In my book These 6 Things: How to Focus Your Teaching on What Matters Most, I’m basically after responsible reduction. How do we reduce the impossibly large list of potential things we could do with students into a pleasantly manageable list of things? In other words, it’s a book that attempts to introduce a gist […]
Should Teachers Show Examples of Their Own Work to Students?
In response to my article “Being a Credible Teacher is Like Having a Good Wine Label,” our colleague Emily Stuver, an art teacher, asked this question: Hi Dave,I’m wondering about your opinion on something this post brings up for me. In the art teacher world (especially mine where I teach students with learning differences), there’s […]
As Great as the Best
I can still picture driving through the woods of Maine a few years back and writing a blog post in my head called “Why ‘the Best?’ Will Good do Instead?“ I still stand by the sentiments of that article. Trying to be the best teacher — in your school, state, country — is, in my […]
Should School Librarians Track Attempted MGCs?
Short answer: yeah! It’s a simple way to improve your impact and your quality of life. But, for folks like librarians: Print a list of all students in the school, alphabetical by last name. Put the list someplace where you’ll see it and be likely to use it (e.g., a binder, a clipboard, a set […]
How Do I Get There? vs. You Must Go
Longtime blogger Seth Godin once wrote the following: “It’s more productive to offer directions to someone who has already decided to go on the journey. It’s this idea — which Godin calls “enrollment” — that I’m after when I write constantly about the Five Key Beliefs about student motivation. What you’re seeking is the creation […]