Giving Students the Skills to be an “Executive”
It’s summer and the school year has ended… we had kindergarten graduation, high school graduations and college graduations. At this point, you know your students so well, maybe you can even picture what they’ll be doing when they’re adults. So, close your eyes and picture your class. Which of your students do you see having…
Letting go of “We’ve always done it this way” (Part 2 of 3)
If you want to start with Part One in this series of blog posts, here’s the link, though the sequencing is not essential. Being a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) is a source of pride for me, providing both a sense of professional accomplishment and sense of professional companionship with leaders in my field. The…
Watching Dreams Become Goals and Goals Become Realities
A decade into my career in education and I felt as though I had checked off all the goals I set way back when I was a novice teacher. I had survived the first year, while meeting, and dating my now wife. Next, I had earned a master’s degree in curriculum design and instruction and…
How Can We Best Address the Learning Needs of Our Students?
How do you overcome learning barriers in your classroom? What steps have you taken to address the needs of all learners? How are you able to keep your students engaged in their learning? These are the questions accomplished teachers frequently ask themselves. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) not only helps teachers answer these questions but…
Can we push accomplished teachers even further? (Part 1 of 3)
The hallmarks of accomplished teaching are analysis and reflection, the disposition to think carefully about teaching and learning, past and future, with the goal of constant improvement. I think every teacher I know, and certainly every National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT), has the drive to improve. After all, no one wants to devise and deliver…
The Reasons Why I Blog
At this year’s Teaching & Learning Conference, I stepped out of my comfort zone as a journalist and twitter-holic and into the role of a presenter. I was honored to be a part of the “Writing Our Future: Blogging for Educational Change and Personal Growth” panel, along with widely-read bloggers José Vilson, Renee Moore, and…
Passive to Active, Philosophy to Action, Novice to NBCT
For many years, I’ve worked both formally and informally with teachers pursuing National Board Certification. I coach them on their written commentaries, probing their thinking to bring to the surface key details that establish clear, consistent and convincing connections between their practice and their impact on student learning. Now, in my current role as a…
#TeachStrong
As a National Board Certified Teacher, though you may not know it, you are already a TeachStrong Advocate. As an Advocate, you should know that TeachStrong is releasing its first policy proposal tomorrow (May 24th)—on the importance of identifying and recruiting high-achieving, diverse teacher candidates—in Denver, Colorado. Tomorrow night, we will also be hosting our…
Why More Teachers Should Use Podcasts
When we started the third of four quarters in February, I gave up on getting my students to read outside of class. Despite the fact that the approaching ACT and an AP English Language test were a couple months away, I said, “No more reading Atlantic articles for homework. Now,” I told them, “I need…
