If you could secretly observe each of your students during class one day, what would you see them doing? I hope I would see my students all on task, listening intently to me (or their classmates), contributing to discussions, taking thorough notes, working collaboratively during group time, and getting the most they can out of…
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What I learned in 3rd grade
Have you ever wondered how your subject is taught to students at a lower grade level? When we think about these unseen colleagues in our elementary and middle schools, we usually don’t get past our aggravation with them. Middle school English teachers wonder: Why didn’t anyone teach these kids how to use punctuation? High school…
Read MoreWho taught you to write tests?
Can a test capture how well you understand something? I’m not talking about the massive standardized tests that are making us crazy right now. Just the humble classroom test, written by a teacher to evaluate how well a student is doing in class. The kind of test that forms a grade, then a transcript. Then…
Read MoreLessons from a “blended” classroom
In 2010, I jumped head first into the world of “blended learning.” It wasn’t because I was eager to learn new technology tools (I wasn’t) or because I wanted a flexible schedule (though that turned out to be nice). I did it because this was the only way I would be permitted to offer AP…
Read MoreMake them care
When I was an education reporter years ago, a school administrator in Kansas told me this: A major problem in education is that most teachers liked being students. You may wonder why that’s bad. Would we really want people who hated school to be put in charge? The problem is: Consciously or unconsciously, we teachers…
Read MoreFirst Day: The Job Interview
Teachers all over the country have already been back in the classroom for a few weeks, but here in Minnesota, the day after Labor Day is the official start of school. Welcome back! For too many high school students, that means a day of listening to six or seven different teachers review six or seven…
Read MoreShe got it wrong, but why?
You know when your students get something wrong, but do you know why they get it wrong? Figuring out a student’s cognitive missteps is one of the most difficult parts of this job — and one of the keys to being an effective teacher. It starts with a question for the class. Let’s take one day…
Read MoreFailure really isn’t fun
I have a love-hate relationship with tennis. When spring weather finally comes to Minnesota, I can’t wait to get out on the courts. I love hitting a powerful serve. I love a strong, low groundstroke. I love a surprising shot at the net.
And I hate losing. Unfortunately, I tend to lose a lot, and it’s a huge source of frustration. I want to get better at this game, and it’s very hard to make progress. Sometimes I even avoid playing because I don’t want to lose.
When I re-read Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset, this summer, I realized she was talking about me. When Dweck wrote about children with a fixed mindset avoiding challenges because they didn’t want to fail, I thought, “Yeah, I get where those kids are coming from.”
When she wrote about making excuses for failure, that was me, too. My foot hurt; I haven’t played for a while; the weather is too hot; the weather is too cold. I sound just like a teeanger.
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MARTHA RUSH 