One of my favorite Fred Rogers repetitions — and boy, let me tell ya, do I have a lot — is, “It’s such a good feeling.” What Rogers does with lines like that is masterful, even for secondary educators like me, for at least two reasons I’d like you to think about today. First, he […]
“We’re the Fork to the Community’s Farm”
I met an FFA educator recently in Linden, CA. She was responsible for teaching students how to prepare the food that her colleagues teach students to grow, develop, harvest, or ship. And she shared with me what she took away from the workshop I led at her school on student motivation. One of the strategies […]
How to Feel Less Nuts This School Year
The trick this year is the same as it’s always been. The job, like many jobs, will at times be challenging. Our lives, like many lives, will at times feel overwhelming. Our to-do lists, like the to-do lists of many folks, will always whisper lies to us that we can actually finish them. And so, […]
Maybe Say It Again
Every educator benefits from a memorable, meaningful mission statement — a single-sentence encapsulation of where they’re trying to go with their students. Class time is too precious to be spent wandering aimlessly through the Himalayas; we’ve got to know what Everest looks like, know what we’re about moving toward it with our students, know that […]
But Have You Taught Them How?
The older students get, the easier it is for us to fall prey to assumptions about how to teach them. They’re in ninth grade — so surely I need not teach them to take notes, right? They’re in seventh grade — so surely I need not teach them how to greet a peer during Think-Pair-Share, […]