Zero Miles to the Gallon

There are several ways to save money on gasoline costs.  First, consider walking.  There are no gasoline costs associated with that.  If you must drive, consider the following advice.  Lighten your load.  Remove some of those things that are stored in your trunk.  For every 250 extra pounds in your vehicle, you lose one mile per gallon.  Inflate your tires.  Don’t wait for a flat to check your tire pressure.  Underinflated tires cause more road friction, which causes more resistance, which causes your engine to work harder, which results in decreased gas mileage.  Clean you fuel system.  Running your engine causes deposits to be made in the form of carbon.  Without a good cleaning, your fuel system is like blocked arteries. Those aren’t fun, trust me.  Quit idling.  We’ve all been there – waiting for a long train to pass, bumper-to-bumper traffic, or sitting in the drive-thru.  If your engine is running at these times, then you are getting zero miles per gallon AND you are not going anywhere!  Good advice – except to those in an oil cartel.

Poor teaching strategies get zero miles per gallon academically speaking.  Throughout the school year, you have had opportunities to join sessions on high-yield teaching strategies.  If you have invested your time in learning some of these and are utilizing them in your classroom, then you have noticed the upswing in your LPG (Learning Per Gallon).  Dave has presented many good things for your toolkit.  I will not duplicate them here.  My point is this – if you want zero miles to the gallon in your teaching, then try the following= lecture day after day after day, lower your expectations, expect your students to fix themselves, keep your students in their seats the entire class period, never review previously learned material,  do not attempt to establish rapport with your students, do not break concepts up in digestible bites, answer more questions and ask fewer, never make your examples and assignments relevant to the needs of your students, never provide exemplars, never model proper behavior, never challenge your kids academically, assign independent work before guided instruction, always assign “busy work”, never check for student understanding, use RtI period as a “free” period, never use formative data to inform your instruction, never provide academic supports, never list or refer to the daily goal, never connect the daily goal with long-term goals, never have your students revise their learning, never engage your kids…use these and your academic vehicle will be perpetually in park and your kids will not be going anywhere.  Strive for increased LPG!