Five Ideas to Take Classroom Engagement to the Next Level
By Patrick Erwin The transformative power of a great mentor is truly remarkable. One such mentor in my life is Dennis Fisher, a professor emeritus at the University of…
Five Actions to Help Your Kids Think for Themselves
By Tim Elmore I read a publication years ago that said 70 percent of Americans do no thinking on their own. I was never able to locate the source…
The Santa Claus Clause: 3 Ways to Infuse Joy into Your Job This Holiday
By Patrick Erwin I can distinctly remember waking up in the early hours of the morning as a young child and running down the hallway to see what Santa…
Helping Your Students Discern Between Wants and Needs
By Tim Elmore I’ve witnessed a measurable shift in the way parents view their role today. When I was growing up, parents believed they did a good job if…
What Is Our Purpose as Educators?
By Tim Elmore During a Q&A session with an audience of 700 secondary educators, one math teacher raised his hand. His question for me was revealing: “What should I…
If They’re Laughing, They’re Listening
By Patrick Erwin In my 17 years of teaching, my students used to tell me that I had two major flaws. First, I don’t listen very well. Second… well,…
Cultivating Student Success When the Grass Looks Greener
By Michael Kobito To many, student success is measured by how impressive a child’s resume is as they prepare competitive applications for college admission. I saw this repeatedly as…
One Secret to Motivate People When Giving Direction
By Tim Elmore An experiment was conducted at an airport, where passengers in the TSA line were asked to allow others to cut in front of them. In this…
Bloom Where You’re Planted
By Kara Mallory I was twenty-seven when I accepted my first teaching job. Being five years into another career, I was excited to venture into the world of the…
Your School Has a Superpower. Are You Using It?
By Patrick Erwin I LOVE Sci-Fi movies. Growing up, my parents watched a lot of Star Trek, and I got hooked on Star Wars. More recently, it’s easy to…
The Chief Skill Employers Want Isn’t in a Textbook
By Tim Elmore Several years ago, I met with Rich Katt, Cory Epler, and their team at the Department of Education in Nebraska. Our focus was Career and Technical…
Helping Students Stop Phoning In and Start Buying In
By Michael Kobito As a teacher, my students were either excited by or puzzled by the constant positive energy I brought into the classroom. My first block class always…
Four Lessons We Can Learn From Kids
By Kara Mallory My daughter and I have, in many ways, grown up together. Most of my friends were still learning about their passions from textbooks. They took on…
Introducing School on a Mission Podcast. Premiering August 15th!
Audio Correction: First Episode will drop on August 15th, 2024! Welcome to “School on a Mission,” a new podcast co-hosted by Andrew McPeak and Gina Watts, dedicated to exploring the…
Advice for School Leaders: Start With Why. But Don’t End There.
By Patrick Erwin One of my favorite books on leadership is Start With Why by Simon Sinek. In it, Sinek reminds us that purpose inspires action. When there is…
Four Ideas to Cultivate Young Leaders
By Tim Elmore I once mentored a student named Rick who could have been voted by his classmates: The Least Likely to Become a Leader. He was unassuming, never…
Becoming a Servant Leader with Christa Campbell
Christa Campbell is a Trustee Scholar and honors student at Boston University studying business strategy and innovation. Although she now lives far from home, Christa grew up in Gwinnett County…
Teaching Students to Stop Waiting for the World to Change
By Tim Elmore Back in 2006, musician John Mayer released a song for millions of twenty-first century young adults. It was called, “Waiting on the World to Change.” …
A New Wave of Teens Are Breaking Away From Social Media
By Andrew McPeak If you are lucky on Sunday afternoons on the steps of Central Library on Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, NY, you can watch as one by…
Exciting Updates about the Future of our Podcast!
In this episode, Andrew and Tim announce exciting changes for the podcast, revealing that it will split into two new shows: “School on a Mission” and “Leading the Next Generation…
Three Skills Students Need to Become Digital Citizens
By Andrew McPeak One of the challenges of our role today as educators is that we often assume that the elderly are the most vulnerable population to online hoaxes,…
Three Skills Students Need to Become Digital Citizens
Digital citizenship is about what constitutes healthy behavior when engaging with others online. If you are a member of Generation X or Baby Boomers and grew up in the United…
One Aspect of Parenting that Completely Changed My Classroom
By Kara Mallory When my three kids were particularly fussy as infants, my husband would take them outside. He’d walk across the backyard or sit on the front porch,…
You Have Three Options When You Face a Loss
Sometimes, when we face hard times or lose something important, we might feel like it defines or limits us. But most people don’t know that there are three ways to…
What Culture Are You Building for Your Students?
By Tim Elmore Sometimes when I reflect on a meeting I’ve had with a high school or college student, I recognize how inadequate my approach to our discussion was.…
We Don’t Actually Want Our Kids to Be Happy
Are we, as adults, overly fixated on our children’s happiness and success? Research suggests that our obsession with these goals might be leading to unintended consequences. We need to reconsider…
Four Strategies to Help You Stop Stereotyping Teens
By Tim Elmore None of us like for others to stereotype us. When we were young, we hated it when adults assumed something was true about us and never…
The Connection Between Kids’ Happiness and Their Expectations
By Tim Elmore Members of Generation Z, by and large, have been raised by parents or guardians who’ve prioritized the importance of happiness. What parent doesn’t want their kids…
Four Data Points that Should Inform Your Decisions This School Year
We live in a world that has constant concerns about artificial intelligence, gun violence’s impact on mental health, and gender disparities in schools. By understanding these issues and taking action,…
What Teachers Really Want From Their Leaders
By Tim Elmore Last month, I had the privilege again to speak to the “Teachers As Leaders” in Gwinnett County Public School District, just north of Atlanta. What an…
Four Rules That Could Reverse the Anxiety Epidemic in Teens
By Tim Elmore Most teenagers today are aware of the negative impact of smartphones. By this point, they all seem to know it deepens anxiety, heightens negative emotions, and…
Strategies Schools Are Using to Curb Social Media Abuse
These days, we are reading about school decisions regarding smartphone use, ranging from banning portable devices to displaying laissez-faire attitudes regarding phones. Many educators and support staff feel that students’…
One Change I’d Make to Engage Kids Better If I Had to Do It Over Again
By Tim Elmore One of the best questions I’ve asked people over the years was this: “If you had to do it over again, what would you do differently?”…
A Tool to Foster Better Conversations with Your Kids
By Tim Elmore Let’s face it. It’s harder than we thought it would be. A recent Pew Research Center poll revealed that most parents (62 percent) say that being…
Leading Kids: Is Empathy or Compassion Better?
When empathy grows into compassion, it becomes more helpful for both you and the person for whom you demonstrate it. Empathy feels good to give, but you may feel someone’s…
How to Offer Feedback in a Fragile World
By Tim Elmore When Carol reminded her class about Friday’s exam, she got a surprising text from one of her students. Chelsea’s message said, “I won’t be in class…