Monday Moanin Thoughts #113 What? Don’t Talk About Best Practice

Welcome to another June 2014 Monday Moanin. For many of you this may be the final week with students for this school year. As I was preparing to write this week, I had an interesting discussion with my wife about best practice and effective teaching.  She has taught for 28 years and we usually enjoy a spirited discussion about improving our craft. After talking for a few minutes we both came to the same realization. We are tired of talking about educational stuff. Enough!  We need a break. And if we both feel this way we imagine we are not alone. What about our colleagues and learners?  As a result, we both decided that this week the focus needs to be on relationships. We can validate  our colleagues and learners efforts and reinforce what they do well.  Think about it, when was the last time you thanked your students for working hard and doing their best?  So for this week , stop talking about best practice, evaluations, visible thinking routines, engaged lessons, RTI, Tier one, two, or three. Enough! Connect with those around you . Reach out and bring this school year to positive and strong ending. #finishstrong

Perfect quote of the week, Marzano writes;

“With good relationships in place, all other instructional strategies seem to work better.”