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When politicians and thought leaders can’t or won’t agree on a basic set of facts, how can we motivate students for the noble pursuit of truth and help them see why it still matters?

An unavoidable challenge arises when students realize that no matter how many facts support a certain conclusion, denial and dissent remain.

“You have to trust [that] the best information, the truth, will always prevail,” he said, though “that’s tough when you face a crowd of people screaming at you on Twitter in probably not the nicest way.”

after I had designed the major portion of the curriculum for a new unit, but before starting it with my class, I would hold a "Curriculum Lunch." I invited students to bring their lunch to my classroom, where I would present a preview of my plans for the next project. I shared the standards and learning objectives as well as the projects I was preparing for the students to work on, then asked for their input and feedback.

mostly gave feedback on how to make them more interesting; engaging; and, in some cases, challenging.

Students who attended the curriculum lunches would often hype up the project to their classmates, which in turn helped create positive morale going into a unit. Students were excited about the next thing they were going to learn!

Ingersoll extrapolated and then later confirmed that anywhere between 40 and 50 percent of teachers will leave the classroom within their first five years

ut, turnover in teaching is about four percent higher than other professions.

Why are all these teachers leaving—or not even entering the classroom in the first place?

The constant barrage of doing--for both teachers and students--is intense, and it’s exacerbated by our digital connectivity.

We all need to allow for some quiet for teaching and learning to sink in in preparation for the next task.

83% of teens reported school as a source of “somewhat or significant stress” and most of our students are unsure about coping strategies.

Middle school students are more concerned with content relevance than with credibility.

They rarely attend to source features such as author, venue or publication type to evaluate reliability and author perspective. When they do refer to source features in their explanations, their judgments are often vague, superficial and lack reasoned justification.

Dimensions of Critical Evaluation

There are a few things in this world that will help you be an effective teacher. There’s hard work, loving what you do, and an attention to detail.

These ideas are broad and simple but useful.

This idea of applying gaming mechanics to non-game situations is known as gamification. What defines a game is having a goal or objective

What we learn from games is that adding narrative, storyline, a theme, or fun graphics to our lessons and activities can help students be more engaged.

Speak Up 2013 flipped learning findings include: One out of six math and science teachers are implementing a flipped learning model using videos that they have created or sourced online.         16 percent of teachers say they are regularly creating videos of their lessons or lectures to students to watch.    45 percent of librarians and media specialists are regularly creating videos and similar rich media as part of their professional practice.  37 percent of librarians are helping to build teacher capacity by supporting teachers’ skills in using and creating  video and rich media for classroom use. While, almost one-fifth of current teachers have “learning how to flip my classroom” on their wish list for professional development this year,  41 percent of administrators say pre-service teachers should learn how to set up a flipped learning class model before getting a teaching credential. 66 percent of principals said pre-service teachers should learn how to create and use videos and other digital media within their teacher preparation programs.   75 percent of middle and high school students agree that flipped learning would be a good way for them to learn, with 32 percent of those students strongly agreeing with that idea.

few schools provide systematic, long-term, programs to help teachers master their craft. Pre-service training is brief, mentoring is spotty, one-time workshops abound. Independent schools have often made a virtue of giving teachers a classroom and wishing them well—autonomy to the able, too often "sink or swim."

The goal must be to provide ongoing professional development that moves an entire faculty forward, consistent with the school's vision and core values.

New teachers, whether experienced or not, participate in a three-year program—yes, three years—of thoughtfully scaffolded skills matched to the school's chosen direction for teaching and learning. Some topics reinforce the school's traditional strengths; others reflect the major strains of innovation

Note that I'm using the term "facilitator" to mean the person who plans and designs agendas as well as who guides a team through processes outlined on an agenda

The purpose of the meeting and desired outcomes are articulated and connected to the school's vision, mission, and big goals

a variety of structures or protocols to meet the desired outcomes.

curiosity puts the brain in a state that allows it to learn and retain any kind of information, like a vortex that sucks in what you are motivated to learn, and also everything around it.

So not only will arousing students' curiosity help them remember lessons that might otherwise go in one ear and out the other, but it can also make the learning experience as pleasurable as ice cream or pocket money

No one looking back on his or her school experience remembers a particularly poignant test. Instead, people remember the teacher who reached out to them at a vulnerable moment, the unit that changed the way they understand an issue, or the project that seemed impossible at first but then became something far beyond everyone's expectations.

Warm, genuine greetings and attempts to connect can have a large impact.

Classrooms based on a foundation of respect encourage people to be kind and the best versions of themselves.

The Skills All Students Need

Communication. Demonstrate strong writing, speaking, and listening skills. These skills are game changers for employees with strong technical skills, since their work often impacts members of other teams, technical and non-technical, across the company. Critical thinking. Assess a situation and determine whether or not to ask for help, seek additional information, or forge ahead. Recognize when to “pull the cord” and stop the bus. Ownership. When taking on a project, own it from start to finish. Be reliable and know what needs to be done to complete the task, project, or initiative, whether alone or as a member of a team. Leadership. Act as leader, with or without the title. Recognize that leadership lies in how you behave and how you conduct yourself as much as it does in the title that you hold. Creative problem solving. Enjoy solving problems and doing so in creative ways, especially when resources may be constrained, time short, and expectations high. Self-directed learning. Own professional learning and stay up-to-date on new trends in the field. Participate in ongoing learning through online and in-person options, and be willing to share what you’ve learned with colleagues. Curiosity. Get stumped, but never get overwhelmed. When stuck, turn to personal and professional learning networks to problem solve. Failure is a part of the learning process. Collaboration. Contribute to larger projects and meet game-changing goals. View collaboration as a key part of the job, especially when it comes to achieving outcomes. High threshold for uncertainty. Be comfortable with the uncertainty that often accompanies problem solving, innovative and creative work. Uncertainty is what drives leaders to seek answers and solve problems. Recognize that setbacks and dead-ends are part of the process.