The first day of school is show time. How we treat day one impacts the entire school year that follows. Carpe the first diem. Continue reading
Carpe the First Day
Speak Less and Listen More
Cartoonists make a living depicting a teacher talking to a classroom of dozing children. Keep yourself from appearing in the funny papers – speak less and listen more. Continue reading
Inform Yourself Globally – Act Locally
Life events change us and our institutions. The pandemic effects on school make 2022 fully unlike 2020, yet most want a return to the normal of that year that was. News tells us that is not happening. Inform yourself globally then act locally. Continue reading
Do It Differently, Smarter – Student Rounds
Teachers reinvent wheels every fall by spending instructional time getting to know new students. Students who were in your school last year are not new! Use student rounds for last year’s teachers to tell next year’s what they have learned about each student’s strengths, weaknesses and learning personality. Do it smarter. Continue reading
Do It Differently, Smarter – Teaching and Learning Is Not Piece Work
In the 1900s education adopted industrial models that do not produced effective teaching or universal success for students. It is time to do things differently and smarter. Continue reading
Personalized Education Plan as Antidote to Pandemic Education Losses
COVID killed more than 1,000,000 Americans and caused educational loss and developmental problems for a generation of students. These are facts. Continue reading
Summer – School’s Necessary Fifth Quarter
Time is never an educator’s friend. The school year is so packed with teaching and learning there is scant time for review, consideration, and design. Summer is a school’s fifth quarter, the stretched extension of a school year for professional reflection and planning. If not then, when? Continue reading
Victory Dance in the End Zone of the School Year
Teachers and children celebrate the end of the school year – the last day of an academic season – as the passage of time. Step up your celebration to a victory dance in the end zone of the teaching and learning year. Celebrate the success of your work – you caused children to learn. Continue reading
Being What We Teach
Teachers always reflect what they teach. The band director plays an instrument, the shop teacher runs a lathe, the English teacher speaks in complete sentences, and the history teacher overwhelms us with facts from the past. Pandemic teaching caused us to “be” our more abstract values – problem solvers, evidence-based, collaborative, and collegial. We were exemplars of our best selves. Continue reading
Recentering Our Matters
Old Boomer educators don’t die; they just fade away. We need to retire Boomerisms with our Boomers. Continue reading