Doug Lemov's field notes

Reflections on teaching, literacy, coaching, and practice.

01.05.16 Najee Carter: Systems, Routines & the Art of Positivity

Happy New Year from TLaC Towers! Just before the holidays we watched a clip of Najee Carter at North Star Alexander Street Elementary School. It left us feeling downright warm, fuzzy and full of holiday joy- not something one necessarily expects from a Systems and Routines clip! As a capstone to this season of giving, TLaC…


01.04.16 Start the New Year with a Systems Upgrade (w Video of Caitlin Reilly’s Class)

Coming back from Winter Break can be tricky.  Everyone’s been away from their routines for two weeks.  Maybe they’re not as sharp as they could be.  And maybe by mid-year it’s not just winter break that has led to decreasing follow-though.  My colleague Jen Kim offered up this very useful discussion of clip we recently watched…


12.04.15 Strategic Investment: A Field Guide 2.0 Excerpt

Thousands of teachers used the Teach Like a Champion Field Guide to help them implement, trouble shoot and refine their application of the techniques in the first version of the book. Now that the first version has been revised and taken out of print and there’s a new improved version, some teachers might feel left in the…


11.05.15 For Coaches: The Hidden Value of Steve Covino’s Start and Stop Routines

I’ve been working with US Soccer to develop some training tools on principles of teaching for coaches.  As part of this work I’ve been developing short videos of an outstanding young coach, Steve Covino, working with a group of U8 players. In the next week or so I’m going to share two especially useful videos of…