The wildcard of student motivation, in any given classroom, is teacher credibility. If kids believe you, they’re going to earnestly consider what you have to say, whether it’s about the content they’re learning or the other four key beliefs. When my students believe in me — when they find me credible — they listen to […]
Archives for February 2018
Ms. Blizzard and the Potential Weight of Single Interactions
I was giving a keynote to the wonderful Colorado English Language Arts Society last fall, and the guy giving the keynote right before mine was none other than award-winning author Matt de la Peña. I had heard plenty about Matt before, and I even had some of his novels in my classroom library. What I didn’t […]
Humble-Boldness: A Common Trait of the Greatest Teachers
To be good at teaching, you need to do a few things well, getting better at them as your career progresses. And then you need to do all the rest of the things just well enough. (The “well enough” things get satisficed — one of the most useful terms I’ve come across in my research.) To be great at teaching, you need to keep on doing […]