We all got into teaching because we hoped our work would make an impact; we envisioned seeing the grown man in the supermarket who would walk up to us and say, “Hi Mr. Stuart — remember me? Here is my wife; these are my children. They are all well-fed and flourishing thanks to the things […]
Teaching as Inner Work
How to View Teaching Situations Where the Odds are Against You: A Personal Case Study
I currently teach our high school’s first sections of AP World History. These are the first “advanced” courses I’ve taught in my nine years of teaching. Also, for various reasons, this course is open to ninth graders only. This is a challenging situation. Two ways to shake it Every single year in the classroom — […]
“How Long Do You Spend Grading Articles of the Week?”
“Dave, how long do you spend grading articles of the week?” I sometimes hear that question, or at least I see it written on the faces of people who start doing the math when I tell them about Kelly Gallagher’s article of the week (AoW) assignment. The assignment: Students read, purposefully annotate, and write a one-page response to an assigned article […]
Two Practical “Reminder” Strategies for Overcoming Noise-Induced Aimlessness
The film Memento (2000, directed by Christopher Nolan) is the story of Leonard, a man with one abiding purpose in life — finding and bringing justice to his wife’s killers — and one serious handicap: he is unable to retain short-term memories. As a result, Leonard develops a system of reminders — including tattoos like those in Figure 1 — and […]