School of Practice

It started with a student writing a joke on a sticky note: “I hope we have no tests this year.” 

Five years later, high school teacher Jodie Deinhammer’s science classroom remains test-free—and her students are still learning and retaining the content at a fast clip. 

In this episode, host Kristin Leong talks with Jodie about why and how she replaced high-stakes testing with projects, labs, open-note checks, and daily formative assessments. She’ll offer advice on handling this major shift with parents, and explain why she listens closely to her students’  feedback. Plus, she’s got deeply vetted takeaways for teachers who are ready to rethink their approach to grading—while keeping rigor high and stress low.

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A Year of No Tests

Will Students Engage if there are No Grades? A Review of the Evidence

The Proven Benefits of Grading Less

The Evidence-Backed Grader

Do No Harm: Flexible and Smart Grading Practices

Why Teachers Should Grade Less Frequently

When  Grading Harms Student Learning

Have you ever had a lesson get derailed by a power struggle with a student? Or is there a student in your class who you got off on the wrong foot with, and you’re not sure of the best way to repair the relationship?

In this episode of School of Practice, ELA teacher Tyler Rablin shares some of his favorite classroom management strategies—and they’re ones that you probably didn’t learn in teacher prep. From a simple change involving a squat, to three magic words that aren’t the ones you’d expect, Tyler breaks down how to shift a chaotic classroom to a calm one. And the good news? These strategies work across grade levels and subjects. And you can start using them tomorrow—no extensive prep or fancy incentives required.

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11 Classroom Management Tweaks You Don’t Learn in Teacher Prep

How Novice and Expert Teachers Approach Classroom Management Differently

7 Classroom Management Mistakes—and the Research on How to Fix Them

Video: 4 Subtle Shifts for Better Classroom Management

Research: Cultivating Positive Teacher–Student Relationships: Preliminary Evaluation of the Establish–Maintain–Restore (EMR) Method

Research: Foundations for Proactive & Respectful Practice in Elementary Classrooms

Literature Review: I’ve Got the Power: The Effects of Physical Positioning in the K-12 Classroom on Power Dynamics

Did you know that drawing can be a learning superpower—even for students who claim they’re not good at it? 

Research shows that when kids attentively sketch something they’re learning about, they tap into the visual, kinesthetic, and linguistic parts of their brains. This generates rich connections across the brain’s neural network and encodes learning more deeply compared to passive learning tasks like reading or listening to a lecture. 

We revisit our 2025 conversation with science educator Selim Tlili to uncover how drawing to learn works across grade levels and subjects. Plus, he’s got special tips for engaging even the most reluctant sketch artists.

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How Sketching Supports Learning in Science 

Using Drawing as a Powerful Learning Tool 

The Science of Drawing and Memory 

Research: The Surprisingly Powerful Influence of Drawing on Memory 

5 Popular Education Beliefs That Aren’t Backed by Research 

Sketching for Science

Everyone makes mistakes—including teachers.

While educators are quick to reframe student mistakes through a growth mindset lens, they’re less forgiving when it comes to their own slipups. But teacher errors often follow familiar patterns and can be a source of exceptional personal and professional growth.

In this episode of School of Practice, ELA teacher and instructional specialist Miriam Plotinsky digs into the most common teacher mistakes and identifies key strategies for quick, effective resets that get learning back on track. We’ll also hear from a few classroom teachers about their own missteps, and examine the research about how students benefit when teachers address their own mistakes head-on.

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6 Common Teacher Mistakes—And How To Avoid Them

Teachers’ Intellectual Humility Benefits Adolescents’ Interest and Learning

PEW: How K-12 Teachers Manage Their Workload

A Simple Way to Self-Monitor for Bias

5 Steps to Leveraging Background Knowledge in Lessons 

Using Formative Assessment to Measure Student Progress

How to Engage Students the Moment They Enter the Classroom

29 High-Impact Formative Assessment Strategies

How to Avoid Rushing—a Pitfall for Even the Most Experienced Teachers

Like a lot of other educators, Nicholas Ferroni is trying to find his way back to a time before technology was the default classroom mode. He thinks he was a better teacher back then—and kids acted more like kids.

Last year, Nick published a viral Instagram post in which he pledged to go back to basics in his teaching, back to “more paper, more writing, more eye contact, more conversations.” In this episode, Nick tells us how he turned the clock back, what he thinks his students have gained from less tech time, and why he’s not giving up on classroom tech completely.

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Should Laptops Really Go the Way of Cell Phones?

Tech-Free January

What Happened When Our School Went Tech-Free for the Day?

7 Tech Routines for Balanced Usage