Tag Archive for: Case Study

Using Narrative Structure to Improve Corporate Training

Gandalf the Grey from The Lord of the Rings stands on a stone path in the lush green hills of the Shire. Wearing his iconic pointed wizard hat and gray robes, he holds his wooden staff while overlooking the idyllic countryside. Sunlight breaks through clouds in the background, illuminating the pastoral landscape of rolling hills and distant fields that stretches toward the horizon. The scene captures Gandalf as the wise mentor figure at the beginning of the hero's journey.

The human brain sitting in your skull today didn’t evolve to process bullet points and data tables. It descended from ancestors who survived the harshest conditions on Earth without a single written manual. They passed critical knowledge from generation to generation through stories around fires, tales of where to find food, which plants could heal, and how to avoid danger.

As I often told my high school students: “The perfect brain for PowerPoint died in the Ice Age.”

Our neural architecture is wired for narrative. It’s why people will sit through a three-hour Marvel movie with a full bladder but struggle to stay awake through a ten-minute slide presentation. It’s why every major religious text consists primarily of stories rather than bulleted lists of commandments. And it’s why the most durable pieces of human knowledge are ancient tales that have survived millennia.

Yet somehow, when we design corporate training, we often ignore this fundamental truth about how humans learn.

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Quizlet

A split composition comparing traditional and digital study methods: messy stacks of handwritten paper flashcards on the left versus organized, glowing holographic data blocks on the right.

“Memorization” is not a dirty word in education. However, it should be technology (not teachers) helping students memorize facts. Honestly, Quizlet is probably better at it anyway. Read this post to find out why you should be using Quizlet in your classes and how I have implemented Quizlet in mine over the past 3 years.

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BAHS Good News Postcards

Teachers in my building wanted an easy, high-impact way to send positive notes home to parents. I designed and sourced a custom postcard to add this tool to teachers toolbelts. I also saved my school a considerable amount of money over buying this product off the shelf.

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Student Presentation Reflections

High school student watching a video of themselves presenting on a laptop screen while taking notes in a notebook, engaged in reflective self-assessment in a study environment with bookshelves

I have worked my whole teaching career on making students better presenters. I create opportunities for them to practice these skills in my class whenever possible. The Presentation Reflection assignment is at the core of this practice.

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BAHS Teacher Planner

Three educators collaborating around a table covered with notebooks, sketches, and sticky notes in a bright office with bookshelves and a whiteboard, actively discussing and planning together

This post tells the origin story of the custom teacher planner that I make every year for the teachers and staff at my school.

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