This Sunday, I’m going for a bike ride. Who cares, right? Well, it’s my first bike ride since last Sunday, and here’s why it’s a big deal… I have never “done nothing well.” Or at least that is what I have always told myself. I started cycling about 12 years ago, but last May (2021), […]
Read more "Why rest is so important; and so difficult"I can’t help but to laugh about the ‘new’ craze for lots of schools wanting to create an Outdoor Classroom. It’s absolutely not funny as to why everyone is now into this, as we approach the 2020-2021 school year in a global pandemic; but having taught outside for most of my 23 year teaching career, […]
Read more "The ‘new’Outdoor Classroom: 10 tips for success"SMART goals, UBD, curriculum maps, PBL, etc… are fine. However, if you are an educator, regardless of how long you have been teaching, my advice is that you have ONE goal this school year. Pretty simple…be AWESOME with students. I don’t mean be really good or great… I mean be AWESOME with them. They need […]
Read more "Be awesome with students: your only “back to school” goal"“If you are like me, you also receive a lot of emails that you definitely do NOT want to receive. However, somewhere along the line you signed up for them, intentionally or not. Summer is good time, when you do check your emails, to work through the inbox and UNSUBSCRIBE to the lots of emails that you may get.”
Read more "Your Inbox – How to manage school email on summer break"May is the ‘winner’ of the busiest month award for everyone in the education world as far as I’m concerned. So, how do we mange this? How do we push through to the end of the year as to not limp across the finish line, but to run all the way through it?
Read more "Leave a great LAST impression: How to run through the finish line at the end of the school year"“The longer of I have taught, the more I have tried to use that model. Admittedly, I let that slip a little lately and noticed that my students started to work their way further and further away from the front of the room and move toward what I like to call the “Corner of Apathy.” So, I put up the caution tape and attached the note you see in the picture.”
Read more "The Black Hole of Learning"When I recently asked my wife if I talk too much or if I’m becoming “that person” (you know that person, AKA: The human rain delay) she said “Yeah, sometimes.” (that’s why I love her, really) So what I’m about to write and try to do is going to be a struggle.
Read more "One simple goal for the 2017-2018 School year: Avoid being a human rain delay!"No, it doesn’t fit into your state curriculum. It’s not in the “Standards” or the “Frameworks”, however if you are in any way trying to make great connections with students (what teacher worth their salt isn’t?), I think it is a MUST in your year.
Read more "Your MOST important :20 minutes of teaching that no one talks about"This past week I had the opportunity to present four education sessions at the MTA (Massachusetts Teachers Association) summer conference at UMASS in Amherst, MA. When I present at conferences I try to stick to themes and ideas and create ‘what can teachers/administrators use immediately’ types of sessions. I know as an educator, those types of sessions, articles and […]
Read more "I’m sick of theory too!"A number of years ago, when my professional speaking business had really started growing and I was feeling A LOT too good about how awesome I was at speaking, I had, to this day, one of the most embarrassing, poorly prepared and humbling moments of my entire life; let alone my speaking work. I was […]
Read more "Learning from the embarrassment of a lifetime"
Game Changer Teaching 