“Clearly, the only appropriate response to North Korean aggression is nuclear destruction.” I rubbed my temples as the fifth student suggested nuclear holocaust as the best response to the latest North Korean action. This was several years ago in my ninth grade world history classroom. We were holding an impromptu pop-up debate on the week’s […]
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The Effort Belief in Action: Read Naturally as a Case Study
Nic was convinced that no matter how hard he tried, he would never do better in school. Unsurprisingly, this meant that Nic did not want to try at all. His conviction wasn’t built on laziness or bad intentions. Nic, like all of the students I’ve ever taught, didn’t want to be unsuccessful, and in other […]
20 Years x 1 Hour Per Day
Here’s a useful exercise. Think of an hour in your day where you get to do something discretionary. Maybe it’s watching a great TV show, reading a book, conversing with a loved one, getting ahead on tomorrow’s work, or working through your email inbox to get it down to zero. If you do this thing […]
“How Do You Do It All?”
Sometimes someone will say to me, “Dave, how do you do it all? Teaching, writing, speaking, being a husband, being a dad… how do you find the time?” The answer is always the same: I find the time because I don’t do anywhere close to it all. Let me give a few examples: I can’t […]
Systems v. Disciplines
One school of thought in time management is that if you get the right system in place, and if you follow it well enough, then you’ll be able to do all of the things that you’re supposed to do. You can get it all done. This is not a school of thought that I subscribe […]