Dear colleague, I made a video for us. [Video not showing? Click here.] In it, there are just two things I’m trying to say. First, this has been a hard year. At first I thought it was just me, but I found out that it wasn’t. Second, some specific things have helped: Reaching out to […]
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Things that Help: Calling Out the Goodness You See in Students
“Madi, you did just wonderfully on that recent assessment. Well done.” “John, I can’t recall a time where I’ve seen a student deal with failure so winsomely as you did with this past assessment. As I overheard you discussing it with your friends and reading through your test corrections afterward, I was impressed by and […]
The Surprisingly Similar Troubles with Strategies Based on Coercion or Engagement
In a recent post where I describe the double whammy of this year’s rapid increases in teacher workload and teacher pressure, our colleague Jennifer wrote in with this to say. I’m stuck in my home three days a week teaching remotely. Two days a week I teach remotely from my packed up classroom. I’ve been […]
Things That Help: Venting in a Vacuum
In response to a recent post, our colleague Beau Larimer commented with one of the methods he has used a time or two after a particularly frustrating Zoom session: In the moment right after getting off a Zoom lesson, in my weirdly empty and silent classroom, I’ll sometimes let out a yell of frustration or […]
DSJ Digest: On Difficulty, Twitter, Yelling, and Naps
Hey there colleague, Here’s what I’ve got for your consideration as we head into the weekend. New Reads In case you missed it, on Wednesday I published “Why Is This So Hard? On Workload, Pressure, and the Ways through the Woods.” The piece is an attempt at articulating what’s been going on in a lot […]