve got coming — a big ol’ practical treatise on how we can all make the Efficacy belief a bit more commonplace in every one […]
The Trouble with “Praise the Process, Not the Person”
Two days ago, I released one heck of an Effort belief manifesto. If you’re interested in helping your students to believe that they can get better at the art or discipline you want to help them get better at, take a look at that thing. And please — share it with anyone you think it’d […]
Guide: Three Simple, Robust Methods for Establishing Effort in the First Weeks of School
Well hey there, colleagues — how in the world are you doing? With my school year two weeks away from starting, this week finds me fortunate to learn with colleagues in Rootstown, OH; Colorado Springs, CO; and Lindon, UT. In all these places we get to play at unpacking the five key beliefs beneath student […]
The Desire for Knowledge: One of the Most Underplayed Approaches to Value-Based Motivation in US Public Education Today
Hey there, colleague — happy back to school season for you. In addition to preppin’ up for my own work in the classroom this year, I’m thankful to be visiting with some other faculties here and there. Last week: middle school teachers in Los Alamos, NM and high school teachers in Naples, FL — much […]
Guide: Three Simple, Robust Methods for Establishing Value in the First Weeks of School
Boring. Dumb. Pointless. Irrelevant. Annoying. Stupid. When students say words like these, they’re telling us this: I don’t value this kind of work. Value is one of five key beliefs beneath student motivation, and the only belief that I’ve found to be more powerful than it is Credibility (my first weeks of school guide on […]
Freaked Out About the First Day of School? Three Quick Things that Help
The first training I went to out of college was a Harry Wong presentation on the first days of school. Now look, I love me some Harry Wong. BUT that presentation cranked my pressure meter up a little higher than I want it. Pressure matters Here’s the thing: if you and I want to both […]
Can Ten Minutes of Reading Change a Whole Semester of Teaching? It May Have for This Teacher
I saw this the other day on Amazon, regarding These 6 Things. A colleague of ours named Nora Ishibashi wrote it, and my point in showing it to you is to demonstrate (yet again) that tiny interventions can create very large and positive differences in the lives of the folks we care about. My focus […]