Monday Moanin Thoughts #256 This Week, No Talking About Best Practices, Enough!

Good morning and welcome to the first Monday of June 2017. 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 30 years and we usually enjoy a spirited discussion about teaching, learning and leadership.After talking for a few minutes we both came to the same realization. We are exhausted talking about educational stuff. Enough!  We need a break. And if we both feel this way, we can only imagine we are not alone. What about our colleagues and students?  As a result, we both decided that this week the focus needs to be on relationships and connections.  Simply, we can reach out to our colleagues and students validating their efforts and reinforce what they do well.  Reflect, when was the last time you thanked your students for working hard and doing their best?  This week , stop talking about best practice, assessments, evaluations, visible thinking routines, engaged lessons, MTSS, standards or competencies. Enough! Connect with those around you. Reach out and bring this school year to positive and more enjoyable ending.

Perfect quote of the week, Marzano writes;

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