What makes for the strongest professional development you’ve experienced? Does it: Help you to accelerate acquiring new skills to bring to your teaching? Extend your professional network through connections with dynamic teachers from many types Read more…
If we’re picking the best educational videos of the first fifth of the century, I’d certainly include on my list “Austin’s Butterfly: Models, Critique, and Descriptive Feedback” from EL Education. Expeditionary Learning is the company Read more…
You’re a teacher. Have you ever wanted to make a major change in the way schools work? Do bears defecate in the woods? We know there are all sorts of inefficiencies in the system, so Read more…
What is happening at your school that is so powerful that you wouldn’t want any child, anywhere, deprived of the experience? I’ve been asking this question as part of presentations I’ve made for years, typically Read more…
What if we strap electrodes to kids’ heads to monitor how focused they are, and share the data for all students in the class with all parents? Is this an Orwellian nightmare, or your deepest Read more…
On the same day I visited the off-the-charts intriguing space of Playground Global (see this post), I also visited a school of a kind I didn’t know existed. Several months ago some friends from graduate Read more…
Earlier this month, I spent a day in Palo Alto at two places, both of which have a heightened ability to provoke thoughts. I’ll save the second place for the next post. The first, Playground Read more…
We all are asked for advice from time to time, and over my years as a high school teacher, I occasionally get a question from one of my charges about relationships. Whether asking me is Read more…
We frequently ask students to try harder. It’s one of those things a teacher is supposed to do. But saying it, and saying it in such a way that it elicits the effort we want Read more…
In the swamp of seemingly endless stories about corruption, lies, shootings, and similar, it can be hard to be optimistic about the future. And yet, there are people like Manu Prakash. Centrifuges are devices used Read more…