Table of Contents

Introduction
Mistake 1 - “I can just wing it.”
Mistake 2 - “What’s a formative assessment?“
Mistake 3 - “I don’t need to know them, I need to teach them.”
Mistake 4 - “I better dumb it down.”
Mistake 5 - “I’m going to say this one time, one way.”
Mistake 6 - “They know what I mean.”
Mistake 7 - “He’ll take a hint.”
Mistake 8 - “I’m going to punish her, so she’ll never forget it!”
Mistake 9 - “It doesn’t have to be fun; they just need to learn.”
Mistake 10 -“They all like to dance.”
Mistake 11 - “Been doing it the same way for thirty-five years; not changing now.”
Mistake 12 - “Put the desks in rows. It worked for the dinosaurs. It will work for them.”
Mistake 13 - “Sit down and stay down!”
Mistake 14 - “It takes too much time to call all those parents.”
Mistake 15 - “If her mom stays out of my way and just lets me do my job, we’ll be just fine.”
Mistake 16 - “I don’t want parents involved in my class.”
Mistake 17 - “Don’t you know who I am?”
Mistake 18 - “They won’t want to talk to me.”
Mistake 19 - “Twitter’s for celebrity fanboys and people trying to be funny, right?”
Mistake 20 - “What’s Edmodo?
Mistake 21 - “She’ll be okay.”
Mistake 22 - “Can we talk?”
Mistake 23 - “I’ll figure it out myself.”
Mistake 24 - “Let me tell you how much I hate that principal!”
Mistake 25 - “I’ll scream if want.”
Mistake 26 - “They should know better.”
Mistake 27 - “Do I really need to hook my student’s attention?”
Mistake 28 - “It’s too hard to think up stories that help them learn.”
Mistake 29 - “Why should I be nice to them? They’re mean.“
Mistake 30 - “I’m calling all of your parents today.”
Mistake 31 - “Sorry they’re late; I held them because they were bad.”
Mistake 32 - “I’m taking away your lunch privileges for the rest of the year.”
Mistake 33 - “I’m going to make him pay!”
Mistake 34 - “They are so bad!”
Mistake 35 - “I’ll put that away later.”
Mistake 36 - “That’s no big thing; I’ll deal with it later.”
Mistake 37 - “I can take care of that after school starts.”
Mistake 38 - “I don’t need no system.”
Mistake 39 - “I’ll just tell ’em.”
Mistake 40 - “I got a slide show for that.”
Mistake 41 - “Sit down.”
Mistake 42 - “I’m going to hammer this routine into them.”
Mistake 43 - “I’ll do it like everyone else.”
Mistake 44 - “These new students are so well behaved!”
Mistake 45 - “I’ll worry about that when the time comes.”
Mistake 46 - “I don’t need no stinkin’ reflection.”
Mistake 47 - “I don’t need to write that down.”
Mistake 48 - “Room-a-zoom-zoom!”
Mistake 49 - “I’ll never figure this out.”
Mistake 50 - “I can get by on just a little sleep.”
Mistake 51 - “Yes. Yes. Yes.”
Mistake 52 - “I’ll remember to do that.”
Mistake 53 - “She messed with me.”
Mistake 54 - “Her mom is the worst...”
Mistake 55 - “My principal is so incompetent.”
Mistake 56 - “Thank you?”
Mistake 57 - “That teacher is so hard to work with.”
Mistake 58 - “I don’t want to be here.”
Mistake 59 - “If loud is good, louder is better.”
Mistake 60 - “Nice cologne, but why did you swim in it.”
Mistake 61 - “I’m never gonna get this.”
Mistake 62 - “I don’t need to read; I went to college.”
Closing
Acknowledgements
62 Mistakes Teachers Make And How To Avoid Them

by Art Lieberman
© 2015 Arthur Seay Lieberman. All Rights Reserved.
 Introduction

“Letting go helps us to live in a more peaceful state of mind and helps restore our
balance. It allows others to be responsible for themselves and for us to take our hands off
situations that do not belong to us. This frees us from unnecessary stress." - Melody Beattie
Teachers are stressed out. Ever seen that look or felt it? It’s when that out of shape
jogger decides to go for a five mile run. No problem, right? In a quarter mile the poor guy is
gasping to get a breath.
That’s been me and I’ve seen lots of teachers get stressed out like this.
But they don’t have to be.
Sure there is much they have no control over, and that is stressful.
Yet so much stress comes from confusing these two things: the teacher’s part versus
someone else’s part.
Teachers must say yes to some things that stretch them and make them uncomfortable,
but they also must say no to things that require too much of them or aren’t within their
realm of influence.
I’ll be honest. I have never been the best teacher in the building. I can always point to
someone who does it better.
What I have been able to do is improve. I have been able to see my mistakes that have
made things harder and get better. I have personally learned how to manage frustration,
yes, sometimes painfully.
I’ve watched numerous (usually new) teachers make avoidable mistakes that stress
them out. The sooner a frustrated teacher gets help, the better. When one finds hope early
on, she is able to elevate her game and get a renewed enthusiasm for teaching.
The task of educating students can feel so overwhelming.
It seems that way, until you step back and look at it. The educating process is a
collection of interlocking pieces that are simple.
If you have taught for a while, you have had the experience with the child who is
unmanageable in the classroom, but sweet and hard working in a small group or one on
one. What if you can make a connection with the student in such a way that even when he is
in the full class, he feels like you are relating to him?
When we do OUR job, children learn.
When we try to do the student’s, the parent’s, or the principal’s jobs, we get
overwhelmed. Sometimes other parties (even other teachers) try to load us down with
duty that is not ours. To teach with enthusiasm, we must be clear about these pieces, and
work to do our jobs well. We need to take care of what a teacher can and should effectively
do.
 When we do that, the process is fun and it works.
There are times when a teacher really isn’t doing the job they need to do. It is rarely
because they aren’t willing. I think it’s a combination of ignorance and fear.
Everyone makes mistakes. I’m sure you can find some in this text! We learn from the
mistakes of others and ourselves.
This book explores how you can learn from mistakes, hopefully someone else’s (mine).
The central idea is that we manage stress by actually doing OUR jobs well.
Some of these ideas are basic. But they are listed here because teachers make these
mistakes regularly. I have found myself making mistakes that I didn’t make a decade earlier
because I forgot.
A positive attitude can cure a mess of stress.
Doubtless, you will read some of these and disagree with me. That’s great. It’s a free
country! Please write to me and let me know your opinion at
stressrelief4teachers@gmail.com.
This book is born of two decades of teaching plus a year of writing about stress relief
for teachers (stressrelief4teachers.net). I’ve made a lot of mistakes and learned from the
mistakes of others.
May you reduce your stress by putting these strategies to work in your career. They
will help you find clarity and help your students achieve so you can be the hero in your
classroom.
Let’s get started.
 Mistake 1 - “I can just wing it.”

Not knowing the precise lesson objective is a mistake.

Always start with your goal in mind. The best way to do this is to study the documents
that are provided for you by your state.
In most states this is the Common Core. In other places like in the state of Texas, these
are the TEKS. Look at the standard that you’re trying to teach.
And notice I said standard, singular. One standard.
It is always best to teach one idea at a time. Focus all of your energy on making sure
students know that one skill. Write the standard out and do things like circle the verbs and
underline the nouns. It is so easy to overlook the verbs. If you don’t teach the students the
verb in the standard, then, you are missing an important part of the standard, and your
students won’t test well.
For instance, in the Texas standard (TEK) for Sixth Grade Science 6.6a, matter and
energy, it says this: “The student is expected to compare metals, nonmetals, and metalloids
using physical properties such as luster, conductivity, or malleability.” Notice that the
important verb in the sentence says to compare. It doesn’t say know or recognize, it
specifically says to compare.
In the Spring standards based tests, there will be questions which will require students
to compare metals, nonmetals, and metalloids. If the teacher just works with students on
recognizing metals, nonmetals, and metalloids, but never teaches them to compare, they
might have trouble with the questions. It is no fun getting test results back and realizing
that the students didn’t learn it because I didn’t cover it precisely.
Another way that you can start with the goal in mind is to write quizzes and tests before
you start planning lessons. If you do, you will be way ahead of the game. When you start
with the assessments that you want your students to be able to deal with, then you will do a
better job of planning your lessons.
The teacher simply has less stress when she is able to say, “I planned well!”
 Mistake 2 - “What’s a formative assessment? “

It is a mistake to depend too heavily on summative assessments.

There are two large categories of tests, summative and formative. Summative
assessments are what we usually think of when we say the word test or quiz.
Did you know that some very successful teachers don’t give summative assessments?
But they give lots of feedback.
Formative assessments are more about the feedback. They give feedback to the
teachers and to the students. It lets them both know if students are “getting it.”
The most common formative assessment might be the “exit ticket.” Exit tickets are used
at the end of class. Students answer them right before they go. Most often it is only one
response. The questions are designed to help the teacher know if the students learned the
concept (for a list of formative assessments, check out this website)
Exit tickets are eye opening.
What you do is pick them up, read through them, and quickly modify what you are
teaching for the next day. Often, the exit ticket shows the exact point where the students
are confused.
“This assessment will give you great feedback!”
For more on formative assessments, go to this website: selz.com/1Lbs1Xw.
 Mistake 3 - “I don’t need to know them, I need to teach them.”

Teachers don’t know enough about their students: their families, their activities, their
interests, their dreams. Many teachers in college, before they ever manage classrooms, are
taught to have students fill out interest inventories. It’s simply a list of questions designed
to find out what interests the students. You can find out which ones like to read and which
ones like sports. You can find out what kind of music they enjoy.
And lots of teachers give interest inventories, and then “chunk” ‘em in the file cabinet
never to be seen again. That is a mistake.
An interest inventory is a powerful tool. Use it. Look at it. Read it again and again. Read
it often especially in the first four weeks of school.
Use the information in the inventories and in conversations with students to gain
deeper knowledge about who they are and to connect with them on a personal level.
When students say they like a particular video game, look it up and find something out
about it. When students say they like a particular sports team, look them up and read an
article. When a student says they went to Georgia over the summer, talk to them about
Georgia.
When students talk about liking a certain kind of food, try to arrange to eat that kind of
food. This is fun in an ethnically diverse school.
When you find things out about your students, add them to a spreadsheet. In fact, you
can create the inventory on a Google Drive Form and it will automatically publish to a
spreadsheet.
Work especially hard at this at the beginning of the year. The better you get to know
them at the beginning, the more information you will have to be able to connect with them.
If you know them, you will be able to make the connections between their lives and the
content you are teaching. If you don’t know very much about them you will be guessing.
Guessing doesn’t work very well. Be efficient and write things down.
“The more I know about her, the better teacher I will be.”
 Mistake 4 - “I better dumb it down.”

Get this: your students are smart. They have an amazing brain between their ears. If you
“dumb it down,” they won’t get it.
The reason it might seem like they aren’t getting it is because teachers have already
been dumbing it down. Give them the full treatment. All of them. You may have classes with
all kinds of interesting challenges for teachers: ESL, Special ED, Retainees, ADD, Autistic.
But they, the ones right there in your class, can learn the content that you are teaching.
I have been happily surprised to see students, who I thought weren’t understanding a
word I was saying, be able to tell someone all about the content and get it right.
Often the reason you think they can’t learn is that they are bored. And that may be hard
to hear, but we have all bored our classes.
When you do “yawn a class out,” take it as a challenge to figure out how to give them all
the content in a more interesting way. Surprise them.
To turn around a boring class usually simply requires you to sit down with a piece of
paper and a pen. Once you realize it is your responsibility to do something different, your
amazing brain will start coming up with solutions. Trust the power of your brain.
Also, figure out how to co-opt other educators who take a keen interest in student
engagement.
And sometimes it can be as simple as your timing. You are going too fast or too slow.
If you dumb it down, they won’t learn it. It bears repeating, but you can just read the
line again.
Make the content theirs.
“I’m going to figure out how to make this work.”
 Mistake 5 - “I’m going to say this one time, one way.”

