How Mastery Learning Creates a Culture of Collaboration in Your Class
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...
Preparing Students for Mastery Learning - How to Start a Year - Part 3 Parent Buy-In
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...
Preparing Students for Mastery Learning - How to Start a Year - Part 2
It's hard to believe that school starts in six days. If you are like me, you wonder where the summer went. The past eighteen months have been like no other. Yet the more I think about education and...
Preparing Students for Mastery Learning - How to Start a Year - Part 1
This week I have been preparing my classes for Mastery Learning (I see students in about a week). Part of that preparation is creating some videos that teach students how to operate in a...
Purposeful Teacher-Student Interactions Every Day - Really!
Do you struggle with making sure every teacher-student interaction has a purpose? Do you feel like you have enough interactions with your students each day? Do you want more meaningful...
How Mastery Learning Can Help Post Pandemic Teaching
Are you worried that students will be in vastly different "places" when they return to school this fall? Some students will be on grade level while others will be far behind. How will you teach in...
Reflections on the Craziest School Year Ever
Like many of you, I finished up what arguably is one of the most challenging and chaotic years of teaching. I started teaching in 1986, and I have worked in education for thirty-five years. First...
Extreme Differentiation That Doesn't Drive You Crazy
Have you ever sat in a PD session and the presenter talked about how you should differentiate, but you said in your head… No Way! They are crazy! It all sounds well and good,...
The Best Thing You Can Do NOW to Get Student Buy-In Next Year
One of the most important things to do at the begging of the year is to get student buy-in. Regardless of how you teach, students need to hear from other students. Since, I teach using a...
Why Class Size and Student Mindsets are Not Barriers to Flexible Pacing
Are some of your students way behind? Do you feel like you are holding back some students in order to accommodate those that struggle? At what point do you simply move on and hope that those...