Do I Have Your Attention?

October 2016. That’s when I started this blog and posted for the first time. Almost 8 years later and almost 1 million blog hits later, I’ve got a book being published. It still feels surreal to see where reading research and writing about its implications in my classroom has taken me. I’ve worked with some big time education corporations and have even worked with the U. S. Department of Education. I’ve written for the American Psychological Association several, Education Week, Edutopia, National Education Association, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and many more. I’ve also been featured in numerous books and have endorsed many more.

Beyond the accolades (and more importantly), I feel like I’m a more efficient and effective teacher. I also have a more critical eye for professional development and understand what is beneficial for my students’ learning.

All of this led to being asked by Brad Busch and Innerdrive to be a part of their Teacher CPD Book Series with Routledge Publishing. And let me tell you, it’s been a dream. When I’ve needed guidance, they’ve provided it. When I’ve needed motivation, they’ve provided it. I am absolutely honored to be included with the other remarkable authors in this series.

So, about the book: Do I Have Your Attention? Understanding Memory Constraints and Maximizing Learning is a work I am very proud of. Part I includes research and evidence explaining what we know about how humans learn and memory processing…information that is vital to a teacher doing their job effectively. As Sweller, Ayers, and Kalyuga stated in their book, “Without knowledge of human cognitive processes, instructional design is blind.” Part I very clearly explains these processes as we understand them (with a particular focus on learner attention) and discusses how this impacts the learning environment, instruction, and learning. Part II takes a closer look at learning strategies that have been researched for over a century with students aged 5 to 75 and across differing learner abilities; including how stress/anxiety and collaborative grouping impact these strategies effectiveness. Along the way, I offer up many different ways I use these strategies in my classroom (I’m currently in year 19 of teaching full-time.) and discuss how they can be easily modified to suit different learners.

This book is just perfect for a teacher looking to do some easy reading to improve their craft and/or for a book study across an entire school. I wrote with a particular audience and focus: to provide teachers with perhaps a different lens for viewing the classroom and instruction and to help teachers be better at what they do.

Last week my book became available for preorder and, to my surprise, quickly soared to the top of a few best seller lists on Amazon:

#1 new release in educational psychology

#1 best seller in secondary education

Here’s a link on Amazon US and Amazon UK.

I sincerely appreciate all who’ve read my writings across the years. It means the world to me that we’ve been able to learn and grow in this profession together. Another thank you to those who are inspired to share this blog post and/or share the links to my book with all of their teacher friends…and an extra special thank you to all who preorder for themselves or their faculty. : )