“If a student is unmotivated, you might as well not even teach them, because dead cats aren’t good learners.” -Probably Mark Twain Diagnosing a student’s motivation can be difficult, and yet any teacher will tell you without an understanding of...

I often see a shortcoming in the instruction involved in integrating evidence in analytical essay in high school teaching. There is this notion that you have to have a complete sentence followed by a colon to introduce text. This understanding...

We have three kids that are all in different orbits. The girl is almost eight: so think multiplication tables, maps of Africa, and Harry Potter. The boy is just four and is learning the alphabet and how to count to...

At a fundamental level, it’s really simple. Your topic sentence, or first sentence of every body paragraph, should serve three basic roles: Explain concisely and clearly everything that happens in the paragraph that follows. On some level it is an...

In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, who knows when the college board will resume testing. They’ve cancelled SAT tests for the spring, and the fall is anyone’s guess. But one thing is certain: they will eventually. While it may...

Be sure to secure the area you will be tutoring in from outside distractions: children, pets, acts of God. While it’s customary to have the occasional distraction, it will signal to the student that they can take the same liberties...

Helpful Tip: For top performance on a three hour test, sleep during the several days to a week beforehand is critical for top scores. The nights preceding the night before the test are, in fact, just as important to cognitive...

I think we could all use a little lift right, so I’ll start throwing some gems at anyone who needs a little optimism right now. This one is from my favorite guy ever, David Henry: “I know of no more...

Make sure you make an effort to connect with a student personally before launching into the material for the day. It’s especially important to engage on this more informal level with online instruction, when being on a screen can, in...

It’s been a strange month. One of my students asked me what my day was like and the length of my answer was surprisingly long. The tedium I feel apparently doesn’t fit reality. “I wake up when my son starts...