Update from Dave: My new book is out, and it highlights ten practical methods for improving student motivation in all kinds of classrooms. One of those strategies involves clearly and repeatedly teaching students to get better at challenging skills like note-takin for learning. You can learn more about the book here. At the time of […]
A Shift then a Skip: Here’s How One Teacher’s Job Changed with a Simple Change in Thinking
Robert Macfadden is a history teacher at Palmdale High School in Palmdale, CA. A while ago, Robert wrote in with the following story. There’s a very important moment in this story that I’d like to expand upon after Robert is through. So, I’ll be back in a minute. Here’s Robert: Four years ago I had […]
How to Get Better at Satisficing as an Educator
Satisficing isn’t my word. It’s Nobel winner Herbert Simon’s. It means, “Doing something at the good-enough level, not the optimal level.” Few skills are as critical to the well-lived teacher’s life. Here’s why. On paper, teaching is an impossible job. So is administration. Doing education by the book in the twenty-first century is hopelessly Byzantine. […]
The Best Question for Helping You Simplify Lessons, Curricula, Policies, or Procedures
The question is pretty… well [looks up synonym for simple] basic: What would this look like if it had to be simple? If this lesson I’m planning had to be simple — as few moving parts as possible, as few things that could go wrong as possible, as few needless confusion points as possible — […]
A Few Helpful Ideas for Resting as an Educator
The late USC philosopher Dallas Willard used to describe the body like a battery pack for the soul. For about a year, that definition didn’t make much sense to me. But lately, it has started to click and has been helping me think better about rest in my life as a husband, father, teacher, and […]