You don’t dumb it down, but you do scaffold. You do make the content accessible for all
of your students. Last year, I taught ESL, Special Ed, and advanced classes. I had to present
information to students in different ways and in different kinds of chunks.
The basic idea is that if students are not getting it, chunk it down until they do get it.
Make the bites smaller and more digestible.
Make it more palatable. As you get to know your students better, you will be able to
plan for this ahead of time. For instance, some students need more in-depth pre-teaching of
vocabulary, while others simply need a quick review.
Here’s another thing to consider. Many students are more receptive to learning in the
morning and get foggy in the afternoon. Your afternoon students need a more persistent
enthusiasm from you. They may need to move more and sing more in the afternoon. They
need more brain breaks. And by the way, you’re going to need the brain break too.
Have a toolbox of brain breaks. You can download free printable brain breaks at
bit.ly/40brainbreaks.
The more you realize all of the ways you can differentiate your content, the better you
will teach. Some days you will need to sit and write down all the ways you are going to get
through to your diverse student population. The ideas will come. Find other teachers who
like to share both down your hall and on social media.
All of your students can get it. They just need to experience it in different ways. It’s your
job to figure that out. And when you do, things will get much easier.
Spend a little more time planning. That will pay off with less frustration for you and
your students in the classroom.
“I’m going to teach the way they need me to teach it to them.”
 Mistake 6 - “They know what I mean.”

Teachers often don’t clearly communicate their expectations.

Expectations are important all year but crucial at the beginning. You have to realize that
by the time your students get to you they have had experiences with a variety of adults.
They have had some teachers who were very strict and some who let them slide on a lot of
things.
They have had teachers who said they were very strict and then did not hold them
accountable for those expectations. They have been in families with all different kinds of
expectations for their behavior.
In the same classroom, you will have students who are required to go to bed at 7:30 PM,
and you will also have students who stay up and are out on the street as late as they want.
At the beginning of the year, you are a new adult to them, and they are looking to you to
communicate expectations. You don’t need to make this boring. Please make it fun. But
definitely show your expectations.
The first time students step over the boundaries that you have established, you need to
respond. We will go over how to respond later.
One thing that teachers need to do is have about four or five expectations posted on the
wall. But you will find that you actually have more expectations of students than those five
that you post. And you will need to be very clear with the students about all those
expectations.
Your expectations will cover basic behavior like being polite and hand raising. But they
also will cover procedures like what does the student need to do when they need a pencil?
What do they do when they need paper? How do they request to go to the bathroom?
You will communicate these and more. For instance any time you do something out of
the ordinary, some students will expect that your expectations have shifted. This is normal.
If I take students out of doors, I don’t expect them to behave in the exact parameters
which I set up in the classroom. What about behavior at a pep rally? The library?
Every time you do something different, clearly communicate your expectations.
The clearer students are about your real expectations, the easier time you will have.
“I am going to be detailed in my explanations.”
 Mistake 7 - “He’ll take a hint.”

What does it say to a student when the teacher doesn’t respond when she steps over the
line?
It is a mistake to let things slide. Teachers must respond in some fashion. If you don’t
respond students will rightly assume that you did not mean it when you communicated the
expectation. If they don’t think you mean it, they won’t listen.
I’m not saying that your response needs to be loud, or angry, but you must respond. If
you don’t, students will not believe you when you communicate an expectation.
I remember a girl I had in my class two years ago. I knew that her behavior could be
much better than what I was seeing. After weeks of getting less than desireable behavior, I
arranged to deal with her in a small group. When her behavior still did not change, I went
to the phone, called her mom, and calmly, even politely, quickly told her what her child was
doing. From that moment on, I never had that issue again. My regret is that I assumed that
she would take a hint. I was too slow at applying pressure. I don’t think a teacher can apply
pressure too soon (but he can apply it too harshly).
I like this concept of “applying pressure” (thanks Steve Green) because it does not imply
“punishment.” I’m not looking for revenge, just a correction in behavior. Pressure is any
kind of communication that in fact puts the student’s attention on the desired behavior. In
the best of circumstances, the student hardly realizes the redirection.
For instance, standing next to a child who is being too talkative is a form of pressure.
For some students, this is all they need to get them focused on the work they are doing.
“Please see me after class.”
 Mistake 8 - “I’m going to punish her, so she’ll never forget it!”

By far the biggest mistake I’ve seen teachers commit when dealing with discipline
issues is that they respond with too much firepower. They come in with guns blazing when
a soft response would do.
This is usually because they let things slide a few times and students quit listening.
Finally, the teacher gets frustrated and blows.
Scenario 1
Ms. Sapp: May I have your attention.
Fred (still talking to classmates): And then when I put the cup of ice down her back...
Ms. Sapp: (Louder) May I please have your attention.
Fred (only one talking but has the attention of a group of students): She’s screaming
and leaving a trail of ice...
Ms. Sapp: (Screams) FRED I’ve told you three times now, sit down, and be quiet. Let me
talk!
Scenario 2
Ms. Sapp: Point up at the ceiling if you hear my voice... (waits for response) Touch your
ear to show me you’re listening.
Fred (telling ice story)
Ms. Sapp: (walks over near Fred and starts giving preliminary instructions) If you don’t
have a pen or pencil, please raise your hand.
Fred: (quietly starts looking for a pen)
When dealing with a group of students or a single student, the softest possible answer is
the best answer.
And let me say this: assume this premise for everything in this book, always respond
calmly.
“I can take a deep breath and handle this calmly.”
 Mistake 9 - “It doesn’t have to be fun; they just need to learn.”

I believe that all lessons must be fun. When students are having fun, they are much
more open to learning from you. I’m not saying that all lessons have to be a rip-roaring
party. But the element of fun should be present. Even if you fail to delight, you are better off
to try. This is part of what wins students over. They realize that you care about what they
think.
When using the word fun, I don’t mean that you become Disneyland. I mean that the
professional is using a variety of tools to keep students alert, engaged, and interested.
When these are present, students describe lessons as fun.
When we are trying to come up with fun ways to do things in class the first thing that
we might consider is how to move students around. When students are getting up out of
their desk and moving to another part of the classroom, it is very helpful. It gets their blood
pumping and gives them permission to be social.
When they sit and sit and sit and sit for long periods of time, it induces boredom. With
most lessons you can figure out how to insert movement.
Here’s an example: let’s say you have just introduced a new idea like this: there are
these things on the table of elements called metalloids and maybe you’ve talked about them
being semiconductors. After you have discussed semiconductors a little bit, then, you might
have students talk to each other by saying something like this: “All even numbered desks,
go talk to someone who is sitting in an odd numbered desk. Get up out of your seat, and go
talk about metalloids.” After 90 seconds, you signal for them to return to their seats. And
next time, you do it the other way around.
When they stand up, their heart pumps, they breathe harder, and more oxygen gets to
their brain.
Another way I like to get students up out of their seats is to do “clock appointments.”
Have students draw a clock with a 12, a 3, a 6, and a 9. Show them how to do it because
some of them won’t understand.
Then, have them go around and write appointments on their clock. They write another
student’s name and the other student writes their name down at the same clock time. Later
in class, you signal for everyone to, say, go talk to their 6 o’clock. I keep it random. This gets
them moving and interacting with a variety of classmates. This activity works for any
students who are old enough to write names. It even works with adults.
Now you can see that these are not “games,” and they are on-task activities. They
require a certain amount of movement.
That’s just for starters. There are lots of ways to insert movement into lessons.
The best way for you to figure it out is to sit down and write out some of your own ideas
for getting students to move because every teacher has different circumstances.
 Moving Students
1. Go from normal seating into “T groups.” A T group is when in a group of four desks,
the back two desks slide together, facing the front, and the front two desks turn to face each
other. This transition takes 15 seconds. Remember this: most transitions require rehearsal.
When you rehearse, students are learning your expectations. It also gives you as the
teacher time to look at the procedure itself and make sure it is functioning. If it doesn’t
work the first time, give students more instructions, and do it again.
2. If you have an attached lab. Walk into the lab and work at lab tables.
3. Students in the front switch places with students in the back, temporarily.
4. Go talk to someone at the back of the room. Go talk to someone in the front...
These are a few ideas to get you started. When you think about your own classes and
circumstances, you will come up with some more.
Also, when you’re thinking about how to insert fun into your lessons, you are going to
go back to those interest inventories that we talked about in “Mistake 3” to see what your
students like to do. When you know your students, it is easier to make things fun. The
students aren’t always going to know ahead of time what is fun to them. There are lots of
activities they think will be boring until they try them.
Get to know them. Then, you can start narrowing down the kinds of things that will be
especially fun to do.
For instance, sometimes you get classes with a lot of girls. Classes filled with more girls
are going to find, as a rule, different things fun than classes filled with boys. I know those
are generalizations. Use generalizations; don’t let them use you.
Students whose parents are immigrants or who are themselves immigrants will often
find different things fun than other populations of students. Find out what motivates them.
As you get to know them, you will discover lots of things to be able to motivate them.
One way that I have inserted fun to my lessons is to use drama. So I might ask students
to act things out. I’m a drama person. But I have had classes that were scared stiff of getting
up in front of others. So I had to insert drama in little small ways until they got more
comfortable.
By the way, people can’t always tell you what makes them tick. They might be able to
tell you to a degree, but don’t give up on an activity just because you hear moans and
groans. Many an activity I have done started with whining and ended with giggling.
If they are giggling and working with the content, you’ve got them!
If it is a goal to make your lessons more fun and engaging, and you put some brain
power into figuring that out, you will come up with plans that excite you so much that you
will want to share.
“The more this is fun, the more they will learn.”
 Mistake 10 -“They all like to dance.”

Don’t assume that all of your students like the same things. For instance, you can’t
assume that all kids like to draw. Just say, “I have a drawing assignment for you,” and hear
the collective groan sometimes. And drawing gets overused so students get tired of it.
When you do any “fun” activity it’s important to keep the rigor in your lesson. Look at
the quality of your questions to see if the drawing or any activity is a worthwhile activity.
Note: Years ago, researchers discovered that students who wrote more, learned more
than those who drew pictures. But being able to show a concept in a quick drawing is also
powerful. I say use both. In class, make drawings quick as a rule, 30 seconds. Then, add
words and labels.
Another way that you might want to add fun to a lesson might be something like this:
bring them to the computer lab. It sounds great on paper, and then you get there and
discover you have students that don’t like being on the computer.
So how do you handle all these diverse kinds of students? You get to know them.
Sometimes you’ll find out that three out of four of their teachers are using computers so
your students are tired of it.
The way to handle it is to give your students a variety of things to do.
And when you find out that a group of students didn’t do well with a certain activity,
note it. Keep a place on the computer or at your desk where you write down these
observations.
I have found students to be resistant to doing things that seem brand new to them. Only
when activities begin to feel familiar, do they enjoy it.
I have also seen my advanced students completely miss the beauty and complexity of an
activity only to have my ESL or Special Ed students “get it.”

“I bet I can give them some interesting choices.”

Mistake 11 - “Been doing it the same way for thirty-five years; not changing
now.”

OR

“I learned it that way, so they can too.”

Doing the same ole, same ole.

When students can easily predict what your lessons are going to look like, you will start
to lose some of them.
Keep them guessing if even just a little. They should expect certain routines in your
classroom, so they get comfortable. That is good for them. But don’t stick with a same old
dry routine every day. Keep your students wondering. Keep changing. Keep doing
something different. This will make them want to be in your classroom.
Every teacher gets stuck in a stuffy routine sometimes. If you realize that you need to
change things up, start brainstorming ways that you can add spice or completely surprise
your students.
Here are some things to consider:
1. Have we made anything in this class? Can we do something hands on?
2. Have I used music?
3. Are we moving enough?
4. Can I change the seating arrangement?
Those are some starter ideas. You know your goals and resources. It is important that
you make it a goal to brainstorm ideas when you get stuck.
“It’s time to try something new.”
 Mistake 12 - “Put the desks in rows. It worked for the dinosaurs. It will
work for them.”

Teachers often set up their room in such a way that it takes too many steps for them to
get to any student. You need to set up your room in such a way that within a few seconds
you can get shoulder to shoulder to any student.
The traditional long rows of student desks don’t work for this purpose.
Picture this idea that I learned originally from Fred Jones in his book Tools for Teaching.
Arrange desks so that they are in groups of four. You can get right next to a student and you
can go front to back between the groups but imagine three sets of four in the front of the
classroom and say three sets of four in the back half of the classroom.
So if you picture the groups of four in the front versus the groups of four in the back you
will realize that there is a row you can walk from side to side through the class right down
the middle. It turns out that is a good place for teacher hang out when students are working
independently. I think of it as the “midway.” If you’re walking back-and-forth along that
midway, you can quickly get to any student, and students become aware that you always
seem to be next to them. And that’s a good thing. They also more readily ask questions
when they know you are right there.
“I will arrange the room so that I can get to every kid.”
 Mistake 13 - “Sit down and stay down!”

