All right, here’s the ground we’ve covered so far: Clear thinking yields better teaching and better living and wiser choices. We want to be clear thinkers. But it doesn’t come automatically. It’s not the kind of thing that a degree confers. It’s won through practice, and we can always improve it. To start, we can […]
simplify
Three Prescriptions for Thinking More Clearly about Teaching, Part 2: Consume More Costly Things
Last time, I explained that thinking clearly is a huge promoter of our own flourishing. And since flourishing teachers tend to do better work and enjoy their lives more than frustrated teachers do, this is no small matter. It’s at the root of our mission to make teaching better. So the first step is to […]
Three Prescriptions for Thinking More Clearly about Teaching, Part 1: Consume Fewer Urgent Things
When you think clearly about teaching, you: Analyze issues in the classroom more quickly and skillfully Depersonalize setbacks and failures so that you can grow from them rather than be crushed by them Design simpler, more powerful lessons Do fewer things, but far better Go home with energy left for your loved ones Enjoy the […]
You Actually Can, and Should, Shut if Off
Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day. — Tim Kreider for The New York Times “You know, teaching is one of those jobs that you just […]
Unconscious Thought Theory: This is Why Teacher Intuition Matters
In a simple thought experiment (described in this post and in the second chapter of These 6 Things) I’ve asked several thousand teachers over the years what it is that makes a student likely to succeed. By asking participants to think quickly (“Who’s the first student that comes to mind…?”; “What’s the first descriptor that […]