Teaching is hard (often draining) work, and educators’ instincts about what will bring relief are frequently wrong—just as they are for most people.  That’s because our minds deceive us, says cognitive scientist and Yale professor Laurie Santos, one of the world’s leading researchers on well-being and happiness. “One of the most annoying features of the mind is the fact that we all have these intuitions about the kinds of things we should be doing to feel better. But the research shows that many of those intuitions are just incorrect.” In this episode of School of Practice, Dr. Santos joins host Kristin Leong to debunk some of the most popular and persistent myths about happiness—more money *mostly* doesn’t buy more happiness, for example, and a values mismatch at work may be more consequential for burnout than you think—and shares a set of evidence-based tools teachers can begin to apply right away to reclaim a sense of balance.  Related resources: Learn more about this episode The Research on Protecting Teacher Well-Being  Coursera: The Science of Well-Being The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos Yale’s Happiness Professor Says Anxiety Is Destroying Her Students What a New Survey Says About Teachers’ Plans to Leave Their Jobs  The Burnout Challenge No, You Don’t Always Have to Confront Your Feelings Right Away Ross Gay on Finding Everyday Delights Research: Exploring the Ripple Effect of ‘Always On’ Digital Work Culture in Secondary Education Settings (2021) Research: Time Confetti and the Broken Promise of Leisure (2020) Research: Buying Time Promotes Happiness (2017) Research: Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself (2015) Research: High Income Improves Evaluation of Life but Not Emotional Well-Being (2010) Research: Toward a Durable Happiness (2008) Research: Achieving Sustainable Gains in Happiness: Change Your Actions, not Your Circumstances (2006) Research: Counting Blessings versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life (2003)

What’s your take on eliminating zeros from the grade book? Does your school have a no-zeros grading policy? Even if it doesn’t, you probably have opinions about it.  Setting 50% as the minimum grading threshold is a well-meaning effort to more accurately assess student learning, but it can also create new—and frustrating—challenges for teachers and students. In this episode of School of Practice, teacher and instructional coach Tyler Rablin explores the tradeoffs of eliminating zeros from the grade book. We’ll hear from teachers in our community with firsthand experience navigating the policy, and discuss exceptional strategies for building motivation and accountability without relying on numerical penalties. Related resources: Learn more about this episode Getting Rid of Zeros Won’t Fix the Grade Book Template: Tyler Rablin’s Late Work Contract Do No-Zero Policies Help or Hurt Students? Why the 100-Point Grading Scale is a Stacked Deck The Case Against Zeros in Grading How to Help Students Focus on What They’re Learning, Not the Grade Why Teachers Should Grade Less Frequently Research: “Equitable” Grading Through the Eyes of Teachers Research: Can We Trust the Transcript? Recognizing Student Potential Through More Accurate Grading

The end of the school year can feel like the best––and worst––of times.  On the one hand, it’s a great stretch because “the routines and procedures are set,” and the kids have their sights set on summer vacation, says Kansas City-based middle school ELA teacher Jeremiah Kim. But the workload for teachers closing out the year can be intense. “We all just want to be done, but we still have these boxes to check,” he says. In this episode of School of Practice, Kim joins host Kristin Leong to explore a toolkit of low-lift, delightful,  teacher-tested activities that inject celebration, meaningful reflection, and even some review into the last few weeks of class.  Hang in there, teachers, summer break is just around the corner!  Related resources: Learn more about this episode 19 Highly Engaging End-of-Year Activities Wrapping Up the School Year in English Language Arts Meaningful Learning to End the Year Strong Finishing Strong in Elementary School 4 Meaningful Activities to Mark the End of School How to Celebrate the End of the Year in Elementary School 8 Epic Ideas for Ending the School Year Research: Reappraising Academic and Social Adversity Improves Middle School Students’ Academic Achievement, Behavior, and Well-Being

It’s a mistake to assume that good differentiation always means splitting students up into small groups, says Michael McDowell, an author, coach, and former teacher.  A more effective approach, he says, is to design rigorous learning routines that unite the whole class—from fast finishers to kids who need extra support—with shared strategies, structures, and thinking moves.  Think: Same surface, different deep problems, much more time in the “we do” space, and a big emphasis on high-quality classroom discussion. In this episode of School of Practice, McDowell breaks down three low-prep differentiation strategies, explains how and when small groups fit into the picture, and makes the case for basketball over ping-pong question protocols.  Related resources: Learn more about this episode How to Differentiate Without Splitting Students Up Teaching a Class With Big Ability Differences AI Tool Demo: Differentiating Class Materials With Diffit (video) A Starter Kit for Differentiated Instruction 4 Research-Backed Ways to Differentiate Instruction Actionable Assessment: A Step-by-Step Guide to Responsive Teaching and Student Growth

