I recently read three pieces addressing student motivation by authors that I follow because they each trigger my thinking with their insights and examples: In an Education Week article , Alfie Kohn commented on the current interest in the “Marshmallow Studies” (past blog) and “Grit” (past blog ). He raised the concern that the enthusiasm […]

I had the opportunity to spend a day this week with a small group of educators at a school in Europe who are focusing on providing quality learning for gifted students, many of whom have not had previous positive school learning experiences. Over several hours we examined learning effort, ability, grit, perseverance and motivation. As […]

Recently, I was invited to work with grade level teams at an elementary school as a follow up to a day of walkthroughs at their school and presentations of my observations to the teachers. Our initial work had focused on engagement. I shared this in an earlier blog labeling engagement as teacher initiated and student […]

I recently met with a PLC consisting of 3rd 4th and 5th grade teachers early in their school year. The group was struggling with two new district/building policies put in place. First, a district policy that homework scores not count in student grades. This decision was made after the recognition that there were substantial numbers […]