Alex Herr

“I don’t really like the way you teach.” I’ve come to expect and accept this. On some level, I actually embrace it. I work very hard to create an experience where kids own their learning, and it is music to my ears when they speak their truths about their learning, which must also include my teaching. My approach is by design far different from the way they’ve experienced school for the last 12 years (I have seniors), and for some it is too different. I get that. I accept that. I embrace that… …as an opportunity to share the responsibility of finding a better match between their learning and my teaching. If I am asking them to own their learning, then I must own my teaching, which is where we discover our work, our shared responsibility. We can do better. #Project180

New late work policy inspired by political advertising. Until you turn your assignment in, I will have automated phone calls and texts spam your phone ceaselessly until you hand it in reminding you that the future rests on your shoulders.

In order for students to feel safe enough to engage in Productive Struggle, they need to feel like productive math students. Here is a thread of resources that I find helpful, inspiring & hopeful❤️‍🩹👇 #CorwinTalks

My favorite slide from one of my favorite talks at @NCTM. One of the biggest challenges facing math teachers (whether they know it or not!) is turning wrong answers into learning. Behold! The Super Wrong, Kinda Right continuum. /by @ottensam #slide=id.g2f035a12fef_0_25" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">docs.google.com/presentation/d…

Me, a teacher, 100% confident I have 35 students in one class: "I'm going to make 37 copies of this test just in case."

Happy to be in Chicago and ready to learn! Consider joining me at 9:30am on Thursday to rethink status quo grading practices in the math classroom. #NCTM #NCTMCHI24

Seems a better path to provide kids w/experiences of speaking with peers than to peers. Most will never “stand at the podium” in life. More likely (and ultimately better) they’ll “sit at the table.” Let this be public speaking. “With” not “to.” Conversation>Presentation

My parent letter for this year, using my “What-I-want-you-to-know”frame. Frames matter. #Project180

Students around the country are about to get A's instead of B's, B's instead of C's, or C's instead of D's this yr because they don't have a phone in their pocket. They will also have a much less stressful year, and more positive relationships. And they'll never know why.

Teach your children early what you learned late.

@heymrsbond This book was a game changer for me last summer. I hope you benefit from it just as much! Worth noting - you're doing a wonderful job in the comments explaining how the book encourages building a positive relationship with a phone as opposed to suggesting a hard breakup only.

Professional learning has become my new research/thinking obsession. Here’s the system that I would propose for any school looking to make professional learning more cohesive, more choice-driven, and more honoring of teachers as professionals. edutopia.org/article/teache…

This is the dream! Love seeing stories like this. Nice work, @StacieOliver100

One of my favorite writing prompts I used to use in social studies was "Create a utopia. Now explain how that utopia became a dystopia." I think about this often in education as well. I think it's a valid exercise to ask, "What are my core values and beliefs about teaching and learning?" Then ask, "What does it look like if it's taken to an extreme?" For example, I believe that self-efficacy is vital for student learning. However, the research has shown that there is a shadow side to high self-efficacy. It can lead to small mental errors, to overconfidence, and to stagnation in innovation. I believe learning should be engaging. But the shadow side is that if we try to make everything fully engaging, we fail to teach students that sometimes learning is boring (and that's okay). I often write about the need for PBL. I know the research about how it improves student outcomes while also leading to vital SEL skills. And yet . . . the dark side is that if we do PBL all the time, we fail to grasp that there are some standards that don't fit with project-based learning. Sometimes kids need to do phonics and blending or two-step equations and that simply doesn't fit with PBL. I believe in helping students become self-directed learners. But also . . . I want them to learn to ask for help. I want them to show intellectual humility. I want them to engage in the unselfish element of saying, "I don't find this relevant right now but I'm keeping an open mind about it." When we ask, "How does this utopia become a dystopia?" we open ourselves up to important guardrails. We discover the nuance that keep us from becoming overly idealistic. We learn to test our core convictions and we land in a space that is ultimately more paradoxical, empathetic, and intellectually humble.

Again, much of the conflict about math pedagogy is a disagreement about: a) whether math is a set of secret codes or something accessible on a concrete, sensory level. b) whether students have valuable knowledge to build on or not. This all gets easier if you get that.

If you work in education, please follow @MonteSyrie and learn about his simple, hard, and important work in the classroom. I am so thankful for all you have shared and all you continue to share, Monte.

“Sometimes, I imagine teachers are trees… …To all my friends in the forest, I am honored to grow among you.” #TeacherAppreciateWeek