David McAdams' Learnings, First Semester 2006

• It is better and easier to start with tighter discipline then loosen up than start with looser discipline, then tighten up.
• Using student names is essential to the social processes of the classroom.
• While sophomores like to be cooperative, their ability to build stable social structures (meaning a well run classroom) is limited.
• Students don't always know what they want.
• Once a student has given up, it is difficult to get them to reengage.
• Lockstep (every student doing the same thing at the same time) is the single greatest drag on the education of our youth.
• Grades are best used as an incentive, not as a description of student learnings.
• Students really want to have clear direction as to expectations and due dates.
• Students will initially resist pedagogical techniques that they are not familiar with, but will adopt them when they see that they work.
• All students want to succeed. However, their concepts of what constitutes success may vary greatly from the teacher's concept.
• Many students see fooling the teacher as a way to test their social strength against a standard.
• Informing the student that help is available after school rarely results in the student coming in.

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