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It’s possible that right now isn’t the best time to obsess about providing a continuous stream of curricular objectives for our students. That time will come, but it’s probably not now. We’re all familiar with A. H. Maslow’s theoretical hierarchy of needs: physiological, safety, love, self-esteem, self-actualization, and, in his later writings, self-transcendence [1]. While […]

In the early 1940s, a thoughtful man in his thirties was experiencing the torment of a Nazi concentration camp. A particular moment in his trial keeps coming to my mind of late. He was marching to a work site that was far away from his camp. Physically, he recalls, the pain was ceaseless. “Almost in […]

All school year, I’ve been thinking about leadership. I see and hear about both excellent and poor examples of leadership in schools and organizations around the country. Leadership is a useful topic for teachers to think on, as we are, after all, the leaders of our classrooms. And when comparing like schools, leadership is virtually […]

By the time we become teachers, we’ve had thousands of hours to contemplate and observe all kinds of learning environments. We’ve experienced motivating and demotivating circumstances. We’ve witnessed inspired and uninspired lessons. And we’ve struggled through incoherent curricula and flourished in clear and cumulative ones. And then as soon as we arrive at that moment […]

…is pain. This is important. When we see motivated students, what we’re seeing are human beings benefitting from the five key beliefs. On the flipside, when we see unmotivated or apathetic students, we’re seeing the dark sides of these five key beliefs. Think of them as the five key fears. These fears are: Anti-Credibility: I […]