Many teachers make the mistake of having their students sit too much. Students should
be getting up and working in groups, getting up and changing groups, going to the board to
do something. Anyone coming by sees and hears a learning buzz going on in the classroom.
This is productive movement.
Picture this: François shows up in his 1st period class at 8 am and he sits down. He is
well rested, so he does a good job of staying engaged. He is reading and writing for the full
period with little opportunity to stand. After 30 minutes of sitting, his body starts telling
him to stand up. But the teacher has not worked body movement into the class, so François
has to come up with some reason to stand. Pencil sharpener, bathroom, throw paper away,
something. And he does, disrupting the class or missing out on an important part of your
lesson. You aren’t going to fix this by telling him to sit. He is still going to be restless.
Students just sitting, sitting, sitting means that their learning is going to slooooow way
(yawn) down.
There are lots of ways to get students to move. One is to start thinking about the ways
that you can take students outside even for five or 10 minutes to do part of a lesson. Your
curriculum will have lots of opportunities to do that on a semi regular basis.
I taught science. When I felt like these poor students needed to get out, all I had to do
was sit and think a minute and I could create a reason to get them outside. It might be to go
look at grass, or leaves, or the clouds, assuming we were studying those things. We
wouldn’t be out there for long. We would go out make an observation, draw it and go back
in the classroom to write and discuss it.
Then, their brains would be active again.
*You will have to teach them how to do this in a way that doesn’t disrupt. When
someone does disrupt, deal with just that student. Don’t pressure the whole class.
It might become a good thing to take your group to an empty part of the school. Like
early in the morning, the cafeteria might be empty, or maybe the auditorium. Figure out an
interesting reason to go.
I am not saying to move like this just to do it, I am saying to find excuses to do it. Make
the movement add to your teaching.
“Move it or lose it!”
 Mistake 14 - “It takes too much time to call all those parents.”

A common mistake that teachers make is failing to make positive contact with parents
early in the year. It is so helpful to have something good to say about their child. When you
call parents to let them know great things are kids are doing, they feel good about you and
the school. Think of it as customer service. And talk to the parents about the activities you
are doing and what you are studying. Make it easy for them to contact you.
It is a good feeling when parents get behind you. We should take every opportunity that
we can to help parents have a positive experience with the school. I would say it is
something we need to culture.
Parent contacts take very little time usually. Let me give an example of how this worked
out in my classroom recently. I called a parent on the phone because her son was doing
something remarkable. He was going above and beyond with helpfulness in the classroom
and his nice attitude towards me, his teacher. He wasn’t coming in with a snarl or growl; he
came with a smile and always ready to help. I called his mom to let her know how much I
appreciated him.
What I didn’t know is that she had been asked to come talk to the school about parent-
teacher relationships. The very next day, I was in a faculty meeting, and she got up and
went to the front and started talking.
She told the story of how I had called her to say nice things about her son and how
much it meant to her and how she felt like that one conversation would stay with her for a
very long time. She even said that when the conversation was over, she glanced down at
her phone and noticed that it only took one minute. One minute.
Her telling that story of course made me feel good, but I learned how important one
minute can be.
So early in the year, take a little extra time to do some of these one minute touches, and
add value to students’ and parents’ lives by saying sincere and nice things about them.
“I’ve got a minute; I’ll call.”
 Mistake 15 - “If her mom stays out of my way and just lets me do my job,
we’ll be just fine.”

A mistake that teachers make is not seeing parents as a resource. In fact, sometimes
teachers see parents as an annoyance.
Every parent is a resource to help you with teaching that child.
You can get great information about a child from their parent that you can’t get any
other way. Cultivate a listening relationship with your student’s parents. Seek them out
especially if they have a reputation for being difficult.
When a “difficult parent” gets on your team, you have a winner.
The best way to do this is to make the contact early and start talking their child up.
You have to build the relationship. It takes work. But ultimately, it takes away from your
stress. You have many more peaceful days knowing that parents appreciate you.
It starts with the idea that you are there to serve them. If you accept that, you will be a
happier teacher.
“I’m going to take a minute to get to know his mom.”
 Mistake 16 - “I don’t want parents involved in my class.”

Don't make the mistake of not inviting family into the educational process.
I once heard a teacher talk about how she had turned around a difficult class. That year,
she had been assigned the “sweat hogs.” And they were a mess. She knew she needed help.
Besides the fact that she loved the kids, she did something remarkable. She invited their
grandparents to come to her class. When they came, she made sure they got a cup of coffee
or a soda. She showed them to a seat.
The bad behavior disappeared. The students started to listen and they became a high
achieving class.
The more inviting you are to family, the more they will help you. Parents want the very
best for their children. They don’t always know how to do the best for their children, so
having a conversation with you about that in an inviting way is very helpful to them.
How about a paradigm shift, invite parents to visit your classroom. Not because the
child is trouble, but to just come by. Create a good feeling with the parent.
We need to involve them. Assign homework that requires family to do interact with
their children. Students need to go home and say, “Mom, please help me with this.” “Dad,
my teacher says i need to ask you about this.” “Grandma, can I interview you about this
topic.” This gives them an excuse to do something together.
This is good in two ways. One, it gets the student involved with parents, so it increases
the value of the homework activities for the student. How? Because it makes it a partner or
group project.
Two, when students are talking to their parents about the homework, they learn so
much more because of the interaction. More interaction about the concepts in your
curriculum = more learning for the student.
Anytime you can increase the interaction quotient in the assignment, you add value to
the work.
“I wonder how I can get parents involved with my class and content?”
 Mistake 17 - “Don’t you know who I am?”

A mistake that teachers frequently make is to think that the parents should be here to
serve us. And there is some truth in it because we work best as a team, but primarily, we as
teachers are here to serve the parents and those families.
Parents have dreams for their children. They bring their children to school to help them
achieve those dreams. We are there to help make that happen.
Parents aren’t bringing their kids to us to help us fulfill our dreams.
We add so much stress to ourselves by getting this wrong. Our expectations can easily
get turned around. When I go to a nice restaurant, I don’t worry too much about the
experience the waiter is having. The waiter works to make sure I am having a good time.
I wonder how it would change our teaching if we worked for tips like waiters?
I’m not suggesting this as some educational reform policy. But I think it’s worth
thinking about to get things in the right order. Teachers serve the students, their parents,
and by extension, the community who pay taxes.
The main point of this book is to give teachers tools for stress relief. When you see
things in their proper order, you will find great relief.
We all get full of ourselves sometimes. It’s human. When we do, we need an attitude
adjustment. And that is okay.
Understanding that I am here to serve, brings me great stress relief.
I also don’t think that being one who serves means to get treated poorly. There are
times to say no. A few years ago, a principal who was a practical joker, came into the school
with a large snake. He hid it in a box and had teachers open it. He did this with a teacher
who was deathly afraid of snakes. She walked out and let him figure out how to make sure
the students had a teacher for the rest of the day.
“I wonder how I can serve them better?”
 Mistake 18 - “They won’t want to talk to me.”

An error teachers make is this: not seeking out the best “mentor” teachers that we can
find.
Here it is: If you want to grow as a teacher, find the best and learn from them. They may
be in your school or district, or they may be people you meet out in the world. They may be
people who have written books or courses. They may be people that you find on Twitter,
Facebook, or Edmodo.
Whatever the case, you need to figure out how to engage with great teachers.
When you go to a conference and hear a speaker you like, make a connection. Go
introduce yourself. Have a short conversation. They all give out their emails. So email them.
Connect with them.
If you feel like you could use a lot of their time, figure out how you can help them. Help
them set up, or offer to help in another way. If you are open to ways you can help, they will
present themselves to you. Then help.
What you are doing is forming a relationship with the mentor. You aren’t simply feeding
off of them.
And when you have a relationship, you have a bridge to learn from them.
When people see that you are there for them, it is easier for them to give of their
valuable time. And you are showing that you value them.
Even veteran teachers can find mentors.
“I can figure out how to teach on my own.”
Mistake 19 - “Twitter’s for celebrity fanboys and people trying to be funny,
right?”

Are you using Twitter to become a better teacher? I know that sounds like a strange
mistake. See, as of this writing, Twitter is the single, greatest digital tool to make teachers
better that has ever been invented (in my humble opinion).
It is nothing short of a miracle.
Every night of the week and most mornings, a teacher can get on Twitter and engage
with great teachers and educators. If you have not been on a Twitter chat, you need to learn
how. It can change the whole game for you.
During the school year I like to go to one or two chats a week. I look for chats where the
teachers and leaders are optimistic and encouraging.
I also like the ones where they are willing to deal with the tough questions.
The other teachers who show up at these chats are people who are looking for ways to
be better at what they do, or they are people who are looking to share what they know.
These are the kinds of people I enjoy interacting with.
They take teaching seriously. They are working hard and getting better.
One of the surprises for me, when I started to regularly get in on Twitter chats, was that
many of the teachers who logged in were from all over the world. Twitter brings together a
community of English speaking teachers from around the world. And we are dealing with
very similar issues.
If you have never participated in a Twitter chat, it’s easy to get involved. Just look
through the chat calendar at artslieberman.com/edchat, find one that you think suits you,
and go look. No one has to know you are even there. You can just read. If it is a fast chat,
you won’t be able to read it all. No one can. You scan and pick the parts you want to read.
And you can pipe in and comment where you want.
By the way, chats can move and even take the day off sometimes.
If you are looking for a good chat to try, “go to” #tlap on Monday nights. Use the
calendar link to find out the time in your time zone.
“I’ll give a Twitter chat a try.”
 Mistake 20 - “What’s Edmodo?

If you have not been introduced to Edmodo, then you must try it out. It is kind of like
Facebook, but without the ads. And it’s just for educators.
Inside Edmodo, there are different forums you can follow.
Millions are signed up. For instance, there are over half a million people following the
language arts forum and roughly the same number following the math forum. Teachers are
very good about answering questions you might have in these forums.
It’s free to join.
You can also sign up your classes to use it. It makes for a nice anti-bullying form of
social media because you as the teacher can read every student’s posts. There aren’t any
private messages. You can also submit polls and quizzes through Edmodo. I have found that
students who didn’t like to talk in class, would express themselves on Edmodo.
It is seriously worth your time.
“I’m going to give Edmodo a try.”
 Mistake 21 - “She’ll be okay.”

Don’t make the mistake of not checking in on other teachers.

It is very important to check up on your fellow teachers. This is true of all of them, but it
is especially true of any teacher who is dealing with some sort of change.
Of course brand new teachers need this, but so do teachers who are teaching a new
subject or a new grade level.
Some teachers are struggling quite a bit and need help. And you often have just the
thing they need. It also helps relieve your stress to do this.
Let me explain. If you check up on a teacher and they feel better, then, you are helping
your whole school. I have seen teachers who do not get what they need, quit in the middle
of the year. This causes havoc. It’s very difficult for those classes to recuperate.
Now, what if that had been alleviated by people dropping in and finding out how she’s
doing? In many cases, just to have someone listen can help her make it through.
Another reason to pop in on other teachers is to find out what cool things they are
doing. A great activity is to take part of your conference time maybe once a week and go sit
in on teachers. Just by sitting in on a teacher’s lesson for 10 minutes can show you so much.
You can see what activities they are doing and see how they’re interacting with students.
You can see what’s on the walls. You can just look at the sequence of things that they’re
doing in the lesson. Usually, there are a whole a lot of great things going on at school that
teachers never know anything about.
Don’t make the mistake of not knowing about those great resources that are sometimes
right next door.
Now of course, I would only ever do that with permission. You don’t want to drop in on
a teacher when they would not welcome it. So ask them, “When may I come watch you
teach?” Most teachers will welcome you to come in and see what they’re doing. Sure it will
make them a little nervous. But it will also sharpen what they’re doing.
I worked for one principal who required his teachers to go visit other teachers regularly
and then drop a little feedback on the teacher or put it in their box. This was a great
program, and I never heard any of them complain about it. I liked visiting and being visited.
“May I come by and watch you teach tomorrow?”
 Mistake 22 - “Can we talk?”

While it is important to engage with teachers, it is also important to not monopolize

their time.
Yes, go and ask them for help. Go talk to them for five minutes. Talk to them for 10.
Then, leave them alone to their work. It is frustrating when you know you have two hours
of papers to grade, and somebody drops in and just yaks for half an hour.
If you make it a habit of dropping in on other teachers and use up their time, you will
find that they get frustrated with you. And then they won’t be very helpful. So use your time
wisely, but also use their time wisely.
Be helpful. Be a good listener. And let them get their work done.
“I’ll go talk for a minute.”
 Mistake 23 - “I’ll figure it out myself.”

This mistake is called failing to ask. I think it’s human nature to not want to let other
people know when we are struggling with something. But the nature of teaching is that you
need to get help. Ask for help when you need it. Most teachers want to help other teachers.
I feel bad when I have found out that I had something that someone needed and never
knew about it.
I had a huge issue recently that other teachers were able to help me solve. I could not
think my way through what was becoming a very difficult problem. I had students that I
was having to supervise who were literally in five different places at once. And I was not
realizing somehow that I couldn’t manage. I wanted to be super teacher. Finally, I asked the
other teachers on the hall for help. And one teacher had the answer for me. It helped relieve
her stress when she was able to help me.
When you need help and ask, it is a service to them. Just be mindful of their time.
“I’ll go ask.”
 Mistake 24 - “Let me tell you how much I hate that principal!”

