Dear colleague, “Here at Musora, we believe that everyone would be better off if they played a musical instrument.” When I heard this line in the middle of a jazz band improv video I came across the other day, I immediately heard what the creator was doing: cultivating the Value belief in his listeners. It […]
Archives for October 2024
No Top to the Mountain
Dear colleague, To make a really good Everest Statement (see Ch 1 of These 6 Things or this article), you want to describe a mountain that has no real top to it. Let me show you some examples of what I mean and then explain why it’s important. Here’s the statement I use for my […]
Why We Start Class Well
Dear colleague, I’ve spent this month riffing on the idea of the Value of an education. Even in a world where robots make podcasts, bad arguments abound, “anything I need to know is on my phone,” and writing is way more work than prompting ChatGPT, I’m more confident than ever that classes filled with knowledge-building, […]
Why We Argue
Dear colleague, Not sure if you’ve heard, but there’s an election coming up in the United States. (For more on how I’ve been teaching this election, you can read this article written by our local School News Network in which my work is featured a bit, or check out this video.) But today, we’re not […]
Why We Build Knowledge (Ft. Kelly Gallagher)
Dear colleague, In Kelly Gallagher’s new book, To Read Stuff You Have to Know Stuff: Helping Students Build and Use Prior Knowledge, he offers an abundance of mini-sermon material for the Value of building knowledge. As the title proclaims, Gallagher’s apologetics for knowledge-building focus especially on the role that knowledge plays in reading comprehension. But […]
