I was recently with the secondary educators of Cache County, Utah,* on what can only be described as a fine Friday of professional development. These folks were just lovely, especially in light of the fact that I was a guy holding them back from their weekend. In one of the sessions, we were looking at […]
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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
High Expectations: An Ingredient, Not a Meal
Sometimes, we secondary educators can get into a funk of believing that we need not teach our students how to best work at learning in our classrooms. Some of us think this kind of work just isn’t something we should have to do; others think that to teach these things would be boring or insulting […]
Common Misperceptions Regarding Moments of Genuine Connection
Dear colleague, Once folks start trying to implement tracking attempted moments of genuine connection (MGCs), there are a few misperceptions that start to crop up. I’d like to publish those today, in hopes that we can nip confusion in the bud before it has a chance to cause us any undue stress or tension. Misperception […]
Such a Doggone Good Feeling
One of my favorite Fred Rogers repetitions — and boy, let me tell ya, do I have a lot — is, “It’s such a good feeling.” What Rogers does with lines like that is masterful, even for secondary educators like me, for at least two reasons I’d like you to think about today. First, he […]
“We’re the Fork to the Community’s Farm”
I met an FFA educator recently in Linden, CA. She was responsible for teaching students how to prepare the food that her colleagues teach students to grow, develop, harvest, or ship. And she shared with me what she took away from the workshop I led at her school on student motivation. One of the strategies […]
How to Feel Less Nuts This School Year
The trick this year is the same as it’s always been. The job, like many jobs, will at times be challenging. Our lives, like many lives, will at times feel overwhelming. Our to-do lists, like the to-do lists of many folks, will always whisper lies to us that we can actually finish them. And so, […]
Maybe Say It Again
Every educator benefits from a memorable, meaningful mission statement — a single-sentence encapsulation of where they’re trying to go with their students. Class time is too precious to be spent wandering aimlessly through the Himalayas; we’ve got to know what Everest looks like, know what we’re about moving toward it with our students, know that […]
But Have You Taught them How?
The older students get, the easier it is for us to fall prey to assumptions about how to teach them. They’re in ninth grade — so surely I need not teach them to take notes, right? They’re in seventh grade — so surely I need not teach them how to greet a peer during Think-Pair-Share, […]
Who Else But Us?
I will sometimes hear teachers complain that learning is not valued in the homes of their students. Here are the two problems with letting yourself think these things. First — how do I put this gently? — it’s profoundly misguided for me to assume that I can make claims about what is and isn’t valued […]
The Beautiful Question
Two days ago, I met this year’s students for the first time. Thinking through their names this morning and the little bits I’m starting to know about them, I feel a fondness forming. Each one of these young people has: Their own smile. Their own quirks. Their own hopes and dreams, spoken and unspoken. Their […]
We’re Signal Senders
Whether we like it or not, you and I are signal senders. We are constantly sending signals about what kind of a place our classroom and our school is. If you’re in a work-smarter-not-harder kind of vein this year, then you want to be intentional about sending these certain kinds of signals to your students: […]
Should You Tell Students You Like Them?
I was talking with one of our colleagues the other day, Mr. Adam Craig, who teaches mathematics in Amarillo, TX. He brought up a phenomenon that many of us can likely relate to: hearing a student bemoan the fact that one of their teachers doesn’t like them. I’m talking about things like this: “Oh, Mr. […]
Youthful Purpose Guru Bill Damon’s “Golden Opportunity”
In today’s article, we’re going to focus on a simple, research-backed method for developing a sense of purpose in young people. As you might remember, purpose is one of the colors on the Rainbow of Why palette we’ve looked at lately here on the blog. There’s this researcher out of Stanford who basically dedicated his […]
Waiting on Stars (Or You’ve Never Met a Student that Wants to be Demotivated in School)
Here’s a thing I don’t think we think about enough: Your students WANT to be motivated. This is something fundamental to human beings. So, this is what I contend: you’ve never met a student who set out to become demotivated in school. Every. One. Of your students, down in the roots of their will, desires […]
Diving Deeper into Caroline Ong’s “Math is Beautiful” High Horse — In Her Own Words
Today’s a good time to let our colleague Caroline Ong, of “Math is Beautiful High Horse” renown (article about that here), to give us a bit more context on what she’s doing when she takes these opportunities to micro-rant to her students about how lovely and important and useful and beautiful her discipline is. Howdy […]
The Rainbow of Why: Go Jackson Pollock with Those Colors
Last time, we looked at this video of Caroline Ong in her Geometry class going on a “math is beautiful” tangent with her students. I labeled this as an example of a strategy we’re currently contemplating: An Apologist Winsome and Sure. Head here for a brief explanation of what the heck I mean by those […]