First of all, I do want my students to memorize some things, even in the age of Google. Smarter people than me agree. Knowing things — rather than being able to Google things — facilitates further knowledge-building, critical thinking, and literacy. There are many ways we can come to know things — incidental learning, topic […]
student motivation
The (Mis)behaviors that Undermine Our Credibility
The wildcard of student motivation, in any given classroom, is teacher credibility. If kids believe you, they’re going to earnestly consider what you have to say, whether it’s about the content they’re learning or the other four key beliefs. When my students believe in me — when they find me credible — they listen to […]
Ms. Blizzard and the Potential Weight of Single Interactions
I was giving a keynote to the wonderful Colorado English Language Arts Society last fall, and the guy giving the keynote right before mine was none other than award-winning author Matt de la Peña. I had heard plenty about Matt before, and I even had some of his novels in my classroom library. What I didn’t […]
Not Just Home Life: A Critical Mass of Belief-Supporting Contexts
I want to camp out on the idea of home life today. Too often, I think we tend to write kids off who meet the following two conditions: They’ve got a tough home life. They are not motivated to learn. When I say “write them off,” I mean one of these: We stop trying to […]
Five Key Beliefs: The Source of Abbe’s Superpowers
Abbe personifies a lot of the habits and traits I want my students to cultivate: working hard each day, maintaining a great attitude, treating others with kindness, keeping track of her work and completing it with care, asking questions when she has them, appreciating a challenge, and on and on. If my classes were filled […]