Teachers need to take a few minutes on a regular basis talk to the administrators. Get to
know them. Offer them help when you have it to give.
Ask questions. Administrators are there to help. The more they know you, the better
they will be up to helping you when that time comes.
Principals are people too. Teachers forget this. Administrators have needs, aches, pains.
We look to them for leadership. But we also need to remember that they are human beings.
Treat them kindly.
It is a mistake to not show respect to your principal.
You may not respect them. I understand that sometimes happens, but always show
them respect. Because that principal can make your life miserable or pleasant. Imagine that
you are the person in charge. How much better you perform when the people you are
leading show respect.
Now, I’m differentiating between what a principal should expect and what a teacher
should just give. Let me explain
The teacher should just assume right from the get-go that they are going to respect the
principal. The principal on the other hand, should expect that they need to earn teachers'
respect. This is similar to the relationship between the teacher and the student.
Students should show their teachers respect right up front. They should. They don’t all.
But they should. Teachers should earn the respect and not expect respect right off the bat.
Both sides should go the extra mile.
Don’t be the teacher that makes the principal earn your respect.
Go the extra mile with your principal and show them respect up front.
What I mean is this: be nice. Being nice greases the wheels of the machine. When the
machine runs smoothly, everyone is better off.
I’m not saying that you can’t tell a principal your opinion on a matter; simply, do it with
respect.
“I’ll be nice.”
 Mistake 25 - “I’ll scream if want.”

Screaming is bad.
Most teachers at some point have found themselves screaming at students. It might be
all teachers, but I’ve been around long enough to know that are always exceptions.
Teachers, after they scream, do not feel good about it.
Screaming hypes you up and makes you feel bad. Your heart beats faster.
When I scream, my stomach gets sick.
Screaming scares kids. Then, they often laugh at you to show that they aren’t scared.
Some will then try to make you scream on purpose if they know that they can do that to
you. It’s a control thing. Also, when you have screamed at children, they are not in a frame
of mind where they can learn from you. Certainly not on that day.
Simply put, when you scream you lose credibility. And when you scream, it requires a
lot of effort to get those kids back. You can get them back. It’s just hard. Figure out how to
get your point across without raising your voice.
Now, there is a reason to scream: when somebody is in a situation where they will be in
bodily harm. That’s what the screaming is for, to stop the danger. I would never feel bad for
screaming at somebody if it stops him from hurting somebody or stops him from hurting
himself. So save screaming for the situations where you are going to stop somebody from
doing something hurtful.
“I’ll speak softly.”
 Mistake 26 - “They should know better.”

Let’s talk about the word “should” first before I name this mistake. There are things that
I know that I should do. When we start applying those “shoulds” to other people, it gets
very murky very quickly. It is very easy to get hung up on what other people should do.
The mistake is this: getting upset about what students “should” do that they aren’t
doing.
Students should come to my class motivated to learn, ready to soak up all I have to offer,
right?
Actually, that is right. They should.
So what?
What they should do is not my business. My business is what I should do. What I should
do is create lessons that have so much value for students that they can’t not listen.
What I should do is respond professionally when a student misbehaves.
So how do I fill my lessons, my classes, with these value added activities?
It starts with deciding that I will and I can.
Think about that for a second. When a human being decides to do something, it is
powerful. Especially when that desire is within their grasp.
You can craft lessons filled with engaging activities. Decide.
Once you decide, use your pen and paper to write down a plan for how you are going to
go about creating this reality. After you have this idea, you can write down specifics that
make your lessons jump through the hoops you desire.
And when you know the specifics, you can begin to take action.
When you see the fruit of your action, your desire will grow. And your faith that you can
do it will too. Then, you will take more action.
It’s a cycle.
I have to write down ideas. I’m gonna take my content and work with what I know
about my students because I worked to get to know them. I am going to create an
experience that they enjoy doing, that is relevant to them, now.
I am going to read books about how to add value into lessons for my students.
Right now, I’m going to recommend a book that is very much all about this: Teach Like a
Pirate by Dave Burgess. It is all about how you add so much value to your classes that your
students would buy tickets to go to your lessons.
Now picture the difference between the way you teach when you’re thinking, “Oh the
kids should this and kids should think that,” compared to, “I will endeavor to create lessons
that my students enjoy.” Just that shift in thinking makes you fashion your lessons
differently. Simply having that goal, changes how you do things.
 When we are crafting a lesson, we need to think about the benefits our lesson has for
students now. We need think about what our students want and not just about what they
need. Of course we need to think about what they need, but the door to what they need is
through what they want.
The better we know our students the better we know what they want and the better we
can craft lessons that address those wants.
And when we have a handle on what they want, then, we give them what they need.
“I’m going to provide lessons for my students that they will value now.”
 Mistake 27 - “Do I really need to hook my student’s attention?”

The mistake here that many teachers don’t get is that they really need to get their
student’s attention. This is actually a marketing concept that’s been around for long time.
Salesman knew that they had to do things to get the attention of their prospects. Hooks
are activities or experiences that are intensely interesting, and they are designed to get
attention.
They would include things like a teacher putting on a costume to teach, using pop music
to help teach a lesson, or using comic book characters on the screen. There are lots of ways
to get attention and you have to know your students to find out what those things are to
know what activities would be especially powerful. And then we get attention and then use
a variety of different techniques to move the students into the lesson to give them what
they need.
I heard a public speaker, Pat Flynn, talk about how he drove a Delorean up on the stage
to get his audience’s attention. His talk used themes from the movie Back to the Future to
hit his points in his presentation. He gave the audience entertainment so that he could
drive home his message.
I’m not suggesting that you need to drive a car into the classroom. Just surprise them.
Get their attention. Though I did see a teacher ride his Harley on to the football field to give
the students a motivational speech. It was cool.
If you can’t think of anything, try this: wear a costume to class. That can be number one
in a list. What other things can you add to the list.
“What can I do to hook my student’s attention?”
 Mistake 28 - “It’s too hard to think up stories that help them learn.”

Teachers don’t realize that they need to tell stories. And even when they know it, they
don’t do it often enough.
Good teachers have always told stories. They told stories of their youth. They told
stories of when they did silly things.
Hey, I once caused a bus to crash (no one got hurt). Don’t you think that gets their
attention?
A story I like to tell my students is how I broke my arm one day and nobody had any
sympathy for me. I start like that because it’s a big attention getter. Most people think of
course if you broke your arm, I would have sympathy for you.
It also builds curiosity.
But what if I told you that the way I broke my arm was that I rode my unicycle down the
stairs. Yes you would laugh at me like you’re doing right now, and you would have no
sympathy for me.
I laugh at me. I know because I’ve told the story many times, and all I ever get is
unsympathetic laughter. I understand.
It’s fun to tell stories.
Now when I told that story, did you get interested?
You see the value the story.
The story immediately captures attention.
Look at your content standards that you’re teaching and figure how you can tell stories
that highlight those standards. The more that you tell these kind of stories the more your
students are going to learn, and you’ll get better at it.
The better you get at telling stories, the more your students will enjoy your class which
will reduce behavior problems in your classes.
If you will commit to doing this often, you will find that you have a more engaged group
of kids to work with. What teacher doesn’t want that?
And show students how to tell stories about your content too.
And write your stories down.
I find that when I write them down, I can remember them well enough to just tell the
students.
I had a fascinating experience with telling a story just recently. I told it to convince
students that they need to read five books in the summer.
So I wrote a story out about a boy who was a soccer player. And when I relayed the
story, which I told four times to four different classes, I looked straight at the kids and
spoke. I didn’t refer to my written copy. Because I knew the goal of the story, I didn’t worry
about getting the details exactly the same with each telling.
I’m not going to tell you the whole story right now, but here’s how it worked: I knew
that my main group of students that I wanted to get to read, enjoyed sports in general and
soccer specifically.
It’s about Hammie an 11 year old boy who plays soccer. His teacher tells the class that
students who read at least five books every summer get smarter and do better in school.
Hammie decides to give it a try and reads books about soccer players that summer. And
sure enough, he started to get better grades. He also learned more about soccer and
became a more valuable player. He goes on to high school and college playing soccer and
eventually decides to go to med-school.
That’s the summary version of a four page story. But I’ll tell you this. Before I told the
story to my classes, they didn’t want to read five books. After I read it, they did. And they
signed pledges to do it.
Moans and groans and, “I ain’t doin’ that,” became, “Where do I sign up?”
That’s the power of a story. Storytelling changes things.
“I’m going to tell some stories.”
 Mistake 29 - “Why should I be nice to them? They’re mean.“

A big mistake teachers make is speaking unkindly to their students. It comes back to
bite you, not to mention what it does to the insecure student. Probably, every teacher does
this sometimes. Just like when we do anything that we shouldn’t, whenever we realize we
have spoken unkindly, we need to apologize.
When you speak unkindly to students, what you are communicating to them is that they
are not worth your time, and they are not worth your patience. When a student thinks that
you don’t care, they begin to tune you out.
Realize this: when you are dealing with a student who is behaving badly, she has
justified her behavior. In her mind, her behavior is completely correct given the
circumstances. Usually it’s because they are afraid or angry. They are in a self-preservation
mode of thinking.
So when you start speaking to them unkindly, they see you as being in the wrong even
though you are responding to their misbehavior. Your words aren’t talking to the rational
part of the person. You are “out of your mind” too.
This touches on what I was saying earlier about the word “should.” Should students see
themselves as justified when they’re misbehaving? No. But the fact is that they do. So look
at the difference between when you lovingly correct them compared to when you unkindly
correct them. Which version gets through?
Now I’m not talking about being strict or not strict. It is important to be strict. Lieber
Definition of strict: Always promoting the student’s best performance. Which promotes
high performance better, being unkind or being loving?
I’m going to rephrase that. It is important to mean business. It is important for students
to know that when you say a thing that they can trust you. So when you say there’s going to
be a consequence to this behavior, they trust that you are going to follow through.
The consequence that you are applying to your student at that time can be done calmly
with love and respect.
Years ago, when I was subbing at a boy’s prison in Los Angeles, a highly effective
teacher there said, “Always show the students respect.” That was an eye-opening statement
for me to hear. This was in a prison filled with teenage offenders. So if the best thing to do
there is to show them respect, the best thing to do any regular, non-criminal group of
students is to show respect.
“I can always show respect even when I am disciplining a student.”
 Mistake 30 - “I’m calling all of your parents today.”

This mistake I’m calling the “over threat.’ It’s when you get frustrated with the
classroom and you begin to threaten them with all manner of teacherly horror. The best
consequences are the ones that are the easiest to apply and won’t leave lingering feelings of
anger. Don’t use a jackhammer when a tap on the shoulder works.
“You have till the count of three or I’m gonna…” When you come out with these kind of
statements, students see that you are frustrated. And they will respond to your frustration;
they will push your buttons. You might as well tape a note to your back that says, “Kick me.”
Here’s the brutal reality: pushing people’s buttons is fun. We like to see how others
handle stress. We might feel bad afterward, but when you are a kid, you aren’t well
equipped to stop yourself.
Rule of thumb: when you must discipline, keep it easy on yourself. Far better is the one,
two, or five minute consequence rather than the 30 minute, the hour, or three-day
consequence. It’s easier on you, and it is easier on the student.
Look, you want it to be easy on the student. It just is not true that the harsher the
consequence, the more effective it is. Often the easiest, lightest consequences are the most
effective. The smallest consequence possible that brings about the desired result is the best
consequence.
And I’m going to say this again: the very best way to manage behavior is to keep
students engaged.
“I’m not going to declare grand punishments to the class.”
 Mistake 31 - “Sorry they’re late; I held them because they were bad.”

Don’t dole out discipline that creates a problem for another teacher; you end up
punishing the teacher.
It causes a teacher to have to deal with a situation that wasn’t theirs to handle. And it
makes the beginning of their class rough. So don’t take a situation that you can handle and
put it on to the next teacher. Don’t make the other teacher’s job hard. Figure out
consequences that don’t impact the next teacher.
This relates closely to what I was saying on the last one. Consequences such as, “You
need to sit quietly for 15 seconds,” for instance can be effective. A student may need more
of a consequence than that, but the 15 seconds works great for the full class.
Depending on the team of teachers and the child, I’ve seen this be very effective, after
15 seconds, you release the class but hold Julia who is being a real stinker. Call her next
teacher and get permission to hold her. Have Julia sit and complete an activity. You are
doing all of this calmly remember. When you see that Julia is paying attention, let her go to
the next class.
Holding the whole class for the full passing period so they can’t get to the locker, can’t
go to the bathroom, or they’re just making them late to class is not an effective
consequence. It just upsets everybody.
“Less is more.”
Mistake 32 - “I’m taking away your lunch privileges for the rest of the year.”

