It’s common enough to see a really well-meaning teacher whose chief goal is to create a classroom where kids feel welcome, included, enjoyed, and honored, but to forget that this is only half the battle. Yes, we need kids to all identify with school, to identify with our class culture, to feel that who we’re asking […]
Archives for November 2016
The Physical Classroom Environment: Why Your Classroom Need Not Be Pretty
Again and again in my professional reading, I come across thoughts that point to the possibility that the physical classroom environments we create for our students aren’t as important as we might think they are. Yet at the same time, it seems like I frequently come across some blog post or image about the physical classroom environment, […]
A Simple “Expectancy-Value” Activity for Helping Students Care about Your Coursework
Emily was my staunch “When are we ever going to have to use this?” kid last year, especially when it came to learning map locations. We’d look at a map, and I’d ask them to identify the names of countries as a warm-up, and, without fail, her hand would shoot up to ask The Question. […]
Making Mindsets Matter: Two Approaches to the Challenging Journey from Head to Heart
“The most routine abstract thought very often struck him with an uncommon force and would stir him up remarkably. . . . A simple idea, sometimes very familiar and commonplace, would suddenly set him aflame and reveal itself to him in all its significance. He, so to speak, felt thought with unusual liveliness.” — from Joseph Frank’s Dostoevsky, […]
