Dear colleagues, Since I’m a classroom teacher with exactly zero days of administrative experience, I typically don’t write articles aimed at building leaders. But: today is a special day because I’m going to do that. Administrators, if you don’t have a locked-in, 95% consistent cell phone policy that lives and breathes and happens each day […]
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Let’s Make Teaching Better.
Dave Stuart Jr. is a husband, father, and high school teacher who writes about education. He reads extensively across the disciplines so that he can create uniquely satisfying professional development experiences for his colleagues around the world. His mission is to encourage and equip educators on the journey to long-term flourishing and professional excellence.
Professional development. (The good kind.)
If we’re going to make teaching better, we’ve got to improve professional development. I’m not the guru, but I have spent thousands of hours practicing and researching the art and science of educator-centered, high-impact PD. My hope with all of these is that they help.
And oh yeah: I’m still a teacher. I’ve never left the classroom. With 120 students on my roster each year, it’s impossible for me to detach theory from practice.
Online PD
My schedule-friendly, all-online professional development courses are designed with busy educators in mind. Whole staff or district applications are available — email support@davestuartjr.com with your needs.
In-Person PD
I speak and lead education workshops for a limited number of schools and organizations around the world each year.
Books + Blog
My best-selling book, These 6 Things, has been read and cherished by secondary teachers around the world. My blog is read by over 35,000 educators each month.
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The Latest from the Blog
Can Science Class Be Beautiful?
The bottommost line of the Rainbow of Why is beauty. It’s on the bottom because it’s the least obvious in most secondary classrooms. We’re quick to tell our students the utility of today’s lesson or its relevance to their lives, but precious few of us ever get around to sharing the beauty of our subjects […]
End of Year Value Booster: the Led Tasso
There’s a scene in Ted Lasso where Ted swaps his bushy-stached, folksy optimism for harsh, mean-spirited foolishness. Coach Beard knows just what Ted’s doing: the Led Tasso. On most days, you and I need to be the folks in the room who are rock solid in our grasp of why the work of learning in […]
End of Year Credibility Booster: If You Could Improve ONE Thing About Your Teaching From This Past Year…
If you could improve ONE thing about your teaching from this past year… …what would it be? If you’re teaching an August-to-June schedule like we do here in the USA, then you’ve only got a few weeks left. It’s tempting for all of us to run out the clock at this point. I’ll start thinking […]
End of Year Credibility Booster: Final Moments of Genuine Connection (MGCs)
Wouldn’t it be nice to find a simple way to connect with each of your students, one last time, before the year ends? Ideally, we’d write handwritten notes to indicate to each student what we’ve appreciated about them and what we hope for their futures. But c’mon — that’s a LOT of work, both intellectually […]
End of Year Teacher Clarity Booster: A Mission and a Project
[Note: This article is a follow-up on my previous query regarding whether or not Cal Newport’s new book, Slow Productivity, is relevant to our work as teachers. I’m finished with the first part of the book, Do Fewer Things, and so far I’d say, “Yes — the book can inform and clarify how we teachers […]
End of Year Value Booster: Ask Them
Last Tuesday, I argued that you and I as teachers should take 10 shots at telling our students why their work in our classes has mattered this school year. Between now and year’s end, give 10 short (30-60 second) mini-sermons (see Strategy #4 in The Will to Learn) that answer this question: What was it […]
Three Outputs of Truly Great Teachers
GREAT. No living person has thought more about the word “great” than Jim Collins has in his long and focused career. If you’re a teacher in search of surprising insights into both your career and your life, you could do a lot worse than picking up Collins’ Good to Great (hardcover; Kindle; audio). It’s not […]
End of Year Value Booster: “What Was It All For?” End of Year Mini-Sermon
In Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, Hamilton asks Burr, “What are you waiting for? What do you stall for? We won the war — What was it all for?” This time of the school year, this is a great question to answer for our students. What, in your view as […]
The Second-Best Time to Tell Students School Matters…
…is today. The first-best, obviously, is the day they begin school, then every day thereafter. Trouble is, I don’t control the first-best. So I’ll take the second, with gratitude. After all, how often in life do you find yourself 100% in control of bringing about a second-best thing? I know, I know. At the time […]
Secondary Schools Wanted
If you work at or with a secondary school where teachers are feeling defeated, dejected, or sad about student demotivation, let’s connect. In the 24-25 school year, I’d like to focus on helping teachers and schools who have this problem. Let’s take the strategies and ideas from The Will to Learn and put them to […]
Using AI as a Parent
As I’ve said in recent articles, I’m intentionally not good at most things related to teaching. To me, this is the key to being a good teacher while having a life. It’s the crux of the two books that represent my core thinking, These 6 Things and The Will to Learn. Both of those books […]
What I’m Trying to Say Is
Dear colleague, I’m grateful to be coming off a needed staycation spring break. Now I’m ready to get back to teaching right beside you as we seek to finish strong. During the break, I took a mini-retreat to a cabin with no wifi, seeking clarity about this blog. What the heck is this blog for? […]
Three Tips for More MEANINGful Parent/Teacher Conferences
As I shared last time, this spring I’m giving Cal Newport’s new book a look. It’s called Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout (emphases mine), and I’m finding it challenging and provocative in just the ways my mind and heart need at this point in the school year. I’d love to have […]
Can Teachers Practice Cal Newport’s “Slow Productivity”?
Dear colleague, In his new book Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, Georgetown professor Cal Newport argues that the working lives of knowledge workers are filled with pseudo-productivity. Pseudo-productivity, in Newport’s parlance, is a “mood” of busyness that equates visible activity with actual productive effort. In terms of us teachers, pseudo-productivity can […]
How to Resolve Pop-Up Debate Power Struggles Where a Student Refuses to Speak
I’ve written before on what I do for students who have official accommodations that prohibit mandated public speaking. But what about those students who do not have such accommodations but still refuse to speak? Here’s how one reader posed the question: Hey Dave,I agree that your pop up debate format can be a magical tool. […]