The best way to become a certain kind of person is to do what those kinds of people do. This common sense dates back to at least Aristotle, who taught that the paths to both vice and virtue run through our actions. For teachers, this means that if we want to be sharper thinkers, then […]
simplify
Why the Best Teaching Strategies Are Like Boxes of Building Blocks
A lot of my favorite teaching strategies are like the box of building blocks that my children have. When the box gets dumped out, it’s amazing how many things my kids can make. The blocks provide a set of very basic constraints — how many there are, their shapes, their colors — but mostly there’s […]
The Whirlwind
For the past two weeks, I’ve been meaning to write down every task I complete as I prepare for, teach, and then reflect on my lessons each day. In all the days I’ve tried this, I’ve never gotten further than an hour or so. Once teaching starts, I just can’t seem to find a way […]
The Secret Skills of Master Teachers: Atomic Habits
Recently, I had the chance to read an advance copy of James Clear’s new book, Atomic Habits. Here’s the thing: I’m not huge into the literature on habits these days. I’ve been fascinated by it before, but I’ve kind of moved on. So when I sat down to read Atomic Habits, it wasn’t because I was intrigued […]
The Secret Skills of Master Teachers: Batching Busy (or Shallow) Work for the Sake of Deep Work
“We got to the moon and built the pyramids without email and Facebook. You can go a couple of hours without checking them.” — Eric Barker, Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong I get a lot of email, as I’m sure you do, […]