They’re Small…Not Lesser
“Come on, we’ve already talked about this.” “Hurry up.” “You’re fine.” “Use your words.” Which, to be fair, is interesting advice coming from adults who sometimes need an iced coffee, a silent drive home, and at least two hours before…
It Starts With How We Show Up
I’ve mentioned before that one of the qualities research highlights in a strong educator is the importance of building trusting relationships—with both children and colleagues. In my previous posts, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the relationships between…
Strong Teams Build Strong Classrooms
In this series, I’ve been reflecting on what actually makes a classroom feel strong — not in theory, but in the messy, everyday reality of working with children and the adults around them. In the last post I wrote about…
Vision Before Systems
Before I go any further, I should probably explain what I mean by “systems” and “vision,” because I used to think they were almost the same thing. When I say systems, I mean the structure we are trying to implement…
My Successful Classroom (Most of the Time)
What Do We Even Mean by “Successful”? A successful classroom does not happen overnight. If it did, someone would have written a very expensive book about it already and we’d all be following The 3-Step Calm Classroom Method™ while drinking…
