A couple of weeks ago I wrote a series of posts about my visit to London’s Michaela School. I wrote about: their marking policy and how it could in some cases reduce teacher workload; the power of the school’s emphasis on gratitude; and the decisions we all get to make on whether to judge or ‘steal’ from…
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…
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…
We’re buried deep today where I live. All of us under a foot or so of snow , and me even deeper under the weight of Teach Like a Champion revisions that are going to drive me to drink… or at least to long binges of the Pogues. I have therefore pleaded with some of my…
At our workshops we often talk about the importance of shared vocabulary–the power of being able to communicate accurately, quickly, without ambiguity about technical aspects of performance. This is true whether you are a teacher (“That was great but what if you unbundled your questions a little more and added a “Stretch It”) or a principal;…