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 […]
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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 […]
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A few years ago, my sister talked me into going to a yoga class with her. I’d never taken a yoga class before because I didn’t see how stretching equated to a workout. I preferred going to a gym and lifting weights or taking a really rigorous cardio class.But she insisted that yoga was tougher […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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, […]
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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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