Every summer we compile a list of 5 interesting books outside of education that we believe every educator should be reading. This year’s list is one of our most eclectic with books from the world of manufacturing, business development, literature, finance, and personal development. Take a look at the list and then add your own […]
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In my last post, I talked about how important it is to understand what your word is. Your word is your purpose distilled down to a single word that defines why you do what you do. It’s your own personal why.In years past, my word has been Options and Mastery. But as my role has […]
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Can I be honest about something? I hate most core values exercises. It’s not that they are inherently bad. It’s that they usually render the core values we wish we had or the core values we think we should have. They rarely help us see the core values we actually have.A simpler and ultimately more […]
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It’s graduation season and every year during this time, I think about Fran. Fran was a student in my junior English class many years ago. She was bright and funny and chatty and sweet, but she was also failing. It wasn’t that she wasn’t working hard. She worked really hard to do well in my […]
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When I was a teacher, I remember vividly those last few weeks before school let out. Exams, graduations, end of the year parties, packing up my classroom, then, finally, the last day of school! I remember looking forward to sleeping in a couple of days, before starting school or my summer job. Ahhhhh. Summer.When I […]
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When I first started teaching, I wanted to be a combination of all the movie and television teachers I’d seen over the years. I wanted to be noble and inspirational like Sidney Poitier in To Sir With Love. I wanted the steely determination of Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver. I wanted the combined toughness […]
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At Mindsteps, we often conduct student focus groups with the schools we serve. We conduct these focus groups to find out if the work we are doing with teachers and administrators is really making a difference where it counts – with the students. Over the years, I’ve noticed an interesting trend in what students tell […]
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It’s teacher appreciation week and we couldn’t resist sharing our own A-Z Guide for why we love educators so much!A – is for your attentiveness. You pay attention to your students and get to know each one personally.B – is for your best self. We love how you manage to give your students your best […]
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There is a difference between discipline and punishment. Punishment is about eliminating misbehavior. It’s often meted out in frustration and focuses more on gaining (or regaining) control over the student. Discipline on the other hand, is about teaching students the difference between appropriate and inappropriate behavior and helping students make better choices in the future. […]
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One of my favorite definitions of a discipline problem is “whenever a behavior interferes with the teaching act, interferes with the rights of others to learn, is psychologically or physically unsafe, or destroys property” (Levin and Nolan, 1996).That means, not only can students be discipline problems, but we can sometimes be inadvertent discipline problems as […]
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