One of the most intelligent students in my school essentially decided not to graduate with his class. I have worked with him one on one for three years, watched him emerge as a phenomenal poet and thinker, and also observed him sabotage his own successes time and again. Poet left himself a credit short [...]

Do you have a cling-on? You know, that kid who attaches himself to you or your room and wants attention all of them time. I had one last year and have another this year. He’s a nice kid but doesn’t understand boundaries well. He just likes to hang around all the time. Once he even invited [...]

I posted recently that I don’t have a set of class rules, and a responder wondered how I go without rules. This may sound overly simple, but I tell my (high school) students that I only create rules if we need to have them. We only have them in my classes if students can’t respect one [...]

Have you ever wanted to do this?

This guy sits in the first row of my first period class. Yeah, it's a commercial, but it's true all the same. Do you have this kid in your class?