There is a rather strange relationship in schools between time and learning. I was first made aware of this strangeness by my friend Ray McNulty, Dean of Education at Southern New Hampshire University, and have heard other educators comment on it as well. The oddity
In my second blog I talked about how traveling to dozens of schools and talking with hundreds of teachers and thousands of students had, over time, aggregated into an abstraction in my head. Especially regarding collegiality and time, my new role in one concrete school,
The last few weeks seem to have generated lots of tweets and blog posts on creating positive learning environments and achieving desired behavioral outcomes with our students. Many of the posts also speak to the need to steer clear of rewards, tokens, or awards as
I remember the first time I was placed in a classroom with students all on my own. I had been hired as a 7th grade teacher and it was the first day of school. A student came up and tried to give me a tissue
Last month I spent some time with a man who returned to college to get his teaching credential after many years of working in the business world. I truly admire his energy, dedication, and creativity. He’s going to be a great teacher, but he was
There is a secret to classroom management. You won’t find it in most of the books on classroom discipline or the endless lists of classroom management tips. Here is a hint: It is far more important than any single strategy for managing students. Teachers want students
Contributed by Kathy Glass In my books Mapping Comprehensive Units to the ELA Common Core, K-5 and 6-12, I provide a rationale and suggestions for how teachers can use student checklists within an instructional program. There are a number of writing checklists that educators can download
When we start the journey of a teacher, nearly all of us had the same goals in mind. We wanted to make a difference in the life of a child. Some of us came into the profession wide-eyed and nervous while others came in with