Creating Powerful Moments: Deepen students’ feelings of safety and security
This blog series is aimed at helping educators in a time of uncertainty and challenge. Does anyone else feel like Alice when she falls through the rabbit hole into a strange new world? All of the chaos that’s part of the COVID-19 pandemic leaves me feeling like I’m in some kind of absurd fictional world […]
The 5 Rules Every Happy Teacher Follows
Happy Teacher Rule #1: Don’t look at discomfort as a negative. Teaching is hard, and it should be. If you are doing it well, it means you are actively pursuing and working towards getting 100% of your students engaged, 100% of the time. That takes a relentless pursuit of continuous growth that will include making […]
Repost: How to Have ‘Courageous Conversations’ About Race That Can Help End Inequities in Our Schools
Courageous Conversations Training This post originally appeared in The 74 on September 18, 2017. With the election of our first black president, many clung to hope that we had entered a post-racial America. The recent events in Charlottesville proved that we are not as far along in this journey as we had hoped, a […]
If you see something, say something
If you see something, say something. I started my teaching career in middle school with a resource room math class. I had never taught math before and didn’t have any curriculum materials to draw from, so I went to the eighth-grade math teacher on my team and asked her what she was teaching her students. […]
Caring About vs. Caring For
Travel to schools across the country, and you’ll see it’s clear that teachers are working hard and truly care about their students. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be doing this job day after day. When I walk through buildings and talk with teachers, I hear and sense this. However, when it comes to what care actually looks […]
Top 8 Tips for New Teachers That You Probably Haven’t Considered
Here are some teacher guidance tips for new teachers. Being a first-year teacher is rewarding, challenging, and filled with lessons that you plan for your students and that you learn from yourself. While your first year is likely to include late night planning, anxiety with each classroom observation, and tons of trial and error, there […]
4 Steps to Classroom Turnaround: How do you turn around a class that you’ve let get out of control?
Transform My Classroom: I recently walked into a classroom to hear a teacher tell a student across the room “Jason, you’re on step 6 on the consequence chart.” It was only 9:40 am! I wondered to myself what this student could have possibly done so wrong to be on step 6 of 7 so early […]
A Powerful Paradigm Shift for Educators
Given the amount of time teachers and students spend together over the course of a year, relationships between the educators and students will form. It is inevitable. How productive those relationships are for both teachers and students, is left to question. Understanding the tendencies of teachers who are not No-Nonsense Nurturers may support you to […]
ASCD Express: Teaching Teachers to Change the Discourse
We’re thrilled that “Teaching Teachers to Change the Discourse” by CT3 Associate Vynesha Johnson was published in the November 23, 2016 issue of ASCD Express. As a CT3 associate working with school leaders across the country, I recently spoke with a school principal who shared a theme for an upcoming professional development day: How well do […]
Featured Educator: Rachael Mingo in Flint, MI
CT3 Associates working across the U.S. regularly meet educators that demonstrate a deep commitment to transforming the lives of youth, some remaining committed to the same communities in which they themselves grew up. Rachael Mingo at Beecher Middle School in Flint, MI is one of those extraordinary educators – as a 5th grade teacher in […]
