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"Over the last few years, Thomas Goetz and his research team in Konstanz, Germany identified five different types of boredom and reached the conclusion that students tend to experience just one type over the course of their lifetimes. Interestingly enough, Goetz suggested that boredom was by far the most intense and most common emotion experienced by students as well. As it turns out, boredom leaves us feeling far more uncomfortable than any other emotion. It's no small wonder then that many parents invest great time, energy, and cash in the battle against it."

"Are  your students texting in class? Of course they are. A better question is, are you allowing your students to send text messages? If not, why? The picture above is what happens in most classes. Students hide their mobile devices and surreptitiously send text messages to their friends. In many cases they may be texting peers in the same room. Teachers fear this secret texting in class and, in many cases, ban the use of mobile devices entirely. A better practice is to embrace the mobile devices and the text messaging."

"Twelve years after landing my first teaching job, I was invited to interview for a position in a nearby school. Job interviews had been in my rearview mirror for so long that I wasn't sure what to expect. But it didn't matter; I had a job already, and this changed my perspective completely on this one. I decided that I was going to ask the interviewers a few questions of my own. Principals routinely end job interviews by asking candidates if they have any questions. Most teachers struggle with this. Many will simply say, No, or ask when they can expect a decision. Some ask questions they believe will be endearing; things like, "Are there committees I can join?" or "Can I get into my room early?" I realized in the last job interview I ever had that my questions were the most important ones, and the last thing I was concerned with was sucking up to the principals. After all, in a way, I was interviewing them. Walking back to my car that day, I knew I wouldn't take the job if they offered it to me, because they struggled to answer the questions I asked to my satisfaction."

"There are so many wonderful ways to welcome students back to school, and it's important to do this regardless of the grade level you teach. When students know you care enough about them to make their transitions happy ones, they come to care about you too. This is how respect is built. It's where learning begins too. What do you do to welcome students back to school, after a long summer break?"

"As both a teacher and administrator, I often heard from parents whose children were exceptionally good at math. "My daughter already knows how to multiply four-digit numbers, so third grade math is too easy for her. She needs to be accelerated." There's lots of research to support acceleration as a strategy for gifted learners. The Acceleration Institute, part of the Belin-Blank Center at the University of Iowa, recently produced a report entitled "A Nation Empowered" which details the enormous benefits to accelerating a student when he or she is performing well above grade level. Researcher Jonathan Wei of Duke University says, "All students deserve to learn something new each day." In math, the obvious way to learn something new is to accelerate the instruction, letting the student go on to the next topic or grade level. But "learn something new" is not the same as "learn the next thing on the district's scope and sequence.""

"t started my first year of teaching, and although things have improved dramatically over the last two decades, I've never completely overcome Sunday night stress. I deal with it far more often than I'd like to, and I know that many of my teacher friends do too. One of them just happens to be my neighbor, and when I tiptoe downstairs in the wee hours of a Monday morning to read myself back to sleep, I often notice the glow of lights in his living room too. It's good to know I'm not alone, but I'd rather be sleeping. If you're reading this post, I'm thinking you would be too. Perhaps these ideas will help you."

"reaching out to share their own tough truths and a bit of hope as well. "You need to tell new teachers how it gets better," one of them suggested. "You need to leave them with a bit of light." Point taken, and thanks for the feedback. I loved reopening this conversation! Veteran teacher friends: I'm wondering what you would add."

" The Most Important Video Ever Mark Barnes | May 20, 2014 | Featured, Inspiration | 4 Comments If there was ever a video that needs to go viral, it's this one. While it may be intended to promote Google to the viewers' subconscious, the video does far more than this. It also promotes the kind of change we've needed for nearly a century. In fact, this may be the most important video ever made."

"It took just one relentless bout of the flu to remind me of the power of empirical evidence and the importance of shooting data. More than numbers, it was the evidence gleaned from my experiences and the images that I gathered along the way that helped my doctor solve the riddle that was delaying my recovery. My kids thought I was crazy, but I took some photos to save the evidence, and my doctor appreciated this. Gross? Absolutely. Helpful? Definitely! The doctor said that the pictures inspired him to take a different approach in my treatment. "Good data gathering," he joked, and I smiled, recalling one of my greatest pet peeves: educators and parents who rant about their disdain for this very important work. To listen to some, you'd think data are only numbers that shady reformers crunch in order to cash in on imaginary problems created by incompetent teachers. This is a dangerous assumption. The fact is that data are information that matter, and if they don't matter or if the conclusions we reach aren't helping us solve important problems, then we need to change the data we're collecting and the way we approach analysis. After all, isn't it a bit silly to blame data for our own faulty decision making?"

"It's Top-Pick List Friday! This week, we are featuring engaging games for the classroom. Students will lose themselves in thought-provoking gameplay with these apps, games, and websites "

"Some writing teachers are a whole lot better writers than they are listeners. The more experience I gain as a teacher of writing, the less confident I am about what I think I know. If someone had clued me into this reality when I began teaching over twenty years ago, I might have been discouraged. Now I know enough to embrace the uncertainty and to listen to my students. This revelation humbles me in ways that keep me young, and it ignites my curiosities as well. I'll never be an expert, but I'm learning how to seek them out, and the discoveries I'm making have a profound effect on my teaching. Following are the five most powerful things I've been told about my practice by the only experts I've ever met in the field: the writers I strive to teach. These statements have made me ponder the impact students can have on all writing teachers, if we just ask them what they think."