Teaching Simplified.
Dear colleague, Recently retired Nebraskan Warren Buffett had a fascinating theory regarding the degree to which our behaviors stem from our “scorecards”: The big question about how people behave is whether they’ve got an Inner Scorecard or an Outer Scorecard. It helps if you can be satisfied with an Inner Scorecard. I always pose it…
Dear colleague, Gardeners don’t make plants grow. Instead, they partner with the reality that plants do grow, especially when you give them proper soil, sunlight, water, nutrients, and so on. But let’s be clear: the gardener does not control the plants. The same is true of teachers and students. When it comes to student motivation,…
Dear colleague, I’ve got a feeling that more than a few of us have contemplated some degree of life or work change here in the 2025-26 school year. Whether it’s a job or a role or a school or a city or a hobby or a haircut, change starts feeling tempting during these winter months.…
Dear colleague, Fred Rogers did his job all wrong. While competitors ran animated features, Rogers stuck to physical sets and puppeteering. While “best practice” in children’s television programming shifted to graphics and variety and speed and novelty, Rogers started every show walking onto the same old set and following the same old ritual: song, jacket,…
Dear colleague, We’re well into the school year now, and if you’re anything like me, you’ve maybe not done it all perfectly. I mean, SUPER close to perfectly, sure… but not quite. Once in awhile, you find yourself filling up your coffee, looking around your classroom, and thinking, “Man, I wish I had….” Perhaps it’s…
Dear colleague, In response to my last article regarding the survey tool I use for measuring student beliefs, our colleague Abbie asked whether the concepts in The Will to Learn map well onto the work administrators do with teachers. As it turns out, I believe they certainly do. (For the sake of brevity, I’ll refrain…
