Wanna know the big difference between a motivated student and one who could care less?It’s not their grade point average, their socio-economic background, or even the degree of their parental involvement. I’ve seen failing students in Title I schools eagerly engage in learning about statistics – and also seen upper middle class students headed to […]
Continue reading
For years, I thought that the best way to motivate students was to have an extensive “bag of tricks” at the ready. The moment my students’ motivation began to lag, I could simply pull out my bag of tricks and find something new and novel to snap their attention back to the lesson.Sometimes I’d play […]
Continue reading
I find that at the root of feeling overwhelmed are actually one or more of these three common mistakes:Mistake 1: Too much stuff.Ever feel like you are drowning in a pile of stuff – ungraded papers, or handouts from the last eight workshops you attended, paperwork that needs to be completed, or a stack of […]
Continue reading
Recently, I asked you “When it comes to your own professional development, what is your single biggest challenge or frustration?”The responses ranged from finding the funding for your professional development classes, resources, and trainings to finding good PD that was actually relevant to your area of interest or your specific discipline or field.But the overwhelming […]
Continue reading
One of my first contracts as a consultant was to design a support plan for teachers who were struggling to teach Advanced Placement courses for non-traditional AP students. Many of these students had never taken an AP course before and were really struggling with the rigorous material and the fast pace of the course.It’s something […]
Continue reading
If you really want to build true accountability in your school, then you must commit to strategic conversations with teachers.I believe that. But, as I continue to discover in my own work on school boards and some of the schools I serve, practicing what I preach is pretty hard.It is a lot easier to avoid […]
Continue reading
A few years ago, I had just started working with a new school. On my first day in the building, I asked the principal Mr. Dawes to take me on a walkthrough so that I could see the range of teaching happening in the building. Mr. Dawes took me to several classrooms and then I […]
Continue reading
It’s happened to the best of us. We teach a lesson because the curriculum guide demands it. But we don’t find the lesson particularly interesting and we have a hard time finding ways to make it engaging to our students. We just can’t seem to “sell it.” We get through the lesson but the truth […]
Continue reading
We spend a lot of time talking about how to motivate our students, but we hardly spend any time talking about out own motivation.And that’s a shame, because after working with thousands of teachers over the years, I’ve learned a really important truth about motivation:Unmotivated people can’t motivate anyone.Think about it. If you are exhausted, […]
Continue reading
Are there some people you tend to click with while others just get on your nerves? Do you find it easier to motivate some people while others resist you…every…step…of…the…way?You may chalk it up to personality conflicts but there is something much more basic going on. It has to do with something I call Will Drivers.You […]
Continue reading