Last year, I realized at the end of first semester that I had forgotten one of my favorite instructional tools: pop-up debates. Believe it or not, this happens often to me. At this point, I’ve written about a LOT of different teaching strategies. And even though they’re situated in some intentionally simple, practical categories — […]
Pick a Student, Any Student
Dear colleague, I’m writing to see if we might help one another out. Would you be willing to describe for me a student you are working with who appears to not care about the work of learning? In your description, be sure to: What I’ll do is examine each workable scenario I receive and propose […]
“One of the teachers I work with is bad at their job. Does this hurt my credibility, too?”
First of all, what do you mean, “Bad at their job?” Sometimes, folks who say this just differ with that teacher’s philosophical or pedagogical positions. To me, fair enough that you don’t like that style of teaching. But to say that teacher is bad at their job isn’t necessarily accurate. Their job isn’t to align […]
The Five Key Beliefs in a Pep Talk from The Bear
August is always my busiest month as a PD guy, and so this past month I ended up traveling half a dozen times across the country. When traveling alone, I like to pass the time sometimes by watching movies or shows that folks I respect have recommended to me. One of the shows I watched […]
Getting Specific with Valued, Known, Respected
Whenever I talk to folks about tracking moments of genuine connection (MGC), I use three words again and again and again: valued, known, respected. These are the specific signals you try to send to a young person when you attempt an MGC with them. If you’re not meaning to signal one of these things when […]