Whenever I can have my students do work on paper, I do. Paper is less wrought with temptation than a Chrome tab is; it requires no battery charge; you can move it around between people and places without copying a link or clicking a button. I’m no Luddite, but I love the simplicity of paper. […]
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Three Student Questions to Start (or Spark) Your School Year
This year on the first day of school, I asked my students to complete three short answer questions. (In my class, that’s a question that can be answered in 2-3 sentences; I use these a lot.) These are the three questions I asked my students to answer: Here’s a screenshot of the slide I use. […]
The Student Motivation Summit
This March, I’m partnering with the Illinois ASCD to put on a first-of-its-kind student motivation summit. It’ll be a day of PD, led by me, on the best things I’ve learned in my classroom, my research, my travels, and my book-writing about student motivation in secondary schools. I hope you’ll consider attending, either in-person or […]
The Best PD Is Often Next Door
As far as impactful PD goes, there’s not much that can compete with sitting in on the practice of one of the colleagues in your own building. Once in a while, it’s helpful to identify some folks that you might like watching. You can do things like: (Fill in those blanks with an area of […]
Happy Holidays = A Great Time for a Hard Pause on School
Hey there, colleague! I hope this message finds you well and festive. I’ll be out of your inbox the next two weeks so as to help you do the good and wise work of a hard detach from all things school for a bit. I want to encourage you with full permission to forget that […]