+413 658 7907
mike@leadinggreatlearning.com

Cart

0
Login
No apps configured. Please contact your administrator.

Login with your site account

No apps configured. Please contact your administrator.

Lost your password?

Mike Anderson Consulting Mike Anderson Consulting
  • Home
  • About
    • Brief Overview
    • Curriculum Vitae
    • Testimonials
  • Books
    • Tackling the Motivation Crisis
    • What We Say and How We Say It Matter
    • Teacher Talk that Matters
    • Learning to Choose, Choosing to Learn
    • The Well-Balanced Teacher
    • The Research-Ready Classroom
    • The First Six Weeks of School, 2nd Edition
    • What Every Teacher Needs to Know Series
  • Consulting
  • Online PD
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
    • Brief Overview
    • Curriculum Vitae
    • Testimonials
  • Books
    • Tackling the Motivation Crisis
    • What We Say and How We Say It Matter
    • Teacher Talk that Matters
    • Learning to Choose, Choosing to Learn
    • The Well-Balanced Teacher
    • The Research-Ready Classroom
    • The First Six Weeks of School, 2nd Edition
    • What Every Teacher Needs to Know Series
  • Consulting
  • Online PD
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Contact

5 Strategies for Keeping Lessons Short

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Great Academic Work, Teacher Talk, Teaching Strategies
A friend and colleague of mine, Andy Dousis, once told me that every lesson has three moments: a golden one, a silver one, and a leaden one. Whatever you say in the first 60 seconds of the lesson is the
Read More
  • Share:

Square Pegs and Round Holes: Why I Moved Away From Letter Grades

  • By Kristin Castellano
  • In Blog, Great Academic Work, Motivation
Square pegs and round holes. This phrase plays over and over in my head each time I try to assign a letter grade to my students at the end of a marking period. My students’ learning is so complex, and
Read More
  • Share:

Maybe We Shouldn’t Tell Students to Always Try Their Best

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Great Academic Work, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Teacher Talk
Walk through most schools, and you’ll see messages like the ones above, posted in classrooms and in hallways. We often encourage kids, as they’re about to work to “try your best” or “put in max effort.” One year in
Read More
  • Share:

A Powerful Proactive Strategy: Positive Phone Calls to Families

  • By Jaclyn Rohr
  • In Blog, Mike's Blog, The Ebb and Flow of the School Year
Early in the school year, there’s a powerful proactive strategy we should all consider. Positive phone calls to families give you the chance to build connections and relationships with families that will yield benefits all year long. But is this
Read More
  • Share:

3 Ways to Pace Yourself (and Your Students) This School Year

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Classroom Management, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Teaching Strategies, The Ebb and Flow of the School Year
A few years ago my wife gave me three months of coaching for my birthday. I’d been running 5K road races and was trying some half-marathons. She thought I could use some professional help!  We connected online, and I sent
Read More
  • Share:

Can You Really Own Something You Didn’t Choose?

  • By Tom Tuscano
  • In Great Academic Work, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Student Choice, Teaching Strategies
“How’d it go?” On the surface, it is such a basic question. I’ve been asked that question plenty of times in my life. After a sports game, doctor’s appointment, or school meeting, not to mention that nerve-wracking best man’s speech
Read More
  • Share:

Are You Teaching SEL or Character Ed?

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Social and Emotional Learning
This is probably a bit of a misleading title since there are plenty of overlaps between teaching SEL and character ed. If we put these two terms into a Venn diagram, we’d find plenty of overlaps. In my mind, there’s
Read More
  • Share:

In Celebration of Dad Jokes

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Teacher Talk, Ted Lasso
What did the mathematical acorn say when he grew up? “Ge-om-e-try!” (“Gee, I’m a tree!”) Ah—dad jokes. Silly plays on words. Puns. Cornball humor. Eye-rollers. Groaners. Ted Lasso is packed with goofy humor. Have you noticed how this keeps your
Read More
  • Share:

3 Planning Moves to Reenergize Your Teaching

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Great Academic Work, Health and Balance, Mike's Blog, Student Choice, Teaching Strategies, Ted Lasso
In the final episode of Season I of Ted Lasso, players are somber and nervous heading into a do-or-die match against a superior team. Ted decides they all need to try something new, so he invites the players to name
Read More
  • Share:

Taking on a Challenge Is Like Riding a Horse

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Health and Balance, Mike's Blog, Ted Lasso
As I’ve watched Ted Lasso, I can’t help but think about the lessons that we educators can learn along the way. Today we’ll consider a line from the very first episode: “Taking on a challenge is a lot like riding
Read More
  • Share:

Be Curious, Not Judgmental

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Classroom Management, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Ted Lasso
My wife and I loved watching Ted Lasso. In fact, when our daughter came home from college for the holidays, we got her into it and watched both seasons again! One of the most powerful and uplifting scenes comes in
Read More
  • Share:

Be a Goldfish

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Classroom Management, Mike's Blog, Social and Emotional Learning, Ted Lasso
Even if you haven’t binge-watched Ted Lasso like I have (twice!), you’ve probably heard of it. In this blog post, we’ll explore one of Ted Lasso’s classic lines: Be a Goldfish and consider how it might help us when we’ve
Read More
  • Share:

Beyond Behaviorism: Three Key Strategies

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Classroom Management, For Parents, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Teaching Strategies
A Brief History of Behaviorism, Part 5 If you could travel back in time about 60 years and walk through a typical school, you might be surprised to find something missing. You wouldn’t see behavior charts or “star student” award
Read More
  • Share:

The Factory Model of Schooling

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Classroom Management, For Parents, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning
A Brief History of Behaviorism, Part 4 If you could travel back in time about 60 years and walk through a typical school, you might be surprised to find something missing. You wouldn’t see behavior charts or “star student” award
Read More
  • Share:

What If There’s More to Behavior than Behaviors?

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Classroom Management, For Parents, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning
A Brief History of Behaviorism, Part 3 If you could travel back in time about 60 years and walk through a typical school, you might be surprised to find something missing. You wouldn’t see behavior charts or “star student” award
Read More
  • Share:

BF Skinner and Token Economy Systems

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Classroom Management, For Parents, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning
A Brief History of Behaviorism, Part 2 If you could travel back in time about 60 years and walk through a typical school, you might be surprised to find something missing. You wouldn’t see behavior charts or “star student” award
Read More
  • Share:

Drooling Dogs and the Birth of Behaviorism

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Articles, Blog, Classroom Management, For Parents, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Teaching Strategies
A Brief History of Behaviorism, Part 1 If you could travel back in time about 60 years and walk through a typical school, you might be surprised to find something missing. You wouldn’t see behavior charts or “star student” award
Read More
  • Share:

Do Your Students Seem Young?

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Classroom Management, Mike's Blog, Social and Emotional Learning, Teacher Talk, Teaching Strategies, The Ebb and Flow of the School Year
Do your students seem young this year? You’re not alone. In every single school I’m working in this year—with no exceptions—teachers are saying the same kinds of things. This shouldn’t be surprising. Students always seem a bit young in the
Read More
  • Share:

Weave SEL Into Your Daily Teaching: A 4-Step Process

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Classroom Management, Social and Emotional Learning, Teaching Strategies
It is now widely recognized that social-emotional learning (SEL) should be an integral part of teaching and learning in schools. Yet it sometimes feels so overwhelming. SEL is just so…BIG. How do you know where to start? Some districts purchase
Read More
  • Share:

15 Strategies for Learning Students’ Names

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Classroom Management, Mike's Blog, Social and Emotional Learning, Teacher Talk, Teaching Strategies, The Ebb and Flow of the School Year
“To weave the magic of a thing, you see, one must find its true name. In my lands we keep our true names hidden all our lives long, from all but those we trust utterly; for there is great power,
Read More
  • Share:

Helping Students Become More Self-Motivated

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Great Academic Work, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Teaching Strategies, Video
In this vlog post, published through Eduplanet21, I share a story about a student who seemed motivated but wasn’t really self-motivated. She was always seeking my approval: “Is this okay? Is it good enough?” I tell about how I helped
Read More
  • Share:

Consistency Is Key in the Last Weeks of School

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Classroom Management, Mike's Blog, Social and Emotional Learning, Teacher Talk, The Ebb and Flow of the School Year
The last weeks of school are a tumultuous time of transition. Not all students look forward to summer vacation, and even ones who do are likely anxious about next year. For some students, next year brings a new school, not
Read More
  • Share:

100 Ideas for Awesome Academic Work in the Last Weeks of School

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Great Academic Work, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Student Choice, Teaching Strategies, The Ebb and Flow of the School Year
Don’t look now, but the end of the school year isn’t far away. Of course, we know how important the first weeks of school are, but what about the last weeks of school? Surely, this is just as important a
Read More
  • Share:

As Students Return to School, Don’t Focus on SEL or Academics: Do Both

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Great Academic Work, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Student Choice, Teaching Strategies
As schools welcome more and more students back through their doors, we’re all trying to figure out the best way to do so. It seems as though there are two wildly different needs we must address. As I talk with
Read More
  • Share:

Overcoming Our Motivation Crisis

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Audio, Great Academic Work, Interviews, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Teaching Strategies
As educators, we all want our students to be motivated. Teachers and schools often pour immense amounts of energy into trying to motivate students, yet often it seems like the more we try, the less kids care. What’s going on?
Read More
  • Share:
  • 1
  • 2
  • …
  • 10
  • >

Get Mike’s Newsletter

Subscribe to Mike's Blog

Receive email notifications for Mike's blog posts.

Contact Mike

1.413.658.7907

mike@leadinggreatlearning.com

USEFUL LINKS

  • About Mike
  • News
  • Contact
  • Testimonials

Social Links

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin

Newsletters

Subscribe to get updates right in your inbox. We promise to not send you spam.

© 2020 - Mike Anderson Consulting

  • Home
  • About Mike
  • Consulting
  • Contact