The point of the Non-Freaked Out Approach to Producing Literate Humans (still working on that title; see Figure 1) is to make it easy for teachers to remember what we ought to become very, very good at. It helps us ask at the end of a hard day, “Did I help my students grow in […]
Some Tests Are Really Great for Students
Tests are easy to vilify in the USA today because there are too many bad ones and there are too many bogus high stakes attached to them. But this school year I’ve seen an extremely difficult test have a profoundly positive effect on its takers. First, my AP World History kids. Prior to this year, I hadn’t taught an advanced course of […]
The Pedagogical Benefits of Doing Hard Things
I’m running a marathon today. At some point, months ago, my little brother and I thought this was a great idea. As the training miles (and skipped training sessions) piled up, my evaluation of the idea decayed. By the final weeks of training, I found myself repeatedly saying to Crystal, “Honey, if I ever talk about wanting to run a marathon […]
A Conversation with Mike Schmoker
Four years ago, at the very outset of this blog, I was starting to blog through the Common Core State Standards. Providentially, at about the same time I had decided to re-read Mike Schmoker’s Focus. That re-read bit was new for me. I was at a point in my career where I sensed it was high time I […]
The Non-Freaked Out Framework: Five Things We’ve Got to Keep Getting Better At
The Non-Freaked Out Framework (Figure 1) is really just a set of five imperatives. One goal governs them all: let’s do increase the quantity and quality of these things, across the content areas. “Framework” is probably a bad word for what it actually is. Maybe I should call them “The Non-Freaked Out List of Important Things […]