Donald Gately Ed.D.
Category Archives: Educational Focus
Middle leaders collaborative: One characteristic of great middle school leaders
Name one characteristic of all great middle school leaders This post is a collaboration between a group of middle school leaders from across the country. Periodically, these passionate and dedicated middle school principals share their thoughts on issues of relevance … Continue reading
Posted in Educational Focus, Leadership, learning, Uncategorized
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Middle-Level Leaders Collaborative: Who’s your “go-to” person?
This post is a collaboration between a group of middle school leaders from across the country. Periodically, these passionate and dedicated middle school principals share their thoughts on issues of relevance for those “in the middle”. Working at the middle-level … Continue reading
Posted in adolescence, Best Practice, Educational Focus, Leadership, Personal Best, Teaching/Learning
Tagged go-to person, relationships, support
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Middle School Principals’ Collaborative: Beginning of the Year Essentials
This post is a collaboration between a group of middle school leaders from across the country. Periodically, these passionate and dedicated middle school principals share their thoughts on issues of relevance for those “in the middle”. Topic: The 2019-20 school … Continue reading
About our legacy: What details will be remembered
Whenever you ask young adolescents about the adults in their lives, their teachers, administrators, their bus driver, the lunch ladies, they always focus on some quirky detail that is the part that becomes the whole. Continue reading
Stories: About a boy
Amazing educators, when you ask them, “What do you teach?”, they reply, “I teach kids!” Great teachers love kids. They love the students in front of them and they understand the sacred nature of their professional responsibility to nurture the academic and personal development of kids. Great teachers know that relationships are the most important thing; not homework, not tests, not awesome lesson plans, but relationships. Continue reading
About kids and devices: Trying to find the answers
Are there areas of your practice as a leader or teacher that you haven’t figured out? How are you modelling your learning? How can we be transparent about the process as we learn new things and try to find answers to life’s essential questions? Continue reading
Posted in adolescence, Best Practice, Educational Focus, Leadership, Parenting, Personal Best, Reflections, Teaching/Learning
Tagged devices, Parenting, relationships, technology
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About Work / Life Balance: So much to learn
It can be difficult to describe the magic of the Ed camp model. It’s liberating to cast off the formalities, restrictions, and passivity of conventional educational contexts (read: SCHOOL) and embrace a mode of learning that elevates choice, participation and sharing. When I’m asked to give an example of the power of EdCamp, I will describe the amazing session that took place this past Saturday on the topic of Work / Life balance. We wish you were there! Continue reading
About cooking: You can eat your mistakes
@DMGately at Nathan’s Famous 4th of July. It was the Fourth of July. I was doing what I love doing in the summertime, using my barbeque smoker to make pulled pork sliders for dinner. I woke up at 4:15am to … Continue reading
Posted in Best Practice, Educational Focus, Leadership, Reflections, Teaching/Learning, Uncategorized
Tagged assessment, cooking, learning
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About school climate: You might control the weather
We cannot control the weather, but there are so many things that educators do control.
It’s about intentionality. Everything we do as educators should be done with intention, not because that’s the way were were taught, not because it’s what “feels” right, or what’s easy for us; we must always act in ways that create safe conditions for learning to take place and to build the resilience of our kids.
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About middle level teaching: Nobody wants to be the Junior Varsity*
Actions follow our beliefs. If there is one piece of advice that all middle school teachers must follow it is this, “Middle school kids are different, don’t expect to succeed with the same strategies that might work with elementary or high school kids.” Continue reading
In the middle of learning - by Donald Gately Ed.D 
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