“Young people should not be overdemanded. However, we have also to consider the fact that at least today, in the age of an affluent society, most people are underdemanded rather than overdemanded.”– Viktor Frankl, emphasis mine (1966) In the excerpt above, Frankl touches on a timeless educator challenge: for the folks we teach to optimally […]
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How to Teach Secondary Students to Improve Their Penmanship (According to a Non-Expert)
Whenever I can have my students do work on paper, I do. Paper is less wrought with temptation than a Chrome tab is; it requires no battery charge; you can move it around between people and places without copying a link or clicking a button. I’m no Luddite, but I love the simplicity of paper. […]
Three Student Questions to Start (or Spark) Your School Year
This year on the first day of school, I asked my students to complete three short answer questions. (In my class, that’s a question that can be answered in 2-3 sentences; I use these a lot.) These are the three questions I asked my students to answer: Here’s a screenshot of the slide I use. […]
The Student Motivation Summit
This March, I’m partnering with the Illinois ASCD to put on a first-of-its-kind student motivation summit. It’ll be a day of PD, led by me, on the best things I’ve learned in my classroom, my research, my travels, and my book-writing about student motivation in secondary schools. I hope you’ll consider attending, either in-person or […]
The Best PD Is Often Next Door
As far as impactful PD goes, there’s not much that can compete with sitting in on the practice of one of the colleagues in your own building. Once in a while, it’s helpful to identify some folks that you might like watching. You can do things like: (Fill in those blanks with an area of […]