They Behave (Only) For You

A few weeks ago, I asked this question on Twitter. "For those who use 'relationships' as their classroom mangement strategy, what do you expect to happen when I come in as a substitue?"

For me, a person without a blue checked account, these are pretty high engagement numbers, and it seems I struck a nerve with some. The responses I got came in two themes.

1. Nobody actually does that. Several people tried to tell me that there is "literally no one" who uses relationships as their primary strategy. I never typed it, but the response in my mind was, "Bro, do you even Twitter?" I mean, I wouldn't need to be on Twitter to know that many, many teachers use this strategy because I was alive and conscious during my career and met many teachers who believed this was the only way to go. But, you can't be on Twitter for long without seeing what a widespread belief this is. If someone expresses dismay at the behavior of students, the first and most frequent response will inevitably be to blame the teacher for not forming relationships with them. By the way, no one ever gives that poor teacher practical advice on how to do that or what it looks like, so they are left thinking they just have to be the fun teacher, leading to more chaos in their classrooms.
2. Their relationship with me will benefit you. This was the most common response by far. With minor wording differences, they all said, "Because they respect me, they will respect you and behave for you the same as they would for me." And, my Lord, what an adorably naive take this is on what happens when you are absent. If that were even a little bit true, I wouldn't have needed to post the question in the first place. Let me assure you that, no matter how much they like you (which is not the same thing as respect), they behave differently when you are not there. I don't blame the students for this; it's completely age appropriate. But you, adult friend, are crazy if you think every sub can't tell who uses the "relationships as management" strategy. You have taught them that they only have to behave for someone they have a relationship with, and they don't have a relationship with most subs.

And that last part is actually the bigger issue I want to address. When you make this your classroom management strategy, you are actually teaching them something bigger and not at all beneficial for their lives outside your classroom. You have taught them that the only time good behavior is when they have a positive relationship with someone. And that may seem like a good idea if you are only thinking about them in terms of your class, but they will carry this attitude to other contexts. And carrying the attitude that they only have to do things for people they like will not serve them well outside of the school.

In their lives outside of the school building, there are many rules and few relationships. They will go to a public pool, where rules are posted, and the lifeguard doesn't play hacky sack with swimmers to build a relationship first. They will shop in stores where basic civil behavior is expected without the cashier getting down on their level and calling them by name. At some point in their lives, they will be pulled over by a police officer; and they will not be well served by the attitude of "I only obey the people I like who also like me" that you have instilled in them. 

I'm not suggesting that you become an ogre in your classroom; I wasn't. I'm not even saying that relationships don't matter; they do. But, they shouldn't be the basis of your classroom management strategy. What should be? Routines, procedures, and rules with predictable consequences. That's what it means to manage behavior, and it doesn't depend on anything mysterious.

I mentioned earlier that every sub can tell who uses relationships as their strategy. We can also tell who has consistent routines. The students in those classrooms don't exhibit perfect behavior; they are still kids, after all. But they come in knowing where to look for information and engaging in the opening routine from force of habit. Routines are so ingrained that they do them without thinking about them. Squishy feelings about relationships are inconsistent and transient. 

If they behave for you, but that doesn't translate to behaving for anyone else, you haven't taught them good behavior. 

ResearchEdd NYC 2026 Raw Notes

 As the title suggests, these notes are raw, unedited, and blended with my thoughts in addition to what the speakers are saying. If you read something you don't like, it may be my interpretation and not their meaning, so don't hold anything against them.

Keynote 1: Using the Science of Learning to Rebuild Students' Learning Power: A Pathway to Equitable Academic Outcomes by Zaretta Hammond

What is the relationship between equity and cognitive science?

She was a writing teacher:  "Math gets you into college. Writing keeps you there." So, if you are a sound reader and writer, you are going to struggle in college. She wanted students to recognize their own errors in their writing. That led her to learning science. That eventually led her to write Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. 

Equity is reduing the predictability of who succeeds and who fails and cultivates the unigifts and talents of every student, regardless of race, color, or zip code. 

