Reforming School Sports
There’s a curriculum for school sports teams to support young people’s social skills while learning athletic skills, and to hold coaches as teachers to be accountable for more than wins and losses.
Change Team
An Alternative to Punitive Discipline That Really Holds Students Accountable
Read original Edutopia article here. “Mike” is misbehaving in class. The teacher does not want the flow of the lesson derailed. The teacher calls the main office to remove Mike from the room. Assistant Principal “Lee” arrives, determined that Mike be held accountable for the misbehavior, and assigns Mike to an in-school suspension for the […]
Schools as Communities
Of all the lessons in all the years of schooling, perhaps the most enduring ones come from being a member of a learning community, preparing the next generation to function in families, work places, religious centers, and in the streets of their neighborhoods. In this short video, I discuss making the community, not the individual student, […]
The Art of Creating School-Wide CoherenceSchool initiatives need to allow space for flexibility and innovation
Finally, for all who have asked for years, the full explanation of “Interests, Uniformity, Guidelines and Inventions” to have a successful school initiative, including my school’s bulletin board story. A must read for leadership.
The Pressure is Cooking Us All
Most teachers get time each day when they are not with students in order to prepare—“prep period”–grading papers, responding to emails, researching for coming lessons, using the copy machine, developing PowerPoint slides, writing reports and evaluations for students with IEPs, using the bathroom, calling parents, consulting with the school nurse about a student’s medication, conferring […]
A Lesson from the Pandemic
The first year of the pandemic, when schools went hybrid and remote, was incredibly difficult—a principal said that he felt like he was juggling on a unicycle in a hurricane; teachers felt the same. Every day blew us into unchartered territory. We re-experienced the daily anxiety of being a first year professional—all new, all untested. We did our best to not crash. Kudos to all who hung in.
Radical Empathy
My friend is a family therapist. She is intrigued by the ways all the people in a big family work together, given the innumerable conflicts in such a group. She encourages as many family members as possible to come to sessions, so she can see them in action. The more family members in the room, the more likely that they will behave in their typical fashions.
Book Review: “The Quest for Meaningful Special Education” by Amy Ballin
Let me begin with unequivocal praise: Amy Ballin’s , “The Quest for Meaningful Special Education” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017) is well written, robustly researched, as often heart-warming as it is heart-wrenching, and laser focused on equity and excellence in our schools—equity and excellence for all students.
Small (But Important) Steps to Integrating SEL into Lessons
Social emotional skills (SEL) is not a separate curriculum. Here’s a quick overview of integrating SEL into daily lesson plans—and improving student learning.
When to stop hanging In
After years of helping schools hang in with challenging students, it was time to clarify when to stop hanging in.