Thinking Routines

Will Ferrell once played legendary Cubs announcer Harry Caray on SNL. If you've never seen it, the bit is basically: Harry Caray is a man completely unmoored from social norms, asking the most unfiltered, bizarre questions imaginable: to scientists, to astronauts, to anyone fortunate enough to sit across from him, with zero apology and maximum enthusiasm. At one point, Harry says, completely unprompted: " I'm curious like a cat. My friends call me Whiskers. " And here's the t

How many of us can relate to the following situation? Last year, I was teaching a unit on the Civil Rights Movement, and we had just finished reading a primary source, a firsthand account from a Freedom Rider. Heavy stuff. Important stuff. The kind of stuff that you want students to genuinely sit with. So I asked the class what they thought. Silence . Not the good kind of silence. Not the "I am processing something profound" silence. The "I have not been given a single tool t

Let me tell you something that will either deeply resonate with you or make you close this tab immediately. I think about thinking. Like... a lot. Embarrassingly a lot. From reading philosophy and psychology texts, to staring into the void and wondering why my silly "lizard brain" likes to do things. It's all thinking about thinking (think-ception!?!?!?!?). My thinking about thinking runs so wild that when I'm in the middle of the grocery store buying soup, it becomes a whole

We’ve all been there. You just finished explaining a concept, laying out a brilliant plan, or sharing an exciting new idea. You pause, look out at your audience (whether that’s a classroom of students, your kids at the dinner table, or your team at work), and you get… blank stares. It’s frustrating! We spend so much time focusing on the stuff  we are sharing, but we rarely stop to think about the hidden gears turning—or completely stalled out—in the minds of the people listen

I recently started subscribing to Jamie Clark 's newsletter DistillED . I think I picked it up from a Ditch That Textbook newsletter. Each week, Jamie's newsletter highlights a different challenge in the classroom and offers quick, actionable steps. From monitoring independent practice to inclusive communication and peer feedback, I've found some excellent research-based strategies to enhance the classroom experience for students. This week's newsletter focused on incorpora