Four Barriers to Learning 21st Century Skills
If you’ve spent any time around education in the last decade, you have probably heard about 21st Century Skills. Although the Framework developed by the Partnership for 21st Century Learning has multiple facets, most often mentioned are the learning skills…
4 Reasons Gifted Programs are Irrelevant
“What do I need to do to get my kid into the gifted program in your school?” “You know how important it is in this community to have your child labeled gifted.” “I need my child in the gifted class because I don’t want her in classes with those ‘other kids’.”…
PD is a Disaster: Here's What You Should Do About It
People are caring and generous when disaster strikes. After Hurricane Sandy, relief organizations received hundreds of millions of dollars in donations intended to help storm victims survive and recover. People give more than money: clothing, bottled water, food, and…
Sixteen Steps Every Educator Should Take in 2016
Educators have the benefit of getting a fresh start not once but twice a year. We have the start of school in September, then the turning of the calendar in January. Fresh starts often involve fresh commitments. I propose that every educator should make the commitment…
Dear Parents: Should We Stop Mocking the Common Core?
Dear Parents, I get it. You’re frustrated. You want to help your child with his or her school work. It’s supposed to make sense. After all, if an adult can’t grasp it, how is an 8‑year-old supposed to? So when it doesn’t make sense and you can’t help, something must…
Navigating The Bumpy Road to Successful Math Reform – Are We There Yet?
This post originally appeared in the Education Insider blog on November 19, 2015 To Maine From the Main Line When I was ten years old, my family took a trip to Maine. It was the first time I’d been on an extended car trip out of my home state of Pennsylvania, and my…
Improve Math Skills With a 5 Minute Daily Edit
There’s a lot we can learn about teaching math skills from language arts teachers. For example, think about how we build writing fluency and grammar skills in language arts. Among other things, we certainly do these: Explicitly teach important skills and rules.…
20 Years of Math: What’s Changed, What Hasn’t, and What’s Next?
https://youtu.be/vvnF9FMKvrw This post first appeared on the Education Insider blog at It’s About Time. Back to the Future I’ve been a cook since I was big enough to kneel on a chair to reach the kitchen table. I remember my father teaching me to measure flour, a…
Math Isn’t Spooky: Banishing Four Ghoulish Myths
This post first appeared at the Corwin Connect blog. It’s the time of year we celebrate scary things: ghosts, goblins, clowns, pumpkin spice (whatever that is). There is one creepy thing with the power to raise the hairs on necks everywhere and which rarely gets…
What's Your Hurry? 3 Reasons Slow Math Is Best
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…
4 Ways Photomath Will Ruin Math Class This Year
If you are a math teacher, you’ve likely heard of Photomath. The smartphone app, which debuted in early 2015, allows a student to take a photograph of a mathematical equation and then provides not only the solution to that equation, but the steps to solve it. This app…
Two Habits That Will Transform Your Math Classroom into an Incubator for Innovation
This post first appeared on the Corwin Connect blog. My wife loves her vegetable garden. Michele will spend hours with her fingers in the rich soil, nurturing her tomatoes, zucchini, lettuce, green beans, jalapenos, watermelon, and sweet potatoes. I love Michele’s…
Live Blog: Courageous Leadership with Pedro Noguera and Alan Blankstein
While attending the PA Association of School Administrators’ Summer Symposium this week, I will be live-blogging some of the presentations. Come back to this page at 10:00 a.m. on July 28, 2015 for the opening session with renowned authors and thought leaders Pedro…
If Reading Were Like Math
“To me, math is numbers: it’s concrete; it’s black-and-white. I don’t understand why you need to bring this conceptual thing into math — at least not at this age.” This was a quote from a parent of a ten-year-old Pennsylvania child from a May 15 article at the NBC…
8 Ways Teachers Make Students Love Math
Reading has gotten a lot of love recently at Brilliant or Insane. As a math guy, I feel an obligation to restore some balance to the Force. Thus, I offer the following: …
Using Webb's Depth of Knowledge to Increase Rigor
The word “rigor” is hard to avoid today, and it provokes strong reactions from educators. Policymakers tout its importance. Publishers promote it as a feature of their materials. But some teachers share the view of Joanne Yatvin, past president of the National Council…
Replace Grades with Feedback to Spark Fearless Learning
This summer I have had the privilege and joy of taking my son around the region doing college visits. Two of the schools he’s looking at are in cities I don’t visit often: New York and Pittsburgh. Thankfully, though, my car has a GPS navigation system, so we were able…
With No-Grades Schools, Colleges Will Have to Fall In Line
As a school district administrator, I have the privilege of working with all of the teachers new to our schools during a weeklong program of induction and orientation. Monday, we treated this fabulous group of educators to lunch. As we headed back, the conversation…
5 Principles for a Problem Solving Classroom
Districts across the United States are implementing the Common Core State Standards, and they are realigning curriculum for English Language Arts and Mathematics. Unfortunately, some of them are simply purchasing a shiny, new “Common Core Edition” of their existing…
ACT Test Says More STEM Courses Aren't Better
ACT, the organization that produces one of the two major college entrance exams in the United States, has just reported that taking more math and science courses has little or no effect on student achievement in those subjects. In a report with the slightly…
Book Review: Digital Leadership
Everything is changing—society, the educational landscape, and learners—and it is time for educational leaders to embody a modern, progressive form of leadership. More often than not, the individuals trusted with leading change in the twenty-first century are the…