Adult Created. Adult Controlled. Adult Conquered. Here’s a statement that’ll probably make some educators uncomfortable. In fact, some of you may disagree with me before you even finish reading it. After spending most of my adult life working in schools, I have come to believe something that we need to acknowledge if we’re ever going
My Reflections on the First Two Episodes of Sold a Story, Season 2 I just finished listening to the first two episodes of Season 2 of Sold a Story, and I wanted to share some thoughts. If you listened to the first season, you know how much it challenged what was believed about reading instruction.
Kids Don’t Need Heroes. They Need Believers. Read More »
For the last few years, much of the conversation about AI in classrooms has started with the same question: How do we keep learners from using AI to do their work? I’m beginning to think there is a more useful question we should be asking. Why can AI do so much of the work we
AI Is Forcing Us to Raise the Cognitive Floor Read More »
I have heard the phrase “we need teacher buy in” countless times in education. A school wants to improve instruction, introduce a new practice, or change something about the way we work, and before long someone says we have to get everyone to buy in first. The thinking makes sense. Teachers are professionals, they should
Maybe We Have Buy In Backward Read More »
We talk about feedback a lot in education. We put it in lesson plans, professional learning, evaluation rubrics, walkthrough forms, and just about every conversation about improving learning. Most of the time, though, when we talk about feedback, we picture it traveling in one direction. Teacher → Learner The teacher looks at the work, identifies
Feedback Is a Two Way Street Read More »
They are coming back. Some of you have already met them. Some of you are staring at a roster filled with names that will soon become faces. You have spent the last few weeks arranging furniture, preparing materials, reviewing standards, building slides, organizing resources, and making sure everything is ready for that first bell. You
Before You Teach Anything, Learn Something Read More »
As a new school year begins, educators are doing what we always do. We’re organizing classrooms, reviewing standards, updating lessons, attending professional learning, and promising ourselves that this will be the year we stay caught up on grading. Good luck with that last one. We enter each year looking for ways to improve. We revise
Are We Building Better Candles or Bringing New Light? Read More »
Summer has a way of tricking us, doesn’t it? At the end of the school year, summer looks huge. It feels wide open, almost endless, as if there will be plenty of time for everything we have been putting off since sometime around February. Time to rest. Time to read. Time to sit outside and
The final bell has rung. Desks are cleared, halls echo empty, and the quiet feels almost foreign after months of constant noise and motion. You’re probably standing in your classroom right now looking at the year that just ended. Some days felt like a sprint. Others felt like a marathon in quicksand. But here you
End-of-Year Reflection: You Showed Up and That Changes Everything Read More »
Most of the time when I write here, I write about learning. I write about instruction, design, tasks, scaffolds, feedback, and all the things we can build with intention so learners do more than sit, comply, and complete work. That conversation matters. I believe it matters deeply. Learning is the job, after all, and if
Because of a Teacher Read More »
