My colleagues and I are in Westchester today talking behavior and culture with 160 or so educators. One participant brought up the perennial question that looms large in the minds of those who train new teachers: which technique(s) should we start with? When you’re discussing something as complex as teaching, there are obviously no right or…
Ronnie Seneque is a 16 year veteran teacher at Kramer Middle School in Southeast, Washington DC. It’s a high-need (100% frpl) school in one of the country’s fastest improving major school districts. He’s read Teach Like a Champion, Teach Like a Champion 2.0 and Practice Perfect in addition to having attended our workshops. Recently he wrote to…
At Troy Prep, one of our Uncommon Schools, graduating 8th graders traditionally write thank you notes. They write them to anyone they want–teachers, parents etc.–for anything they want. Principal, Lauren Catlett, recently shared a few with me. The notes are lovely and gracious. They include comments like: “Mr. Belanger, Ms. Hernandez and Ms Strand, thank you…
Here’s a rundown of that video of Amarillo Texas Caprock High’s Beth Brannon that I promised in my recent post about unexpectedness. Beth uses, by my count, 11 techniques from Teach Like a Champion 2.0 in the clip (!), though you might never know it unless you watched carefully. Her productive class seems like a happy…
A teacher, “Jenny,” recently wrote to me with a very real-world question: I am currently reading TLAC with great interest, and I would like to implement these techniques in my classes. The only schools I know of that use these techniques, though, are charter schools where the techniques are embedded into the entire school culture. Unfortunately, I…