7 Ways Reflection Gives Students Ownership of their Learning

This blog series was authored by our own A.J. Juliani, Head of Learning & Growth.

In his book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg describes keystone habits as, “small changes or habits that people introduce into their routines that unintentionally carry over into other aspects of their lives.” Reflection has been one habit that has transformed my life as a teacher, leader, author, and dad.

My day is probably like most of yours. I wake up, drink some coffee, read, write, attempt to work out, get dressed, give the kids and wife a kiss goodbye, head off to work and grab something to eat.

I then spend hours at work in meetings, talking with people, creating, managing, teaching, learning, and eventually get to head home where I’ll play with my kids, go to events, sports practices/games, activities, sometimes out to eat (or a rate date), help put my kids to bed, and then get to spend an hour or two hanging out with my wife thankful the house is quiet for the moment.

Student lives look very similar to adult lives, except they rarely have any choice in what they do. Students are consistently shuttled from one class to another, one spot to another, one event to another. When the day is over, have they even had a minute to think about how each class or event went?

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Why Stickers, Pizza Parties, and Tickets Didn’t Work in My Classroom

This blog series was authored by our own A.J. Juliani, Head of Learning & Growth.

Why Stickers, Pizza Parties, and Tickets Didn’t Work in My Classroom

It was towards the middle of my first year teaching (8th grade) when it hit me: My class was spinning out of control, and it was all my fault.

I was an eager first-year teacher, with an awesome mentor who taught Language Arts with me on the same middle school team. My students were busy writing papers, doing cool projects that we came up with, and reading in literature circles. I was also lucky to have a lot of technology in the classroom early in my career. It was a really good spot to start teaching, and I was messing it all up.

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