More Than A Word… One of the most powerful transformations I ever made to my classroom was how I dealt with student failure to foster growth and progress. It was more than just changing my instruction, it was also changing the way I talked to, interacted with, and reacted to students when they struggled. This required a large culture shift … Read More
How to Handle Classroom Management Like A Referee
As I was watching my favorite hockey team the other day, I noticed something that struck me during one of the brawls that (for whatever reason) still occur in the almost every game. I was amazed as the guy wearing the black and white striped shirt held two huge athletes at bay and got them to stop fighting without even … Read More
Self-Paced Learning IS NOT Self-Taught
Self-paced learning can be a great tool. If you’ve ever tried to implement mastery or self-paced learning in your classroom, or attempted a long-term project that is student-centered, you’ve probably tried it (or are still doing it) because, frankly…these things work. Anytime you can make your classroom more student-centered and meet the needs of more students, you’re going to increase … Read More
Why You Should Focus on Small Classroom Victories
Are you focusing on small classroom victories? Teaching can be exhausting, and it can seem like a futile endeavor at times. The amount of work that goes into a single day or unit of instruction is tremendous, without a necessary guarantee of student success. So when a unit is finished, or a hard day is done, it’s easy to look … Read More
5 Reasons to STOP Using Textbooks in Your Lesson Planning
As I continue working with more and more teachers I’m often surprised at how many I still see “page turning” to plan instruction. “Page turning” is a form of lesson planning that a teacher uses, that is simply opening a textbook and continuing where they left off during the last lesson. Now don’t get me wrong, textbooks have their place … Read More