I’ve Moved
This will be my last post on this site. I have moved this content and all future content to a new site. Join me! http://www.ToddNovakedu.com Hope to see you there! All the best, [...]
Articles by toddnovak
A Cutting From Our Upcoming Book!
During the last year Matt Kiesow and I have been writing a book about our summer work. We hope to publish it this summer. Here is a cutting from the Philosophy section of the book including our [...]
Grades Don’t Matter! But Do These Five Things!
Victory is not found in a grade but in doing the little things over a long period of time. Doing five things every day is what 100 freshmen will experience this summer at Connections at Washington [...]
4 Things to Accomplish When Talking to Mom or Dad
Parents matter! Parents appreciate timely contact. Parents are almost always open to ideas to help their kids. Here are four things to accomplish during a parent contact that cut through teacher fear [...]
Teaching a Skill to 500 Freshmen: Getting from HERE to THERE
The most important skill freshmen need to know is how to get from HERE to THERE. That’s it. Movement. If a freshman has mastery of this skill, they can do almost anything. But movement requires [...]
Ramping up . . . Again
It’s spring. I read the paper this morning for the first time on my 3-season porch. Which means I’m thinking about fall. Which means I’m thinking about the class of 2021. Which [...]
Getting Past the Stink: Yes. Where. No. When.
Homework stinks for some of my freshmen. When not in the presence of a teacher, the smelly homework is kept at a distance only to be shouldered the next morning in route to school. I have spent years [...]
A Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich and Changing the World
I get six minutes to change the world. I host a lunch for freshmen four days a week in a classroom. Freshmen who have missing homework are “invited” to come to my classroom and pick up a [...]
What if it’s fear?
The student goes home and the backpack is left unzipped. Video games, Netflix, cell phones, and cable TV medicate and empower the student after a day of high school. Maybe after a day of failure. The [...]
Ready?
We hear it all the time: Ready, Set, Go! Ready means there is a level of preparedness for what is to come. Parents ask, “Are you ready to go?” as they head to the car to run an errand or [...]
The Freshman Academy 