Laughter is the shortest distance between two people. —Victor Borge My seventh graders were coming back into the classroom from lunch to the accompaniment of an upbeat jazz tune on my snazzy new cassette player. One of the students came through the doorway and stopped; he
Pollution and contamination of the environment, the rise and spread of international terrorism, a polarized populace, global poverty—the question for our generation of teachers is, “How do we prepare young people to tackle problems we currently don’t know how to solve?” This generation of school-aged
Let’s start with two premises. First, students need collaboration skills for learning, for 21st century jobs, and for life. In school and throughout their lives, they will work in groups; will live within families and communities; will participate in teams and organizations. Second, collaborating is
“You don’t have to be bad to get better.” We all have room to learn and grow, regardless of our level of experience or expertise. For educators, adopting a growth mindset is essential to the complex work of teaching and learning. How does mindset impact instructional leadership? According to
The dreaded IDK. We’ve all been in the situation when a question is posed and we hear crickets in the classroom. Students look at us like we’re from Mars. How we respond in this moment determines who’s going to carry the heavy load of thinking.