Effective Teaching Is...Affective Teaching

In 1994, English professor Jeffrey Berman published Diaries to an English Professor, a study of fifteen years' worth of the ungraded, introspective journals his students had kept in his literature courses at the University at Albany. Buried in that book is a line that has inspired this post: effective teaching is... affective teaching.

It's a small play on words with a large claim. Berman wasn't arguing that content doesn't matter, or that rigor is optional. He was arguing something more specific: that the intellectual transformation we want for our students – the kind that actually sticks – depends on an emotional and relational foundation first.

They Don't Want Easy

There is a persistent, tired narrative in modern education: Kids “these days” just want things easy. We hear that today’s students – navigating a complex, post-pandemic learning landscape, to be sure – want a transactional path to success: a system where compliance, high (perhaps performative) effort, and checking off boxes guarantee an easy A without any real academic friction – or growth.

Creating a Culture of Appreciation

At the beginning of a new school year, we once again take up the conversation about teacher morale, retention, and burnout, and the challenges of recruiting and keeping good educators. We talk about compensation, workload, working conditions, and the demands being placed on teachers. And, of course, these conversations matter. But there is another conversation we should have as we begin anew, about something that costs very little -- both literally and figuratively -- and can have an enormous impact: authentic appreciation.

Homework -- My Hill to Die On

Homework is a hot-button topic in education. People often conflate “homework” with “rigor” and, as educators and parents, we rarely pause to ask the most basic questions: What is homework for? And what is THIS homework for?

Redos for Learning: An Unpopular Opinion?

If you know anything about me or my teaching style, you know that I am a big fan of allowing redos. It’s kind of an unpopular stance; many teachers refuse to allow redos because they believe students should have gotten it right the first time. “If only they had managed their time better,” “studied harder,” or “paid attention in class,” the argument goes. I have even heard, “Well this is not how real life works.” And yes, on the surface, it does feel unfair to the students who did manage their time, who studied when they were supposed to – and performed well because of it – to offer redos to those who supposedly did not, but if the purpose of my class is for students to learn the material and build skills, then I suggest “one-and-done” testing doesn’t make sense.

Agency, Accountability, and Achievement

What if the secret to deeper learning wasn’t just in what students study, but in how much say they have in the process? Experience has shown that true Achievement is the inevitable result of two fundamental principles: Agency and Accountability.

Curating a Reading List

Every two years, I have the exciting opportunity to revamp my IB English Literature reading list. The IB course covers 11th and 12th grades, and for it, teachers are tasked with finding literary works across time, place, language, and genre, and are encouraged to choose writers from diverse backgrounds.

It’s a challenge I welcome and even look forward to, and while I have a couple of “trieds and trues” (I see you, Macbeth), I always like to consider how I might shake things up a bit with every cohort. In doing so, I focus on how each work will teach my students something about themselves and their place in the world.

Making the Case for the "Sage on the Stage"

For years, admitting that you used direct instruction in your classroom – that you actually stood in front of your students and lectured to them – felt like acknowledging you were a terrible teacher. The prevailing orthodoxy insisted that effective educators should strictly be the "guide on the side," facilitating self-directed discovery, while banishing the "sage on the stage" to pedagogical exile.

Mandatory volunteering -- an oxymoron

If I had to guess, I would say most independent schools have programs dedicated to community service, believing, quite correctly, they have a responsibility to educate students not only academically, but also civically. And the instinct is a noble one – school leaders want to help students become compassionate, civic-minded adults. Yet, I think, when a school mandates service, with a check-off box and a graduation requirement, students don't learn civic responsibility; they just learn, once again, to pay lip service to compliance. It becomes, as with many things in education today, a purely transactional undertaking.