Simple, Shared, Classroom Routines During a school visit a few years ago I encouraged the staff to adopt common classroom routines to help their students be more successful. During my presentation to the staff, one teacher challenged me. He felt that committing to common classroom routines school-wide was “taylorism”. This particular teacher made it clear […]
I have the honor of speaking with educators around the country and for the most part, we’re a kind and decent brood. Even if we don’t see eye to eye, we usually let the person giving a talk at a training finish before interjecting. Usually… It was a warm spring day in Oakland, CA, I […]
One day after class, just before lunch, I overheard a colleague consoling a very distraught student. She was sobbing and as the tears raced down her cheeks, I could understand a little of what she shared. My colleague was her Primary Language Biology teacher, which was taught entirely in Spanish. From their conversation it was […]
Just as I realized in my K12 years (and undergrad for that matter), many students approach their education, with no plan. They have no strategy because they lack agency. If you’ve never sat in a classroom with that feeling that everything is going on around you, or happening to you, but you don’t quite understand […]
"Learning sometimes occurs because someone insists that you recognize the excellence in yourself." RIta Pierson In Part 1 of this article I shared the story of when I first believed I could be a successful student. This paradigm shift happened not because I earned an A on an exam or an assignment, or in the […]
“…by making it possible for people to enter the historical process as responsible Subjects (subjects denotes those who know and act, in contrast to objects, which are known or acted upon)…enrolls them in the search for self-affirmation…” Paulo Freire Subjects vs. Objects Growing up I rarely felt comfortable at school or in the classroom. I […]
Put It All In The Blender In the first three parts of this article I make the case that students need explicit daily modeling and practice with noncognitive skills and habits. I suggest that this happen from within learning environments that are blending analog resources with technology. And because educators are so short on time, […]
My assertion in Part 1 of this article is that students are more successful when they gain competency with noncognitive skills and executive functions. That students are more likely to gain this competency when they get routine practice employing these skills, not avoiding them. In Part 2 I pointed out that moving students online because […]
Kicking the Can Down the Road I concluded Part 1 of this article stating plainly that students are more successful when they gain competency with noncognitive skills and executive functions. Students are more likely to gain this competency when they get daily practice employing these skills, not avoiding them, within their educational experience. When students get […]
Why Blending Digital and Analog Tools Enhances Student Success There’s an article I recently read that described how schools were planning to use digital capture tools, such as OneNote’s Notebook or Google Keep. The plan is for students to take notes and to use them as a digital binder of sorts. Some of these schools […]
