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Mike Anderson Consulting Mike Anderson Consulting
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  • Home
  • About
    • Brief Overview
    • Curriculum Vitae
    • Testimonials
  • Books
    • 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
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Motivation

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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Are You Struggling with PBIS Reward Systems?

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Teaching Strategies
A teacher recently reached out to me about PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention & Supports) and reward systems. It’s a question I’ve been hearing a lot as I work with teachers across the United States.  I am in a district
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How Do You Promote Intrinsic Motivation at School When Kids Get Extrinsic Motivators at Home?

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Homework, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Teacher Talk, Teaching Strategies
A teacher recently wrote me an email asking for some advice about student motivation. She graciously agreed to let my answer morph into a blog post. I just finished listening to your ASCD webinar about language.  I found your presentation thoughtful,
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Hugging Porcupines: Building Meaningful Relationships with Our Toughest Students

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning
We know about the power of relationships. We’ve heard (and believe!) the old adage, “Kids don’t care what you know until they know that you care.” So how do we build and cultivate those all-important relationships…with some of our toughest
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Literacy Teachers: Rethink the Phrase, “Good Readers…”

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Teacher Talk, Teaching Strategies
If you teach reading and/or writing, there’s a good chance that when introducing a new concept or skill, you begin your lesson by saying some variation of, “Good readers….” “Good readers pay attention to context clues.” “Good
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Rethinking Praise

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In For Parents, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Teacher Talk, Teaching Strategies
One of the most deeply held beliefs of many educators is that we should praise students—a lot. Many of us were taught, early on in our careers, that the more we praise our students, the better they’ll feel, and the
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Five Alternatives to “Good Job!”

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In For Parents, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Teacher Talk, Teaching Strategies
Traditional praise (such as "Good job!" and "I love the way you're..." can do more harm than good. Read on to find out what to say instead!
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Without These Three Conditions, Student Choice Probably Won’t Work

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Student Choice, Teacher Talk, Teaching Strategies
“If I give my students choice, I’m worried they’re going to make bad choices,” I often hear teachers say. “They’re just going to choose the easiest option. Or, they’re going to choose what their friends choose.” There’s no doubt that
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Letting Students Make the Choice

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Mike's Blog, Motivation, Student Choice
Rick Gifford knew that a worksheet where students define words and then use them in a sentence wasn’t the most engaging way for them to learn and practice math vocabulary. He wanted to spruce things up and give his students
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Five Ways to Move Away from Compliance-Based Classrooms

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Student Choice, Teacher Talk, Teaching Strategies
In survey after survey, business leaders are clear about what they’re looking for in employees. They want creative, dynamic, and independent thinkers. They want people who work well with a variety of people. And, importantly, they don’t want to hire
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Spark Passion and Purpose with Independent Research

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Mike's Blog, Motivation, Professional Development, Student Choice, Teaching Strategies
One of the most exciting and enjoyable ways to differentiate learning for students is to lead them through a process of independent research. When students get to dig deeply into something they’re passionate about, they have the drive and stamina
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When Students Learn to Choose, They Choose to Learn

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Student Choice, Teaching Strategies
Note: This article first appeared on Learning Personalized in April, 2016: http://www.learningpersonalized.com/students-learn-choose-choose-learn/. Thanks go out to my friend and colleague, Allison Zmuda, who originally published the post! I was recently working with a group of high school teachers, and they
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Promoting a Growth Mindset: An Activity to Try

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In For Parents, Mike's Blog, Motivation, Professional Development, Social and Emotional Learning, Teacher Talk, Teaching Strategies
Many schools are working hard to help promote a growth mindset in their students. I recently facilitated a learning session with a group of teachers that I’d like to pass along. It is a simple activity that yielded some powerful
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When Work Is Its Own Reward

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Mike's Blog, Motivation, Student Choice, Teaching Strategies
You have just finished teaching a lesson, and as you direct students to get started on their work, a familiar chorus echoes across the room, causing your heart to sink. What do we get for doing this? Do we have
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How (and Why) I Stopped Saying, “I like the way you…”

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Mike's Blog, Motivation, Social and Emotional Learning, Teacher Talk, Teaching Strategies
For a long time, when I wanted to give students positive feedback about their work or behavior, I began with some version of, “I like the way you…” “Jeremy, I like the way you’re working so hard on that
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Rethinking Rewards and Incentives

  • By Mike Anderson
  • In Mike's Blog, Motivation, Professional Development, Social and Emotional Learning, Teaching Strategies
In my first two years as a classroom teacher, I used an incentive system to try and motivate and manage students. At each cluster of four student desks, there was a plastic dish. When groups were working well, paying attention,
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