Blog Archives

Practice Doesn’t Always Make Perfect

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We’ve always been taught that the more we practice, the more we will improve. And that logic makes sense. But when it comes to becoming a better teacher, this formula doesn’t necessarily apply. A group of researchers recently suggested that

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Emerson Is Right: Focus on Depth, Not Breadth

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Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Better to know a few things which are good and necessary than many things which are useless and mediocre.” I couldn’t agree more. But when I began to think of education, I realized we were

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Speed Dating…With Books

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Nowadays no one has enough time. Can’t make it to Target after work? Order online. Don’t have time to stop at the bank to deposit that check? Take a picture of it with your phone and send it to them.

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Fix the “Broken Windows” in Your Workplace

Broken Window and Red Weathered Wood

The Broken Windows Theory is the sociological dogma that if a community tolerates peccadillos (such as broken windows and graffiti), serious crimes are more likely to occur. In her post in Psychology Today, Gretchen Rubin applies this theory to happiness,

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Want Kids to Make Healthier Choices in the Lunchroom? Redesign It.

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Last week we covered different ways to fight childhood obesity from the comfort of your own kitchen. But what happens when your kids are at school? Lunchrooms are notorious for offering unhealthy food options. Well, no worries, because Smarter Lunchrooms

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4 Simple Ways to Fight Childhood Obesity (from the comfort of your own kitchen)

Healthy snack.

According to the American Heart Association, 1 in 3 children (ages 2-19) are overweight and obese. Scary, huh? It’s not difficult to uncover the contributing factors to this statistic: children would rather play video games than play man-hunt; scooping up

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Taking Head Fakes from the Football Field to the Classroom

Football Referee

In his Last Lecture, Randy Pausch asserts, “We send our kids out to play football. We actually don’t want our kids to learn just football. We send them out to learn much more– teamwork, sportsmanship and perseverance. These kind of

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Why Kids Need To Be More Like Captain Kirk

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Today I started showing Randy Pausch’s famous last lecture, Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, to my students. If you haven’t already seen it, watch it. So one of Randy’s childhood dreams was “Being Captain Kirk.” As a child he couldn’t imagine

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Want a Resolution to Stick? Choose 1 Word

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The New York Times reports, “Four out of five people who make New Year’s resolutions will eventually break them. In fact, a third won’t even make it to the end of January.” Rather depressing, huh? So in the spirit of

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2 Ears+1 Mouth = Listening>Talking

girl listening music

We have become a culture that values talking, and has forgotten how to listen. Last week, I attended Carol Carter’s seminar, “Coaching Students on Risk and Reward.” Towards the end of the presentation, she asked us to pair up and

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