When I started on this writing journey seven years ago, there were a couple of things I knew for sure. I wanted to share experiences through writing. Something different was…
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I distinctly remember the moment I wanted to become a teacher. There was nothing fancy or profound about the moment, but instead, there was a feeling I had. I was…
As I sit here writing this my brother is on a respirator in a hospital room. He hasn’t been able to breathe completely on his own or wake up fully…
I’m sharing out my process below for writing my new book, The PBL Playbook: A Guide to ACTUALLY Doing Project-Based Learning. I used design thinking as a framework to write the book…
I had to share this story. Last week I had the opportunity to take a group of students from our High School to the Franklin Institute. It was the first…
It was towards the middle of my first year teaching (8th grade) when it hit me: My class was spinning out of control, and it was all my fault. I…
A few years ago, during the school year, my students and I had a similar problem: There wasn’t an opportunity for me to find out what they really enjoyed doing,…
As teachers, our life is busy. It’s not only the kind of busy when you run from one activity to the next activity. It’s the kind of busy where you…
Daniel Coyle, the author of The Talent Code, recently looked at a study on feedback from teachers. This study showed that one simple phrase could boost student effort by 40%. I was shocked…
I get to visit a lot of schools around the country, and I’ll admit that when I see signs like the one below, I often cringe. It’s not the sign’s fault,…
In his book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg describes keystone habits as,“small changes or habits that people introduce into their routines that unintentionally carry over into other aspects of…
You are not average. Neither am I. Actually, no one is average. The assumption that metrics comparing us to an average—like developmental milestones, GPAs, personality assessments, standardized test results, and…
Imagine you’ve been in education for 7, 11, 15 or even 25 years. In each of those years, you have grown as a professional, learned new technologies, shifted with the…
Let’s start with the beginning. I’m an idea guy. That is, I have a lot of ideas. As a teacher I would constantly improvise, come up with new projects, lesson…
Blended learning. Personalized learning. Individualized learning. Mass customized learning. Differentiated learning. Online learning. It seems we are obsessed with adding adjectives in front of the noun, learning. While I have…
It’s 2017. Communication is changing fast (my 7-yr old daughter and I just exchanged Snaps while I am in Chicago and she is outside of Philadelphia in different time zones,…
A few years ago a colleague of mine shared a slide deck with me that completely transformed my perspective on leadership and building culture. I was new to a leadership…
When we look at what research says about becoming better at something, two pieces of evidence stand out. First, we must have clarity on what our goals are, and where…
Ahh, the day after Thanksgiving, and I’m seriously regretting that last piece of pie last night. But, I’ve got something today that’s been on my mind for a while. I…
Before I begin, let me make a very clear statement: I don’t believe that technology in our classrooms is a silver bullet. Adding technology cannot alone increase engagement, empower our…
When my students were doing the 20% Project (Genius Hour) in my class we had an “Epic Failure Board” (inspired by a number of people) where they would pin up…
A few years ago I was lucky enough to teach the book, Things Fall Apart, to my 10th grade English class. It’s a great book…but that’s not why I was…
While John Spencer and I were developing the LAUNCH Cycle, we came up with a few areas that were likely stumbling blocks in the creative (design-thinking inspired) process. One of…
I’ve been around a lot of 1:1 initiatives in schools. As a teacher, I was around when Classrooms for the Future started, and when my former district went 1:1 laptops…
I used to think all I needed to create something that mattered was passion…I was wrong. It turns out passion might start the engine and get the creative process moving,…
Usually, when I write a blog post it is because I want to dig deeper into a topic and explore its merit. The post then becomes my way of explaining…
I remember devouring “Choose Your Own Adventure” books as a kid. I’m sure many of you had the same experience as the “hero of your own story” making choices that…
My son Tucker seems to be growing up too fast. He’s almost four years old and getting ready to play in his first soccer league, going to pre-school, and we…
My daughter lowered her eyes, looked at me, and said, “I can’t do it.” I looked back and asked her again to put one foot on the board, push off with…
“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” ― Steve Jobs There are moments of…
In 1915 Albert Einstein sent a letter to his son, Albert. Einstein was living with his second wife, and had not seen either of his two sons for quite some time….
I am by habit a bibliophile. I read at least 25 pages of a book per day which usually turns in to 40-60 books per year. I’ve written a few…
My first season as a head football coach, our team had gone undefeated leading up to the final game of the season. We had a heck of a team with…
