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One of the hardest things for a practitioner is watching someone struggle when you know exactly how to fix it. You see the student hesitate. You hear the silence after the question. You watch someone start down the wrong path. You know the answer, the next step, the better strategy. Every instinct says: help. That instinct comes from care. Care, though, can quickly become rescue. Difficulty alone does not build courage. Supported uncertainty can. The distinction is important.

“Recognition is a reward in itself. Any form of appreciation, even a small word, is important.” ~ Vikrant Massey We spend a lot of time talking about feedback as a tool for growth. We talk about what needs to improve, what could be stronger, what should come next. Recognition deserves the same attention. A quick “I noticed.” A sincere “Thank you.” A simple “You handled that well.” A moment of saying, “What you did mattered.” Those words can seem small to the person offering t

A particular kind of energy belongs to adolescence. It is bold. Fast. Experimental. It hasn't yet had enough time to fully understand certain things. That energy is part of growing up. Adolescence is supposed to include testing boundaries, taking risks, trying on identities, questioning limits, and discovering just how capable you might be. The challenge is that we often confuse two very different things that can look remarkably similar from the outside: recklessness and fear

The First Days of Fall The first days of fall rarely look like fall. There are still warm afternoons. The trees are mostly green. Summer flowers hang on a little longer. Then, almost without noticing, the light shifts. The mornings feel different. One leaf turns red. Change often begins that way. We tend to look for transitions to announce themselves clearly. A new job. A new school year. A birthday. A decision. A finish line. We expect to point to a moment and say, There. Th

Apparently, I can find a leadership lesson anywhere. This time, it happened in a World War I trench. I have been listening to Angel Down as part of my somewhat ambitious journey to read every winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, including the years when it was still called the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel. If you are equally intrigued by slightly unreasonable literary goals, join me. I could use the company. Somewhere in the listening, one phrase lodged itself in my brai

There is a phrase that captures one of the hardest parts of caring deeply about this work: The curse of giving a $h1t. Crude? Yes. Accurate? Also yes. Especially in education. There are a lot of teachers trying very hard to create healthier boundaries. They are trying to stop checking email at night. They are trying not to answer every message immediately. They are trying to leave work at work, protect weekends, reclaim dinner, go to the gym, sit with their families, watch a

“Sometimes school spirit is really just belonging, made visible.”~ Dr. Catherine V. Addor Homecoming week is full of noise, color, music, packed bleachers, pep rallies, banners, dress-up days, and traditions that can look, from the outside, like simple fun. Underneath it all is something much more important. Belonging. For students, moments like these can help turn a building into a community. They create shared memories, common experiences, and small opportunities to feel co

There is something tender about the last days of summer. The light shifts a little earlier. The evenings cool. The things we meant to do suddenly feel numbered, and we become more aware of what is quietly slipping into the past. Mindfulness asks us not to rush through these in-between moments. You do not have to squeeze one more perfect summer memory into the calendar. You do not have to mourn what you did not get to. You can simply notice what is still here. Sit outside a li

As a child, I rarely took things at face value. I asked questions. I looked for the exception. I tried to examine an idea from several sides before accepting it. My sentences often began with some version of, “What about this?” or “What if that happened?” or “Okay, but then what happens when...?” The response was not always enthusiastic. I was told more than once that I would be “great on the debate team.” Other times, the question was more pointed: Why did I always have to b

A graphic on assessing conceptual understanding caught my attention this week because it asks a question that is bigger than assessment design. What are we really trying to know about what students have learned? For a long time, schools have been very good at measuring what is easy to measure. Did the student remember the vocabulary? Did they complete the assignment? Did they get the correct answer? Did they meet the deadline? Did they earn enough points? Those things can tel

“I know who I am, I know what I can and can’t do, and I know what I will and won’t do.” ~Dolly Parton There is a lot of confidence packed into this one sentence. Not the kind of confidence that says, I can do everything. The kind that comes from knowing yourself well enough to understand your strengths, your limits, your values, and your boundaries. That matters in education. It matters for teachers who are constantly being asked to take on one more thing. It matters for lead

You Do Not Have to Match the Pace Around You September has a way of making everything feel urgent. Schools are reopening. Calendars are filling. Practices, meetings, deadlines, activities, appointments, and responsibilities all seem to restart at once. Everyone appears to be moving quickly, which can quietly create the feeling that we should be moving just as quickly. We start measuring our pace against everyone else's. They already finished it. They already responded. They a

Schools are surrounded by people. Families come through the doors. Community organizations attend events. Businesses sponsor programs. Students sit in classrooms every day. Teachers work side by side. Leaders meet with teams, committees, councils, and stakeholder groups. There is a lot of proximity. Proximity, though, is not the same thing as partnership. I first heard Dr. Amanda Crowell use this idea in the context of business networking, but it immediately landed differentl

My daughter is a newly minted high school freshman, which means we are entering that season of welcome emails, syllabi, expectations, routines, and introductions to the people who will help shape the next four years. This week, I received a welcome email from her Global History teacher that made me stop for a moment. It was honest. It was refreshing. It sounded like a real educator talking to families about what students were actually going to experience in the classroom, not

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” ~ Zora Neale Hurston At the start of a new school year, we tend to think about what the year will bring. What if the more important question is what kind of year we will help create? Will this be a year that asks students to stretch, wonder, struggle productively, and discover what they are capable of? Will it be a year that gives them answers, not simply in the form of content, but in the form of confidence, belongi

The Work Behind the Work Labor Day gives us a reason to step away from the usual pace and recognize the work that keeps our communities, families, schools, businesses, and lives moving forward. It is also a good reminder that not all work is visible. Some work comes with a title, a paycheck, or a finished product. Other work looks like caring for someone, encouraging a child, managing a household, building something slowly, starting over, learning something new, or simply con

For years, we have pushed skills further and further down into the earliest grades. At the same time, we have stuffed the curriculum with more content, more standards, more assessments, and more “must-knows.” We told ourselves that earlier meant better, more meant stronger, and faster meant prepared. When children could not clear the hurdle we built, we labeled them. Behind. Struggling. Below benchmark. At risk. Not proficient. In need of intervention. Sometimes children do n

In retirement, my “start of the school year” looks different than it did for most of my career. I am not reviewing opening-day schedules, preparing for faculty meetings, checking staffing lists, worrying about transportation, troubleshooting technology, or wondering what completely unexpected issue might appear before the first bell. My mission and purpose have not changed. I still believe deeply in the work of schools. I still believe in children, in educators, in the power

“There is courage in rising without knowing exactly where the wind will take you.” ~ Dr. Catherine V. Addor We spend a lot of time wanting certainty. A clear plan. A guaranteed outcome. A map that tells us exactly where we are going and how we will get there. Some of the most important moments in our lives begin before we have all of that. Sometimes courage is simply choosing to rise anyway. To try the new thing. To say yes. To let go of what is familiar. To trust that even i

Helping Families Understand the Portrait of a Graduate and Outcomes-Based Education For generations, families have understood school through a familiar set of structures. Students attend school for a certain number of days, complete a prescribed collection of courses, earn credits, take required examinations, and, if they meet those requirements, receive a diploma. That system is familiar. Familiar does not always mean sufficient. A diploma indicates that a student has comple