B.Y.O.B.

March 2013

Mindsteps-Helping any teacher reach every student

Greetings!

It really saddens me lately to see so many teachers who have lost their passion. Faced with surmounting pressures from their districts, they are simply doing what they are told. Not only is teaching this way pure drudgery, it saps you of all of your energy and passion for teaching.

But master teachers don't just follow the curriculum guide or the book. Master teachers BYOB- Bring Your Own Brain. They know that that real rigor and motivation are found in the the planning process and thus they engage in planning with rigor and passion. It's what makes their lessons masterful.

This month's Feature Article encourages you to do what master teachers do: BYOB -- Bring Your Own Brain. Learn how planning this way can reignite your passion for teaching, increase rigor and student engagement, and unleash your own inner master teacher.

This month's TIP sheet shares the steps to rigorous unit planning. These are the same steps we use when helping teachers unpack their standards and plan units that are rigorous, engaging, and powerful for both students and teachers. And, just to show you that we're not making this stuff up, read this month's Case Study and learn how one teacher transformed his instruction by engaging in this process. Learn how you too can use this process to develop and deliver better unit and lesson plans.

Finally, I am heading to the ASCD Annual Conference in a couple of days. I do hope that you will join me for one of my sessions.

This year, my focus is on how to build master teachers. I'll also be signing books at the bookstore while I am there so please stop by to say hi! I look forward to meeting many of you in person.

We hope you find this month's newsletter immediately useful. If so, please pass it along by forwarding this email to your colleagues so that they can benefit too by clicking .

Until next month,
RJ_Signature

Teachers, trust yourselves and B.Y.O.B

Lately as I have been coaching teachers, I have noticed something disturbing. Many teachers do not trust themselves. In fact, I believe that we have teacher-proofed teaching so much that now teachers are afraid to teach. Many turn off their brains and simply do what they are told.

Just recently, I observed an elementary teacher who stood in front of the class and read to them from the teacher guide. When I met with him afterward to give him feedback, I asked him why he had made some of the instructional decisions he made. His answer? It was in the teacher's guide. Finally, I asked him,

"If you didn't have the teacher's guide, would you have taught the lesson differently?"

He nodded vigorously. "Oh yeah."...

PD Case Study: What a Difference a Year Makes for One Teacher!

Last year around this time, I was introduced to Mr. Wayne, a history teacher at one of the schools where I was doing some coaching. I sat down with Mr. Wayne and other members of his team to help them learn how to plan more rigorous units and lessons in preparation for his district's adoption of the Common Core (CCSS). Although we weren't working specifically with CCSS at the time, the principal and I felt that helping teachers learn how to unpack the standards and use them to plan rigorous units was a great way to help them transition to CCSS when it was time.

During our first meeting, I began by asking Mr. Wayne and his colleagues why they were teaching the standard they had chosen to work on. Mr. Wayne quickly answered, "Because it's in the curriculum."

I smiled and prodded, "But why is it in the curriculum?"

"Because it's on the test," he explained, growing a little annoyed at my questions.

"Ok," I nodded. "But why is this so important that it is in the curriculum and on the test?"

Mr. Wayne rolled his eyes. "I don't know," he shrugged and picked up a stack of papers and flipped through them.