March 2016 NEWSLETTER Do You Believe Students Can Achieve? In this month's newsletter we are highlighting great work happening at an alternative education center in Northern California, so I thought it would be a good fit to tell you about a recent visit to a continuation school that has implemented Organized Binder. A significant number of […]
February 2016: Be Dependable To help your students succeed, employ a simple starting routine in which students can be successful—and continue using it every single day of the year! I am on my way to my English class during my senior year of high school. The classroom is at the back of the campus and the walk […]
January 2016 NEWSLETTER The Opportunity To Reteach A few years ago I was helping Helen, a teacher at an Organized Binder school, who was swamped by a very large exam she had to grade. I offered to help her record the scores and file some papers while she finished the grading. I overheard her talking to herself […]
December 2015 NEWSLETTER Paint the Gray Areas Black and White Recently, I had the privilege of introducing two new teachers from Oakland, CA to Organized Binder. Both are second year teachers who are both starting at new schools this fall. During our time together, they spoke of the struggles they and their colleagues are having with classroom […]
October 2015 NEWSLETTER Practice for EL Students A few years ago I was talking with a teacher about how to help her Spanish-speaking students increase their English language proficiency, a common discussion in schools in the US. She was frustrated that her students communicate in their native language when interacting with one another in class and […]
August/September 2015 NEWSLETTER CREATING SAFE CLASSROOMS “You always pushed me to my fullest and showed me how sweet the end result of hard work in class feels like. I got my first A of high school in your class and found my calling in life; coming from where I came from finding a calling in life […]
A few years ago I witnessed the worst high school class ever! I was sitting in the back of a classroom somewhere in the Mid-West. The school had implemented Organized Binder and I was there for a Follow-Up Session to meet with the staff and offer support. I watched in horror as the teacher took 20 […]
May 2015 NEWSLETTER DON'T START CLASS WITH A QUIZ "Give students a few chances at success before they have the chance to fail. Pack as many celebrated victories into the first two minutes of class as humanly possible!" A few years ago during a talk I was giving to a school faculty, I was drawn into a […]
April 2015 NEWSLETTER NO OPT OUT: WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER "When students are allowed to ‘opt out’ - it is as if they are invisible; that they do not matter to the teacher." A few years ago I observed a chemistry class and watched the following story unfold. While the teacher lectured, a student walked in tardy. […]
March 2015 NEWSLETTER TIP: CREATE VALUE IN YOUR STARTING ROUTINE "...having a starting routine that has value will help you start class on time and greatly reduce classroom management issues that so often plague the first few minutes of class." In 2011 Louis Menand published an article in The New Yorker (Live and Learn: Why we […]
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