Dear colleague, Some time ago, a colleague wrote in with the following question regarding Pop-Up Debates: Dave, what do you do when multiple students stand up at the same time and don’t want to yield? I have two class sections where this is becoming a pattern, despite giving them plenty of encouragement and instruction to…

Dear colleague, One day I was walking down the hallway during my prep period, and I felt like a true-blue secret service agent. I picked up a piece of garbage. I had a brief moment of genuine connection (MGC) with a student I passed. I stopped in on a colleague and gave a word of…

Dear colleague, In a recent article, I shared about a PD trip that allowed for my visit to the JFK Presidential Library in Boston. Today I’d like to share one more JFK thought that I found to be profoundly related to the argumentative work my students and I do in whatever class I find myself…

Dear colleague, Perfectionism is a tough topic. There are so many amazing human beings in education who are very much on the perfectionism spectrum. So before I say anything, let me be clear that I’m not picking on anyone or denigrating those of us with a special sense and expectation for excellence. That said, let’s…

Dear colleagues, I came across four parent recommendations the other day from researchers Jonathan Haidt, Will Johnson, and Zach Rausch that I thought were worth sharing in case your role intersects with helping parents in our technological times. In their article “We Don’t Have to Give In to Smartphones” for The New York Times (paywall),…

Dear colleague, In a recent post, I shared this JFK idea that truth is more threatened by myths than by lies. Today I want to share a related thought, not from a notable president, but from a notable Jedi: Mr. Obi Wan Kenobi. In Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (hot take: the best of…