In the age of AI, it is more important than it has ever been for student to learn how to learn and think on their own. Without those skills, they are at the mercy of the tech. They will not be ready to evaluate information.

Her next book, Cognitive Redlining, discusses how kids in lower income schools are disadvantaged by the trends in instructional practices. Cognitive science can reduce inequity by working with student brains. Rosenshine's principles of instruction are valid and wonderful, but they have kept us focused on teaching rather than learning.

"How do we leverage the science of learning to help students master the craftsmanship of learning?"

Design principles for craftsmanship

1. Only the learner learns - students' brains must be active (this is not the same as engagement or fun; it's about their thinking with cognitive flexibility)
2. Content must be processed and remembered in order to be retrieved. Retrieval practice is at the end of the information processing cycle. (SHE JUST QUOTED KEVIN WASHBURN!!)
3. Learning requires cognitive friction - Productive struggle is real, but it has to be productive. You have to get them to the place where the struggle can be productive, not just set them off to flounder. This leads to learning for understanding rather than assignment completion. We should not over-scaffold, or they won't become independent. (If you picked up a baby every time they stumbled or lost their balance, they would never learn to walk.) If scaffolds are never removed, they are not scaffolds; they are crutches that lead to dependence on the teacher.

We are "personal trainers" of students' cognitive development. If a personal trainer asks you to do 5 push ups, and you can only do 2, they don't jump down and do the other 3 for you. They give you some water and tell you to get back to it.

One off strategies do not help; these must become routines that are automated. New mental models must be developed. There is a human side of change; recognize that the first attempt will be messy like the first pancake and work that into the evaluation system.

Session 1: Getting Ahead of Behavior: Lightning Fast Behavior Moves by Zach Groshell

Let's face it; behavior is not improving. We have to do something.

The "putting out fires" model is exhausting for teachers and interferes with student learning.

They can't learn anything they aren't paying attention to.

Inattention and attention are contagious - fidgety behaviors spread, so do leaning forward behaviors

How to get ahead of it (adapted from Doug Lamov's TLAC)

1. Give clear directions - clear, umambiguous, sequenced, posted visibly
2. Be seen looking - swivel, tiptoes, hands cupped around ears - exaggerated body motions to show that you are looking and listening
3. Narrate the positive - state what is going right - "Kate, that's what I'm talking about." Acknowledge and praise the things you want to see continue.
4. Correct with the least invasive intervention - nonverbal first, "All means all" reminders to the group, anonymous individual corrections ("Back of the room is almost there" or "Waiting on 2, waiting on 1. Thank you." Then, private individual correction (This is not your go to; it's after other things don't work and after you have everyone else working on something). If nothing else has worked, quick public individual correction (whispered name).

Non-verbal behaviors can be clear and subtle without getting into a kids space and being overbearing.

Will this solve all of your behavior issues? No.  But it will create a better culture in which you can address those.

Session 2: How Can I Help - Using the Science of Learning to Help Students Study by Beth Hawks

I have no notes on this session for obvious reasons, but you can find my slides on thelearninghawk.com

Keynote 2: Knowing What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do: Becoming an Expert Teacher by Nidhi Sachdeva

Did her research with Paul Kirschner 

When something unexpected happens in your classroom, what do you do?  How do you know what to do?

Sully - Miracle on the Hudson - When the bird strike took out his engines, he had 208 seconds to decide what to do before the plane would crash. His expertise guided his decision making when the situation exceeded the checklists and the protocols.

Teachers make 1200-1500 spontaneous decisions every day

The best teachers benefit their students for at least 3 years after they stop teaching them. The effect is the most profound on those most disadvantaged. Expert teachers close the achievement gap because gains are made by everyone, but those who have been disadvantaged will make more gains more quickly.

What is an expert teacher? In some fields (chess, sports, business), there are measurable objective data points to establish rankings. This is less true in education. Much of our impact is not measured in test scores, and a lot of it shows up far after they leave our classrooms.

We need to know how to spot an expert teacher because we cannot develop what we cannot name. 

