💡 Lesson ideas
Write it like a camera: the two-sentence observation
A self-training drill that turns 'he was aggressive today' into documentation you can stand behind.
Sentence one is the camera: only what a lens would record — actions, words, time, place. Sentence two is the teacher: what you might try next. Interpretation ('he was jealous', 'she's behind') never goes in the record; it goes in your questions.
The drill (do it with a colleague)
- Camera: '9:40, block area. Jonah stacked 6 blocks, said "my tower," and pushed Ava's hand away when she reached for one.'
- Teacher: 'Tomorrow I'll offer a second bin so parallel building is possible, and narrate turn-taking language.'
- Trade notes. Circle any word a camera couldn't record ('grumpy', 'refused to', 'on purpose'). Rewrite those.
- Three camera-clean notes a day, and by June you have a portfolio nobody can argue with — not even in a difficult conference.