Banner of Progressively Incorrect Podcast Saying New Episode Featuring Becky Lim and Matt Rhoads
Zach Groshell BLE, Creativity, Education, Inquiry, iPad, Learning, Papers and Podcasts, PD, Progressively Incorrect, relationships, Student, Teachers, technology

S2E5: Becky Lim and Matt Rhoads on EdTech and Global Collaborations

This is a lovely episode that I recorded towards the end of the summer featuring two of my favorite people in education and edutwitter, Becky Lim and Dr. Matthew Rhoads. Becky and Matt are enthusiastic about the potential for edtech in the classroom, and in this episode they share some of their strategies for developing … Continue reading S2E5: Becky Lim and Matt Rhoads on EdTech and Global Collaborations

Zach Groshell Classroom management, Education, Inquiry, Learning, Math, motivation, Play, Research, Science of Learning, Student, Teachers

Playing Around with Kids’ Education

As I've written before, replacing explicit instruction (not just lecturing, but a scaffolded combination of interactive modeling, questioning, and practice) with fun but trivial activities is not the key to students' hearts. If anything, this causes disillusionment and resentment. Kids are smart enough to recognize that their education is being wasted. In this post, I'd … Continue reading Playing Around with Kids’ Education

Zach Groshell Classroom management, Education, Inquiry, Learning, motivation, Pastoral Care, Play, Student, Teachers

Different Schools for Different Fools

To celebrate the completion of my dissertation and my contribution to a new book, I allowed myself back onto Twitter. I had been tweeting via Hootsuite and self-blocking Twitter on my technology so that I could focus on these projects, free from the weight of the nonsense that tends to dominate the platform. My return … Continue reading Different Schools for Different Fools

Zach Groshell Education, Homework, Inquiry, Language, Learning, Math, motivation, Research, Student, Teachers

Do We Want Our Students to Struggle?

Like so many buzzwords in education, it's hard to pin down what people mean by the term "Productive Struggle". Of the two meanings of Productive Struggle I've heard being used most often, the good meaning is uncontroversial, and the bad - and more popular - meaning encourages teachers to abandon principles of effective instruction. The … Continue reading Do We Want Our Students to Struggle?

Zach Groshell Classroom management, Education, Learning, motivation, Pastoral Care, relationships, Student, Teachers

From Door to Do Now

When I coach teachers who struggle with classroom management, I often begin by helping them focus on the things that happen just prior to the actual lesson: The way students move and interact in the hallways, the way students line up at the door and enter, and the design of the task students are meant … Continue reading From Door to Do Now

Zach Groshell Education, Inquiry, Learning, motivation, relationships, Student, Teachers

The Private School Penalty

For the past 9 years, I've worked in private independent and international schools, and before that, I trained and worked in public schools. As I've written before, the challenges that teachers experience in each of these contexts are vastly different. A pedagogy consisting largely of unstructured tasks with ill-defined goals, coupled with a laissez-faire approach … Continue reading The Private School Penalty

Zach Groshell BLE, Creativity, differentiation, Education, Learning, motivation, PD, Research, Science of Learning, Student, Teachers, technology

Instructional Videos: Perfect for Learning Styles, Popular with Students, and THE FUTURE of Education!

Last week I attended a government-sponsored training on instructional video that began with three weird reasons for why teachers should use more instructional video: Instructional videos cater to students' learning stylesInstructional videos are more popular with students (i.e., they like them) than alternative methodsInstructional videos are the future of learning I'm sure fans of this … Continue reading Instructional Videos: Perfect for Learning Styles, Popular with Students, and THE FUTURE of Education!

Zach Groshell Education, Learning, motivation, Pastoral Care, relationships, Student, Teachers

Is Classroom Management Based on a “Dim View” of Human Nature?

One of my favorite episodes of the Progressively Incorrect podcast is the one in which we discuss an opinion piece by Alfie Kohn on classroom management. Consistent with his past writing, Kohn takes issue with the idea that schools should concern themselves with externally regulating students’ behaviors, saying that classroom management is based on a … Continue reading Is Classroom Management Based on a “Dim View” of Human Nature?

Can a theory improve your teaching by educationrickshaw.com
Zach Groshell differentiation, Education, Learning, PD, Research, Student, Teachers

Can a Theory Improve Your Teaching?

If much of what we learned in teacher training was not very useful once we got to the classroom, and if some theories we were taught, like learning styles, were just plain false, it's tempting to conclude that theory has little to offer the busy teacher. Having used cognitive load theory to streamline my teaching, I can't agree.