• Deep content knowledge
• Have fundamental knowledge and understanding of how we learn
• Masters in pedagoy and and instructional tools
• Classroom management
• Ability to adapt
• Create explicit, engaging, equitable, and successful learning environments

Both science and craft

• Science: Deep understanding of theories and principles
• Craft: Practical insight that comes from experience

Five Building Blocks of Teacher Knowledge and Skills

1. Domain Knowledge - You cannot teach content that you do not deeply understand, what examples will illuminate and what examples will mislead, what is coming next
2. Cognitive Psychology - understanding how memory works, how understanding is strengthened, how instruction can support or overload the learner, how novices and experts process information and solve problems differently
3. Didactics - Knowing how to teach your subject is the bridge between content and cognition. "A butterfly forgets that it was once a caterpillar." Translates knowledge into something learnable and usable. Knowing calculus and teaching calculus are two different things.
4. Tools - Be critical and selective users of technologies and instruments, whether textbooks and mini-whiteboards or visualizers and EdTech tools. Beware of the innovation illusion; newer isn't always better. Ask the question, "Does this serve learning?"
5. Pedagogy - How we relate. Underpins instructional decisions and shapes the teacher-student relationship, ensures a positive classroom environment. Without this, the other four building blocks are tools without conscience.

The craft of teaching is accumulated wisdom about content, students, curriculum, and pedagogy.  It's wisdom in action. 

The science of teaching should happen during a teacher's initial preparation. The craft happens through continuous professional development as they teach. Best case scenario: New teachers have the science, but not much craft yet (That's assuming the science is being taught well in colleges).

Developing expertise comes from 

• Experience - learning on the job, helps you develop quickly early, but tends to plateau without the right conditions
• Organized professional development - workshops, courses, conferences, coaching programs - provides inspiration, but tends to prioritize exposure over practice
• Deliberate practice - consciously and systematically improving instruction through repeated practice

Deliberate practice is not routine repetition and isn't accomplished just by teaching more lessons. It is highly structured, purposeful, and effortful with a specific focus for improvement, including feedback and immediate repetition to incorporate the feedback.

Deliberate practice needs a specific goal, not vaguely worded hope. (The difference between a New Year's Resolution and an actionable goal.)

Sully's 40 years of deliberate practice, experience of emergencies, and time spent BUILDING expertise allowed him to act rather than panic. Teachers need schools to provide protected time for practice and feedback, coaching cultures rather than just evaluations, and leaders who value and model improvement.

Session 3: I planned to attend a session, but I decided to catch up with Andrew Watson and talk with Zach Groshell and Gene Tavernetti instead.  This was the right decision, but it means that I, sadly, have no notes for you.

Session 4: “Kids Do Well When They Can”: Misconceptions About Neurodiversity and How You Can Remove Barriers in the Classroom by Kristen Simmers and MB Spencer

Kristen's brother was born without a corpus collosum. He was seen at school as a kid who couldn't, while they saw him at home as someone who very much could. Her sister had no diagnosis until she was an adult, and she was just labeled as difficult. She is now an ER doctor.  MB was a regular classroom teacher with a high number of special needs students. She realized that the primary delivers of special education services had no special education training. 

Neurodiversity is an umbrella term that incorporates ADHD, autism, Tourette syndrome, OCD, dyslexia, and many others.

Neurodiverse conditions are differences in brain wiring. They will have mismatched skillsets; they may struggle in one area but excel in another. The labels are inconsistent, so you can't make assumptions about all kids with autism based on one kid you knew with autism (or any other condition). It's not uncommon for a person to have a great vocabulary and be highly verbal but have poor performance in writing. They might have high math reasoning and low math performance.

Dyslexia - Every civilization has spoken language. Speaking disorders are rare. Reading is an artificial skill. We are not biologically wired to do it. Learning it is incredibly complex and involves many areas of the brain working together in milliseconds. The brain repurposes some of your facial recognition skills to create letter recognition.

