Chris Weber

Chris Weber is the principal of Oak Creek Elementary School in Irvine Unified School District, California. He earned his EdD from the University of California, Los Angeles, and has written books on Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), Response to Intervention (RTI), behavior, and mathematics that have supported well over half a million educators.

View full profile

Skills: Problem solving, critical thinking, literacy, creativity, accountability, productivity, social, communication

1Comment tail

Skills Are as Important as (and May Be More Important than) Content

Categories: 21st Century Skills, Instruction

Teachers have been teaching what they’ve been asked to teach; the curriculum commonly taught, and that we expect students to learn, in classrooms today—for better or worse—reflects the standards in place up until 2010.

However, the policy documents, frameworks, and standards in place since 2010 are qualitatively distinct—and this is a very good thing. Depth and skills are increasingly emphasized and encouraged to be taught and learned. Read more

Motivating students

Motivation Is a Symptom, Not a Cause

Categories: Instruction

Based on Behavior: The Forgotten Curriculum

We want students to care, to be engaged, to be self-motivated, to have intrinsic motivation. Let’s allow them to be engaged and motivated.

Consider this quote from Carol Dweck, Gregory Walton, and Geoffrey Cohen: “When noncognitive factors are in place, students will look—and be—motivated. In fact, these noncognitive factors constitute what psychological researchers call motivation, and fostering these mindsets and self-regulation strategies is what psychological researchers typically mean by motivating students.” Read more