It is better to keep the students guessing about how long their consequence will last.
The reason you don’t tell them the time is that you don’t really know how much time it’s
going to take for their attitude to clear.
Teacher named Mr. Stepp has seen a boy, Theo, put a weed in a girl’s hair:
Mr. Stepp: (to Theo) Stand right there.
Theo: I didn’t do anything.
Mr. Stepp: Stand there. (Theo moves) Stand right there and touch the wall.
Theo: When can I go back?
Mr. Stepp: I’ll get back to you on that. Teacher goes about doing her duty. In 1 minute
she checks up on Theo who isn’t being demanding anymore.
Mr. Stepp: Why are you here?
Theo: Because you told me I had to stand here.
Mr. Stepp: Why did I do that?
Theo: I don’t know.
Mr. Stepp: Why do think I might have asked you to stand there.
Theo: Because I put a weed in Angela’s hair.
Mr. Stepp: Is that appropriate outside behavior?
Theo: No sir.
Mr. Stepp: (Waits a second. Sees that Theo’s attitude has changed.) How are you going
to behave differently?
Theo: I’ll keep my hands to myself and I won’t put things in people’s hair.
Mr. Stepp: Go play.
What you often find is that when a student does not know how long they’re going to
have to deal with you, they will search out that attitude adjustment inside themselves. Keep
that indefinite.
“I’m going to keep him guessing.”
 Mistake 33 - “I’m going to make him pay!”

Not taking the pressure off when the student shows willingness to conform, is a
mistake.
See how Mr. Stepp gets it wrong here: Picking up from the dialogue above…
Mr. Stepp: Is that appropriate outside behavior?
Theo: No sir.
Mr. Stepp still steaming from student’s misbehavior and disrespect misses that the
student has changed their attitude: You just stand there and think about it.
(Theo is ready to be compliant.)
Mr. Stepp (misses Theo’s changed attitude): Stand there for ten more minutes.
During that ten minutes, the student’s resentment builds. And they become a worse
behavior problem.
I learned this from principal Steve Green, who would say “Pressure on, Pressure off.” He
learned this from training horses.
Mr. Green taught this: it is best to work on one behavior with one student. When the
student won’t conform to expectations, put pressure on. As soon as the student begins to
correct their behavior, immediately take the pressure off.
By the way: It does not work with a group of students. When you are having serious
issues with a group of students, it is important to zero in on the leaders. Deal with the
leaders on an individual basis. Never let them slide, but always be polite.
Deal with the leader away from the group. As they follow you, the rest will too.
Behavior problems are, when it comes down to it, individual problems. So ultimately, in
some way, you must deal with the individual student.
“When I see the attitude change, I’ll take the pressure off.”
 Mistake 34 - “They are so bad!”

My first day ever as a paid employee of a school district, I was a substitute teacher. My
job for the day was in a middle school in the city of Burbank, California.
I was teaching an advanced class who in an extraordinary example of group behavior
decided to have a bit of fun with me. A small group on one side of the the room would start
humming. I would move toward them and a small group on the other side would start up. If
I was in one quadrant of the room, a different part of the room was humming.
Other than that, they weren’t bad, and they got their work done, but I told their teacher
when she showed up at the end of the day.
I don’t know what consequence their teacher came up with, but the next day, I worked
at the same school but for a different teacher. One boy with a very proper British accent
who I remembered from the day before sought me out. He was distraught. He had been
punished for the humming, but protested that he had not participated in the “game.”
I’m not sure that I would have done anything different given the circumstances, but I
have never forgotten his face and shaky Queen Elizabeth voice.
Students react in a big way when they perceive that things are unfair.
Your students are individual people. Classes do seem to have their own personalities,
but it is a mistake to think about the temperament of the class as a whole when you are
dealing with behavior.
There are dynamics in each class that make them unique, but never forget that you are
dealing with individual people. When you start acting like you’re teaching a mob, individual
students will resent it and lose connection with you.
Your personal connection is with each individual student, not with the class as a whole.
This is especially important when you have a significant number of students in the class
who misbehave. When you deal with your students as individuals, you will notice that most
of the students really want to behave and do well.
When you’re not careful, you will see that you are punishing a whole class for what is
really the misbehavior of a few students. And if you have allowed your frustration to get to
you and not acted calmly, other personalities in the classroom will take control. They will
lead. And other students will follow them.
Believe me; that is not what you want.
“I’m fostering relationships each individual student.”
 Mistake 35 - “I’ll put that away later.”

Teachers like all professionals need to stay organized. Teachers are comfortable with
different levels of organization from each other. Some teachers need everything neatly in
place. Other teachers can find things even when it looks like a pile to everybody else.
I confess; I am of the latter. In my mind, I am organized (I think), but it doesn’t always
look that way to other people.
Here’s the thing; when things look disorganized, students get a sense of unease. I know I
personally have to go the extra mile to make things look organized.
However, the opposite is also true. When classrooms seem sterile, students get nervous.
But I don't think this is near the problem as the first.
You do need to know yourself on this, and it isn’t really that hard to figure out. But here
is the message, keep organized. When you start losing things and can’t find things, it is time
to set aside some time to make sure you are organized.
“I’m putting it away right now.”
 Mistake 36 - “That’s no big thing; I’ll deal with it later.”

I put organization into two broad categories: light duty organization and heavy duty.
For light stuff, you need to have moments every day when you collect your thoughts,
your papers, your stuff, and get organized.
My own habit for many years has been to get to my classroom early, before other
teachers arrive, and check that I’m organized for the day. I like having a good half hour
before students arrive to make sure everything is in place. If I need photocopies, it’s
finished. If I need certain supplies, I locate them. If I need a slideshow with a few graphics,
it’s ready to go.
That’s the getting-ready kind of organization, but there is also the kind of organization
that is making sure everything is in place when you are finished, cleaning up.
After you have taught several classes, there can be all kinds of things out of place. And
you need to have a routine for putting them away. Probably that routine will be at the end
of the day.
The end of the day is also the time to figure out if tomorrow’s lesson plan is really going
to work. When I wrote the plan, I may have had my head in the proverbial clouds, but now
I’m in the thick of it, and I know what my students are really absorbing. I know what they
know. Usually, I need to change something up.
So what I’m saying is this: take those few extra minutes. It might be only five minutes.
Put things where they should go. If something needs to be washed up, wash it up. If
something needs to be thrown away, throw it away. If something needs to go in somebody’s
mailbox in the office, walk down there, and put it in the mailbox.
Take care of the little things so they don’t become big piles of things.
“I’ll do it later,” is a bad habit. Turn that around into this: “I’ll take care of it right now.”
That shift will save you more pain!
If you take care of it right away, you will feel good. You know that feeling, when you
finally got a bunch of stuff done. That feeling is the stress sliding off of your back into a
puddle on the ground.
“I’ll take care of it now.”
 Mistake 37 - “I can take care of that after school starts.”

Two or three times a year you need to do what I would call heavy-duty organization. No
matter how good you are at keeping things organized on a regular basis, you will find there
are times when you need to go deep.
Most teachers get this especially in August before they meet their new students. In fact,
the trick here is to spend your time doing the things that really need work. It can be
deceptive. When you have large blocks of time for working in your room. Use them on the
heavy-duty things.
Heavy-duty organization is when you do things like go through your files and start
throwing things out what you haven’t looked at in years. This is when you go through your
desk and really see what’s at the bottom of the big drawer. And you look at your shelves
and give away or throw away those books that you don’t need. That needs to happen on a
semi regular basis, probably at least twice a year.
When you take care of organization at both the light and at the heavy level a lot of the
things that will normally stress you out will go anyway.
Besides the beginning of the year, another time for doing heavy duty organization is one
day during one of your mid-year breaks. I advocate taking one of those precious vacation
days, bring in a friend, spouse, or helpful son or daughter and go deep.
So much of stress is due to trying to handle too many things in your head. The more
organized you are, the more your systems for handling things will work.
You are at your best when you can deal with one thing at a time.
“I’m going to take a day and clean up.”
 Mistake 38 - “I don’t need no system.”

You gotta have systems. I suggest one that is based roughly on David Allen’s Getting
Things Done.
Here’s what works. Have an inbox where you keep all the incoming papers. That inbox
needs to go down to bare plastic by the beginning of the next school day. Even better, it
needs to be handled before you drive home each day. The way to do this is to have an
agreement in your head that says, “I’m gonna take care of this.”
Obviously, there are things that need to get handled in different amounts of time. Some
can be handled right away. If you can handle it in a minute or two, take care of it. But if it’s
going to take longer, you have to know where to put it so that you can handle it soon.
You have your daily inbox, but you also have your weekly inbox. Things that can’t get
handled right away, go into the weekly box. One day of the week, you spend extra time
getting this box cleared. Friday is not the best day for this because if you can’t deal with it
quickly, it gets left all weekend. Have a midweek day to handle your week box.
If you are going through your week box and you can’t handle it until tomorrow, you put
it in your daily box to be dealt with the next day.
You can also have a similar system for your computer and digital files.
Email can be a pain, so you must have a way of finding the important ones. Most school
systems have a sophisticated email program. You can create thematic folders to file things.
For instance, I put all emails from parents or students into a folder. That makes it very easy
for me to find them again.
There is another folder entitled This Week. So when you know, “Oh, I can’t take care of
that right now; I’ll do it later this week,” it goes in that file. Process that file at the same time
you deal with your printed weekly tray. Sometimes, it is better to print a document and put
it into your physical printed daily or weekly file.
Interesting fact: some teachers are very good at managing their computer files, but get
stressed over the real physical plastic tray. Others are the opposite; they manage the
physical piece better.
In the new millennium, we need to do both.
“I have a system for dealing with important documents.”
 Mistake 39 - “I’ll just tell ’em.”

Always handle the visual elements in a lesson.

All students are visual learners.
All students either visualize it in their brain, or they need to see a visual representation
of what you are talking about.
There are few students who have the gift of being able to listen to what you’re saying,
and not forget it. Students need graphic representations of everything that you’re teaching.
They need you to write things down, and they also need to write things down for
themselves. That is a reality.
I have often found myself standing in front of a class going on and on about something,
thinking my students were learning it, only to find out that they didn’t, and I never gave
them a graphic representation.
It is my responsibility to help students learn how to organize things spatially. They do
not come preloaded with that. It’s a sophisticated skill.
When you realize you are describing something or making a point, write it down, and
better yet, draw things for your students. The more you use graphs, charts, maps and
illustrations, the better your students will learn what you’re teaching.
I’m going to say it again: all students are visual learners.
“I’m going to make sure my students have visuals.”
 Mistake 40 - “I got a slide show for that.”

Just because they are visual learners does not mean that you get to grind them into
merciless boredom. Don’t Powerpoint your students to death.
You’re not trying to punish them, right?
I use slides. They work. But remember people of all ages get bored with slide shows
very fast. If you are using any more than five or 10 slides in a class, you better have a darn
good reason. And I’m not saying there’s never a good reason, but if you’re using more than
that, you are probably boring your students.
If they are getting bored, you are not having them do enough.
“How can I get my students on their feet?”
 Mistake 41 - “Sit down.”

Students learn by doing, so have them do. The more that you have students doing the
better they’re gonna learn what you are trying to teach.
Writing notes only counts a little for doing something. Don’t get me wrong, taking good
notes is good. But students just sitting on their backsides looking at your PowerPoint ≠
them doing something; you’ve gotta break it up.
We’re talking hands-on.
If you are teaching math concepts, have them learn it with objects.
If your students are learning a science concept, have them make it in some way or get in
the lab.
If your students are learning social studies concepts, have them make a giant map or
timeline.

In language arts, dramatize those vocabulary words.

