“The messaging that educators are often subjected to around intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is a false dichotomy,” @mrrablin.bsky.social writes.
Here’s how *and* why to leverage extrinsic motivation at certain points in the learning process. ⭐
#EduSky
Extrinsic motivation gets a bad rap, but middle and high school teachers can use it judiciously early in an activity to encourage students to get started.
@mrrablin.bsky.social explains how. 👇
#EduSky
Admittedly, this is a bit of a curveball. The guy who is always raging against grades wrote a piece about why we need extrinsic motivators.
Hear me out...
www.edutopia.org/article/how-...
The best ADHD advice is not "here's a hack so you can do things like a neurotypical." It's "here's how to stop being so hard on yourself for not being neurotypical." I'm never going to have perfect habits and routines, but I am going to be much softer with myself.
I have a moment like this from multiple years ago that I still feel guilty about for being to harsh with a student. We’re human. We make mistakes. That student came back years later before they graduated and told me I was the only teacher who had ever apologized to them, and it meant a lot to them.
I put formatives in the grade book as collected on time, late, or missing. If they crossed a threshold (usually 10% missing) they were put in a school-designated study hall and lose their bonus 20 minutes of lunch (they would still get the regular time). That was the most effective and easy for me.
Yes, and the biggest thing I can emphasize to is to still have accountability measures for engaging in productive work (aka doing formatives).
Perfect world, not needed, but that’s not the world I found it to be when I did it.
I loved it, but learned some hard lessons.
This assessment design was a game-changer for learning in my classroom.
Notice...
🧠 The reflection it facilitates
📊 The clarity it provides about learning
📦 The segmentation to support growing learners
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Illustrated classroom floor plan titled “Room Layout.” Individual desks and chairs (shown separately) form rows around the perimeter and middle of the room. Cabinets line the left wall beside the door. Three rectangular tables sit in the center. At the front of the room are a podium and a whiteboard with bookshelves underneath. A note indicates that desks and chairs can be separated.
Diagram labeled “Caves” showing the same classroom layout with red arrows indicating students turning desks inward or toward walls to create individual, quiet workspaces. Desks face away from others to emphasize independent work areas.
Diagram labeled “Watering Holes” showing desks turned toward nearby classmates in small clusters. Red arrows indicate students facing one another in pairs or small groups to encourage collaboration and discussion.
Diagram labeled “Campfires” showing desks arranged in circles around tables and shared spaces. Red arrows indicate students facing inward toward group centers or the front teaching area, supporting group discussion or whole-class instruction.
Every time we publish an article on room layouts, everyone asks for pictures. Not this time—they’re already here!
@mrrablin.bsky.social left an admin “baffled,” but this layout really works. 🙌
Read the article for more info: https://edut.to/4bsh9gC
Love it! Definitely was a bit of a Tetris game making it all work, but it was so helpful in so many ways for me. I hope the same holds true for you.
Are you a teacher who thinks a lot about your room layout? We’ve got diagrams!
@mrrablin.bsky.social shows you how he moves easily between whole class, small group, and individual work. 🪑
#ClassroomDesign #EduSky
We are way too quick to ascribe students with a "lack of motivation." It takes much less vulnerability to say "I don't wanna" than it does to say "I don't actually understand this" or "I don't know how to do this" or "I am just trying to make it through the day."
Thuan Nguyen opens his keynote by humbly telling us he’s an introvert who’s very nervous, and then softly captivates an entire room where you could hear a pin drop the entire time.
Reminder: power and influence is not synonymous with loud and outgoing.
#NCCE26
A picture of Jason and Mike in front of a room standing next to a projector screen.
Not only is the 30 in 50 from @neif.bsky.social and Mike one of the most mind-blowing sessions at #NCCE26 every year, but I also typically laugh more than the rest of the sessions combined. Such a great and entertaining team!
One of my favorite moments of every session I do is the moment where teachers get to meet each other (no ice breakers, just conversations).
Watching people interact who care so much about kids and the future is always so encouraging.
A photo of Katie Fielding presenting from a lectern with a screen on the left of the photo showing a penguin with captions underneath it.
A little bonus tool that @katiefielding.com mentioned in her presentation today is called ZipCaption that allows for free live captions (that are super accurate) no matter what’s on your screen.
ZipCaption.app
Looking forward to seeing you around the conference!
Admittedly quite a dense read, but an important one nonetheless.
It looks at the value of sequencing knowledge acquisition (and the subsequent assessment and instruction) into a learning progression.
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
"By diagnosing students’ mastery of specific cognitive attributes, we revealed the heterogeneity of cognitive profiles behind identical total scores, confirming the limitations of traditional summative assessments and underscoring the advantages of fine-grained, attribute-level evaluation."
Source⬇️
A screenshot of a figure from a study. There are boxes with ones and zeroes and red lines connecting them in a somewhat random patter.
A picture of a man smoking a cigarette and standing in front of a wall with lots of papers tacked up and red lines drawn between them.
Spending some of my day digging into the research around learning progressions.
The screenshot below is one of the figures included in the study for my reference.
I genuinely feel like there's the same energy in both of these photos.
So much professional learning feels like a shotgun approach that changes year-to-year with no real purpose behind it.
Make the purpose tangible, achievable, and student-focused, and that can be the game-changer for your professional learning.
3/3
personalized learning pathways, etc.)?
3) What type of professional learning do teachers need to support this type of work in the classroom?
This provides purpose, clarity, consistency, and buy-in (only when teachers are involved in this process) for professional learning.
2/
Professional development is only meaningful if you plan backwards.
1) What lifelong skills do we want our graduates to possess (collaboration, independent learning skills, etc.)?
2) What needs to happen in our classrooms in order for students to develop those skills (group work...
1/
Using a 50% minimum policy in a school without any additional grading reform to examine the ineffectiveness, inaccuracy, and inequity of averaging points over time to calculate a grade is the equivalent of using a bandaid to treat cancer.
You can't quick fix a systemic issue for long.
Been a minute since I wrote a lengthy thread, but this was weighing on my mind.
Overall, we can no longer assume that the creation of something represents and understanding of the underlying concepts. That is an inference that was never really safe to make anyways.
Instead, look for direct evidence of understanding with additional explanations from the student.
I often have a half-sheet ready to roll like the example below. This helps me listen for specific elements of learning while capturing notes for validity purposes.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
This is useful for group discussion scenarios (socratic seminar or philosophical chairs, for example). As I listen, I mark where students demonstrate a level of understanding (typically adding the date, too).
This gives me additional evidence of learning.
For individual oral assessments ⬇️
Oral assessment, especially now, is wildly underutilized. Having students talk about their learning not only helps their learning, but it also adds a layer of accountability to accurately represent their learning.
Here's example of something I use with my class...
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
