Most teachers learn implicitly (if not told explicitly) that good teaching is a balance of direct instruction and student-centered learning. We're encouraged to keep one foot in each world by delivering direct, explicit instruction that simultaneously promotes student-centered learning experiences. In reality, that advice describes a daily tension in education because the truth is that those two worlds run on different rules. The first world sees students as empty vessels wh

Nearly six years have passed since I published my article Maslow before Bloom and, in that half-decade, many classrooms have felt like triage centers: Pandemic aftershocks are still felt in attendance records. Chronic absenteeism ( ≥ 10 % of school days missed) leapt from ~15% (in 2018-19) to 31% (in 2021-22) and eased only to 28% in 2022-23. Twenty states still reported ≥30% of students chronically absent in 2022-23. Community food banks are operating at record pace. The B

Teachers are often asked how to improve instruction, raise achievement, or close learning gaps. Those questions matter—but they usually assume something quietly in the background: that students and schools have enough stability to focus on learning in the first place. Many classrooms today tell a different story. It is becoming increasingly common for teachers to spend their time responding to hunger, fatigue, anxiety, mobility, and emotional overwhelm. Attendance is inconsis

Walk into a classroom built around concepts supported by self-determination and self-directed learning, and you might notice something unusual. Instead of students all completing the same worksheet or reading the same passage to learn the same concept or skill under the watchful eye of a single teacher, you see children choosing to learn something that day because they know it will help them prepare to do something bigger they want to master; you see students posting reflecti

The Art of Letting Go (but only just enough) This fall, my classroom became an ongoing experiment in trust, growth, and self-discovery with the development of a self-directed learning environment. My central goal was to nurture metacognition and self-determination by helping children learn how to think about their own thinking , manage their time, and navigate the emotions that accompany learning. At an arts-based school that celebrates creativity and reflection, the shift fr

Every educator wants to nurture "lifelong readers". This often means developing students who not only can  read but choose  to read in...

When a third grader says, “I can’t do it!”  the words may sound simple and you might want to respond with care and patience, but...

Today was the first day my students truly experienced what a self-directed classroom can feel like. For the past two months, I’ve been...

These past six weeks have been lively, humbling, and genuinely encouraging, leaving me with a lot of which to reflect. I returned to the...

In 2019, I wrote an article on compliance versus social-emotional learning. I am revisiting that article and exploring the tension...

At some point in nearly every elementary classroom, a group of students will push the limits of safety during recess. Games escalate....

Our work is not to check off needs one tier at a time, but to create overlapping supports across school and home so children can develop fluidly among all tiers without losing ground. The most powerful way to do this is by intentionally weaving together school strategies and home strategies to create a bridge between them.

As educators, our choices in the classroom are rarely as simple as “because it works” or “because I have to.” More often, we’re driven by a complex web of motivations; some obvious, some hidden, some we might not even realize until we really stop and reflect.

The secular triad is composed of three interdependent forces: Thought, Response, and Meaning. Together, they represent a dynamic system—one that mirrors the complexity of human experience, much like the famed three-body problem in physics, in which three entities in motion continuously affect each other in unpredictable ways.

I asked ChatGPT 4.1: "what is the difference between the capacity of students to respond to teacher-assigned tasks and prompts at each DOK Level 1, 2, 3, and 4, and the capacity of AI to respond to user-assigned tasks and prompts?" I found its response illuminating. My thoughts about this response are below. Here is the ChatGPT 4.1 response (with zero edits).

The deeper point of this quadrant model (and any other Core Values quadrant model) is not to claim that individuals live permanently in one quadrant. Instead, it provides a map of orientations that people may default to, shift between, or consciously choose depending on factors such as the relationship in question, the setting (formal vs. informal, public vs. private), the stakes (high-pressure vs. low-pressure situations), and any relevant cultural expectations.

Community as a Core Value reflects more than just how well people get along. It speaks to the deeper, structural interdependence of individuals within a group. The concept of "community" is to bind individuals into relationships of shared purpose, shared belonging, and shared responsibility.

If schools aspire to nurture lifelong learners who take ownership of their growth, they must go beyond equipping students with individual skills. They must design school cultures and systems that develop agency at all levels—students, educators, and leadership—through structures that reward collective growth, collaboration, and purposeful autonomy.

Integrity is often described as “doing what’s right when nobody is looking.”  In schools, it means staying true to what we believe is...

The Five Foundations turn everyday lessons into launchpads for self-directed growth. Learn how planning, tracking, resourcefulness, collaboration, and flexible mastery make agency teachable—and measurable.