You get the idea.
Take out the big chalk and go draw on the sidewalk. Then, take pics of happy children
next to their work. Put that in your Powerpoint (I so want to say, “and smoke it,” but I
won’t).
I have been blessed with getting to teach five different subjects at the middle school
level. There are ways to get students doing in all subjects.
Here are some more starter ideas.
In a math class, there are lots of things you can do with dice, so have a class set of dice
for students to roll. If they’re rolling dice, looking at numbers, writing down the numbers,
and doing some calculations, they are using their heads and they are doing something. They
are learning.
In a language arts classroom, making a life size poster of a character that has the
character’s traits written on its body: that is doing something. You’re still using words and
“rich language” from the text and all kinds of good language arts skills, but you get the
student doing something with the whole body. That is so important.
Take care of eyeballs and hands (visuals and hands-on). You will keep them engaged.
If you keep their attention, you are going to eliminate most behavior problems.
The trick here is to keep the rigor in your lesson. Hands on activities can flatten out into
fluff. You can’t just have students have fun. Make sure they are learning the objectives by
doing the activity.
Always review your objective before you plan the activity. And remember to analyze
the specifics you are teaching.
 Students learn a lot when they write. But when they don’t feel like they have something
to write about, it doesn’t help them much. Here’s the bridge: do the activity, and then, write
about it. Before the students write though, quickly review the objective so that they will
make the connection when they write.
Activity + Writing = Learning.
Students Learning = Happy Teacher (You)!
“I have something for them to do today.”
 Mistake 42 - “I’m going to hammer this routine into them.”

Doing the same old thing, day in day out, over and over again, grinding, madness (it’s
not a complete sentence but I like it).
There are a lot of very simple, routines that we need to do. And those things are a
foundation.
But there are times you gotta break it up.
And several times a year, you need to go BIG. Overwhelm them with magic. Take their
breath away.
How do you do this? You look at your goals and you pick one very large overarching
goal, and you figure out how you can hit it with music, with movement, with graphic
representation. Add in storytelling, costumes, and drama. Throw in some food and door
prizes and you have something amazing.
Here’s how you figure this out: sit down with a piece of paper and look at your goals.
And start writing down ideas. I guarantee that if you’re trying to give value to your
students, you will come up with some exciting things to do in the classroom. You will make
it so fun that they want to keep coming back.
Go big maybe every six weeks or so. If they know that once in a while, you’re going to go
crazy, they will really start to anticipate your class.
I recommend that the best time to start with something big is about the third week of
school.
It really doesn’t take that much for students to view what you are doing as an event.
Here’s a starter list for Going Big. Use some or many of these ideas. Add your own:
1. Field Trip
2. Costumes
3. Special Speaker
4. Redecorate the Classroom
5. Add music and dance
6. Make a video
7. Sing for your students
8. Teach them a song
9. Paint
10. Clay
11. Create paper sculptures
12. __________________
 To go BIG, add three or more fun activities. Please add to my list above and contact me
to let me know the cool ideas that worked especially well in your class.
(stressrelief4teachers@gmail.com)
“It’s time to plan something big!”
 Mistake 43 - “I’ll do it like everyone else.”

One of the things that you need to do is differentiate yourself from the other teachers.
Students should look at your classroom and go, “Wow, look at how different this is.”
And all the other teachers can do the same thing. But if students can come in and go, “I
know when I go into Miss Whatsit’s class, it’s crazy or it’s different. There’s always music
on, she’s always smiling, or we always get to do something.” There are always ways to
differentiate yourself.
I don’t see this as a competition with other teachers. They have strengths and talents
that you don’t have. They can use those attributes to differentiate themselves.
And the way that you figure out how to do this, if you haven’t already, is to sit down
with a piece of paper and write.
And what you do is think about what strengths and talents you bring to the table.
For instance, I juggle. So usually about once a year, I juggle for my class. I also draw
Mark Kistler drawings. I like to draw for the class and my students really enjoy the
drawings. Sometimes, I teach them how to draw those drawings. These are ways to
differentiate.
This is not unlike how somebody who is trying to figure out how to market a new
detergent has to think about it. There are 20 other detergents that the shopper can buy on
the aisle. What is going to make you stop and get that brand. Why does Tide jump in my
mind? It does a good job of saying, “Look at how different we are!”
You can do the same thing as a teacher.
One of my favorite teachers when I was in the ninth grade was a man named Mr.
Denham. And Mr. Denham was a grouchy kind a guy. But I didn’t care because he told a
bunch of great stories. He had served in the Vietnam War as a cook. And he told all kinds of
interesting stories that for me, a 14-year-old boy were amazing. And he was kind of grumpy
and grouchy maybe because he had been to Vietnam. I don’t know. But he kept on telling
stories and so he differentiated himself.
I learned a lot of history because of Mr. Denham. He was different.
“I am unique!”
 Mistake 44 - “These new students are so well behaved!”

It is common for teachers to get a “honeymoon” with new students. They will be on
their best behavior for the first week and often for the first two weeks. Though, I have had
classes that gave me no honeymoon at all. Still, after more than two decades of teaching,
mostly what I see now is roughly a two week honeymoon period.
Here’s what happens if you do not understand this phenomena. During those two
weeks, your expectations for student behavior gets set. And you think, “Oh, this is how they
will behave, nice.” Then, when the misbehavior really kicks in, you might not deal with it in
a timely fashion because you expect them to just snap back to the way they were the
second or third day of school.
You keep waiting and waiting to get those kids back.
Don’t do that. Be vigilant. Deliver great lessons. Be calm. But be quick and consistent in
handling things.
The first time you start seeing this behavior, you need to begin to deal with these things
quietly and efficiently.
Take advantage of the honeymoon time to deal with behavior nicely and politely.
Contact all the parents in the first two weeks of school so that you are meeting them when
things are great.
Make it a habit during this time to not show your frustration to your kids. Show them
your expectations. But don’t show them that grit of the teeth. Don’t show them that furled
brow. Deal with them calmly.
Deal with each student individually. Get to know all of their families. And write down
facts and observations on a student information spread sheet during this time.
And on the third week of school, land some magic on them. This is when you go big. All
the introductions are out of the way. You have gone over expectations. You have taught
some content. The honeymoon is just over. They think they have you figured out and
wham! You rock their world.
If you work with a team of teachers who are on the same page, you can make this cross-
curricular. Mix up the math, social studies, science, and language arts. Push on the
accelerator and see what happens.
“I’m paying attention to subtle changes in behavior and addressing them.”
 Mistake 45 - “I’ll worry about that when the time comes.”

Here’s the Lieber-definition of a system. A system is when you have a routine for
handling something that you have to do over and over again. The system takes time to set
up but then saves you time thereafter.
New teacher: find a nice unsuspecting veteran teacher, one that you know is good, and
ask them questions that reveal their “systems.” The hard part about this is that they might
not have thought about it in a while. It’s just stuff they’ve done for years.
Ask them questions like, “Why do you do that?”
Veteran teachers: Review your systems and make sure they are still working for you.
Like old cars they need tune ups. For instance, maybe you’ve been keeping some things in a
file cabinet that would be better kept on a hard drive or Google drive.
Anything that you handle over and over again is something that you can have a system
for. If you have a system, it will lower your stress.
Here’s a common system that most teachers know: Have students do something when
they come in to class that gives you a minute to take care of taking roll. It can be a warm up,
or silent reading, or maybe something much more creative. It’s a system.
Some teachers have a system that helps them limit the number of times they check e-
mail. Like, “I only check email (or social media) at lunchtime and 3:30.”
Most teachers need systems to make sure they correctly handle their student’s special
needs. There has to be a way for you to handle the special instructions to not forget
something important. How do you check yourself to make sure you get it all?
There is no worse feeling than sitting in a meeting where a parent asks if you are doing
what you were supposed to do for their kid as per the instructions you were given, and you
realize that you really haven’t been doing it. And it’s just because you forgot. You didn’t
have a system.
Think of it like this: if you need to do it over and over again, take the time up front to
create a system; you will save time and grief later.
Here’s another one: what do you have ready for substitutes? Do you have procedure
notes that you end up writing over and over again? Write them down once and put it
somewhere on your drive where you can always find it. Just add the things for the current
lesson.
Of course, always have a backup lesson plan in case you are too sick to write one. A
good way to do this is write one that is generic enough to be used several times.
“If I do it repeatedly, I’ll come up with a system to make it go smoothly.”
 Mistake 46 - “I don’t need no stinkin’ reflection.”

I will admit, I don’t happen to like the word “reflect.” Maybe I prefer the word focus;
somehow “reflect” feels too gooey to me. But whatever the case, I’m going to use it because
that’s the word people use when they talk about this process.
What is reflection? It’s when you make an agreement with your brain to sit and think
about things and organize them. Maybe that explanation doesn’t do it justice because it can
be a highly creative process. And depending on who you are, it requires different tools or
processes. Usually, it requires writing.
It requires sitting with a pen and paper or maybe at a keyboard and writing down what
you are thinking about and writing questions. It means you think out-of-the-box. It’s you
thinking of yourself as a problem solver.
I’ve known of some people who do it with an audio recorder. Have you ever tried
speaking your thoughts into an app on your phone? The popular Evernote app comes
loaded with a recording option and the ability to tag it and file it, so you can find it when
you need it.
Reflection is powerful.
To get the most out of reflection, you must do it consistently. The more consistent you
are about reflecting, the more power you will get out of it.
Teachers learn how to be good and great teachers by emulating the world’s most
successful people (not just great teachers). Successful equals the ability to create plans and
follow them through to fruition.
If you study the lives of the most creative and successful people, you will find that they
usually have a morning routine which includes writing things down. Some of them do this
for as little as five minutes. Some of them do it for half an hour every day.
And I have found that when I am consistently reflective, I am the most successful at
solving problems. Know this: teaching is a problem-solving profession. You will run into
things that you do not immediately know how to deal with, things that aren’t in your “job
description” and situations that you never learned about in college.
You will need to use the vast resources of your brain to figure it out. And your brain
does have vast resources.
When you reflect, you are recognizing the power of your brain to solve problems.
Reflection gives you access to the problem solving areas in your gray matter.
Imagine whole campuses where teachers went heavy on the reflection and light on the
complaining. I’m feeling like John Lennon here.
When you are trying to solve a problem, if you will sit down and reflect on it first, you
will get more help from other people when you talk to them. They will feel like you have
put in the effort already. And they will be more willing to dig into their brain resources to
help you.
The conversation with the principal often goes like this: I’m having issues with student
Soso. Administrator says: “What have you already done?”
Corollary to that: what ideas have you already come up with? Now when an
administrator recognizes that you are already working through things, it helps them dig
into their resources to help you. They are able to sense what you actually need.
Here’s a powerful daily reflection that quickly taps into your brain’s problem solving
potential: Write the following -1) What I did well today. 2) How I can improve. Write those
questions and answer them. Every day. Do that until more powerful and more creative
reflections occur to you (and they will).
“I’ll focus on that.”
 Mistake 47 - “I don’t need to write that down.”

Many teachers don’t realize the need to write lists of things. This is of course closely
related to this idea of being reflective. Reflection can include writing lists but not
necessarily.
Part of your teaching life is going to be regularly making lists and those lists can be
extremely useful and extremely powerful to you.
Make list-writing part of your daily routine, and if you don’t know what to write about,
you can start by writing any list that comes to your mind. Any list that comes to you, is
better than no list.
Sometimes you will work something out just by writing a list. Like when you’re having a
hard time putting your finger on what is bugging you, and if you will just sit down and
write a list, you will figure it out. You will relieve stress, you will be productive, and you will
be happier.
With list making, you aren’t necessarily trying to be reflective. You might just write
down the most important things you need to accomplish.
This is important because as a teaching professional, there is so much to remember.
I recommend that you keep a notebook on your desk or somewhere easily accessible to
you. This notebook has class lists and important things to remember for each class. When
you realize that you need to do something for a class like call certain parents, buy Blow
Pops, or attend an event, write it there. For me, I keep MY roll book there too.
“I’ll make a list of things to do.”
 Mistake 48 - “Room-a-zoom-zoom!”

You have got to find some quiet. Protect it even. Your quiet mind will be able to deal
with things in a way that it can’t when you’re always on the go and when things are noisy.
If you will get a little quiet time on a daily basis, you will find that those 5 or 10 minutes
can pay off greatly in productivity. You may find that you need more than 5 or 10 minutes,
but I suggest that you carve out at least that much.
I’ve known some teachers to go into the classroom and turn off the lights for a few
minutes during a conference period. This helps because they don’t get interrupted as
readily. When I think of quiet, that does not mean you have your phone out and looking at
Facebook or texting. It means just sitting quietly. You can have a pen and paper at that time,
and you can write things down. That still counts as quiet.
Get quiet. It will help. Try it.
“I’m going to take five.”
 Mistake 49 - “I’ll never figure this out.”

Many teachers don’t trust their own brain.

