Blogs on Teacher Development

It is time that teachers and administrators realize that public education has reached a dam in the river. We have gone about as far as we can go with isolated instruction and learning. While it may have served the purpose for the older generations, it does not meet the deeper learning needs of students today and tomorrow. Deeper learning can be accelerated by consolidating teacher efforts and combining relevant contents, in effect, opening new spillways of knowledge.

Early in the school year, Mr. Spriggs asked me to sit in on a conference with his most challenging student. Jon rarely participated appropriately in class, instead drawing attention to himself by "accidentally" dropping books, suddenly having coughing spells and loudly expelling air from either end. It was considered a relative victory when his disinterest expressed itself more quietly through slouched shoulders, bored yawns and feigned sleep.

There is resistance in life to many great ideas, and resistance to social, emotional and character development (SECD) in schools is one of them. Let's make 2013 the year you break through whatever resistance you are finding in your educational setting. Here's how.

It has been one week. The surreal string of heart-wrenching funeral services is winding down. The Sandy Hook children who survived have been placed in another school, and they will return in January. There is the facade of movement and activity in Newtown, Connecticut, but down deep, there is deep-seated grief and the inextinguishable memories of the 26 wonderful human beings gone too soon. It will be a long while before the families and educators will feel anything close to right again. But there are ways we can help and hasten the day when it hurts a little less.