On their faces, slot machines are kind of dumb. You pay money to pull a lever, and most of the time all you get is a few seconds of spinning icons. But then sometimes, you win a little. Very infrequently, you win a ton. Percentage-wise, it’s a losing scenario. If your goal is to make […]
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How to Build Resilience, Part 3: Adaptability
During these past weeks of reflecting on resilience’s three pillars, I’ve started to see a relationship between the three, how they really do act like the legs on a stool. If you’ve got a deep sense of purpose but not an acceptance of unpleasant realities then you’ll err toward unchecked idealism. Unchecked idealism happens when […]
500 Blog Posts: A Case Study in Resilience
Recently, this blog hit a cool mark: 500 blog posts. I remember, years ago, reading a blog post from a friend of mine named Corbett Barr, on the day that he had reached 500 blog posts. At the time I was at about 200, and I was like, “Dang. That’s cool.” So, here we are: […]
Four Traits of Rockstar Teacher Teams
How could we make teaching teams purpose-laden and a ton of fun? Perhaps a book from the 1980s can help. Tracy Kidder’s The Soul of a New Machine (1981) is unlikely to be on your recommended professional development reading list this summer. First of all, it is not new. (Actually, it’s less new than my […]
Focus = Life
It’s easy enough to say, “Okay, I need to focus.” For example, if we want to be more resilient, then it’s easy to say, “I’m going to focus on developing a deeper sense of meaning in my work and life.” The trouble is that focusing takes more than talking about focusing. It takes actually doing […]
How to Build Resilience, Part 2: A Strong Sense of Purpose
He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how. Friedrich Nietzsche, Maxims and Arrows Teaching in a perfect world would be difficult enough. But teaching when bad things happen — the students aren’t motivated, the parents are angry, the administrator is out of touch, the colleagues aren’t kind, the policies are […]
10 Tips for Teachers from Kate Spade’s Manners
This past weekend, I was in my home reading alongside my older children — one of the great delights of my older daughters’ entrance into middle childhood with its blessed ability to read independently — and I pulled one of Crystal’s old books off the shelf: the late Kate Spade’s Manners. As I often do […]
"It's All About Relationships": We Can Do Better
If you’re ever in a meeting of educators and want to get heads nodding vigorously, here’s what you say: “It’s all about relationships.” This is one of the most agreed upon maxims of my career. It’s also not all that helpful. It’s not that relationships aren’t important. They are magnificently important. It’s not that relationships […]