Your brain is an amazing creation. It can manage all kinds of different ideas, situations,
philosophies. It is the greatest problem solver in the world.
One of the great tragedies in the world is that people don’t realize what a wonderful
tool that they have right there at their disposal.
And people don’t take care of it. We need to do things like drink plenty of water. We
need to get plenty of sleep. And we need to eat food that is nutrient dense and get sufficient
exercise.
Seriously, you have a great brain. Ponder that for a minute.
I’ve seen people get very frustrated because they did not recognizes this. They think
that somebody else is going to be a better problem-solving than they are.
And we do need other people to help us too; I’m not saying we don’t. But a lot of things
can be solved by yourself rather than trying to go to other people with it. You will build
your confidence by trying.
Start by thinking and deciding that you are a problem solver. Visualize yourself as a
problem solver. Behave as a problem solver.
You are needed in the world. Your school, your students desperately need you to be an
innovator.
You know that you want your students to be analytical. So be analytical too. If you are
problem-solving, then you show your students how to be problem solvers also. And they
will trust that you know how to show them.
When you feel like you are stuck, it is time to sit down with a piece of paper. Make a list
and write things down. Five minutes at this will do wonders for finding solutions that work.
“I have an amazing brain; I got this.”
 Mistake 50 - “I can get by on just a little sleep.”

It is way too common for teachers to not realize how much sleep they need. They are
operating on 4, 5, or 6 hours of sleep on a nightly basis. Then, they crash and try to catch up
on the weekend.
And when they try to enjoy their weekend, they find that they’re foggy; they’re so
drained. They aren’t able to get out and go have a good time because all of their mental
resources have gone into teaching and not getting replenished through a natural sleep
cycle.
All teachers need to get plenty of sleep.
Some are very good at going to bed early. 9, 9:30, 10 o’clock, they are in bed. Some
people are just naturally drawn to going to bed at 11, 12, 1 o’clock in the morning.
Of course going to bed late is sometimes unavoidable. I’m talking about a consistent
habit. This should be such that you are getting seven or eight hours of sleep every night.
Your brain will not be able to manage your students and your job duties if you’re not
getting enough sleep.
Being up on the computer doing Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest instead of getting the
winks that you need is going to take its toll on teaching.
Take care of your brain.
I’ve seen three manageable elements that steal teacher’s sleep.
1 - Many teachers watch too much television.
I know I sound like some cranky old geezer here, but when you stay up till 11:00 and
11:30 PM and later, you don’t leave yourself enough time for sleeping.
And it’s not just the time issue. It also has to do with the fact that your eyes are taking in
too much light. If you look at studies that show people how to get better sleep, they all talk
about turning the lights out earlier in the evening. Our bodies our eyes, are attuned to you
getting a certain amount of light. And when the lights go off, our brains naturally start
towards the sleep cycle, but when we keep the light coming with the television we have a
problem getting into that natural sleep state.
There’s also the issue with your brain getting excited on whatever’s on the TV. If you’re
watching the news, now you’re upset about what’s on the news. Shows are designed to get
you excited and to pull your emotions.
Just turning off the boob tube may do you a world of good.
2 - You know who you are. It used to be an issue that I had to talk to students and their
parents about some 20 years ago. But now those students are old enough to be teachers.
And it’s closely related to the TV thing.
 Many teachers, especially young male teachers, spend too much time playing video
games. Video games are a great release, yes. But they also can absorb way too much time.
They can absorb time that needs to go towards problem-solving.
You can imagine coming home after a long day of teaching. You eat and sit down at the
video screen, and you start to play. Three hours later you go, “Oh I just wasted three hours
doing that.” It’s important to make sure you have enough time to think to be quiet and solve
problems.
Don’t let videogames rob you of that.
I am not telling you to not ever play video games. Rather, play in moderation. Your
students need you to be energetic and enthusiastic. When a fancy box with flashing lights
takes that away, you need to respond.
3 - Different people have different body chemistries and with different caffeine
tolerances. You need to know your own body here. Most people can handle one cup, or two.
In fact, many studies show the effects of drinking one or two cups a day to be beneficial.
Unmoderated coffee drinking can completely change your temperament. Coffee can
make you cranky.
Sometimes you think that you are handling it fine, and it turns on you. It can mess with
your attitude and your sleep.
You think you’re getting enough sleep, but what is really happening is you’re tossing
and turning and not getting deep enough sleep because of the caffeine.
I’m not bashing coffee here. In fact, I’m a coffee snob (friends don’t' let friends drink
Starbucks). Few things make me happier than a good cup of specialty coffee. But I’ve also
over-hyped myself up on it. I don’t teach well when I’m jittery.
Caffeine is a stimulant. It is designed to keep your brain going. So be aware of how
you’re handling it and know when to stop.
“I’m going to limit the things in my life that rob me of sleep.”
 Mistake 51 - “Yes. Yes. Yes.”

Saying yes to everything good is bad. There are lots of good things that present
themselves to you when you’re a teacher. Some of them you must do. Some of them are
choices. And it is not unusual for many teachers to say yes to too many good things.
You have got to learn to say no. You have got to know that you’re not really a superhero.
You do have a limited number of hours in which to do your business. If you overwhelm
yourself. It will take its toll on your classroom teaching.
Two times in my career I have made this mistake in a big way.
In the 1990s, I went from being a high school teacher to middle school. I wanted to
direct plays, so I took that on. But they also twisted my arm to sponsor student
government. I didn’t really want to do it, but they talked about how easy it would be, so I
said, “Yes.”
The meeting was during advisory period. Half the class was on student council, the
other half was not.
Besides that, I taught the heaviest load of my career, classes with 38 to 42 students.
After several weeks, I begged to get out of being the student council sponsor which was
embarrassing. But I had to do it. I physically could not make it work.
And after years of teaching, I really should have known better.
One year went something like this. I taught five classes. Four of the classes were Science
6 which was new to me. Each one of those four classes had very different populations of
students in them.
I had an advanced class, a low achieving class, a special ed class, and an ESL class. You
can imagine that they each required very different approaches. The more differences that
you have in your day, the more that you will need to have time to figure out how to best
differentiate.
At the same time I was also teaching an elective class for students who had been
retained the year before. This was what I called the “Success Class.” The class was one that I
created and it required a lot of hours to try to figure out how to make it work best. Those
students had great needs. This was an extra class beyond my normal class load.
I was also directing a one act play for competition.
It took me half a year to figure out that I was doing too much. About four weeks in, I was
seriously overwhelmed.
I should’ve said no to at least one of those good things that I was doing.
For semester two, I actually had to drop the class that I was teaching for the boys who
had been retained. I hated that. But that sting will help me say no next time. In this case, it
meant saying no to myself. No one else was making me do it. I did it to myself.
 Teachers are by their very nature altruistic. Know yourself. Know your schedule. If you
are a new teacher who is trying to get how to manage a classroom, lesson plans, grading,
meetings, and professional growth hours, as a rule, say yes to small extras if any. Stay
focused on being the best classroom teacher you can be. No matter what anyone else tells
you, that is what you are hired to do.
I’m not saying to tell everyone no. Just limit yourself until you get an idea of what you
can handle. For instance, if someone requests you to cover a 60 minute after school tutorial,
you can probably handle that. But if you are asked to get the yearbook published, that’s a
whole different animal.
It’s good to say yes to some things and even bigger things when you are ready to
manage them. I have always been best at making connections with students when we did
after school projects together. I wouldn’t trade those experiences.
But being an effective classroom teacher is primary. Protect that.
“I know when to say no.”
 Mistake 52 - “I’ll remember to do that.”

It is important to write down your plans on a calendar. Look at that calendar and start
to get an idea of where you need spaces that you need to leave as spaces. Those spaces are
there so you can get things done.
Teachers always have more things to do. You have lessons to plan. You have papers to
grade. Phone calls to make. You have meetings to attend.
If you write on the calendar what you’re doing consistently, you’ll be able look at the
calendar and get a visual of: “Oh, I’m getting too busy.”
I like to use an electronic calendar that syncs between my computer and phone. A
Google calendar works nicely for this.
Some teachers still carry planners that they purchase from a place like Staples. Either
way, get it on your calendar. Life can sneak up on you and you find yourself juggling too
many pieces of information in your head.
Write your plans on the calendar. And leave some spaces that don’t get filled in. It will
relieve stress.
“I’ll check my calendar.”
 Mistake 53 - “She messed with me.”

Whining and complaining: teachers can be really bad about this. Teachers should not
whine about their students.
You know the spew-a-log. It’s where a teacher goes on and on and on about how the
student did this and that and how they countered with this. Like they’re giving a blow-by-
blow description of a battle. That needs to drop out of your conversation.
It can feel good at the time, but ultimately you feel bad about it. You are talking about
another person. The old saying is right, “If you don’t have something good to say, don’t say
it at all.”
I’m glad there were people who were kind to me when I was at my worst.
When you find yourself starting to complain about students, that’s a great time to kick
yourself, bite your tongue, snap a rubber band on your wrist, or something to get yourself
to quit doing it.
I’m not talking about when you need help with a student’s behavior. Sometimes, you
need to explain to school leaders (admin or a veteran teacher) what you are dealing with.
But there’s a fine line between complaining about a student and getting help with a student.
Keep it all about getting help and quickly take action to correct the issue.
“Every student I teach, teaches me.”
 Mistake 54 - “Her mom is the worst...”

I get why teachers want to complain about parents. Sometimes it seems like parents go
out of their way to try to make this job difficult. But you have to realize that when a parent
is that way, it’s usually because they are dealing with difficulties and trauma. In many cases,
all they have ever known in life is chaos.
Some parents/guardians of students may only know how to deal with stress in an
aggressive way. Complaining about them will not help. Talking to them about how great
their child is, when they do something good, is helpful. Calling them up and asking for their
help instead of complaining about their child, can be healing for a parent and help engage
them positively with the school.
When you call a parent and ask for help with this or that, it brings them onto your team.
That is very different from saying, “Your child did this, and your child did that, and I’m so
frustrated with your child.”
Don’t ever complain to the parent about their child, rather, enlist their help. And also
don’t complain about the parent to other teachers or the administrators.
When having a serious problem with a parent that requires help, go to the person who
can actually help you. There might have to be parents that you don’t speak to without an
administrator present. But don’t spread it all up and down the hall. Keep your conversation
short and to the point when you talk about these problems; don’t make it a big, old, long
dramatic thing. Work at keeping the emotion out of it.
Complaining about a parent ultimately makes you feel worse.
“I bet we can work this out.”
 Mistake 55 - “My principal is so incompetent.”

It is true that administrators can forget just how much work teachers do and that they
can pile the duties on without consideration.
That having been said, don’t complain about them. You will always feel worse when you
dish on the administrator.
If you have an issue with the administrator, go to them let them know how difficult
things are. Just let them know matter fact: “Here’s what I am dealing with.”
Ask for their help. Treat them like a team member. Not the enemy. As I said before,
administrators are people too. They need love. They need people to listen to them. They
need ideas. And they need you to do your job.
The more you figure out how to help the administrator, the better things will be. A great
teacher, Mike Davies, said this to me years ago, “It is my job to make the principal look
good.”
And I agree with him. That’s not the totality of the job. But the better I make my
administrator look, the better they are going to make me look. The better they will treat
me. Treat your administrators with kindness and respect at all times. Don’t talk behind her
back. Don’t talk behind anybody’s back.
When we talk bad about a principal, we make it hard on the other teachers.
But especially, I think sometimes we think it’s okay with administrators. It is not.
“I’m not going to complain about my principal.”
 Mistake 56 - “Thank you?”

Another issue with administrators is this: it is important to thank them when they do
nice things. Every administrator I have ever had has done nice things for teachers.
Sometimes they have done things that were nice personally, and sometimes they do
things that are nice for everybody. For instance, when you get served a meal at school, and
you know the administrators arranged it be thankful.
When you are given an extra duty assignment that pays you extra, thank them. When
they listen to you about anything, say thanks. That’s just the way we should handle all kinds
of people. But teachers sometimes think of administrators as if they are robots or
something. We need to treat them well.
A good administrator is going do a good job whether we do these things or not. That is
true.
But we still need to do what is best as a human being. Thank people for doing good
work. That includes the principal and all of your administrators.
One year, I was working very hard with difficult students. I was directing a play which
came with a stipend. The stipend never comes close to covering the work you do. My
principal gave me an easy way to earn some extra duty pay. When I went to her and
thanked her, she was very appreciative. She painfully told me that it was very unusual to
get thanked. Teachers just saw the extra duty as getting what was coming to them.
I thanked her. She thanked me. And we both felt good. Some stress shifted off my
shoulders right then and there.
And the thank yous need to go beyond our administrators. I buy a box of thank you
cards that I keep at my desk. The goal is to go through them and have to buy a new box by
the end of the year.
There are always people in this job who have gone out of their way to help. They make
things so much more pleasant. Students, parents, teachers, and administrators have all
gone out of their way to help me. You will enjoy the same treatment, especially if you add
value to their lives. When they are good to you, write a thank you.
“I’m going to think about how I can say thank you.”
 Mistake 57 - “That teacher is so hard to work with.”

