Children don’t learn from teaching that is too easy or too hard. Lesson design must find the “just right” spot where rigor and difficulty with appropriate teacher motivation engage children in new learning. Lesson design is not easy! Continue reading
Teachers of Bygone and New Eras
The profession of teaching has entered a new era. Most new teachers will be as professional as the business of teaching requires them to be. They will work their contracts. Life for them sets aside the eight hours each day and nine months needed for their teaching job so that they can live their non-job lives. Continue reading
Burying a Myth About Rigor – It Is Too Easy If Every Student Gets a Good Grade
“If every student gets good grades, the instruction has lost its rigor.” End of discussion and I fought the urge to throw my pen at him. Continue reading
Good Classroom Management is Not Easy; It is a Learned and Practiced Skill and Art
Field experience tells us that fitting a student management philosophy to a teacher is like fitting shoes. One will feel better, wear better, and be more satisfying than all others. Therefore, teacher prep programs must teach teachers a variety of philosophies and strategies so that a teacher can find a personal plan that refines student behavior and enhances student learning. Continue reading
Improve How We Treat Our Rookies to Resolve Teacher Attrition
First-year teaching is a survival of the fittest contest. National statistics are not changing and 40% of classroom teachers leave teaching in their first five years in the profession. Stop and consider that fact for a moment. A teacher pays $80,000 or more for a baccalaureate degree and teaching license. Their move to a new town and investment in renting or buying a home is a huge emotional as well as financial commitment. Then they walk away from that effort and expense. The reasons must be ginormous. Continue reading