Great Classroom Action (2)

The theme for all of these examples of Great Classroom Action seems to be: simple, but highly effective.

Using group roles for more effective group work

Ms. C is a first year lateral entry teacher that I had been working with for a few months, and I was scheduled to visit her second period Marketing class and give her some feedback. It was one of the first few days of the semester and she had divided her students into small groups to do the Marshmallow Challenge, an activity in which…

Great Classroom Action

Another teacher and I were recently trying to come up with a list of the top five best teaching strategies or activities that we had ever seen. I remember thinking, “Man, it’s really tough trying to narrow it down to just five,” and then I remember thinking, “Hey, this reminds me of Dan Meyer’s Great Classroom Action posts.” I’m still not sure what my all-time top five...

A Facebook debate on why black lives matter

This past summer a conversation almost didn’t take place. The two main reasons why it almost didn’t take place were 1) it was on Facebook, and 2) it was going to be about police officers shooting and killing black people. I’m not generally a fan of talking about politics on Facebook. It’s not a great medium for exploring subtlety and nuance, and many people are really more interested in...

Why math is social

Wilt Chamberlain taught me how to be a better teacher. Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast recently featured an episode called The Big Man Can’t Shoot. It’s about why good ideas are often not adopted, even when it’s clear to everyone that they’re good ideas. The episode focused on Hall of Fame basketball player Wilt Chamberlain, and the fact that he was historically a...