If you're an educator and you're heading back to some form of school — whether remote, live, or combo platter — you may have only micro-seconds to offer to social media today. And at the risk of coming across like the friend who wants one of your fries as soon as you set your plate down, I'm going to ask to borrow one so I can ask you a quick survey question — but it'll be fun, I promise!

Our third entry in my homeschooling series has to do with both reading and gratitude. A few days ago my daughter and I sent the following message to an author we've recently discovered.

Here's the second installment of my new series, Home Schooling: Assist and Persist. So, after we warmed up by reading some jokes from one of our joke books — dog-ear this practice for a post coming soon — I asked my kid what rules should our school have. Her look was priceless.

Dear fellow educators: Wow. Yesterday, along with millions of families around the country, we started our pandemic homeschooling. So I thought I'd share some of our ideas and experiences here.

Need something uplifting in your day? Take three minutes and watch these two amazing women talk about the work they do helping teen moms go to college and complete their degrees so they can keep moving forward in their lives. I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the 4th Annual South Texas Early College Conference (STECC) in South Padre Island, organized by the Region One Education Service Center in Texas …

Skipping and twirling, Norway, and my Dad — that's what I'd like to talk about today. Don't worry, they fit together by the end. But here's how it starts: I told my ten-year-old daughter that she had to pick a team sport to join.

I start out by saying, "I wish I'd been taught in school the way Special Educators approach their work every day. And not just in kindergarten or third grade — I wish I'd been taught that way in college, too." I'm talking about the way Special Educators take on so many different roles: acting not just as instructors, but as mentors, mind-coaches, and multi-sensory mix-masters of engagement. And so much more. I'm delivering my keynote for a meeting of the New Hampshire Association of Special Education Administrators (NHASEA).

Cleveland does rock when it comes it comes to a number of things, especially nurturing entrepreneurship. I recently had the honor of giving the keynote at the 10-year celebration of the JumpStart Higher Ed Collaboration Council. What's that, you ask? Well, let me explain it like this. Imagine that you're in the business of teaching entrepreneurship to college students …

This past Sunday I did a keynote presentation for Scholastic at their national sales meeting here in Chicago. It was an exciting gig to do: Scholastic books were in every classroom even when I was a little kid decades ago (its roots go back to 1920), and Scholastic as an organization continues to be a central player in guiding our nation's schools toward increasing literacy of all kinds through publishing, book clubs, writing awards, you name it.

Judging by the sheer atmospheric density of the charcoal grill smoke here in Chicago, it's almost August. And that means I'm gearing up for my busiest time of year: Back-to-School season! This year i'm kicking things off with a tongue-twisting tour of tumbleweed-free towns in Texas …

I'm back home from an amazing couple of days at Leon County Schools in Florida last week, doing my thing as an education keynote speaker as well as two helpings of my "3 C's" improv breakout session. And first off, a huge thanks to Chelsea F. Johnson (@thechelseaf on Twitter) for sharing this fun video clip from my performance ...

I have a couple of stories to tell you about bullying and broken hearts, and the teachers who know how to mend them. But I'll start by saying bravo to Kindergarten teacher Shannon Grimm of Willis ISD in Texas, who adopted a new hairstyle in order to express solidarity with one of her students — a little girl whose cute 'do and bows had drawn teasing and bullying from her peers. 

The story of one educator’s inspired strategy for keeping his classroom calm, and what Dykstra’s Law can teach us about student-teacher relationships and the value of eccentricity.

Shouldn’t all learning be an experience? College of DuPage professor Marco Benassi doesn't just think this is true — he knows it, thanks to his decades of fearless teaching experience as well as a pivotal early encounter with a remarkable teacher. I’m proud to say that Marco is not only an award-winning teacher but also my friend.

You probably don't know this, but it's Gap-Filler Appreciation Day. No, don't panic — no cards or flowers required. Just a quick story from my "Back to School" tour last month. As I've mentioned before, I always look forward to going on a whirlwind tour of school districts around the country when August rolls around, meeting with teachers and administrators to help them get fired up for the new school year.

This is the story of the special educator who made me one of her special projects. God bless Ms. O'Brien, she’s no longer with us — but her big laugh, huge heart, and bouncy soul still tinkers away in the thousands of former students she taught, listened to, and laughed with.