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Dear colleague, What’s a distraction? This is actually a great question to spend 10-15 minutes of class time on at least once per school year. Follow these basic steps to maximize the amount of learning the question produces. Step 1. Start with having your students write about the question. Use prompts like this: Prompts like […]

Dear colleague, The second-to-last strategy in The Will to Learn is one that’s easy to sleep on: Unpack Outcomes, Good or Bad. You can read a full explanation of the strategy on pp. 206-219 in your copy of the book, so today I won’t re-explain it here and will instead give a recent example from […]

Dear colleague, A couple months ago, I was asked at a PD workshop I was leading whether or not teachers should sit behind their desks while students work independently on their learning. Let’s talk a little bit about this. So first of all, it’s important we create classroom cultures where our students are sometimes independently […]

Dear colleague, An important promise I make to myself and to my students is that we will never do busywork in my classroom. We’ll be busy, for sure. Time is precious, the fruits of learning are priceless, and you only learn by doing work with care. But it won’t be busywork. Here it’s helpful to […]

Dear colleague, Thanks for those who’ve supported my work via registering for the Focused Finished Seminar (details/registration here). It makes what I do possible — truly. Recently I took a day off school to visit Ravenna, OH. While there, I led colleagues through the student motivation/engagement methodology found in The Will to Learn. Whenever I […]