Laurie Santos, Yale professor and host of The Happiness Lab, has spent years studying what makes people happy. In a recent interview with the New York Times, Santos explained that happiness is not a destination but an ongoing process. She compared it to physical fitness. The activities and habits that contribute to happiness need to […]

I’ve been facilitating a team of K-12 educators over the past several months in an exploration of teacher feedback and its impact on student learning because we all have too many examples of feedback not leading to learning. Initially we examined the need for effective feedback to be timely, specific, and aligned to learning goals. […]

I was recently asked to consult with a team organizing the plan for implementation of a new instructional program across a statewide setting. They are considering the role of instructional coaching and whether that support should be provided by staff within each school or by district or regional personnel. A long history of efforts to […]

A few years back, I wrote about the importance of developmental relationships as defined by Search Institute—“close connections through which young people discover who they are, cultivate the abilities to shape their own lives, and learn how to engage and contribute to the world around them.” Search Institute identifies these five elements that strengthen developmental […]

“Decades of education research support the idea that by teaching less and providing more feedback, we can produce greater learning.” (Grant Wiggins) However, feedback doesn’t create learning by itself. Learning happens when students reflect on, act upon, and integrate feedback into their actions. That matches the message that I frequently share, “teachers don’t cause student […]

In a previous blog, I explored how educator learning might be approached through a push or pull model. Push training is traditionally management-driven with information delivered from the top down. Its formally scheduled sending people to training events or programs where they passively receive information, often delivered at a pre-determined time.  (I just had a […]