Category Archives for "Teaching"

Making the most of any PD experience (even the bad ones…)

I have sat through my share of really bad PD. In fact, I got really good at being able to tell whether a workshop was going to be useful within the first 5 minutes and if I determined that I wasn’t going to get anything out of the workshop, I would quickly tune out. I […]

Bad Advice

All of us can use a little advice. But there is a lot of bad advice out there. Below are the top 5 worst pieces of advice given to teachers we’ve heard. Bad Advice # 1: You Need a Teaching Make-Over. Whenever you struggle in one area of your teaching, it is tempting to attempt a […]

The Surprising Thing That Happened to Me at ASCD 2018

For the last 10 years or so, I have presented at every ASCD Annual Conference and this year was no different. What was different was that my schedule was unusually packed. I went non-stop all day every day starting Thursday (Except for Saturday which I never work) and as a result, I didn’t get a […]

Three Little-Known but Common Mistakes That Lead to Feeling Overwhelmed… (and what you can do about it)

​​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 […]

One-size-fits-all Support Doesn’t Work

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 […]

Sustaining Your Motivation as a Teacher

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, […]

5 Books You Should be Reading This Summer 2017 Edition

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 […]

My New Word

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 […]

What’s your word?

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 […]