Have you ever delivered a lesson and felt your students were acing it, only to revisit the same information a week later and realize hardly any of the new content stuck? You just came up against the forgetting curve—and lost. Our brains are hardwired to forget things unless we take active steps to remember. According to research, nearly half of new information—if not used right away—is forgotten within an hour of exposure. And if you wait a week, up to 90 percent fades into the mist. But that’s not inevitable. In this critical episode of School of Practice, high school teacher Cathleen Beachboard shares her top three strategies to help students remember what she’s just taught them. We’ll ask her how she weaves these strategies directly into the learning process as she works to “flatten the forgetting curve.” Related resources: Learn more about this episode 3 Ways to Help Students Overcome the Forgetting Curve How to Engage Elementary and Middle School Students’ Memory Processes to Improve Learning Why Students Forget—and What You Can Do About It Making Retrieval Practice a Classroom Routine (video) Connecting Science to Problem-Solving in the Real World (video) Finding the Retrieval ‘Sweet Spot’ for Students Research: A New Look at Memory Retention and Forgetting

Can your students spot what’s real and what’s AI-generated on TikTok and Instagram?  How about when they’re researching topics for humanities classes, gathering sources in social studies, and preparing for math assessments?  In this super-engaging lesson developed by science teacher Katie Coppens and researcher and former STEM teacher Andy Zucker, students become digital detectives, analyzing a set of videos and websites to determine what’s real, what’s been altered, and what’s just pure misinformation. ⁠ The catch? They can’t just guess. They have to be able to defend their conclusions with evidence. ⁠ Join us for this unmissable episode of School of Practice, we’ll walk through detailed lesson instructions, explore the best strategies for zeroing in on digital misinformation, and share all the resources you’ll need to teach this 60-minute lesson in your own classroom.  Related resources: Learn more about this episode Real, Fake, or Deepfake? This Lesson Helps Students Decide 5 Ways to Build Critical Literacy in the Age of AI What Fact-Checkers Know About Media Literacy—and Students Should, Too Teaching Students to Evaluate Websites Helping Students Find the Truth in Social Media Teaching Students to Analyze Fake News Giving Students the Skills to Spot Fake News (video) Evaluating Primary Sources Through a See, Think, Wonder (video) New Perspectives on Combating Misinformation Research: People are More Susceptible to Misinformation with Realistic AI-Synthesized Images that Provide Strong Evidence to Headlines (2025) Research: Lateral Reading on the Open Internet: A District-Wide Field Study in High School Government Classes (2022) Research: Students’ Civic Online Reasoning: A National Portrait (2021) www.katiecoppens.com  Improvethengss.org  Video clip: Bobsled and Snowboarder Video clip: Deepfake Newscasters Video clip: Waterskiing Squirrel

Narrow, rigid math has “turned students off for generations,” says renowned researcher and Stanford mathematics professor Jo Boaler.  Yet teachers often don’t have much choice when it comes to math curriculum—what’s mandated by a school or district is what they need to teach. That’s where *rich tasks* can be transformative, Boaler argues, because they invite the type of reasoning and problem-solving that get kids digging in and taking risks.  In this episode of School of Practice, we’ll chat with Boaler—who’s spent decades studying math teaching—about how to choose, adapt, and improve math tasks; the power of reasoning and visualizing math questions; and the impact of tiny tweaks, like asking students: “Can you prove it to me visually?” Related resources: Learn more about this episode 5 Ways to Encourage Deep Mathematical Thinking Are We Teaching the Math Kids Need? Rough Draft Thinking Can Make Math Class More Inclusive Should More Time Be Spent Learning Math Facts? 7 Ways to Balance Joy With Rigor in Math Class If You’re Not Failing, You’re Not Learning Research: Productive Failure in Learning Math (2014) How to Build a Healthy Math Identity (video) 6 Unproductive Ways to Learn Math Basics—and What to Do Instead Math-ish YouCubed: Moving from Maths Anxiety (video) YouCubed: Math-ish in the Classroom YouCubed: Jo Teaching a Visual Dot Card Number Talk YouCubed: Fluency without Fear YouCubed: Wise Investments, Big Returns: Prioritizing Teachers for Districtwide Mathematics Success

