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Lots of times, educators seeing a decline in student motivation or engagement will try developing a sense of belonging in their classrooms. The student that doesn’t want to read — let’s help him think of himself as a reader. The student who “isn’t a math person” — let’s have him think of himself as a […]

If writing a book about teaching is something you’ve thought about more than ten times, then let’s start with: Yes — I think you should take the compulsion seriously. It’s not a thing that can be done on a whim, but where there’s a settled sense of calling to treat a topic in education with […]

Dear colleague, In the Speaking/Listening chapter of These 6 Things, I argue that teachers only need three kinds of speaking routines for their practice: This school year, one of the few experiments I’ve run in my practice is with pop-up debates. Based on promising results at the end of the previous year, I went into […]

The Rainbow of Why can be an overwhelming tool.* All these colored pathways to Valuing math or science or art class — great. But…where do I start? Today, let’s try this: start with your own love. In The Prelude, William Wordsworth writes, What we have loved, others will love, and we will teach them how. […]

Dear colleagues, Since I’m a classroom teacher with exactly zero days of administrative experience, I typically don’t write articles aimed at building leaders. But today is a special day because I’m going to do that. Administrators, if you don’t have a locked-in, 95%-consistent cell phone policy that lives and breathes and happens each day in […]