Dave, Author at Perspective Shift

The Quiet After the Break: Re-Entering the Classroom Without Reinventing Yourself

4 Comments / Reflection, Teaching / Dave

Over the break, I found myself playing around with AI—not for lesson plans or productivity, but for fun. Curiosity, mostly. I stumbled onto a tool that lets you re-create images, and before long Kelli and I were laughing our way through a whole run of Christmas-themed pictures. Some were silly. Some surprisingly clever. All of […]

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Keeping the Light Alive: Hope in the Classroom This Season

Reflection, Teaching / Dave

Happy Holidays, friends. Wishing you a season of rest, renewal, and light—whether you’re gathered around a Christmas tree, lighting the candles of Hanukkah, or simply pausing at the end of a long semester. 🎄 ✨ 🕎 ✨ 🎄 The holidays arrive wrapped in familiar language—joy, love, peace. And rightly so. We see it in the

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Young child in a turquoise dance costume standing on stage with arms extended, focused and determined, during a recital performance.

Teaching as Soul Work

Reflection, Teaching, Uncategorized / Dave

Lessons from Aging, Reflection, and Renewal at Year’s End Saturday morning, Kelli and I attended our granddaughters’ dance recital. The auditorium was full—the kind of crowd that leans forward without realizing it. Parents held up phones, grandparents smiled through misty eyes, and the music carried that familiar mix of excitement and nerves that only a

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The Trust Gap: Why Teachers Feel Scrutinized but Not Supported

Education, Policy-in-the-Classroom / Dave

Series: This post is part of Policy in the Classroom. See the full series → A Policy & the Classroom reflection This and the following two policy posts summarize the themes woven through the earlier pieces in this series. The Question That Changes Everything It was a gray Tuesday morning — the kind where

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“A teacher sitting alone with hands resting on a closed laptop, eyes lowered in a moment of honest fatigue.”

Teacher Voices II: What Teachers Are Saying This Year

Education, Teaching / Dave

A Thanksgiving Conversation That Stayed With Me We had a full house over Thanksgiving week—an open house where everyone finally got to meet Rosebud, our one-year-old granddaughter, along with her parents, Scott and Leigh, who hadn’t been back since her birth. Then Thanksgiving dinner, which in our home always seems to swell beyond the number

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A Thanksgiving Pause: Rest, Renewal, and the Quiet Work of Gratitude

Reflection, Teaching / Dave

The Stillness Before the Doorbell Rings We’re hosting Thanksgiving this year, and most of the family will be here. It’s exciting… and a lot. Kel loves the preparation — the lists, the cleaning, the organizing, the quiet satisfaction of making the house ready for people we love. Me? I pitch in, but I’ve never

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Turning Inward: The Spiritual Wake-Up Call of Midlife and Beyond

Reflection / Dave

The Drive West Kelli and I drove to Pittsburgh the other weekend to see our granddaughter, Rosebud, on her first birthday. The drive out and back was filled with the beauty of autumn—trees lit up in yellows, oranges, and reds, whole hillsides shimmering in the afternoon sun. The soft hum of the tires underneath us

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When policy becomes personal, burnout isn’t just about workload—it’s about the erosion of meaning.

Beyond Compliance: Finding Your Quiet Center in a Policy-Driven World

Policy-in-the-Classroom / Dave

Series: This post is part of Policy in the Classroom. See the full series → ☕️ Read my new book: Beyond the Grade Short, practical reflections for real classrooms—stories, psychology, and what actually helps. Read on Amazon I was recently interviewed for an article for the DSEA. The interviewer, David White, was very skilled in

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A reflective image of water currents meeting, representing the pressures and transitions young men navigate today.

When Young Men Fall Silent: What Teachers Can Learn from Their Struggle

Education, Psychology, Teaching / Dave

Kelli and I are both members of the Delaware State Education Association Retired local. As members, we recently attended the Appoquinimink Food Service Union social — a lively event full of conversation and support for their contract negotiations. While there, I overheard someone mention a growing worry about young men and their mental health. That

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The Hidden Curriculum of Policy: What Students Learn in the Shadows

Policy-in-the-Classroom / Dave

Series: This post is part of Policy in the Classroom. See the full series → One Halloween years ago, my students were cutting out paper bats for the psychology club bulletin board. The room smelled faintly of construction paper and pumpkin-spice candles someone had snuck in. It was one of those rare fall afternoons when

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