Let’s be honest about the struggle — with our colleagues and with our students

By: mlsr10s January 23, 2019 Front linesa teacher's life, Featured, teaching strategiesLeave a Comment

Last week, I was talking with a friend who started a new teaching job this year. I was reminiscing on my first few years in the classroom — mostly the frustrations, tears, and rough days — and she seemed surprised. She said, “It seemed like you’ve always known what you were doing.” Nope. Our conversation…

Sure, that sounds good… but what about math?

By: mlsr10s November 7, 2018November 7, 2018 Front lines, What research is sayingFeatured, professional development, relevance, schools of the futureLeave a Comment

“When you start talking about authentic instruction and assessment, the math teachers in the room stop listening.” Not true for all math teachers, I know. But one math teacher pulled me aside after a recent workshop to share this observation. Math teachers — especially those teaching higher level courses like trigonometry and calculus — know their…

‘Cold-calling’ — done right — is an effective way to build classroom participation

By: mlsr10s September 26, 2018October 31, 2018 Front lines, What research is sayingeducation research, Featured, student engagement, teaching strategiesLeave a Comment

Presenting in front of the class makes me uncomfortable. If the teacher calls on me, I tense up and can’t speak. Running in phy ed makes me self-conscious and ashamed. There are a lot of things we ask of students that they don’t want to do. Does that mean we should stop asking? Earlier this…

Let’s do what works, not what’s easy

By: mlsr10s September 19, 2018October 31, 2018 Front lines, What research is sayingeducation research, Featured, student engagement, teaching strategiesLeave a Comment

This week, I posted a new article to my blog at NeverBore.org about why critics denounce interactive teaching — and why they are wrong. I’ll be posting there once a month on topics related to my book, Beat Boredom, my curriculum products, and the topic of interactive teaching. I’ll continue to use this MarthaRush.org blog…

Living the 1970s dream: A lesson in critical thinking

By: mlsr10s November 29, 2017October 31, 2018 Front lines, In the newsFeatured, relevance, teaching strategies4 Comments

Are Americans’ lives getting worse? Or does it just seem that way? One of our core responsibilities as high school teachers is to help our students develop critical thinking skills, learn to question assumptions and challenge “common sense”. It’s something we humans are bad at — as a rule — for all sorts of complex…

Great teaching? Only if they’re learning

By: mlsr10s August 12, 2019

Front linesa teacher's life, assessment, teaching strategiesLeave a Comment

He’s a great teacher, but when he was explaining calculus, I really couldn’t understand it. He ran a good workshop, but when one of the teachers didn’t get something, he just explained it the same way again. Is anyone else confused? I heard both of these comments this summer — just part of casual backyard…

When model students become the teachers…

By: mlsr10s June 19, 2019

Front linesa teacher's life, mindset, professional development, teaching strategiesLeave a Comment

Were you the kind of high school student who always did your homework? Who always studied for tests? Who came to class prepared? Or were you kind who procrastinated? Who scraped by on what you could pick up in class? Who was too busy or distracted to pick up a book or notebook at home?…

High-engagement activities make for a strong end to the school year

By: mlsr10s May 29, 2019

Front linesboredom, student motivation, teaching strategiesLeave a Comment

What do you do with your class after an AP test? Amuse the students with movies and games Engage the students in a high-interest project or lesson Count down the days till school is over Nothing at all Some AP teachers are done teaching on test day, thanks to their schools’ mid-May graduations. But for…

Could design thinking help us design better school policies?

By: mlsr10s May 8, 2019

Front lines, What research is sayinga teacher's life, school reform, schools of the futureLeave a Comment

I’m reading Tim Brown’s book Change by Design, part of my prep work for my job as Chief Educator-in-Residence at Quarter Zero, and I keep wondering: What if we used design thinking to tackle everyday problems in schools? For example, tardies. Tardies drive high school teachers and administrators crazy for so many reasons, but here…

Schoolwork deadlines: Are they valuable, or just arbitrary rules?

By: mlsr10s May 1, 2019

Front lines, What research is sayingincentives, mindset, teaching strategies1 Comment

Few issues spark more disagreement among teachers than late work. On one side: The real world has real deadlines. High school students need to learn this lesson now. On the other: Grades should reflect what students know — not their ability to meet arbitrary deadlines. Both sides have good points. The real world does have…

Help students learn to manage stress during ‘testing season’

By: mlsr10s April 24, 2019

Front linesa teacher's life, mindsetLeave a Comment

The ACTs and state testing are just behind us, and AP tests, final projects and final exams are right around the corner. Remember what it felt like to be a high school student under that kind of stress? Even teenagers who don’t have a mental illness, like anxiety or depression, can feel overwhelmed and stressed…

Memorization isn’t understanding, but that doesn’t mean it’s all bad

By: mlsr10s April 10, 2019

Front linesa teacher's life, teaching strategiesLeave a Comment

Now that we can google every fact, formula, date, direction, definition and synonym, many of us deride memorization as a pointless exercise. Instead, we focus on building understanding, developing critical thinking and scaling Bloom’s Taxonomy. To a large extent, I agree with this shift. I think our students are far better served by learning to…

We talk about equality of opportunity, but do we really demand it?

By: mlsr10s April 3, 2019

Front lines, In the newsa teacher's life2 Comments

In February, I wrote a blog post about the difference between social justice and socialism. In it, I defined social justice as “the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities.” One skeptical reader responded: “There is literally NO ONE that disagrees with that definition of social justice. Everyone wants equality…

Be a good role model — because your students ARE paying attention

By: mlsr10s March 27, 2019

Front linesa teacher's lifeLeave a Comment

In the past few weeks, two former students (both female) told me I had been a role model to them — but for different reasons. One, who had suffered academic bullying in high school, said I had shown her how to be a strong woman. She emailed to tell me how she had finally stood…

Five questions for parent conversations

By: mlsr10s March 13, 2019

Front linesa teacher's life, teaching strategiesLeave a Comment

For teachers, parent nights and parent phone calls are often a deep source of stress. It’s never fun to be the bearer of bad news — and there will be some difficult conversations when students are struggling. We want to communicate with our students’ parents, but we don’t want to say the wrong thing, and…