A bit ago in class I used a trick that I learned from one of our global colleagues at TASIS American International School in England just outside of London. (Below is a photo that some of us took together when my wife and I visited their school recently.) (The person I need to credit specifically […]
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The Circle of Power: Something Good for the Last Five Minutes of Class
One instructional practice that my principal has focused on this year is bell-to-bell learning. Thankfully, he doesn’t define this militaristically — students at their desks grinding from start to finish. Instead, he strikes what I call the gentle urgency balance, which I think is key for signaling Credibility to students. Urgent: on the one hand, […]
How Do the CASEL 5 Relate to the Five Key Beliefs?
I’m doing a spot of PD work with a district in California this month, and one task they’ve blessed me with is making connections between the CASEL 5 (pictured below) and the Five Key Beliefs (pictured below that). This really was a blessing of a task because it’s something I’ve always meant to do but […]
Think and Thank on Your Scarletts Today
A couple years ago, I wrote an article about a former student of mine, whom we’ll call Scarlett for the sake of anonymity. You can click on that link to read the full story — it’s quite brief — but the gist is this: I had assumed that Scarlett’s time in my class did her […]
The Zoom Out Method
The other day I was speaking with my sister-in-law Amber, and she gave me a great method for practicing perspective. When you find yourself stressed, do the zoom out. If you’re in a situation where you can close your eyes to do this exercise, great. If you’re not (e.g., driving a vehicle or teaching a […]