Getting scaffolding right—amid the messy reality of teaching 30+ students at different skill levels—is one of the toughest challenges in teaching.  Done well, it looks like tactical magic: teachers seamlessly know how and when to support kids, then step back at just the right moment, building independence by removing the training wheels.  In this episode of School of Practice, we get into it with Beck Alber, a former high school ELA teacher and UCLA School of Education instructor. She unpacks the evidence-based essentials of smart, timely scaffolding—both for new teachers, as well as classroom veterans (have you changed up your routines lately? No? Alber’s got suggestions for that). We’ll chat about how to determine if your scaffolds are working, what to do if they’re not, and what a strong scaffolding toolbox looks like.  Related resources: Learn more about this episode 6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use With Your Students Empowering Middle School Students to Create Their Own Scaffolds Scaffolding Like a Pro: Powerful Ways to Support Learning 6 Foundational Ways to Scaffold Student Learning Frayer Model (downloadable) Fishbowl Method (downloadable) 60-Second Strategy: Fishbowl Discussion (video) Choosing Words to Teach Research: Benefits of Interactive Graphic Organizers in Online Learning: Evidence for Generative Learning Theory (2021) Research: The Early History of the Scaffolding Metaphor: Bernstein, Luria, Vygotsky, and Before (2019)

Maybe you’ve seen it in your classroom: Students who zip through chapters but then can’t tell you much about what they just read. To move those kids from fluency to sense-making, you’ve got to teach them the habits of good independent readers. In this episode of School of Practice, educator and literacy specialist Nina Parrish walks us through evidence-based strategies that keep kids focused as they tackle challenging texts—from pre-reading tactics that make vocabulary stick and activate prior knowledge, to active reading protocols that turn kids into engaged, metacognitive readers who are always asking themselves, “Did I really understand that?” Related resources: Learn more about this episode 5 Ways to Support Students Who Struggle With Reading Comprehension 5 Research-Backed Ways to Build Better Readers 4 Reading Strategies to Retire This Year (Plus 6 to Try Out!) How to Move From the ‘Main Idea’ to ‘Background Knowledge’ Slowing Down the Reading Process to Build Students’ Comprehension Skills Aiding Reading Comprehension With Post-its 4 Ways to Teach Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension Sweeping Round Robin Reading Out of Your Classroom Research: Promoting Fluency Through Challenge: Repeated Reading With Texts of Varying Complexity  Research: A Longitudinal Randomized Trial of a Sustained Content Literacy Intervention from First to Second Grade: Transfer Effects on Students’ Reading Comprehension  Research: Effects of a Read Aloud Intervention on First Grade Student Vocabulary, Listening Comprehension, and Language Proficiency  Research: Understanding Specific Reading Comprehension Deficit: A Review  Research: The Effect of Mandatory Reading Logs on Children’s Motivation to Read

Have you ever been shocked when your students bomb a unit test after weeks of seemingly locked-in learning?  Veteran educator Jay McTighe has the ultimate research-backed solution: formative assessment. In the best-case scenario, it’s frequent, quick, and highly attuned to the content and your students.  “You don’t want to wait till the end to find out, ‘Gosh, I didn’t realize the kids never understood this concept or had this continued skill error,’” says McTighe, an author and assessment expert. “Whatever you’re teaching, you should always be doing very quick checks to see how it’s working.” Frequent pulse checks midstream are “potentially one of a classroom educator’s most powerful tools to enhance student learning,” according to David Marzano, a leading researcher. They’re also important tools for students to gauge their own progress. The key to getting the best outcomes is *how* you deploy them. In this episode of School of Practice, we chat with McTighe about how to get the most out of formative assessments, how to choose the right technique for your content and students, how to insert them seamlessly into the flow of instruction, and whether or not they should be graded. Plus, Jay shares his “Vagoo Rule,” a mysterious yet very important tip that you won’t want to miss. Related resources: 8 Quick Checks for Understanding  Building SEL Skills Through Formative Assessment 7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment 13 Super-Quick Formative Assessments  Research: The Impact of Formative Assessment on K-12 Learning: A Meta-Analysis  Assessing Student Learning by Design: Principles and Practices for Teachers and School Leaders  Research: The Effectiveness and Features of Formative Assessment in US K-12 Education: A Systematic Review  Seven Keys to Effective Feedback Research: Formative Assessment Is an Essential Component of Classroom Work and Can Raise Student Achievement  Hacking Student Motivation  The 10 Minute Teacher Podcast