The Real World
What is this "real world" you speak of? Who defines it? Is it the same "real world" for everyone? I was recently in conversation with colleagues about class attendance. Now,…
Dream vs. Reality: The First Day of School
I have dreamed of this moment for seven years. A fantasy from 11th grade still replays itself in my mind with crystalline clarity: My first day of school as a…
Reacting VS Responding
Yell and sit…sit and yell, get a little louder, be a little firmer…they’ll eventually listen-right? Wrong. I walked into a room recently where an educator was sitting on a bench…
Recess Is A Right
I posted a picture on our social media of a tweet from the 2006 MN Teacher of the Year Dr. Lee-Ann Stephens that read: Advice to a new elementary school…
Engagement: The Holy Grail of Teaching
Recently, a colleague asked me for recommendations of books about developing growth mindset. He wanted to be able to recommend something to parents whose children are "apathetic toward school." Learners. Apathetic. …
We Need To Talk About Families
Every family is doing the best they can with the reality they are in. Full stop. I'll say it again. Every family is doing the best they can with the…
We Need To Talk About Punishment
Recently, after working with teachers on shifting our approach from punishing to teaching, a teacher in attendance emailed me saying, "At first, I wasn't sure I was going to "buy…
Embracing Failure
I am a big fan of mistake making. Well, not the making of the mistakes part so much but of the learning from mistakes, expecting mistakes, embracing mistakes. What if…
Course Evaluations as Thoughtful Feedback
It's that time of the semester again. Course evaluations. True confession time: I don't actually read mine. I am far too thin skinned for that. I send them to a…
Teaching is Political
In teacher education programs, we have a responsibility to prepare future teachers for the civic profession of education. For me, this means registering students to vote in my classes, advocating…