Dear colleague, I’ve got a feeling that more than a few of us have contemplated some degree of life or work change here in the 2025-26 school year. Whether it’s a job or a role or a school or a city or a hobby or a haircut, change starts feeling tempting during these winter months. […]
Fred Rogers, the Teaching Mentor
Dear colleague, Fred Rogers did his job all wrong. As the 60s switched to the ’70s then the ’80s then the ’90s, television programming changed. The world transformed. And yet Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood ended in 2001 almost exactly how it started in 1968. (Here’s the intro to the first and last episodes.) Here’s my point: […]
Got Regrets Yet?
Dear colleague, We’re well into the school year now, and if you’re anything like me, you’ve maybe not done it all perfectly. I mean, SUPER close to perfectly, sure… but not quite. Once in awhile, you find yourself filling up your coffee, looking around your classroom, and thinking, “Man, I wish I had….” Perhaps it’s […]
The Will to Teach: How the Five Key Beliefs Apply to Teachers (and What Admin Can Do to Help!)
Dear colleague, In response to my last article regarding the survey tool I use for measuring student beliefs, our colleague Abbie asked whether the concepts in The Will to Learn map well onto the work administrators do with teachers. As it turns out, I believe they certainly do. (For the sake of brevity, I’ll refrain […]
An Experimental Survey Tool for Measuring the Five Key Beliefs
Dear colleague, Though I’m surely not a survey-specialist-guy, I’ve developed a survey tool for measuring the Five Key Beliefs that I wanted to share today. It has given me reliable, actionable insights both times I’ve used it (Spring and Fall of 2025), so I’d like to give it to you in case it helps. Here’s […]