It’s reference season. Job applications, grad school applications, scholarship applications… they all ask us to find someone respectable to vouch for us. I don’t know if I qualify as respectable, but I do receive a lot of requests for letters of recommendations. What’s it take […]
Category: Intentional Teaching
The Best Day of Your Life
What if today were the best day of your life? Imagine if you could go to sleep tonight truly fulfilled – what would that look like? When I started the daily practice of asking this question, my answers focused on what would happen. I’d wake […]
How to be better than almost everyone at almost anything
Did you know that people move through four distinct stages when learning a new skill? Martin Broadwell wrote about them in 1969 and educators have been using his framework ever since. Just knowing what these stages are (and where you’re at in the process) can […]
The Intentional Learner’s Manifesto
You’ve heard me talking about it for a while. Hints. Whispers. Random podcast episodes… What Is The Intentional Academy? A passion project, that is in it’s infancy. What do we stand for? What are we trying to accomplish? That we can answer with this,
The Myth About Changing Majors Too Many Times
I entered college directly after high school. Like everyone else, I was told to pick a major. Looking back, I can’t imagine how I handled the pressure of deciding the rest of my life at 18. Traditional I’ve come to resent the term “traditional student.” […]
What Training 44 People Taught Me About Interns and New Hires
This is the fourth in a series of posts about my most recent educational experiment. The quickest way to get the full story is to go read the other three posts, which also have the number ‘44’ in their titles. Application submitted. Interview complete. Offer […]
Getting Comfortable with Getting Uncomfortable
There is a creature living in your head. It’s called your amygdala, also known as the “Lizard Brain.” This little monster sits at the top of your spine intercepting and filtering all of the messages that your higher mind is trying to send your body. […]
What Running a Team of 44 People Taught Me About Leadership
This is the third in a series of posts about my most recent educational experiment. The quickest way to get the full story is to go read the other two posts, which also have the number ‘44’ in their titles. Running a group of 44 […]
Last Friday I had to Fire 44 People
For the past year, I’ve been teaching an experimental freshmen course. When I say “experimental,” I mean it in every way: the subject matter, delivery methods, and course structure. One of the big goals was developing a course that is better because it is large, […]
What Does This Make Possible?
There are few guarantees in life, but this is one of them: sometimes things won’t go the way you want them to. Maybe you’ll have trouble finding a job, or a disagreement with your boss, or get laid off, or… things go “wrong.” But is […]