Jennie Wagner — reader of this blog, 7th grade teacher, and Brandisher of Awesome — recently wrote me an email with the following sage advice: Perhaps you could ask for your readers to write something for a guest page of sorts. You choose the topic and say “Go!” I bet a ton of your readers […]
Unicorns and Growth Mindset
Last spring, a student said to me, “Well, I’m just not a map person. I’m not good at maps.” And I responded, “Well, Adam, flying unicorns are real.” To which Adam replied, “Um… what?” Growth mindset isn’t just a cute idea The preponderance of evidence supporting the brain’s malleability and the human ability to learn […]
Inking a Top-Level Goal for Your Career
The more I teach and think and write, the closer I get to organizing my work around a central, abiding outcome for all of it — a top-level professional goal. Angela Duckworth provides insight on this topic in her book. From Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance: …[D]ogged perseverance toward a top-level goal requires, paradoxically perhaps, some flexibility […]
Effort Counts Twice
Just over four years ago, I started this blog (here’s what it looked like). I started by writing through the Common Core literacy standards, and my goals were to learn something, help decrease the freak-out, and (moonshot) publish a book one day. (That happened, with Jossey-Bass Wiley). Fast forward to today. Blogging is one of the most rewarding […]
Lessons Learned from my Character Lab Teacher Innovation Grant Research Project
In May 2015, I was given what I felt was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: conducting action research about the intersection of public speaking and character growth with the support of the bright minds at Character Lab. Character Lab is an edu-research startup founded in part by Angela Duckworth; their website is my first recommendation for people […]