About Clay Shumate

Clay Shumate is a certified secondary Social Studies teacher in the public schools of West Alabama, with seven years of classroom experience, a B.A. in History, and an M.Ed. in Secondary Education. He writes about project-based learning, student responsibility, respect, and practical ways to hold young people to a higher standard while giving them room to learn from mistakes.

About this site

Secondary Teaching Playbook is a small collection of practical guides for teachers in grades 6–12. Each article takes one everyday problem, such as keeping families informed, responding to cheating or designing a project that requires real thinking, and turns it into steps a teacher can use this week.

Every research claim on this site links to its source, and each article says plainly where the evidence is strong and where it is limited.

Where to find more

Clay's main site, Elevate the Norm, has longer guides and free, printable classroom resources on project-based learning, student responsibility, grading and family communication. Everything there downloads free with no email required.