I’m not going to lie. This is easy to fall into; all of these complaining mistakes are. We
are frustrated and we feel like another person is making things harder than they need to
be.
Sometimes the people that make things the hardest in a building are other teachers.
And I’m gonna say this: when they make your life hard, don’t complain about it.
Here are some steps to handle this.
1) Figure out how you can help relieve their stress. They are being a problem because
they are stressed out. They might just need to feel like someone cares enough to care.
Sometimes all they need is for you to pop your head in and offer a little help on this or
that. You might know exactly the kind of help that would be helpful to them. “Hey, can I go
make a photocopy for you.” or “I’m going down to the mailbox; may I drop something off?”
or “Would you like me to talk to that student for you.” Often these kinds of things don’t
even take that much time for you, but are especially helpful.
2) Listen to the troubled teacher. Many difficulties come because people feel like they
have troubles that others don’t understand. Give them a chance to talk it out. Be a friend.
3) Sometimes, tell them how they are making things difficult. This is hard, but it can
really work, and it’s way better than talking about them behind their back. They may not be
aware that they are causing any kind of problem. I have had teachers tell me kindly that I
am creating a problem. I know, hard to believe, right? Slightly embarrassing, but something
I can deal with and fix.
4) When you have tried talking to them and are still having a difficult issue that needs
attention, tell an administrator.
“I’m going to encourage other teachers.”
 Mistake 58 - “I don’t want to be here.”

It is a job requirement for a teacher to be enthusiastic. Unfortunately, it’s so easy for

teachers to go blah. It’s also easy for us to be grouchy. We need to put effort into being
enthusiastic.
This is why getting enough sleep and drinking water are important. If you don’t take
care of the platform that you work from which is your body, you will have a hard time
being enthusiastic.
If you are enthusiastic, students will get interested in what you’re teaching. If you tell
enthusiastic stories they will get engaged. If you look like you’re excited about what you’re
doing on a particular day even though you just did this lesson three times in a row and it’s
1:45 in the afternoon, students are going to get engaged.
But if you aren’t enthusiastic, students will drag their feet too. You have a duty to be
enthusiastic with period six just like you were for period one.
Your enthusiasm is the key to late-in-the-day student engagement. Let me be clear
about this: what you are doing in class is important. What you are teaching is critical.
Teaching how to write, how to read, how to compute, how to think, how to hold a
conversation: these are some of the most important things they will ever learn. Don’t forget
that. That will help you get enthusiastic.
If you find that you are losing your enthusiasm, here’s how you can handle that: sit
down with paper and start writing out ways that you can keep your enthusiasm. It will be
different for you than it will be for other people.
Here are some ideas:
1. Remember your goals. You are here to help students and families fulfill their dreams.
That’s pretty cool. It’s hard though.
2. Write down all the good things that are happening.
3. Write down a list of friends that you can call.
4. Write down what you are doing well. Write down what you can improve.
5. Write down a list of quick exercises you can do to get your blood pumping again.
Don’t let the afternoon slump get you down.
There are always ways to get your enthusiasm up again.
I like a piece of dark chocolate late in the afternoon.
Lots of teachers keep inspirational quotes and sayings to help keep them be
enthusiastic. I like “You got this.”
Everybody’s enthusiasm level drops off. You just need to figure out how to get it back
up. And it’s not important that you stay high all day long. It’s just that you need to have an
attitude that communicates, “I like you. I’m glad you are here. You are in the right place.”
 It might be that you routinely start each class with a special greeting. Something
energetic with a big smile on your face.
And there will be days that you don’t feel like it. You know the old fake-it-till-you-make-
it idea. Even if you don’t feel enthusiastic, if you act enthusiastic, you will be perceived as
enthusiastic. If you act enthusiastic, you will in fact be enthusiastic.
People in all walks of life do this on a regular basis. Do you think the Broadway
performer likes night after night after night, 300 times a year, getting up there and pouring
that much energy onto that stage. No, but they are professional. And so they do it again and
again and again. They have mental routines that keep them energized. They know that
person who pays for a ticket in the 9th month of production deserves the same show
people enjoyed the first week.
Like actors, we are performers in this way.
Know this too: sometimes it is time to go. You may realize one day that you are not a
good fit for your school. Or you may need some other kind of change: grade level, subject,
administration, etc.
Even after you figure this out, be enthusiastic.
“I’ll act enthusiastic even when I don’t feel like it.”
 Mistake 59 - “If loud is good, louder is better.”

I’m going to thread a needle here. I have thought long and hard about how to say this.
Passion is so important in teaching that Dave Burgess makes it the first part of his
PIRATE acronym. P is for passion. He says in Teach Like a Pirate, “Teaching is a job filled
with frustrations, trials, and tests of your patience. Use your passion to soar over obstacles
instead of crashing into them and burning out.”
There are nuances to passion though. I want to tease out the definition.
The speaker, teacher, actor, counselor pays attention to the temperament of their
audience. I’m sure the discrete elements to an audience’s mood can be analyzed carefully
and listed, but it’s something I feel in my gut.
I pick up the signs that communicate if I’m getting through, upsetting, losing them. And I
respond accordingly.
Here’s what I’m getting at: passion is not about being loud.
As I was working through how to say this, I went to my personal learning network
(PLN) on Twitter.
My concern is that some educators get loud about things when they aren’t fully
connected to what they are saying. When this happens, they just seem loud and annoying.
Sometimes people are angry (and that’s not always inappropriate), but when people try
to hide their anger with a show of passion, they wear out their listeners.
Dave Burgess (@burgessdave) responded to my query about passion on Twitter like
this: “Passion does not have to be big and loud, and it can still burn deep.” And by the way,
his chapter on Passion in Teach Like a Pirate is a must read.
A communicator sometimes realizes that her listeners need a gentle push.
After talking about passionate teachers, Sandy Otto (@sandyrotto), founder of the
#stu2stuchat, said it like this: “None of the people I’m thinking of fuel their passion with
anger. Only a deep belief that their message and ideas are true and just.”
There is something that you earn by building trust with people that gives you the right
to get “heated.” Some educators are always so BIG that they get tuned out. Students quit
listening to teachers who overwhelm them with so-called passion.
My friend (and editor), Sonja Schulz (@sonjaschulz) said it like this, “The level of
passion you can bring to the class sometimes depends upon the class dynamics. You have
to be able to read the room — some classes do so much better with a very CALMING
teacher presence rather than the zany.”
That quiet energetic calm also requires passion.
 When you have won your students (and it doesn’t necessarily take that long), you have
more choices. When they know, like and trust you, they will listen to anything you say, any
way you say it. Just don’t betray that precious trust.
“I will listen to my students and respond accordingly.”
 Mistake 60 - “Nice cologne, but why did you swim in it.”

Don’t be sarcastic. Sarcasm is a weapon. And yes, it has its uses in life, but it cuts. So if
you are intending to cut somebody, use it. But really how often should you be wanting to
cut somebody with your words. Seldomly.
In fact, I am sure some of you are saying you never want to cut somebody with your
words.
Some people have the talent and wisdom to handle it. Like alcohol: some drink
responsibly, while others cause ruin with it.
Sarcasm has an addictive element to it. Some, once they get started, don’t know how to
hold back. And they hurt people. Then, they are sorry. But the words can’t get put back.
Sarcasm shouldn’t be a character trait that people know you for. And here’s the thing,
students catch the sarcasm. We think maybe we are talking over their heads or something
like that, but we are not, they catch on to it. If not the words, then the tone. I have seen that
over and over again. And it hurts feelings. Seriously, it’s designed to hurt people’s feelings.
So I’m not saying that in life you should never use sarcasm.
I am saying this: you are better off having a no-sarcasm rule in the classroom.
“I’m not going to cut students with my words.”
 Mistake 61 - “I’m never gonna get this.”

Are you prone to having a defeatist attitude when you get overwhelmed? You obviously
have a good measure of perseverance or you wouldn’t have graduated from college. You
have a deep well of “can do.”
We need to have an attitude that says. “I got this.”
I recommend writing, “I got this,” (or something similar) where you see it on a regular
basis. Say it to yourself.
The “can do,” “I got this,” attitude is infectious. This makes you a natural leader.
See, you are a leader. People are going to follow you one way or another. You are first of
all the leader in classes you teach. And the longer you teach, you will become a leader to
other adults too.
I didn’t forget what I said earlier about saying no. Just because you have got this
attitude, does not mean you have to say yes to everything. You do have to say no to
somethings.
You have to get some idea of how much you can accomplish. Then, go to it. If you get
overloaded, then your “I’ve got this,” will crumble. So protect your positive attitude by
saying yes to things where you can really say yes.
“I am going to handle this.”
 Mistake 62 - “I don’t need to read; I went to college.”

We are blessed to have well-written, inexpensive books about teaching. Have you ever
thought about this: an author will work for months to distill everything they know about a
topic into the most valuable nuggets of wisdom they have to offer? And you can buy it for a
few dollars! A good book on teaching can revolutionize a teacher’s career.
At the very least, I try to read one every summer. Many teachers read four or five.
Here are some that have been helpful to me over the last few years. In my humble
opinion, EVERY teacher can learn from reading these gems.
The first one is Tools for Teaching by Fred Jones. I first read it about five or six years ago
in the middle year, and it changed my teaching.
Fred Jone's book on classroom management was a step above all the other classroom
management materials I had been exposed to before. I think it’s because he spent hundreds
of hours watching teachers to figure out what worked.
His ideas about how to place the desks in the classroom, how to deal with the helpless
hand raisers, and how to write lessons step-by-step on the board to help students, and how
to reward classes for cooperation, were all revolutionary to me. Read it.
Read Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov. It is a list of best practices for the
classroom. Follow his inventory and go from mediocre to being highly effective. Read it
through, and then, pull it out on a regular basis to brush up. It’s basic. But everyone needs
to go back to the basics from time to time.
My favorite book that I read in a long time about teaching is Teach Like a Pirate by Dave
Burgess. If you can’t tell already, I love this book. Dave puts the fun back into teaching so
that students can learn.
I think the reason the book is timely is because teachers feel overburdened by state-
mandated testing. And Dave Burgess shows us how we can get back to doing what we do
best which is igniting the desire to learn in students.
One of things that I love about Dave Burgess is that he is highly accessible on Twitter.
He and his wife Shelley (@burgess_shelley) both host and get involved in a number of chats
throughout the week. I have enjoyed their presence and input on these chats. Currently,
you can find them both regularly on many nights on Twitter chats but most prominently on
the #TLAP chat on Monday nights. They are very active on many other chats besides.
 Closing

Teaching involves managing stress.

I’ve seen men and women walk away from the job, not realizing that they were adding
to their own stress. After years of hard work, they go.
Part of my mission in life is to help people hang in there.
New teachers, even those who are coming from a second career into teaching can be
prone to this. If you think of this as a lazy person’s way to make a living, you will crash like
an airplane with engine trouble.
But if you remember that this profession is a series of interlocking pieces that can be
handled, you will likely do well. When you make a mistake, own it and learn from it.
Be open to learning. After all, this is exactly what you want from your students. It seems
ridiculous to be a teacher who doesn’t think they have something to learn.
I would like to connect with you.
Here’s how:
Email: stressrelief4teachers@gmail.com
Twitter: @artFling
Facebook: stressrelief4teachers

To download the free 40 brainbreaks pdf – bit.ly/40brainbreaks

If you need me to come speak at your event, to encourage your teachers and
administrators, contact me at artslieberman@gmail.com. You and your staff don’t need to
be miserable.
 Acknowledgements

Thanks to my wife, my biggest fan and supporter. Thanks to my children Marshall,

Douglass, Buddy, Wyatt, Russell, Nathan, and Hannah who have patiently listened to me
talk about this for hours. Thanks to my son-in-law, Caleb, for being Caleb. And thanks to my
new daughter-in-law, Elayna, for adding light and beauty to our family.
Thanks to my grandchildren Esther, Gabriel, Tali, and Zach for being delightful.
Thanks to the students and staffs of Bell High School in Bell, California, Hamilton
Elementary, Middle School, and High School in Anza, California and Mike Moses Middle
School in Nacogdoches, Texas. Without you, I never would have learned any of this.
Thanks to my neighbors who listened to me talk about these ideas more than they
probably wanted.
Thanks to the blog readers of stressrelief4teachers.net who help me learn how to write
better.
Thanks to the Twitter education chats #TLAP and #Satchatwc. You’ll never know how
many times you picked me up.
Thanks to Sonja Schulz who encouraged me to write a blog and gave me feedback. And
who edited this work.