Teaching Tip Number 19

I often hear "80% of life is showing up." I say 90% of success is organization.

If I have learned anything in 33 years of teaching, it's that students like structure. It even trumps a groovy personality. They like to know the teacher has a plan, works the plan, gets the papers graded, gets the grades up, doesn't lose papers, and doesn't forget what the assignments are or how they are set up. Students today have a very low tolerance for confusion. Since their own mental schema are so faulty, we can't afford to confuse them anymore.

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