Okay — thanks for the honesty. If you’re seeing lots of student apathy (and by “seeing” I mean feeling its weight on your soul), five key beliefs work will help you regain agency and impact. This isn’t silver bullet stuff; it’s just a low-stress, high-yield methodology for thinking and doing something about student motivation obstacles. […]
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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 Inputs-Outputs Question
Several months ago, I was having a conversation with a small group of colleagues about stewarding our lives well as secondary educators. One member of the group was Laura Gersch, who teaches in the Boston area. Laura asked a question that stayed with me for a while. What’s the work within the Inputs-Outputs sweet spot? […]
Adjustment En Route to Everest
Sometimes, smart, earnest people like us can get really frustrated by how much work our work is. We think, “C’mon. I’ve studied this for years! I’ve been making adjustments for years! What is happening!? It shouldn’t be this hard.” This can get really, really frustrating. And painful! Here are a couple of thoughts that might […]
Thoughts Worth Thinkin’
I wrote the other day about how the things we think on — the things we contemplate — are massive with the potential for pressurizing or depressurizing us. I shared that Dallas Willard line that “Our choice as to where we put our mind is what most determines where we go.” Today, I want to […]
What Makes Good PD Good? DSJ Annual Review for 2021
Last week I gave my last PD event of 2021, which was the busiest PD year I’ve ever had. I wanted to take a minute to capture some things I’ve learned and share it in case it helps. Good PD Gives Life to the Soul; Bad PD… Doesn’t Before we get to differences between good […]
Finally, a Breathing Trick I Can Remember
I learned this one via author Dan Pink’s excellent newsletter, and out of gratitude for his sharing it, I’ll be telling you a bit about his upcoming book at the end of this post. So: breathing. I’ve had smart watches tell me how to do it, I’ve had books tell me how to do it, […]
A Good Day to Laugh
Today’s post will not take long, and I dedicate its genesis to two of our colleagues in Utah, Larissa Taylor and Karsten Walker. We were doing some asynchronous PD work on depressurizing our souls, and I did the bit about how Chris Hemsworth and I are difficult to tell apart, and Larissa made this comment […]
Attending to Others When What You Crave Is Attention
Ours is, ironically, an attention-starved world. With more things than ever competing for our attention, the folks in our lives tend to miss out. You know — the ones walking in our hallways, standing to pack up their things after each of our classes, sitting in our living areas at home. But it’s not just […]
The Thing About Minds (with Help from Toni Morrison)
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 playlist 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 […]
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 playlist 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]. […]