During the summer, I am sharing thematic posts bringing together responses on similar topics from the past 10 years. You can see all those collections from the first nine years here.
Here are the ones I鈥檝e published so far:
The 11 Most Popular Classroom Q&A Posts of the Year
School Closures & the Coronavirus Crisis
Best Ways to Begin the School Year
Best Ways to End the School Year
Today鈥檚 theme is on student motivation and social-emotional learning. You can see the list of posts following this excerpt from one of them:
*Nine Strategies for Promoting Student Engagement
Five educators discuss how to maximize engagement, including the importance of understanding student motivation in and out of the classroom.
* Increasing Engagement With Student Choice
Four educators discuss ways to increase student engagement, including providing choice and building a sense of classroom community.
* Student 鈥楥ompliance Does Not Equal Engagement鈥�
Four educators share suggestions for how schools can maintain student engagement, especially during the teenage years.
* 17 Approaches for Encouraging 69传媒 to Revise Their Writing
Five educators offer instructional strategies to use when teaching writing revision, including the power of an authentic audience.
* Ways to Help Ignite 69传媒鈥� Intrinsic Desire for Writing Revision
Five educators make suggestions that might help students want to revise their writing, including by using 鈥渆diting stations.鈥�
* 鈥業 No Longer Give Grades on Student Writing Assignments, and It鈥檚 the Best Thing Ever!鈥�
Five educators share how they have helped students motivate themselves to revise their writing.
* Making Revision of Writing a 鈥楥ollaborative Process鈥�
Six educators discuss strategies they鈥檝e used to encourage students to revise their writing, such as demonstrating their own practice.
* 12 Strategies for Encouraging 69传媒 to Want to Revise Their Writing
Four educators share suggestions for creating the classroom conditions in which students want to make revisions to their writing.
* Give 69传媒 Choice When It鈥檚 Time to Read
Three educator contributors, and several readers, share strategies for encouraging students to read, including offering choice and time in class.
* Encourage 69传媒 鈥榯o See 69传媒 as a Relational Experience鈥�
Three educators offer classroom ideas for encouraging student intrinsic motivation to read, including through book choice and opportunities for discussion with their peers.
* 22 Strategies for Encouraging 69传媒鈥� Intrinsic Motivation to Read
Four educators share strategies for encouraging students to WANT to read, including by illustrating that it makes them smarter and that it makes them better writers.
* 鈥楢llow Time for Children to Read Whatever They Want鈥�
Four educators share ideas for how teachers can create the conditions in which students are more intrinsically motivated to read, such as eliminating rewards and ensuring that students are represented in accessible books.
Five educators discuss strategies for increasing the relevance of lessons, including by learning student interests and sharing the stories of scientists.
Four educators share ideas on how to help students see how lessons are relevant to their lives, including by listening, connecting to their experiences, and inviting them to create projects based on their own interests.
Five educators describe how they help students see the relevancy of lessons, including through the use of empathy and analogies.
Three educators offer suggestions for educators in the face of George Floyd鈥檚 death, among them, going beyond social-emotional-learning skills and 鈥渒now and teach the history of race.鈥�
Seven educators write about ways they have injected relevance into their lessons, ranging from applying culturally responsive instruction to inviting students to be 鈥渃o-teachers.鈥�
Six educators share strategies for making lessons directly relevant to students鈥� lives, including by building relationships, celebrating cultures, and applying a concept called 鈥淗ooks and Bridges.鈥�
I share two videos that highlight how to use the concepts of 鈥渁utonomy, competence, relatedness, and relevance鈥� to encourage student intrinsic motivation in remote learning.
Teacher David Sherrin discusses ideas on how to motivate students in distance teaching and learning and shares some online resources he has created for his classes.
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Four educators share advice on dealing with student absences. These include trying to find out the real reasons behind the lack of attendance and building positive teacher/student relationships.
Four educators share strategies for responding to absenteeism鈥攚hether from remote learning or from the physical school. They include a reduced emphasis on negative consequences and a renewed focus on relationship-building.
I share four ways to help students feel intrinsically motivated to participate in virtual learning, including by teachers鈥� developing positive relationships with students and by creating opportunities for small-group independent work.
Helping students form habits and explaining they鈥檒l get a chance to see their friends are just two ways to motivate them to do their online learning, says educator and researcher Harry Fletcher-Wood.
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鈥淭omorrow will come, and you should make every effort to meet it on your own terms to do what you can, for those you can, for as long as you can,鈥� says teacher Susan Scott.
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Ten educators wrap up a five-part series on ways to look for the positive, instead of the negative, in students, so they can change their own mindsets about the children鈥檚 abilities as well as their students鈥�.
Ten educators explore how to emphasize student 鈥渁ssets鈥� instead of their 鈥渄eficits鈥� in order to help students better engage in their education and improve their academic outcomes.
