To produce the clarity of thought necessary for deep and impactful teaching, the teacher has to do something that her environment constantly resists: she must avail herself of distraction-free blocks of time each day in which to do her most important work. I’ll use my setting as an example of what I mean by an […]
Search Results for: moments of genuine connection
What to Do When You Need a Credibility Breakthrough: The Student-by-Student Ground Game
Last time, we looked at the CCP of teacher credibility. Now, let’s examine the top trick I know for building it rapidly. This is useful if you’re new at a school or if you feel like you’re credibility is stagnating. What Kevin Hart taught me about teaching I read a story recently about comedian Kevin […]
Humble-Boldness: A Common Trait of the Greatest Teachers
To be good at teaching, you need to do a few things well, getting better at them as your career progresses. And then you need to do all the rest of the things just well enough. (The “well enough” things get satisficed — one of the most useful terms I’ve come across in my research.) To be great at teaching, you need to keep on doing […]
Why Conversations (Valued Within Exercise)
Dear colleague, As I’ve been saying, the Value Puzzle can be solved from two angles: teacher-generated Mini-Sermons and student-generated Valued Within exercises. The Utility-Value “T-Chart” Intervention that we looked at last time is a prime example of a “Valued Within” exercise. Today we’ll look at another. Some years ago, I was engaged in a PD […]
Teacher Transformation: The Two Things It Takes
Dear colleague, During this past summer, I spent much of the time enjoying time away from the teaching and writing grind. But sprinkled throughout that time, I also travelled to schools in Ohio, Michigan, California, Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, and Texas. In the midst of that PD work, I realized something about what a good professional […]