Crawfordia

Category: PIT

  • The PIT Stop – May 8, 2026

    The PIT Stop

    May 8, 2026

    By Aaron Crawford About The PIT Stop

    Each stop is quick, practical, and ready to use in your classroom right away.

    🧠 Adolescent Psychology

    The human brain doesn’t finish developing its ability to evaluate long-term effects until, on average, age 25. In addition to explaining why our students often do dumb things, their lack of foresight also helps explain why they often seem to think that the school year is over when there are still three weeks left.

    🧩 Instruction

    One method that may help to counter that “I’m done” mindset is to treat the last two real weeks like a sprint, not a crawl. It may help to name the timeline explicitly: “We have two weeks. That’s all! These are the things we still need to accomplish in that short time.”

    By labelling the time as “short” and listing what we need to do in a concise, defined list, we show students a clear endpoint. That endpoint helps them see a goal besides surviving, which in turn makes the time seem to go faster (for them – and therefore for you).

    📱 Technology

    With family in the summer or organizing your PLC group, sometimes you need to find the best day/time to meet. One way to simplify that process is with a website called Rallly (yes, with three Ls). Visit rallly.co and set up a poll to find the ideal time/day to meet. You set up a poll with suggested times and share a link. Everyone chooses the times that work, could work (but are inconvenient), or absolutely won’t work. You see the results on a single page.

  • The PIT Stop – April 27, 2026

    The PIT Stop

    April 27, 2026

    By Aaron Crawford About The PIT Stop

    Each stop is quick, practical, and ready to use in your classroom right away.

    🧠 Adolescent Psychology

    Adolescents constantly read adults for signs of authenticity. They’re always asking — consciously or subconsciously — “Does this person actually care about me?”

    All humans equate “I care about you” with time spent. Adolescents are no different, and they’ve learned to trust time spent — especially time spent voluntarily — as a sign that the adults in their lives care about them.

    🚶 Instruction

    I was telling a teacher this morning that if I could give one piece of advice to a new teacher, it would be this: Spend as little time in your chair as possible.

    It’s pretty typical for a teacher to teach and then turn the kids loose on an assignment. And that’s understandable, because the paperwork burden on teachers has never been higher (and sometimes you need to sit down and get it done, so no judgment for those moments). But every moment the teacher spends with a student builds the student/teacher relationship.

    It doesn’t have to be complicated. Circulate through, asking how the work is going. And how their weekend was. Stop and talk for a minute. Being there with the kids (especially when they know you don’t have to be) will show them you care.

    📋 Technology

    The best tools for circulating allow you to record what you see without sending you back to your desk. In my classroom, I started with a clipboard with a copy of my seating chart on it. That allowed me to make notes on what to follow up on later. Later, I often used an iPad to fill the same function (but with the added ability to access the internet). A digital pen (like a Logitech Crayon or Apple Pencil) makes an iPad much more useful.

  • The PIT Stop – April 16, 2026

    The PIT Stop

    April 16, 2026

    By Aaron Crawford About The PIT Stop

    Each stop is quick, practical, and ready to use in your classroom right away.

    🧠 Adolescent Psychology

    The brain doesn’t retrieve information like a search engine. When a student is asked a question, the brain has to locate, pull up, and organize what it knows. This process takes a few seconds.

    Unfortunately, most teachers wait less than one second before moving on. That means the majority of students never finish the retrieval process before the moment passes.

    The students who answer fastest aren’t always the ones who learned the most. They’re just the ones who got there first.

    Need a solution? Keep reading!

    🧩 Instruction

    After asking a question, wait at least 3 seconds before calling on anyone.

    It feels awkward at first. That awkwardness is mostly in the teacher’s brain, not the students’. That’s because that pause is where real thinking happens. Students who would never raise their hand first start participating when they know they have time.

    One way to make it easier: Tell students up front that you’re going to give them thinking time before taking answers. It removes the pressure to be first and makes the wait feel intentional rather than uncomfortable.

    🔒 Technology

    While testing, no technology is superior to a teacher’s eyes on a student’s screen. But some technologies certainly help.

    Check to see if your school has access to a “lockdown browser.” These excellent tools keep students on a single screen – so they can’t navigate away to look for answers.

  • The PIT Stop – March 20, 2026

    The PIT Stop

    March 20, 2026

    By Aaron Crawford About The PIT Stop

    Each stop is quick, practical, and ready to use in your classroom right away.

    🧠 Adolescent Psychology

    Adolescents are wired to measure themselves against peers. And as we all know, comparison is the thief of joy.