Elizabeth Stein, Beth Kobett, Ed.D., Carol Pelletier Radford, Noah Prince, Michael Hart, Ph.D., Jenny Edwards, and Keisha Rembert offer their answers to the question, 鈥淗ow do we highlight student assets?鈥�
Lisa Westman, Salome Thomas El, T.J. Vari, Joseph Jones, Amber Chandler, Michelle Shory, Ed.S., Irina V. McGrath, Ph.D., Rita Platt, Cheryl Mizerny, and Adria Klein, Ph.D., contribute commentaries on the importance of emphasizing student strengths.
Adeyemi Stembridge, Ph.D., Larry J. Walker, Carmen Nguyen, Julie Jee, Shawna Coppola, Kevin Parr, and Andrew Sharos share ideas on how we can focus on the assets, instead of the 鈥渄eficits,鈥� of our students.
This post includes four videos Katie Hull Sypnieski and Larry Ferlazzo did with Education Week on the topic of student motivation, and it includes many other related resources.
Paula Mellom, Rebecca Hixon, Jodi Weber, PJ Caposey, Blake Harvard, Katie White, Michael Fisher, and Meena Srinivasan discuss how to best promote student engagement.
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Today鈥檚 commentaries on student engagement are offered by Cheryl Abla, Jessica Garza, Heather Wolpert-Gawron, Michelle Shory, Irina V. McGrath, Cindy Garcia, Kim Morrison, and Ann Mausbach.
Kathy Dyer, Sarah Said, Samantha Cortez, Cathy Beck, Danny Weeks, Beth Gotcher, Madeline Whitaker Good, and Elizabeth Stringer Keefe, Ph.D., help answer questions about student engagement.
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Rebecca Alber, Andrea Keith, Tamara Fyke, Jenny Edwards, and Michael D. Toth 鈥渨rap up鈥� a four-part series on student agency.
Debbie Silver, Jennifer Casa-Todd, and Bill Ivey provide responses to the question, 鈥淲hat is agency and how can teachers encourage its growth among students?鈥�
Adeyemi Stembridge, Mary Beth Nicklaus, Alycia Owen, and Laura Greenstein discuss the value of student agency and how to promote it in schools.
Keisha Rembert, Sarah Ottow, Laurie Manville, Alva Lefevre, Lynell Powell, Felicia Darling, Paula Mellom, Rebecca Hixon, and Jodi Weber define student agency and how to promote it in the classroom.
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Bryan Goodwin, Laura Greenstein, Margaret Searle, and Jon Saphier wrap up a three-part series on resilience in the classroom.
Debbie Silver, Gary Armida, Tamara Fyke, Douglas Reeves, and Michael D. Toth offer their thoughts on how educators can help their students develop resilience.
Adeyemi Stembridge, Becky Corr, Julie Hasson, Cindy Terebush, Cynthia 鈥淢ama J鈥� Johnson, and Kelly Wickham Hurst share their suggestions on how to promote resilience in students.
Rita Platt, guest host for this series on trauma-informed teaching, continues the conversation with her own response, along with contibutions from Beth Parson Stauner, Robert Ward, Amber Chandler, and Kelly Knoche.
Rita Platt guest-hosts this post on trauma-informed teaching with contributions from Christy Wolfe, Jason Harelson, Chris Weber, and Jenny Grant Rankin, Ph.D.
Martha Caldwell, Oman Frame, Terry Roller, Kris Felicello, John Seborowski, Jessica Hannigan, John Hannigan, and Kelly Wickham Hurst share their suggestions for combating bullying.
Today鈥檚 commentaries on bullying in schools come from Ann Mausbach, Kim Morrison, Signe Whitson, Sandy Harris, Julie Combs, Stacey Edmonson, Elizabeth Englander, Tamara Fyke, Stuart Ablon, and Alisha Pollastri.
This post on the role of race and equity in social-emotional learning is 鈥済uest hosted鈥� by Mai Xi Lee, the director of social-emotional learning for the Sacramento City Unified school district. After her introduction, she brings together responses from Robert J. Jagers, Mary Hurley, Sonny Kim, Christina Arpante, Meena Srinivasan, Africa S. Fullove, and Kashia Jensen.
Carla Tantillo Philibert, DeEtta Jones, and Peggy Collings continue the discussion on the role of race and equity in social-emotional learning.
Experienced educators Doug Lemov, Danny Woo, Kathleen Neagle Sokolowski, Bena Kallick, Allison Zmuda, Jen Schwanke, and Mike Janatovich discuss how to handle student mistakes in the classroom.
Warren Schnack, Jenny Edwards, Michael Thornton, Annie Ward, and Cathy L. Seeley share classroom strategies for effectively dealing with student mistakes.
