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Mike Anderson Consulting Mike Anderson Consulting
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  • 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

Motivation

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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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?
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Tap into Self-Motivation with an At-Home Project

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In For Parents, From Surviving to Thriving, From Surviving to Thriving, Great Academic Work, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Student Choice, Teaching Strategies
You want at-home learning to feel purposeful and engaging for students, but you don’t want to further overwhelm yourself with work. What if there was a way to both boost student engagement and reduce the daily assigning, correcting, and keeping
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3 Reasons + 5 Tips = GR8 Games

  • By Sarah Fillion
  • In Blog, Classroom Management, Equity, From Surviving to Thriving, From Surviving to Thriving, Great Academic Work, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Teaching Strategies
Games can boost engagement and learning for students while also reducing teacher workload--a win-win!
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Want to Reduce Your Workload and Boost Student Learning? Try This One Powerful Strategy

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, From Surviving to Thriving, Great Academic Work, Homework, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Student Choice, Teaching Strategies, Uncategorized, Work Life Balance
What if there was a learning strategy that boosted student engagement, had many (many!) academic benefits for students, and reduced teacher planning and correcting/grading time? Great news! There is–and it’s a tried and true strategy you have probably been using
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Shifting from Extrinsic to Intrinsic Motivation

  • By David Davis
  • In Blog, Great Academic Work, Homework, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Student Choice
It might be the understatement of the summer that teachers, students, parents, and administrators are anxious about the upcoming school year.   In addition to the priorities of health, safety, and equity of access to education in this COVID-19 period, distance
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Learning from Schools that Have Already Reopened

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, For Parents, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Professional Development, Social and Emotional Learning, Student Choice, The Ebb and Flow of the School Year, Work Life Balance
What might schools look like in the fall? We can learn from schools that have already welcomed children back to school. In the United States, many of us (teachers, parents, and students) are filled with anxiety about what the
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A Deep-Dive Into Learner-Centered Education

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Great Academic Work, In the Media, Interviews, Motivation, Student Choice, Teacher Talk, Video
I was delighted to join a group of deep thinkers for an in-depth panel discussion about leaner-centered education. Hosted by Julie Mountcastle of the Slate School, this conversation is rich and engaging. You’ll hear about the importance of cherishing children’s
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Start Planning with Your “Why” Instead of Your “What” and “How”

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Blog, Great Academic Work, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Student Choice
A high school math teacher is recording short lessons on his phone in his basement, using a dry erase board and marker as he explains new math concepts. He posts the videos and then offers one-on-one and small group coaching
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Maintaining School Momentum as Learning Moves Home

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Equity, For Parents, Homework, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Student Choice, Teacher Talk, Teaching Strategies
You’ve spent the whole year building a community of learners. You’ve established rules and routines to help learners manage themselves and work well with each other. Now, with schoolwork potentially moving offsite, you still want to support your students as
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Is It Time to Try Something Different?

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Homework, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Teaching Strategies
Is it time to try something different with your students? Is there something you’ve been trying over and over again that just isn’t working? One year, I remember it taking me way too long to realize that I needed to
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Can Teachers Offer Choice in the Midst of Scripted Programs?

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Mike's Blog, Motivation, Professional Development, Student Choice, Teaching Strategies
The Dilemma You want to offer students choices about what they learn or how the learn it. Engagement would be higher and you could offer differentiated options to meet the needs of various learners. However, you’re saddled with a scripted
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