    Spring Break amplifies social comparison. When students are home, they have more unstructured time – time they spend measuring themselves against peers (a problem social media makes worse). The problem is that when students measure themselves against others, they either get overconfident or feel like they don’t measure up. Neither of these helps them grow.

    The good news is that you can redirect that instinct before break hits.

    🧩 Instruction

    Instead of comparing students to each other, help them compare themselves to who they were.

    A simple prompt before break shifts the lens from competition to personal growth. It can be as short as: “What’s one thing you can do now that you couldn’t do in September?”

    Make it subject-specific: a math teacher might ask about a skill or process; an English teacher might pull an early piece of writing and set it next to something recent.

    📱 Technology

    Give students 10 minutes in Canva to make a single slide — something they’ve gotten better at this term. Keep it personal, with no sharing to classmates required.

  • The PIT Stop – February 2, 2026

    The PIT Stop – February 2, 2026

    Psychology • Instruction • Technology

    By Aaron Crawford PIT About The PIT Stop

    Each stop is quick, practical, and ready to use in your classroom right away.

    Adolescent Psychology

    Early February is the “long middle” – not new, not finished. Motivation drops when progress feels invisible, so students need clear milestones (even small ones) to keep effort from feeling pointless.

    Instruction

    Reframe “practice” as visible skill accumulation. Keep practice focused on one micro-skill, then point out what improved compared to last time – “This is clearer because…”

    Technology

    Snorkl captures student thinking and gives near-instant AI feedback, making higher-DOK practice more manageable. Used consistently, it helps students see growth over time – and our district has the full version. snorkl.app

    Tip: tap the ⋯ menu in the deck to view fullscreen.

  • The PIT Stop – December 8, 2025

    The PIT Stop – December 8, 2025

    Psychology • Instruction • Technology

    By Aaron Crawford PIT About The PIT Stop

    A quick refuel for tired teachers: one idea from psychology, one instructional move, and one tech thought worth your time.

    Psychology

    Overstimulated brains struggle to filter what matters. Fidgeting, zoning out, and quick tempers are often signs of a system that has hit capacity.

    Instruction

    Reduce cognitive noise where you can. Fewer directions, cleaner slides, and predictable routines free up mental space for learning.

    Technology

    Classroom music can help some students focus and push others over the edge. Use it intentionally and be ready to turn it off.

  • The PIT Stop – November 24, 2025

    The PIT Stop – November 24, 2025

    Psychology • Instruction • Technology

    By Aaron Crawford PIT About The PIT Stop

    Each stop is quick, practical, and ready to use in your classroom right away.

    Adolescent Psychology

    Working memory is tiny. Give students too many steps at once and they can’t process them.

    Instruction

    Pick the one move that drives the whole task and have students practice ONLY that first.

    Technology

    Use Gemini as a thought partner to help identify the single step that matters most.

    Tip: tap the ⋯ menu in the deck to view fullscreen.

  • The PIT Stop – November 10, 2025

    The PIT Stop – November 10, 2025

    Psychology • Instruction • Technology

    By Aaron Crawford PIT About The PIT Stop

    Each stop is quick, practical, and ready to use in your classroom right away.

    Adolescent Psychology

    Students are constantly asking if their teachers care about them. See the core questions they ask – and a link to how to answer.

    Instruction

    The best teachers don’t simply state their expectations – they actively teach them.

    Technology

    How do you end a term in Canvas and start a fresh one?

    Tip: tap the ⋯ menu in the deck to view fullscreen.

  • The PIT Stop – October 20, 2025

    The PIT Stop – October 20, 2025

    Psychology • Instruction • Technology

    By Aaron Crawford PIT About The PIT Stop

    Each stop is quick, practical, and ready to use in your classroom right away.

    Adolescent Psychology

    Help students recognize imposter syndrome — and remind them that self-doubt often means they’re growing.

    Instruction

    Normalize mistakes — treat them as data, not disasters. Modeling this helps students see learning as iterative.

    Technology

    Create a SchoolAI space for “should-I-already-know-this?” questions to uncover missing prerequisite knowledge.

    Tip: tap the ⋯ menu in the deck to view fullscreen.

  • The PIT Stop – October 6, 2025

    The PIT Stop – October 6, 2025

    Psychology • Instruction • Technology

    By Aaron Crawford PIT About The PIT Stop

    Each stop is quick, practical, and ready to use in your classroom right away.

    Adolescent Psychology

    Allow students to make small choices.

    Instruction

    The importance of clear learning targets.

    Technology

    Manually add students to Canvas.

    Tip: tap the ⋯ menu in the deck to view fullscreen.