Amber Chandler, Howard Pitler, Barry Saide, John Spencer, Riina Hirsch, Nadja Reilly, and Laura Taddei are today鈥檚 contributors on the topic of handling student mistakes.
Margaret Searle, Diana Laufenberg, Jessica Lahey, Jonathan Cassie, Andrew Miller, Allen Mendler, and Mark Katz share their ideas on the topic of handling mistakes in school.
In this last post of the series, Bryan Harris, Allison Rodman, Dawn Mitchell, Josh Patterson, Erik M. Francis, Otis Kriegel, Barbara Blackburn, and many readers contribute their thoughts on student mistakes.
Mary Ann Zehr, Jennifer Davis Bowman, Cindi Rigsbee, Kenneth Baum, David Krulwich, Judie Haynes, Debbie Zacarian, and Lourdes Alvarez-Ortiz, Ph.D., share how educators can best respond to student trauma.
Adeyemi Stembridge, Sarah Kirby-Gonzalez, Signe Whitson, Natalie Patterson, and Josh Patterson share their thoughts on responding to student trauma.
Today鈥檚 post features commentaries from Susan E. Craig, Rhonda Neal Waltman, Patricia (Tish) Jennings, Eric Jensen, Joe Hendershott, and Kristin Souers, along with thoughts from readers.
San茅e Bell, Rita Platt, Kevin Parr, Jennifer Davis Bowman, and Matt Renwick share their ideas for helping students set learning goals.
Regie Routman, Laura Robb, Dr. Lynell Powell, John Spencer, and Jeffrey Benson contribute their commentaries on goal-setting with students.
Cindi Rigsbee, Lisa Westman, Jenny Edwards, and Margaret Searle offer their thoughts on student goals and learning.
In today鈥檚 final post in a four-part series, Kathy Dyer, Donna Wilson, Marcus Conyers, Kirke Olson, Barbara Blackburn, and readers provide additional strategies on student goal-setting.
Today, Dan Rothstein, Mark Estrada, Diane Friedlaender, Bena Kallick, Allison Zmuda, Donna Wilson, and Amy Benjamin answer the question, 鈥淲hat is metacognition, and how do we teach it?鈥�
Laura Robb, Teresa Diaz, Matt Renwick, PJ Caposey, and LouAnne Johnson share their thoughts on helping students develop metacognition.
Erik M. Francis, Pam Ferrante, Frank Lyman, Kathy Dyer, and Amber Chandler contribute their thoughts on metacognition in the classroom.
Today鈥檚 final post in a four-part series on metacognition includes answers from Howard Pitler, Tan Huynh, Saundra Yancy McGuire, John Larmer, Mike Janatovich, Matt Townsley, Thomas Armstrong, and Anna Crowe.
Ronald A. Beghetto, William Kist, Angela Doucette, Thomas Armstrong, Coleen Armstrong-Yamamura, Bidyut Bose, and Erik Shonstrom make their suggestions about how to enhance creativity in the classroom.
Laura Taddei, Cathy L. Seeley, Zane Dickey, Laura Fleming, Billy Krakower, Diane Friedlaender, and Richard Byrne contribute their thoughts on developing creative students.
Lorena Germ谩n, John Spencer, Laura Gibbs, Rachel Trowbridge, Amy Sandvold, Jen Schwanke, and Howard Pitler share their responses on how to help students develop creativity.
In this post, Donna Wilson, Thomas Armstrong, Joe Hendershott, Jeffrey Benson, Mark Katz, and Jonathan Cassie contribute their thoughts on teaching students self-control.
Robert Ward, Sue Defreyne, Allen Mendler, Daniel Rechtschaffen, Carla Tantillo Philibert, and Christine Brandt provide answers on how to help our students develop self-control.
Thomas R. Hoerr, Libby Woodfin, Jenny Edwards, Dave Stuart Jr., Maurice J. Elias, and Matt Renwick share their suggestions on how we can help our students develop self-control.
This post considers how teachers can best help students strengthen these self-control skills with suggestions from Bryan Harris, Jennifer Davis Bowman, Amanda Koonlaba, Nancy Steineke, Mike Anderson, and Jen Schwanke.
I interview Paul Tough about his second book on social-emotional learning.
This post includes contributions from David Yeager, Debbie Zacarian, Peter DeWitt, and Barbara Blackburn, along with comments from readers.
Eduardo Brice帽o, Kristine Mraz, and Christine Hertz share their thoughts.
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This post features commentaries from Pernille Ripp, Sean Ruday, Jacqueline Darvin, Daniel Rechtschaffen, and Heidi Mills.
Jenny Edwards, Jennifer Fletcher, Mary Tedrow, Barry Saide, William Himmele, and P茅rsida Himmele contribute their ideas on how to practically implement reflection in the classroom.
