Next Wednesday night, I'm going to record a set of practical insights that are slowly changing my experience of teaching this year. These are all topics that deserve their own blog posts, but I've just not had the time.
I'm talking about:
New insights on student motivation, such as:
- Why the most promising avenue for helping students to value the work of learning is also the one we tend to rely upon least.
- How our curricular biases in K-6 schooling yield widespread (albeit unintended) negative consequences in mental health, student achievement, and equity.
- What I'm noticing are the two beliefs that completely change how a human being can experience an education (whether in the teacher's role or the student's).
New insights on instruction, including:
- What Gallagher's article of the week assignment has looked like for my students and me this school year.
- How I've run my first two pop-up debates of the school year — what's been the same, what's been different.
- The instructional method I've come to rely on amidst the demands of concurrent teaching (*I'm getting so much sanity from this one*).
- The surprising results of an experiment in two of my classes during which I felt terrible about being boring but ended up surprised by students' achievement and appreciation.
New insights on teacher morale, including:
- How the #EducatorEncouragement project was just a copycat of a consistently successful intervention used in the belonging research.
- What I am noticing is the #1 difference-maker in teacher morale this year, far and wide.
- How black boxes and half faces are making steady withdrawals on our sanity… and what we can do about it.
And other new insights that have yielded quality of life improvements I didn't expect, including:
- The simple perspective shift that has me actually enjoying email right now (!?) and spending less time on it.
- How the disciplines of silence and solitude are anchoring my days.
- How the discipline of simplicity is changing the way I work and play.
And for every one of these topics:
- Practical, flexible application ideas that you can take and try in your own life and practice.
I don't have time to write all these, but I do have time for an evening recording session.
You'll be able to attend live or watch it after.
Here's the plan:
- Next Wednesday at 9 pm EST/6 pm Pacific, I'm going to record a talk exploring each of the above-mentioned topics, plus a few others. There are a lot of them, so I'll aim at that balance between comprehensiveness and brevity.
- For whatever price you'd like, you're in. I've always been blessed by the generosity of colleagues like you, and so I'm happy to offer what I think will be a wonderful professional development experience for any amount. Recommended price = $10, but it's up to you.
- You can attend live (I'd love that), or you can watch it the next day/week/month/year. Watching the bits of the replay might be a good activity for your prep hour — maybe invite a colleague or two. Heck, you could even show segments (or the whole thing) at a staff or PLC meeting. (Although if you do that, I'd love it if you'd consider a registration price that fits the size of your group. Email me if you have any questions about doing that — dave-at-davestuartjr.com.)
You can register here.
And please: spread the word. It helps so much.
Grateful to be your colleague,
Dave Stuart Jr.
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