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Last week a teacher told me how excited she was to see the seemingly endless strategies teachers can use in helping students grow (see previous post).As we talked about John Hattie’s list together, I began to think about how helpful…
Over the weekend, I was having lunch with a friend who works in petroleum engineering. We talked about the kind of research and data that he uses to determine which sites are best for drilling or exploration. Investors are especially…
This summer some of our teachers attended Literacy Strategy as part of our before school professional development. As a follow-up, we invited a Literacy specialist, Shannon Gaines, to spend a day with our teachers observing and providing feedback. We scheduled…
All four of my children were taught to swim by a retired teaching couple that lives in our community. She was a kindergarten teacher, and he was a secondary teacher, coach, and principal. A couple of summers ago, I was…
October is busy month for our school. In addition to regular classes, softball and volleyball regionals as well as football games, we just hosted after-school parent conferences. As I was also working on the state accreditation report, I realized a…
Saturday I was up early to drive my fourteen-year-old daughter to band practice at the school. On our way, the pink fingers of clouds were stretching hellos from the eastern horizon, misty clouds were rising from the fields and ponds,…
When I was student teaching, I had the idealistic view that teaching alone was the most powerful way to influence the success of students. Although research shows that teacher expectations significantly affect the success of students in a classroom setting,…
In a previous post, I shared Building Positive School Climates: 20 Ideas from Principals on ways to better serve school communities. Last week I attended a gathering of innovative school leaders when we were asked for ideas on what’s working…
When I was in high school and college, my brothers and I worked part-time diving for mussel shells in the Kentucky Lake area. We would sell them by the pound at local markets, and those shells would in turn be…