If the same problem keeps coming back, you're likely pulling weeds and leaving the root. Try a Root Dig. List every possible cause, then ask why five times down the likeliest one. Keep asking, how do we know? Evidence keeps it honest and keeps it from turning into blame.

Tennessee Firefly reported this week that 103 of 144 comparable Tennessee school districts lost students over the past ten years, while a few fast growing Middle Tennessee districts carried the state total. That hits close to home. A few fewer kids per grade doesn't take away a bus route, a building, or the need for a good teacher. Rural schools have to run what they have mighty well, and I reckon most of them do.

When I walk into a classroom, I'm not hunting for a perfect lesson. I'm looking for two things. Did students pull something out of memory today? And did the teacher check who has it before turning them loose to work alone? Those two habits do more for learning than any fancy slide deck. Look for them this week, and say thank you when you see them.

R is Retrieve. Open with a few questions pulled from memory, including one throwback from an older unit. O is Orient. Spark a little curiosity with a story or a source, and make the goal and what success looks like plain to see. (2/5)

Most schools I know don't have a lesson planning problem. They have a coherence problem. Every new initiative hands teachers another template, and kids feel the difference from one room to the next. Here's the six step structure I built from fourteen years teaching social studies. I call it ROOTED. (1/5)