The Field Notes

Thirty-five years of classroom observations, in writing.

Weekly essays on building self-directed learners — the habits, the mindset shifts, the parent-side moves that actually work.

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April 17, 2026

Discover. Build. Engineer. Why every neurodivergent kid I've taught needed the same three-step framework — regardless of diagnosis.

April 10, 2026

The Individualized Education Plan is a legal instrument, not a learning system. Here's the parent-home counterpart that actually moves the needle.

April 3, 2026

ADHD and routine feel like opposites. They aren't. The trick is building routines that use the ADHD brain instead of fighting it.

March 27, 2026

He couldn't read at 11. At 28 he signs off bridge designs. The path between those two facts is a system — not a miracle.

March 20, 2026

Parents hear the phrase and picture a 10-year-old scheduling their own homework. That's not it. Here's what it actually looks like.

March 13, 2026

The valedictorians I've taught weren't the ones who didn't fail. They were the ones who learned to treat failure like data.

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