I am always looking for examples of stories that illustrate the formula that I presented in Tapping Student Effort…Increasing Student Achievement: Effort X Ability focused on a Manageable Task = Success During a recent training in Ohio, I heard about Melanie, a 7th grader who was excited about being chosen to start tuba lessons. As […]

This past week I had the opportunity to work with educators around the concept of student effort as the key to student achievement at the Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools conference in Cairo, Egypt as well as with instructional coaches across the state of Arkansas where we extended the conversation to examine […]

I had the opportunity on a recent winter vacation get-a-way to read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. I had read his two previous books The Tipping Point and Blink and enjoyed them both. Two of my educator colleagues had recommended Outliers so I was looking forward to having the time for reading. I wasn’t disappointed except […]

Another coaching colleague provided our “ponder question” for today. Hi Stephen, I am one of the reading teachers who has been attending your coaching sessions in Fairfax County, VA. The other day something happened that gave me such a huge connection to something we discussed at our last meeting with you, so I wanted to […]