Stanislas Dehaene's research is leading toward subsets of dyslexia, 

• phonology based
• grapheme phoneme conversion
• visual code for letters (letter position, mixing nearby words)

Autism - moving away from the spectrum description and making it more of a wheel. Students have different positions in different areas on the spokes of the wheel.

ADHD - Executive function dysfunction

Neurological in origin, asynchronous development of skills

Not about attention or hyperactivity but about executive function (kids generally have trouble with EF). The name came from what were able to see rather than the cause. This leads to problems with self-regulation, self-awareness, self-evaluation, and motivation.

There is a different motivation structure than a fully developed brain. The part of the brain involved doesn't finish developing in most humans until 25. Don't make this an excuse - "They can't do it because their brains aren't fully developed yet." Rather, take advantage of the fact that this is the time of highest neuroplasticity, so it is time to harness that.

For most of us, a balance of rewards and consequences determine our actions.  ADHD brains seek dopamine and fail to predict consequences. They seek out things that are interesting, novel, challenging, urgent, or playful because those things produce dopamine. Sometimes, their argumentative nature happens because conflict produces dopamine.

Everything that is helpful for neurodivergent kids is good for ALL learners. 

Diagnoses happen when it impedes your life. Don't diagnose yourself just because you have a quirky behavior.

Practical Strategies

Recognize variability. They will not all respond exactly the same way to instruction or interventions. Research doesn't give a recipe; it gives ingredients. 

Audit your physical environment for sensory issues, managing choices, visual scaffold, a strength based emotional climate, and explanations of the "why" when it comes to rules.

Resource binders should be available.  Visual cues in their workspace will help them be ready. Don't let them start work until their workspace is ready. Notetaking guides and templates are good scaffolds. Printed copies of the notes are not. They need to write whatever they can. 

Panel: Thinking About Implementation Outside NYC by Zach Groshell, Meg Lee, Ian Kelleher, and Lynn Gaffney

Q:  Can you explain more about the mix of the science of learning and the practical craft?

A:  Zach: Developing teachers in the science of learning is a lot like developing professional athletes. Current NBA players are better at basketball than their coaches, but they still need coaching. Teachers can be well versed in pedagogical knowledge, but they may need coaching in the implementation. It isn't imposed; it's collaborative.  Meg: We need to look at what the science of learning can do for children first, but adults a close second. Balance what we want for every learner with the recognition that teaching is really hard and getting harder, so we can have teachers put down the things that aren't working well (if differentiation isn't working, let them stop).  Lynn:  We haven't been working in an evidence based profession, but that is changing. 

Q: What are three science of learning strategies that have been criminally underused?

A: Lynn: Spaced retrieval. Meg: Both students and adults need time to process deeply. Give more wait time deliberately.  Zach: Focus on design, not just delivery. Train a few people in your school to recognize whether the design of materials use evidence based principles or not.

Q: If you could wave a magic wand and have one thing appear in every classroom, what it would be?

A: Meg: Ian Kelleher's most recent writing about AI.  Lynn: Zach should appear in every classroom.  Zach: Explicit instruction in every classroom

Q: It's better to learn from other people's mistakes than your own. Are there any science of learning principles that are being misused?

A: Lynn: A lot of districts see science of learning as an add on, just another new initiative. Zach: Recognize that coaching is needed, not just one day PD sessions. One day sessions are great for inspiration, but there need to be habits developed in systems.  Meg: People are overwhelmed with a whole lot of strategies without an understanding of the whole picture. Then, teachers don't know how to apply strategies fluidly or across contexts. 

Q: Meg says, "You can wait out a roll out." How does it look to have brain science just incorporated into the fabric?

A: Meg: You can't just have "the year of the brain" any more than a dentist can have "the year of the tooth." You need to incorporate teacher expertise and wisdom, not just lay science of learning on top of lesson plans.

Q: What can you remove of replace in current school structure:

A: Lynn: Remove hand raising; replace with mini whiteboards.  Zach: Principals are following marching orders, even when they conflict with what their teachers are doing. Leadership needs to stand up and say, "It's just too much. We've divided our attention too much. Let's just focus on the essential pieces." Meg: Ask how organizations are spending time and resources, teacher time, student time, and tools that just have a sticker slapped on it that says "research based." Develop a "baloney-ometer."

