I often say in my workshops that when you’re looking at the Rainbow of Why, the power is on the bottom. I think that in school we’re way too quick to tell students “when they’ll ever use this” (that’s utility on the graphic above) and we’re way too slow to paint a picture of how […]
What You Think v. What Students Think
“Teaching is successful only as it causes people to think for themselves. What the teacher thinks matters little; what she makes the child think matters much.“ – Alice Moore Hubbard (1909) Alice Hubbard lived a remarkable life. She was a colleague of ours and a multi-published author, as well as a vocal advocate for women’s […]
Teaching Students Why We Review Like We Do
A bit ago in class I used a trick that I learned from one of our global colleagues at TASIS American International School in England just outside of London. (Below is a photo that some of us took together when my wife and I visited their school recently.) (The person I need to credit specifically […]
The Circle of Power: Something Good for the Last Five Minutes of Class
One instructional practice that my principal has focused on this year is bell-to-bell learning. Thankfully, he doesn’t define this militaristically — students at their desks grinding from start to finish. Instead, he strikes what I call the gentle urgency balance, which I think is key for signaling Credibility to students. Urgent: on the one hand, […]
How Do the CASEL 5 Relate to the Five Key Beliefs?
I’m doing a spot of PD work with a district in California this month, and one task they’ve blessed me with is making connections between the CASEL 5 (pictured below) and the Five Key Beliefs (pictured below that). This really was a blessing of a task because it’s something I’ve always meant to do but […]