A colleague who attended our recent workshop for medical educators, Josie Amory of Seattle, WA, passed along this Instagram post from Taylor Swift about her concert preparation routine: “This insta post reminded me of the discussion we had about working memory and habits good teachers use to reduce their dependence on working memory, which in…
We often introduce ourselves in our workshops by sharing that Teach Like a Champion is more than just a book, but that we are actually a team of people who have come together to study teaching with the belief that any contemplation of a more just, equitable and inclusive society requires that schools are not just…
This week Jen Rugani and I have been presenting our first iteration of a new workshop, Foundational Literacy. Why a Foundational Literacy workshop? There’s been a massive and important migration towards structured literacy programs with systematic and synthetic phonics in the primary grades. That’s a good thing. (Heavy debt of gratitude here to Emily…
Our weekly team meeting gives us the chance to do what we love most: study great teaching. This week, we had the privilege to study Dayla Bedford of Emma Donnan Elementary School in Indianapolis, IN. Dayla joyfully and skillfully executing a phonics lesson with her first-graders. [We’ll share a longer video of Dayla’s impressive phonics…
I watched a fascinating moment in a reading classroom last week. The class (third grade) was reading Charlotte’s Web when they came across this scene: “But Charlotte,” said Wilbur, “I’m not terrific.” “That doesn’t make a particle of difference,” replied Charlotte. “Not a particle. People believe almost anything they see in print. Does anybody know…