Okay — thanks for the honesty. If you’re seeing lots of student apathy (and by “seeing” I mean feeling its weight on your soul), five key beliefs work will help you regain agency and impact. This isn’t silver bullet stuff; it’s just a low-stress, high-yield methodology for thinking and doing something about student motivation obstacles. […]
Search Results for: moments of genuine connection
Finish Like We’d Like to Start: The Return of These 6 Things
Author’s Note: May the 4th be with you. How’d I do on the title? It was between that and These 6 Things Strikes Back. (These 6 Things: A New Hope seemed a little much.) I was talking with my friend Dr. T a couple weeks back, and he said this line that had immediate resonance: […]
How I Handled Misbehaviors on the First Day of Zoom Classroom
On the first day of synchronous learning at my school, I had a pair of students doing something I hadn’t seen before while the class was completing a writing warm-up. They were taking turns flashing their videos on and off, making funny faces each time they’d appear. I could tell they were getting a real […]
Things That Help: One Fourth Grade Teacher’s Simple Method for Positive Parent Contacts During Distance Learning
Recently one of our colleagues wrote in to me with a tactic that ties right in to our desire to optimize the long-term flourishing outcomes of our students without burning ourselves out in the process: My name is Marisa Silver, a 4th grade teacher in Eugene, Oregon. I am a longtime reader of your material […]
People, Not Passwords: Why You Need a Catchphrase or Two to Define Your Challenges This Fall
A quick story: last week I was speaking with a former student named Dylan. At one point, he asked me a question. “So, Mr. Stuart, will you be teaching students or usernames this fall?” What he meant with his wry smile was clear — at the time, our district hadn’t released its finalized back-to-school plan […]