When we talk about the need for student cooperation, we usually mean we want them to obey us; i.e. the standard for cooperation is doing what they are told. If we want students to truly cooperate, co-operate, they need to know the operating manual of the class. They need to know what they can do, and […]
The epilogue to my 2021 book, “Improve Every Lesson Plan with SEL” stands on its own as an essay. I ask us to ponder how schools replicate or challenge the vast inequalities in our country. I ask: “To what end, to what world view, are we relentlessly pushing students so hard?” I ask us to say the words poverty and capitalism.
With so much to teach, there is constant pressure to move on to the next thing, the next lesson. Here I discuss the value of pausing to ‘dig in’ with a student, and bring their learning to a new level.
Here’s something different: a two-minute video on my realization that I need to be passionate about what I am teaching, versus only doing what I am told to do by a textbook in my hands. By the way, the opening music is from one of my bands.
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 […]
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.
What if we used the time usually spent punishing students to instead talk with them and makes plans in ways that help them succeed?
Women are often pulling for us to say what we feel. When you were a little boy, you had just a few words to say how you felt: mad, glad, sad. But now you probably feel mixtures of feelings–you can be both excited and nervous at the same time, or determined and caring. When the women in your life share their many feelings, you can match them. Better yet: you can share your feelings first.
Despite the boredom and enforced pass-fail monomania of schools, I still love being in them. I see when students experience, despite all the barriers, the moments of joy for having their minds opened and their neurons firing in unexpected patterns and, in those moments, transcendence.
There is never one thing that defines a challenging student, never one cause, never one life event, never one disability. If it were one thing, the solutions would be simple. One of my own teachers confronted me with this important and demanding advice: “Keep the complexity as long as you can.”