Every educator benefits from a memorable, meaningful mission statement — a single-sentence encapsulation of where they’re trying to go with their students. Class time is too precious to be spent wandering aimlessly through the Himalayas; we’ve got to know what Everest looks like, know what we’re about moving toward it with our students, know that […]
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But Have You Taught Them How?
The older students get, the easier it is for us to fall prey to assumptions about how to teach them. They’re in ninth grade — so surely I need not teach them to take notes, right? They’re in seventh grade — so surely I need not teach them how to greet a peer during Think-Pair-Share, […]
Who Else But Us?
I will sometimes hear teachers complain that learning is not valued in the homes of their students. Here are the two problems with letting yourself think these things. First — how do I put this gently? — it’s profoundly misguided for me to assume that I can make claims about what is and isn’t valued […]
The Beautiful Question
Two days ago, I met this year’s students for the first time. Thinking through their names this morning and the little bits I’m starting to know about them, I feel a fondness forming. Each one of these young people has: Their own smile. Their own quirks. Their own hopes and dreams, spoken and unspoken. Their […]
We’re Signal Senders
Whether we like it or not, you and I are signal senders. We are constantly sending signals about what kind of a place our classroom and our school is. If you’re in a work-smarter-not-harder kind of vein this year, then you want to be intentional about sending these certain kinds of signals to your students: […]