Doug Lemov's field notes

Reflections on teaching, literacy, coaching, and practice.

03.16.17 Lessons in Practice from the Seattle Seahawks

My Practice Perfect co-author Katie Yezzi recently came across a pretty amazing video of Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll talking about practice and his approach to it.  Beyond the key takeaway that practice is incredibly important to any performance profession–“Practice is everything,” Carroll says in the video–there are a ton of useful lessons for those…


04.03.14 On Planning for Coaches: Fernando Alva’s Session Plan

I’m overdue for a post on coaching. Sorry bout that. Manuscript writing is like digging a well. The farther down you go the less else you see. Fortunately I came up for air today for long enough to see this session plan by NY Red Bulls youth coach Fernando Alva, who tweeted it. “Tweaked a few…


03.27.14 Erica Woolway: Reflections on our ‘Fast Start’ Work with TNTP

TNTP has a new study out this week, a retrospective analysis of their Fast Start training program which set out to change the odds–and the thinking–on first year teachers. In the words of Tim Daly, hiring 1st-year teachers had become “like ‘Survivor,’ where only a few thrive….” and in fact where the failure rate of new…