Q: Who is your academic crush?

A: Lynn: Carl Hentrick, Zach Groshell, Gene Tavernetti, Mike Shmalker, Doug Lamov, Patrice Bain, Karen Chenowith. Zach: Marcy Stein (his college professor and member of Project Follow Through), Meg: Teachers with blogs or who speak at events like this or go on podcasts to talk about what is happening in their classrooms.

The research informed instruction community is altruistic, slightly crazy, love teaching, and love their kids and teachers.  Reach out to them, and enjoy more of their content.

FInishing is Less Intimidating that Starting

I've been working on a crochet project for several weeks now, and I've noticed something about myself I did not know. 

When I need to decide where to stop, it is not ever at the end of a row. I finish the row I am on, then turn and do several inches of the next row.  This part was not surprising; I knew I did that.  What was new to me as the reason. I had always told myself that I did this to prevent stitches from pulling out at the end of the row, but it is just as likely they will pull out in the middle. 

What I realized about myself this morning is that the reason I like to end on a partial row is that it is less daunting when I pick it back up the next time. I've already started this row; no all I have to do is finish it. It's a little psychological motivation game I play with myself, but I think it reveals something larger

Finishing is less scary than starting. 

Maybe it's the power of inertia. Maybe it is easier because you have a visual representation of what is left. Maybe it has to do with procrastination. I don 't know.  But I do know that starting something is more challenging than picking up where you left off.

This makes intuitive sense. Starting a race is difficult, but once you are running, you can usually keep running (unless it is something crazy - like an ultramarathon, requiring a different kind of endurance). Writers know the white page problem; it's daring you to create something from nothing. But once something is there, you can ride the flow of your thoughts. The heaviest weight in any workout is the front door of your house.

What could this mean for classrooms?  Perhaps, we can employ this psychology for projects, homework, and writing assignments. If math allow enough time at the end of a class period to do one of the problems they have assigned for homework and then say, "Okay, finish this tonight," perhaps it will be easier for the student to motivate themselves after dinner. After all, they only have to finish what they've already started.  Perhaps an English teacher can walk students through the first sentence of a paragraph and then say, "You're off to a good start. Keep going." 

For long term projects, we can teach students to use this trick as well. We are pretty good at helping them break work into chunks, but what if we said, "Don't finish at the end of the chunk. Either stop a little early or keep going into the next chunk a little ways"? Might it be easier for them to start the next session.

At a session of Learning and the Brain a few years ago, Dr. Jessica Minahan recommended putting a bar of squares at the top of a homework page (ten problems = ten squares) and then telling students to fill in a box each time they finished a problem. It provided a visual representation of how much they had already done and how much there was left to do.  She compared it to the loading bar on a computer; it's nice to see that there is only 20% left. 

Psychological tricks may sound goofy, but they do often help. I play a similar game with myself every Thursday morning at work. After scanning in the first wave of exercisers who are in line when the Y opens, my next job is to fold a cart heaped with towels. There are two sizes of towels, and I always start with the big ones first. It allows the volume remaining in the cart to drop quickly. After I reach the rim of the cart, I switch to small ones for a little while because the incoming class needs more of them. Then, I switch back to large ones for a little while, eventually just taking them in whatever order they come. 

Does any of this make towel folding quicker?  Nope. It takes the same amount of time no matter what order I fold them in, but it does change how long it feels. Seeing that volume drop quickly at the beginning make it feel like finishing this won't be so bad. 

And sometimes, that's all it takes to get a job done.

Can't You Just Talk to Them?

There is a new rule at my gym.  Well, actually it's not a new rule. It is a new policy of enforcement of a previously existing rule. IF people sign up for a class and then don't show up for it (or cancel their reservation within two hours of the class time) five times in a 30 day period, they will be locked out of making reservations for 14 days. 

