In order for my students to progress to successful pop-up debates, and to drastically increase the quantity of speaking they’ll do during their time in my room, I need to start with the simplest possible training ground for verbal communication: two people having a conversation. Toward that end, the first week of school finds me teaching Frank Lyman’s […]
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3,500 Teachers Can’t Be Wrong: We Need Permission to Focus
I think that there are hundreds of thousands of teachers, coaches, and administrators who are dying to be told, “If you and your students are working on this handful of things, repeatedly and with increasing skill, throughout the school year as you move through your curriculum, you’re okay.” Those last words, especially, are important: “You’re […]
Get Ready for the School Year with this 5 Minute “Defining Everest” Activity
Before your first staff meeting comes and starts the school year stress, take five minutes to shoot from the gut and get your head and heart straightened out with this simple exercise. You won’t get any copies made or a class blog set up or a curriculum mapped or whatever other urgent tasks assail you while you’re […]
Autopsy of a Dud Project; Analysis of a Teacher’s Heart
During the past couple of weeks, I envisioned, planned, initiated, and carried out a project with students. I thought it was a good idea; it was founded on great intentions. Yet, with the project nearing completion, I am clearly seeing something: the project is a dud. This leaves me with two options: Ignore the failure. Run […]
14 Tips Toward Better Relationships with Administrators, Parents, & Support Staff
We’ve looked at what impact means, how to start with ourselves as we try to increase our impactfulness, how to leverage what we do in the classroom toward impact, and how to work better with colleagues toward impact. Graphically, that’s this: Today, we’ll bring it home by talking about the other groups of adults we […]