This post features responses from Kristine Mraz, Christine Hertz, Ebony O. McGee, Ron Berger, Thomas Hoerr, and Dave Stuart Jr.
This post includes contributions from Bryan Harris, Ben Spielberg, Mike Anderson, Gravity Goldberg, and Barbara Blackburn.
Andrew Miller, Barry Saide, Sara Truebridge, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Trevor Bryan, and William Dikel share their responses.
Educators Vicki Davis, Rusul Alrubail, Laura Cabrera, and Dana Dusbiber contribute their suggestions.
William & P茅rsida Himmele, Jennifer Gonzalez, and Karen Lirenman share their ideas.
Sean McComb, P.J. Caposey, Cindi Rigsbee, A. William Place, Jennifer Fredricks, and several readers contribute their thoughts on the topic.
Educators Andre Perry, Sara Ahmed, Kristine Mraz, Sean Slade, and Mai Xi Lee provide responses.
This post includes guest responses from Jennifer Fredricks, Aubrie Rojee, April Baker, Beth Donofrio, and Louis Cozolino.
Patricia Vitale-Reilly, Ken Halla, Zaretta Hammond, Barbara Blackburn, and Heidi Weinmann write their responses.
ReLeah Lent, Barry Gilmore, Nancy Steineke, Michael Opitz, Michael Ford, and Eric Jensen all share their thoughts on the topic.
Responses in this column come from Julia Thompson, Myron Dueck, Bryan Harris, and Debbie Silver.
Vice Principal Jim Peterson, educators/authors William and P茅rsida Himmele, and I share our ideas on getting all students in class participating more all the time.
This post has an impressive lineup with guest responses from Cris Tovani, Josh Stumpenhorst, and Eric Jensen.
This post has another 鈥渁ll star鈥� lineup of guests: Maurice J. Elias, Stevi Quate, and Cindi Rigsbee, as well as an intriguing chart I made with Google鈥檚 Ngram Viewer.
Educators Jason Flom and Barbara Blackburn contribute their thoughts, along with many comments from readers.
Educators Debbie Silver, Jason Flom, David B. Cohen, and I share our commentaries on if and how 鈥渃haracter鈥� should be taught in schools.
This post features contributions from Maurice J. Elias, Sherrel Bergmann, Judith Brough, and Thomas R. Hoerr.
This post shares a guest response from Lester L. Laminack, educator and author, as well as many comments from readers. I鈥檝e also included another interesting Ngram Viewer chart.
Daniel Coyle is the author of and its sequel, . Many educators have read and applied aspects of his book to the classroom (as I have), and he agreed to answer a few questions.
This post includes comments from Margaret A. Seale, Maurice J. Elias, Heather Wolpert-Gawron, and Howie Knoff. I also share ideas contributed by readers.
Educators Jeffrey Benson, Christopher Lehman, and Barbara Blackburn share their responses.
David J. Shernoff, the preeminent researcher on directly applying the concept of 鈥渇low鈥� to the K-12 classroom, provides the featured commentary here.
Educators Mark Barnes, Jeffrey Zoul, Heather Wolpert-Gawron, and Marsha Ratzel share their thoughts (along with multiple comments from readers).
Acclaimed author Daniel Pink answers several of my questions here.
Professor Carol Dweck and Lisa Blackwell, the co-founder of the organization designed to help schools be more effective in helping students develop growth mindsets, are the co-authors of this guest response.
Several guests contribute their ideas to this topic, and I鈥檇 like to particularly highlight Bryan Goodwin鈥檚 response on 鈥渁pplying research on student motivation to teacher talk.鈥�
Author Paul Tough responds to a number of my questions in this post.
Author/educator Debbie Silver and I make suggestions and observations.
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Assistant Principal Jim Peterson and author Jim Anderson share their suggestions. Peterson鈥檚 downloadable instructions for conducting 鈥渨alk-and-talks鈥� with students seemed to particularly strike a chord with readers.
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Principal Chris Wejr and educator and author Jeff Wilhelm offer practical ideas on how to help students develop intrinsic motivation.
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Best-selling authors Daniel Pink and Dan Ariely respond to the question鈥攚ith Ariely answering in a video.
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Author Art Markman lists several ways teachers can help students develop better study habits.
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Roy F. Baumeister, director of the social-psychology program at Florida State University and co-author of Willpower: Rediscovering The Greatest Human Strength, describes his research on self-control as a 鈥渓imited energy resource鈥� and its classroom implications.
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New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg, author of the new bestselling book, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, shares his responses to my questions on how to apply his research to our work in schools.
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Two guests with a great deal of experience with social-emotional learning write responses鈥擬aurice J. Elias, director of the Rutgers Social-Emotional Learning Lab, and Tom Roderick, the executive director of Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility.