It is causing, as I am sure you can imagine, some angst among members.  As with most organizations, the ones who are feeling angst about it will likely never have to worry about it because they are not the problem. 

So, I have spent a couple of weeks talking people down from the ledge. I am mostly clarifying misconceptions - "No, it's not three times ever; it's five times in a month." and "Yes, you are still welcome to come if there is space; you just won't be able to reserve a spot."

About 90% of the people I explain things to end up feeling fine about the rule, even commenting on the graciousness of the policy.

Until Tuesday afternoon. A classmate of mine (who will be in no way impacted by this change) was complaining about it. I thought I could help her see the reasonableness of this by explaining some of the abuses of the system that required a need for the enforcement, canceling up to 25 times in two weeks. She was not having it.  

• "Well, that was just one person," she said.  
• "Oh, my no. It was not. It was widespread enough across the system that this was needed to be     fair for those who play by the rules," I replied.
• "Well, why do we need to sign up at all?  Why can't it be first come first served, like it used to be?" she said.

And that's when I realized that she doesn't understand that other people have a different experience than she does. 

• Some can't get here 30 minutes before class starts to claim their spot because they are coming from work and fighting traffic. 
• Some abuse the system, preventing others from getting the benefit of their membership.

I said to her, "I don't think you are recognizing that different people have different constraints."  

Her reply was, "I can't imagine that there are enough people that this needs to happen.  Can't they just talk to those people who are a problem?"

Well, tell me you've never led a large group of people before, ma'am. Those two sentences revealed so much that I have seen, mostly in my education career, but also in any large organization.

1. What you can imagine is not the same as the reality of what's happening. Those who tend to follow rules believe that most other people do too. This, friends, is not the case. We live in a culture where a large minority believe rules were made to be broken or that specific rules don't apply to them if they can justify their reason for breaking them.  People who hold a strong opinion about an issue have trouble understanding why anyone would see it differently. Our lack of imagination about the minds of others prevents us from recognizing an experience other than our own. She couldn't imagine this to be a widespread problem; but I've seen the data, so I know that it is.
2. Talking to the problem person rarely solves anything. Students who misbehave in school rarely stop because the teacher or principal has a private chat with them. The recent popularity of "restorative discipline" has resulted in little behavior change. And that's with students who have relationships with school staff and classmates. Imagine how little it will help with adults who don't know each other.  People who speed or run red lights regularly will not stop because a cop pulls them over and gives them a good talking to. There may be a very small percentage of people for whom a conversation would effect change, and those are the people who rarely break the rules to begin with.
3. Consistent consequences (even small ones) change behavior. I have solid memory of a time when almost no one wore a seatbelt. PSAs about danger did little to help. Changing the law helped some, but a lot of people knew they weren't going to get pulled over most of the time. What did change behavior? Car manufacturers installed a tone that goes off if you don't put your seatbelt on. That's not an onerous punishment, but it an annoying consequence of not buckling up. Most importantly, it is consistent. It happens EVERY time you don't buckle your seatbelt. I don't know anyone (and this could be my lack of imagination, I admit) that keeps driving while listening to that annoying beep. Friday, I buckled a bag of soil into my car because that stupid alarm wouldn't stop! This policy has grace built into it, but when you hit five strikes, technology will take over so that there is a consistent consequence. 

Tom Bennet talks about small and consistent consequences in his great book, Running the Room. It's about classrooms, but it isn't hard to see how it could apply in any organization with people, from gyms to churches to civil law. Thank people when they do something right; be predictable about consequences when they do something wrong.  

No, you can't just talk to them.

All That Is - Seen and Unseen

Note: The beginning of this is going to sound like it is a post about Christianity. While this blog does sometimes veer into religious meddling, that's not what this post is.  For any of my readers who are not religious, hang in there until the end. My thoughts were prompted by the Nicene Creed, but the post is about education.

Each Sunday in church, I recite the following:

"We believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth
Of all things, seen and unseen."

