Teaching Gratitude as We Celebrate Thanksgiving

Teach Better TeamBlog, Connect Better, Engage Better, Teach Happier

TL;DR: This post is about the importance of showing gratitude to the people, experiences, and rewards that we accumulate through life’s journey. Celebrate your students’ cultural celebrations. Find out the “why” of the traditions behind the celebration. Teaching Gratitude It’s Thanksgiving season. I love hosting Thanksgiving meals with family. I have learned over the years that gratitude is one of … Read More

Moving From Self-Care to Collective Care

Teach Better TeamBlog, Connect Better, Engage Better, Innovate Better, Lead Better, Manage Better, Self Care Better

TL;DR: While self-care is important, it has become a way of shifting the responsibility, whilst putting more work on the shoulders of already overwhelmed educators. Mutual aid is collective coordination to meet each other’s needs. Collective care removes the responsibility from the shoulders of individual teachers and shifts the onus to the school, district, and educators as a collective group. … Read More

Gifted Strategies Are Just Better Teaching

Teach Better TeamBlog, Differentiate Better, Engage Better, Innovate Better, Lesson Plan Better, Mastery Done Better

TL;DR: Using strategies that support gifted students can support all students in your classroom. While at the Teach Better conference, I attended several sessions that would work well for gifted students, including using Depth of Knowledge and the Grid Method as well as finding ways for students to look at math creatively. Gifted Strategies Are Just Good Teaching These are … Read More

The Best of Teach Better 2022

Teach Better TeamBlog, Connect Better, Differentiate Better, Engage Better, Innovate Better, Lead Better, Lesson Plan Better, Manage Better, Self Care Better

TL;DR: The Teach Better Conference lit the transformational fires of the people who attended. Community is critical in affirming our ‘why,’ instigating collaboration, and inspiring us to celebrate all the ways we show up for students whether we are in classrooms, district offices, or running our own teacher-focused business. Teach Better 22 was inclusive not just by celebrating those with … Read More

Remove the Guardrails: Facilitate a Productive Struggle

Teach Better TeamBlog, Engage Better, Innovate Better, Lead Better, Self Care Better

TL;DR: Mistakes are essential to experience growth. Support students and facilitate a productive struggle for maximum growth. Challenges: Facilitate a Productive Struggle Mistakes are critical to deepening one’s reflection and becoming available for growth. Challenges are what we need to embrace the core of who we are, and what we could potentially become. Failure does not define us. It refines … Read More