Hang out at a playground, visit a school, or show up at a child's birthday party, and there's one phrase you can count on hearing repeatedly: "Good job!" Even tiny infants are praised for smacking their hands together ("Good clapping!"). Many of us blurt out these judgments of our children to the point that it has become almost a verbal tic...

Four decades of teaching have convinced me that there are a lot of things I don't know about kids, teaching, learning, school, and education. Using self-reflection, action research, trial and error, desperation, and more feedback than I ever wanted, I discovered some teaching techniques that worked and many that did not. Further, polishing my skills of out-bureaucrating the bureaucrats...

This year I stand to be removed from what I love doing to a position that will be "only a job." I may be moved to another site. I have no idea what I'll be teaching. What will I do to prepare? I had planned on taking a course on writing books with primary children (one of my loves), laying out a general overview of the year's lesson plans, making more math games, adding to my yearly theme resources...

A reader recently wrote to me. He explained, "I am a 77-year old veteran from chasing German troops across southern Germany at the end of WW II. I do not believe war is the answer. It is difficult to be a peacemaker, function with integrity, and express little support for military action. How can this position be explained to children?"...

Sixteen pupils faced me from different sized desks, sitting with their backs straight, hands folded, glaring at me. They spoke only when they had to recite and never smiled. For the first week there was no giggling or whispering, no passing of notes. There was no laughing or shouting on the playground at recess or before I rang the hand bell in the morning...

Communication is an outward extension of thought. It helps in the process of arranging thought, linking one idea to another. Often communication gives access to information or alternative ideas that help understanding, as in discussion, in listening to someone else or in reading a book...