I’ve heard of this illusive educator for a while now. He is the co-author along with my former colleague and friend, Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt of the above pictured book and the husband of my former colleague and friend, Sarah Mackenzie. I’ve heard about him for years, but have never had the chance to actually hear him speak.
Full disclosure, due to the time of his zoom presentation, I was walking my dog and listening to him speak at the same time. Distracting, you ask? No, he was so engaging he kept my full attention. In fact, I was annoyed when I had to disengage to deal with my dog stealing another dog’s toy ball.
Take Aways
I did take notes on my phone while I walked and here are some of my big takeaways.
- When asked what is the most important goal for my students, right away the words, “somewhere they look forward to going” came to mind. They don’t have to love the work, but I want them to feel safe, accepted and seen. Ultimately, some kids will remember what I teach them and some won’t, but they will all remember how I made them feel.
- Trevor askes himself about 30 x a day: “am I doing something for my students they could be doing for themselves?” I love this as I can be guilty of doing things for others to expedite the process rather than allowing them the time and the chance to develop the skills to work through the problem/question/challenge. I’m not saying don’t support them, just don’t complete it for them.
- School has negotiables and non-negotiables – figure out what yours are!
- Student agency was another term that was discussed a lot. It is about having the student make responsible decisions and choices rather than accepting those determined by others. Student agency can be designed between student and teacher.
- Trevor has three published books:
