Don't Change for the Sake of Change. Change to Excel.

Older adults see the world through a different lens than young people. Our first job is to create relationships and communicate effectively. 

Teaching more effectively changes outcomes. 

From Slideshare.net "Better training, better teachers."

Poverty correlates with student achievement, but it's not that simple. How do some schools overcome intrinsic disadvantages? 

Lemov et al. identify making a difference from culture, modeling, persistence (from Slideshare.net)

Many dimensions change practice outcomes, such as where we set expectations, how we allocate practice time, how well we know and TEACH our subject, our ability to analyze results and give feedback. 

This brief summary of Lemov et. al "Practice Perfect" condenses their findings into user-friendly techniques to enhance practice. They frequently reference sports analogies, probably because sports provide so many examples of highly competitive, disciplined teachers (coaches). For example, "In the documentary, The Heart of the Game, coach Bill Resler illustrates the importance of using data to improve the performance of the Roosevelt High School girls’ basketball team. He watched videotapes late into the night to analyze exactly which skills both individuals and the team needed to practice."

Use intelligent "performance-focused" feedback to change behaviors. When we've given regular feedback (to older middle schoolers) about turnovers and shot quality, we've seen reductions in turnovers and gains in shooting percentage. 

Recognize that 'the times they are a changing.' The San Francisco 49ers recognized the shorter attention span among contemporary players and adapted practice time (shorter intervals) to accomplish more with fewer distractions. "The coaches are changing to better work with the millennials, even if that means allowing some necessary evils (e.g. smartphones between meetings). 

By becoming more focused yet flexible, we can improve our teaching and results.