Nearly 30 years ago, Alfie Kohn made his case against competition. “It’s always unnecessary and inappropriate at school, at play and at home,” he wrote, citing studies that show children learn better when they work together. Kohn argued that competition makes children anxious and humiliates the losers, with no clear benefit to the winners. In…
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Too exhausted for creativity?
I don’t know anyone who became a teacher so that they could lecture from a script or PowerPoint, grade multiple-choice tests or subject themselves and their students to a series of rote lessons. And yet, we too often default to these boredom-inducing strategies under the pressure of our daily workload. (Worse yet, that is exactly…
Read MoreIs giving up ever the right answer?
A parent recently spoke to me about concerns for her child, who is a student in my class. This student is struggling with the course content, despite completing all assignments, studying countless hours and seeking out lots of one-on-one help from me. Sounds like an ideal student, right? But the mom is deeply worried that…
Read MoreThe view from the other side
Last week, I wrote about my eagerness to read my students’ essays on how to improve American K-12 education. Forty essays in, and I’m exhausted but not disappointed. A few of their ideas are thinly researched or ill-conceived, but most put a lot of thought and evidence into their proposals. About half of my students…
Read MoreAny questions??
If we want our kids to become “lifelong learners,” one of the most important skills we can teach them is how to ask questions. Once you leave your formal education, the world isn’t going to spoon feed you information anymore. You actually have to find your own answers, whether it’s “Where is the bathroom?” or…
Read More‘Just challenging enough’
One of the great mysteries of teaching is how to find the right level of challenge for your students. Ask too little, and they are bored senseless. Ask too much, and they will give up. Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky became famous for identifying the “zone of proximal development,” which is education-speak for “teach them something…
Read MoreOne change – What would you do?
If you could make just one change to K-12 education that would have the biggest (and most cost-effective) impact on student learning, what would it be? Would you expand charter schools? Privatize everything? Change teacher education? Make college free? Make pre-school free? Reduce class sizes? Implement merit-based pay? End standardized testing? There are so many…
Read MoreNew strategies can be tough
The authors of Make it Stick (Peter Brown, Henry Roediger and Mark McDaniel) warned me that students wouldn’t necessarily appreciate better learning strategies. They were right. Using their research-based methodology, I have been giving my AP Macroeconomics students challenging quizzes at the start of class every day, to force them to practice retrieving their new knowledge…
Read MoreIt’s important to share that you’re not perfect
It’s hard to really remember what it was like to be a preteen or teenager. It’s even harder to imagine being one today. The drama, the pressure, the energy that goes into social media. We wish they could just set it aside and focus on what’s important, i.e. academics. But if we want to engage…
Read MoreSimplest is not always best
According to Doug Lemov, author of Teach Like a Champion, teachers should teach everything in the simplest, most straightforward way possible. I just can’t do that. Yesterday I was explaining to my fresh crop of AP Macro students the different types of economic resources: land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship. Sure, I could have given them…
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MARTHA RUSH 