Last week, there was an odd tension when it came to watching the news. The potential war crimes our nation might be about to commit in Iran made me want to crawl into a hole somewhere off grid, but during that same time period, we were watching mankind return to the moon, going farther than we had been even with Apollo and seeing things we had previously not seen with human eyes. 

The earth is big and close, and what is happening on it looms large in our vision. Rightly so. We are called to love our neighbors here and to steward our resources. 

When missions like Artemis II are in the news, the always vast universe becomes bigger in our thinking. Seeing pictures that included the moon and the earth together should inspire wonder in even the most jaded of souls (unless you are weirdo who still thinks we are faking it, but I assume most of those people don't read this blog). And NASA did something awesome this week that didn't get as much attention. They re-established contact with Voyager II.

But here's the thing. That's just the part of creation that is "seen."  

There is also much that is unseen. Poet Christina Rossetti asked the famous question, "Who Has Seen the Wind?" and then goes on to describe evidence of that which cannot be seen. As a chemistry teacher for over two decades, much of my life was spent describing things that no one has seen with their eyes - atoms and the things that make them up determine what we can see, but we cannot yet see them. And let's not even get started on dark matter, the unseen substance that we believe fills most of space.

You want to get even weirder? About 99% of an atom is empty space. There's nothing there. One of my past 8th graders had to walk it off when she realized that "everything is mostly made of nothing." But that nothing is really important because, if it weren't that way, our density would be too high for us function, eventually collapsing in ourselves like a black hole.

My point is that the seen is such a small part of what is that we almost cannot fathom the reality of all that exists. Even the people who have expertise in the unseen acknowledge how hard it is to understand. Neils Bohr famously said, "If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet."

I promised this was going to be about education, so here's the connection: 

Students are made up, as we all are, of parts that are seen and unseen. We focus a lot on what we can see. And of course we do; it's the part we can see. We can see a student's physical state and behavior - clean or dirty, disturbingly thin, polite or rude, engaged or daydreaming. 

But that's not all there is. There is also the unseen. We can't see their motivations, their thoughts, their feelings, or their blood sugar levels. We can't see the fight they had with their brother in the car or the fact they are nervous about an upcoming job interview. But those things are as much a reality as wind or atoms or dark matter are in the composition of nature.

I'm not part of the "unmet needs" crowd that thinks we should excuse all poor behavior while we look for what it communicates. We have to address what is seen in students because it is the only thing we can address. 

But, it's good to keep the unseen in mind. Might there be an unseen that is affecting what we see? 

Does the unseen excuse poor behavior that we see?  No, but it might help explain it. Does it affect the consequence we impose? Not necessarily, but it might change the demeanor we have when imposing it. 

Just some stuff to keep in mind as we near the end of the school year.

Making Choices - And Living With the Consequences

"This school should stop giving so much homework. The kids are just too tired at the end of the day." said a mom to me on the sidelines of a soccer game in which her son was playing and was, in fact, team captain. Our school had done a lot to reduce the homework load of students for two years and had come to what I thought was a very reasonable place, so it was surprising to hear this, especially as this mom was also a school employee who knew the efforts that had been made in this area.

As she continued, she talked about the mission trip he was about to go on and how much work was involved with that as he was one of the group leaders. When she mentioned the name of a teacher, it was one who taught AP classes; so I asked, "How many AP classes is he taking?" The answer was four!

This high school junior was taking four advanced placement classes, leading a mission team, and serving as captain of the varsity soccer team. No wonder he was tired at the end of the day. He had made too many good choices. 

Time is like money. Once if you have spent it on one thing, you no longer have it to spend on something else. Unlike money, you can't borrow time and pay it back later. And you can't earn more; we all have the same amount.

So, the choices you make about how to spend your time matter. 

All choices matter. And all choices, even good ones, have a mix of positive and negative consequences.

The thing is, we tend to want the choice without the consequence. We want to say yes to ALL of the things we'd like to do without regard to those consequences.  

If we have a hard time with this as adults with some experience in time budgeting, imagine how little our students understand it. 

That's where adults have to offer guidance ahead of the choices and allow them to experience the consequences of that choice.

