This week's episode is all about "game changers" that have helped me find success in the classroom and in education. From instructional and assessment strategies to time-management, classroom strategies, and more, these are things that can help you become more effective. My hope is that you can better identify what has worked well for you, use any of the "game changers" that have impacted my classroom, and make an even bigger difference for those you serve.

It is absolutely impossible for a teacher to adequately meet all of the mental health and socioemotional health needs of our students - nor should we try. In a world and society that's "all about me" and relative ethics, we have to focus on developing a classroom that is all about driving academic content and building relationships. We can't allow the fires of the world to flood our classrooms. While they certainly impact our classrooms because learning environments should reflect real life, effective teachers know that we have to focus on why we were hired in the first place.

Enrichment is far more effective than edutainment. As students reach high school, they search for more "meaning" in lessons than "fun" alone. Enrichment is the key to both engaging students and establishing that meaning. For effective teachers, striving to make every class "fun" is a secondary concern to building lesson plans that allow students to explore and connect with the lesson themselves. Plus, making every class fun is a daunting task, especially for the teenaged brain.