Roxanna Elden's Blog, page 2

Three Tricks Teachers Can Use to be More Decisive

I consider myself a decisive person most of the time. Or, to use a pop psychology term, I’m a “satisficer.” Satisficers are willing to make a choice that seems good enough and move forward with few regrets. The alternative is being a “maximizer,” who puts tremendous thought and research into making the best decision possible.... Read more »

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One Possibly-Helpful-But-Not-At-All-Guaranteed Way to End a Power Struggle Pattern With a Student

Let’s say you have a student who pushes allllllll your buttons. The two of you have gotten into a series of power struggles throughout the year. Every time you are about to look at this kid, you feel your whole body getting ready to address the fact that he has not yet taken out a... Read more »

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Finding Your “Minimum Viable Product” as an Educator

Minimum Viable Product is a business term. It’s one of many entrepreneurial concepts I wish I’d learned as a teacher. What is a Minimum Viable Product? And why is it a useful concept for educators? Below, you’ll find the “short, simple definition of minimum viable product” I requested from ChatGPT. It might not be perfect but... Read more »

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Why Zebras Don’t Get Sunday-Night Teacher Stomach Cramps

I’m in the middle of reading Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. It’s a book about stress written by my behavioral-scientist crush, Robert Sapolsky. For a long time, I didn’t think I needed to read this book. It seemed like the main takeaway was obvious from the title itself: Zebras live only in the present moment.... Read more »

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Recognizing Sunk Costs in Teaching

One of the business concepts that felt like a huge revelation when I learned it was the idea of “sunk costs.”  When something has already cost us a lot of money, time, or effort, we’re reluctant to walk away from what we’ve put in. And so: we’re more likely to continue to spend money, time,... Read more »

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Teaching Students to Write a Good Email in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (and Revising Lesson Plans for AI)

My first How-to-Write an Email lesson plan from a place of grouchy tough love. A decade of teaching high school English overlapped with thousands of book-related pitch emails: Please read my work. Please help me sell my book to a publisher. Please let me come on your show or podcast and talk about my work.... Read more »

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A 3-Part Micro-Challenge for Educators Who are Nervous about A.I.

In all honesty, it took me a while to get here myself.  At the time I’m writing this—early April, 2023—I’ve spent about two months stockpiling articles and podcasts to help me learn more about A.I. These materials ranged from enthusiastic to to apocalyptic, from dismissive to practical. In fact, there was only one thing they all had... Read more »

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Maintaining (Or Regaining) Your Sense of Possibility

I taught freshman English for six years, six class periods each year.  In every one of those classes, we read Romeo and Juliet. After the steep learning curve of my early years, this was a relief. I was a pro now! I had lesson plans I could reuse with only minor changes. A couple of years... Read more »

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Making it Funny: The Art and Science of Humor Writing

This is an online version of one of the most popular classes I’ve taught, both as a high school teacher and as an author teaching creative writing. It’s for anyone interested in adding humor to their writing. Sign up below and you’ll get six weeks worth of humor-writing lessons, curated examples, and assignments meant to... Read more »

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“When the Macro Overwhelms, the Micro is Your Lifeboat.”

This line was a seemingly-tossed off comment on Marc Maron’s podcast. And yet, there are so many ways this applies to both life and teaching. Here are some loosely-linked thoughts, presented for your consideration. 1. In a recent session of Office Hours, the teacher I was speaking with described learning new skills as a form... Read more »

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