39 Things I have Learned in my 39 Years in Education

Tomorrow starts year 39 in education. Who would have thought? I will greet new students to my new room tomorrow. As I contemplate meeting my...

I was asked yesterday by a teacher how I am still going strong after 38 years in education (30 as a classroom teacher). Her school starts later than mine and she took time to visit one of my...

I'll never forget the moment when I realized that some of my students hadn’t really understood much of anything in my chemistry class. Students had just completed an open-ended experiential...

Teaching is fundamentally relational; nothing tells students that they matter more than knowing their names.  When I started teaching in 1986, I was so busy worrying about what I would teach...

The pandemic has been hard on schools, students, and, yes us teachers. One of the most devastating and demoralizing results of the pandemic has been that so many of our students are significantly...

I start my 36th year in education (28 as a classroom teacher).

Below are the lessons I have learned hanging out with teenagers for so many years. Here are my 36 rules for my 36 yrs

1. Learning...

Mastery Learning is hard work - really hard work! I believe that the most important part of having a successful Mastery Learning class is how it is structured and communicated to students. Students...

If you are following the script on Mastery Learning, one of the key principles is that if a student doesn’t master the material, they need to re-test until they achieve mastery. One of the...

Have you ever been in a class where you had to work in a group and you did all of the work? Have you assigned group work and seen students letting others do the work for them? Collaborative groups...

One important way to get students ready for Mastery Learning is actually getting their parents on board. To that end, I create a video for parents to watch that walks them through why Mastery...