I had this idea the other day when leading a workshop on teacher wellness for a network of schools in the Detroit area. The reason I’m sharing it here on the blog is that I’d like your take on whether or not it’s accurate. And also, if you’re experiencing lots of pressure in your soul […]
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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
Does Teaching Students to Count Count as Much as Teaching Them What Counts?
I recently made a video during my lunch break picking apart four random “inspirational teacher quotes.” It’s a kind of video I’ve wanted to make for a while because… honestly, I guess I just think it’s funny to approach inspo-memes from a dry, analytical angle. If you’re curious, the video is here. But if you’re […]
A Time for Ish
Earlier, I wrote about the Yerkes-Dodson Dilemma: the idea that it’s hard as a teacher to avoid slipping into either an under- or over-pressured internal world. Part of what inspired that post was a children’s book a colleague* shared with me a bit ago. The book is called Ish, and in just a few minutes […]
What I Talk About When I Talk to My Children about Spelling
Before I get into this story from my parenting, let me note three important points: Now, for the story. Every weekday morning, I drive two of my daughters to their school about fifteen minutes from our house. Both have spelling lists each week, and both have teachers who give a pretest and a test on […]
The Yerkes-Dodson Dilemma
So much of effective teaching — and good living — comes down to how well you manage to stay atop the Yerkes-Dodson Curve. When you’re up there, you get it all: The trouble is that the Yerkes-Dodson Curve is slippery. I’ve yet to meet a person who has always found it easy to stay up […]
The teacher’s work is like the landscape
Dear colleague, I’ve taken a dozen or so walks these past couple of weeks because, when I’m in the valley, sometimes that’s all I can do. Walking stabilizes my soul; it depressurizes me. I’ve got teacher-y blog posts piling up that I’ve not emailed to you lately — I’ll start sending those out to you […]
The Gist of a Gisty Book
In my book These 6 Things: How to Focus Your Teaching on What Matters Most, I’m basically after responsible reduction. How do we reduce the impossibly large list of potential things we could do with students into a pleasantly manageable list of things? In other words, it’s a book that attempts to introduce a gist […]
Should Teachers Show Examples of Their Own Work to Students?
In response to my article “Being a Credible Teacher is Like Having a Good Wine Label,” our colleague Emily Stuver, an art teacher, asked this question: Hi Dave,I’m wondering about your opinion on something this post brings up for me. In the art teacher world (especially mine where I teach students with learning differences), there’s […]
As Great as the Best
I can still picture driving through the woods of Maine a few years back and writing a blog post in my head called “Why ‘the Best?’ Will Good do Instead?“ I still stand by the sentiments of that article. Trying to be the best teacher — in your school, state, country — is, in my […]
Should School Librarians Track Attempted MGCs?
Short answer: yeah! It’s a simple way to improve your impact and your quality of life. But, for folks like librarians: Print a list of all students in the school, alphabetical by last name. Put the list someplace where you’ll see it and be likely to use it (e.g., a binder, a clipboard, a set […]
How Do I Get There? vs. You Must Go
Longtime blogger Seth Godin once wrote the following: “It’s more productive to offer directions to someone who has already decided to go on the journey. It’s this idea — which Godin calls “enrollment” — that I’m after when I write constantly about the Five Key Beliefs about student motivation. What you’re seeking is the creation […]
We Lack Clarity, Not Strategies
Practically everywhere I visit, I like to ask teachers, “What have you seen work well at helping students grow in their care about the work of learning?” In other words: What works for student motivation? What have you seen work in your practice as an educator? This prompt draws all kinds of ideas, and […]
Booker T. Washington on the Efficacy Belief
A bit ago, I found myself reflecting on a pair of lines from the American hero Booker T. Washington in his book Up from Slavery: Here’s a hunch I have: his second line is where his impatience in the first comes from. How you or I or our students define success is perhaps the most […]
On the Building of Strong Children
“It is easier to build strong children,” Frederick Douglass once remarked, “than to repair broken men.” Herein we see a partnership that all schools ought to aspire to: in school, we help our communities build strong children, specifically teaching them to master things that they are unlikely to learn about outside of school. The trouble, […]
The Five Key Beliefs in Five-ish Minutes
Dear colleague, As my new book* approaches its April release and my classroom practice walks its annual traverse through the universe, I got to thinking the other day, “Hmm… if I had to explain to someone the Five Key Beliefs methodology for understanding student motivation (especially secondary student motivation), how would I do it? So, […]
An Ode to the Teacher Who Introduced Me to Etymology
I don’t know which teacher it was at Thornapple Kellogg High School — maybe Ms. Davidson or Mr. Stein or Mr. Consadine — but someone was the first to introduce me to a field of learning I love to play in: etymology. Etymology: the study of the origin of words and how their meanings change […]