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I’ve written before about Chris Hulleman’s “Build Connections” intervention, and it’s been featured in more prominent places enough to have earned a growing spot in the “common knowledge” of educators around the world. But rolling the intervention out this year, both with my students and with some of the adult participants in my workshops these […]

Last week, I tweeted an invitation to a free evening PD on student motivation. The title was based on dozens of questions I’ve received from earnest teachers around the planet. Here’s the placard: Within a few moments, an ELA coordinator from the American Northeast tweeted this take: “Um, let’s change the title of this. What […]

Last week, our ninth grade intervention team was having its sixth weekly meeting of the year. There have been plenty of times where these meetings depressed me more than inspired me. All four of us are hard-charging, high-belief, high-will, high-skill teachers, but all four of us were struggling with the motivational mountains that seemed lodged […]

For years, I’ve been marking student birthdays as follows. Let’s say it’s Hayleigh’s birthday today. During class, I call on Hayleigh and I ask her, “Hayleigh, what is one thing you’ve learned about life?” I record what she shares in a spreadsheet, and after she shares I say, “Happy birthday,” with a big smile. From […]

The next time you read a book or a blog written by a teacher-author, here’s something to remember: the reason that things work in their class is likely just as much a function of their credibility with students as it is a function of the quality of the things they do in their class. What […]