This mom had given some guidance ahead of the decision, but she decided that, since all of the roles were good things, she would let him make the choice to do all of them. This is hard when guiding students because it isn't a choice between right and wrong; it's a choice to limit multiple rights.  He was encouraged to be the captain of the soccer team by a coach who didn't know that he was also leading a mission team DURING soccer season. When he said he wanted to take four AP classes, teachers and counselors said, "Maybe take three or even two. Which ones do you feel the most passionately about?" His parents said, "They all sound good. Do them all if you want to."

The problem was that she then wanted the teachers of those classes to adapt to his lack of time. "Don't they understand that he needs to sleep?"she said. I bit my tongue and continued to take the pictures I was there to take, but I wanted to ask her what she thought the homework load of four AP classes plus two honors classes would be. I wanted to say that he could have been on the soccer team and the mission team without being in leadership. 

This is the time of year when students are making a lot of choices for next year. They are choosing class  schedules, but they may not be thinking about the other things that will arise. As we have conversations with them at lunch and after school, it is a good time for us to remind them that time must be budgeted.

Those of us who have a relationship with students have both an opportunity and an obligation to guide their thinking. Don't just say, "Yes, you would be great at AP History and Bio and Calculus, so you should take them all."  Instead say, "I know you also like to do theater.  Are you going to have time for three hours of work after rehearsal? If not, maybe, you should take regular history instead of AP." You can remind them just how many basketball games there are in a season and advise that the spring mission trip for their church will involve a lot of planning during the same time frame. Maybe they could go on the trip without being a team leader. Life involves making choices among multiple good things, and it is a good time to practice that with support.

You can't decide for them, but you can help them think through the consequences of their choices and ask them if they are prepared to live with those consequences. 

Book Review: Learning Habits by Richard Wheadon

Are you a parent who wants to help your child become successful in school?  Are you a teacher who sees kids dependent on machines or you for studying and you want them to feel the satisfaction of being an independent learner? If so, put Learning Habits by Richard Wheadon on your summer reading list and start the next school year off strong.

I first encountered Richard at a ResearchEd conference last year. He's passionate about learning, optimistic about the future of teaching, and delightfully British. While the accent doesn't come across on the page, everything else does. 

The first thing I appreciate about this book is that he diagnoses the problem - kids use ineffective study techniques and are demotivated when those don't lead to success - but he doesn't stop there. He asks the next question. "Why do they use ineffective techniques?" Kids don't study poorly because they want to fail. They don't study poorly because they are lazy. If that were the case, they would look for the techniques that give the most benefit with the least amount of time invested (Re-reading the chapter does just the opposite). 

They use ineffective techniques because the effectives ones don't FEEL effective in the moment. One of the talks I give at conferences address this exact thing. I compare it to weight lifting. At the end of my BodyPump class at the Y, I don't feel stronger; I feel like I might not be able to hold my arms up long enough to wash my hair when I get home. Yet, the very thing that is making me feel weak in that moment will cause strength later because of the response of my muscles to stress. Retrieval practice makes kids FEEL dumb in the moment because they have trouble remembering the answer to some questions. But, it is that very stress that will stimulate the neuron growth and myelination that will make their learning stronger for the future.  

Wheadon addresses something most study books do not, the tricks our brains play to give us mental shortcuts. There are a myriad of biases, heuristics, and self-gratification techniques that get us through our days without having to think about every single thing. That is fantastic news for daily life because it saves mental energy, but it can interfere with your learning when we operate unaware of them in academic pursuits. By giving examples of those, he provides ways students might overcome them.

This book is evidence based and well-sourced (in case you want to follow up and read the studies for yourself). It is realistic in its explanations and understanding of real classrooms. At the end of each chapter, he summarizes the main points and gives questions for reflection, so you and a student could sit down together and make plans based on what you read in each chapter. 

And that's the best part of this book.  It's actionable. Putting Wheadon's advice into practice will help you develop the habits to be more successful in school and in all of the learning you will have to do as an adult.