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I’ve written before on what I do for students who have official accommodations that prohibit mandated public speaking. But what about those students who do not have such accommodations but still refuse to speak? Here’s how one reader posed the question: Hey Dave,I agree that your pop up debate format can be a magical tool. […]

“Does writing poetry make you brave? It’s a good question to ask. I think making anything is a brave thing to do. Not like fighting brave, obviously. But a kind that looks at a horrible situation and doesn’t crumble. Making anything assumes there’s a world worth making it for… [M]aking something is a hopeful thing […]

Dear colleague, Yesterday I was speaking with some teacher-author friends about what teachers need right now. I found it a disorienting question because when I think about what I need right now, I feel disappointed. What I need is pretty normal for this time of year: energy, invigoration, a renewed sense of zest for the […]

As I wrote recently, learning is hard for at least four reasons: These stable findings from the research on the human learning system are what Dr. Stephen Chew calls “choke points in learning.” You can’t erase them; you can only work with them. In the video below, I unpack each choke point in greater detail. […]

Hey there, colleague — happy Leap Day! Tomorrow is March 1, which means (as my students like to remind me) that it’s Justin Bieber’s birthday. And that means, it’s my birthday, too. So in honor of the great occasion of Justin Bieber’s birthday, today I’m going to share forty things I’ve learned during my teaching […]