The Gift of Teaching

I teach a course called The Power of Positive Thinking. Our motto is, Being Positive in Not Pretending Everything is Good. It is Finding the Good in Everything! Obviously, there is nothing good about the coronavirus itself. Thousands of people have taken ill or died as a result of this horrible pandemic. However, there is some good resulting from the virus. Continue Reading…

20 Techniques to Detour Around the Danger Zones: #16 Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

At the end of the course Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites, which I teach to administrators and teachers all over the world, we celebrate the vast amount of information that we have learned. Some participants say that they learn more from me in one day than they learn in some workshops in several days. Continue Reading…

20 Techniques to Detour Around the Danger Zones: #15 Accentuate the Positive

I am a trainer for The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. During that workshop, a concept is taught called the emotional bank account. The emotional bank account is a metaphor for the relationships we establish with one another. We make deposits (positive interactions) and withdrawals (negative interactions) in other people’s emotional bank accounts. Continue Reading…

20 Techniques to Detour Around the Danger Zones: #14 Teach Your Rituals

In every school, there are teachers who very effectively manage students. At first, it was thought that those teachers had some big bag of tricks that other teachers didn’t have, which helped them to know just what to do in various situations. What the research is telling us is that effective classroom managers spend an inordinate amount of their time during the first few days and weeks of school establishing their expectations and procedures, in other words, their rituals. Continue Reading…

20 Techniques to Detour Around the Danger Zones: #13 Keep Them Laughing

A cartoon was shown of a classroom where students were literally hanging from the ceiling, tied by their feet. Outside the door, there was a sign that read In-School Suspension. This cartoon shown in a workshop on classroom management practically ensures a chuckle or two. That chuckle goes a long way in creating a climate conducive for learning. Continue Reading…

20 Techniques to Detour Around the Danger Zones: #12 Let Them Move!

It is 8:55 a.m.—time to change classes in Washington High School. Students are relieved because they get to actually move their bodies to the next location. However, in most middle or high schools, that is probably the last time they will get to move for the next 55 minutes or until the bell rings for the next period. Continue Reading…

20 Techniques to Detour Around the Danger Zones: #11 Let Them Talk!

As rhymes are brain compatible, I wrote an original one to symbolize what we teachers and administrators do to students in schools. It is as follows:

Students can’t talk in class.
They can’t talk in the hall.
They can’t talk in the cafeteria.
They can’t talk at all!

Continue Reading…

20 Techniques to Detour Around the Danger Zones: #9 Use Brain-Compatible Strategies

Research on the brain began more than 50 years ago when Dr. Roger Sperry attempted to control seizures in epileptic patients by severing the corpus callosum, the structure that joins the left and right hemispheres of the brain. These patients appeared to function normally but would use either the left or the right hemispheres of the brain depending on what the task required. Continue Reading…

20 Techniques to Detour Around the Danger Zones: #7 Stop and Smell the Roses

Have you noticed that when you smell a particular odor, memories come flooding back? Maybe it’s a scent from your childhood that brings to mind your mother cooking one of your favorite foods in the family kitchen. Maybe it’s a fragrance that a particular person wears, and when you smell it, all of the memories of your experiences with that person are recalled. Continue Reading…

20 Techniques to Detour Around the Danger Zones: #6 Color Their World

Have you ever stopped to think about how the colors in this world affect you? I didn’t think much about it until I made a mistake with color in my home. My husband and I dined with friends who had just moved into a beautiful new house. Their dining room was painted a cranberry color that provided an elegance to the already exquisite surroundings. Continue Reading…

20 Techniques to Detour Around the Danger Zones: #4 Light Up Their World

A school system was in the process of building five new schools to house their increasing student population. Having read the research on the detrimental effects of fluorescent lighting, I shared with the architects rationales for including additional windows or a different type of lighting in the construction of these new buildings. The experts thanked me for my input but proceeded to include fluorescent lighting in plans for each of the five new edifices. Continue Reading…

20 Techniques to Detour Around the Danger Zones: #2 Expect the Best!

You may have noticed that in almost every school where students change classes, there is a group of students who will be perfectly behaved in one classroom and out of control in another. Why does this happen? It may have to do with teacher expectations. Continue Reading…

20 Techniques to Detour Around the Danger Zones: #1 Develop a Relationship With Each Student

Have you ever walked down the hall in a high school and seen a teenager with his pants hanging low and a cap on his head? Have you witnessed one  teacher ask the student to pull up his pants and take off the cap, and he walks by as if he has not heard the teacher’s request? Continue Reading…

Shouting Won’t Grow Dendrites: 20 Techniques to Detour Around the Danger Zones

Have you ever noticed a group of middle or high school students who change classes, and in one teacher’s class they are well behaved, but in another teacher’s class they are terrors? Could it be that the former teacher has detour signs in place to steer students around potential behavior problems that the second teacher does not? Continue Reading…