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    Notes on Teaching: A Short Guide to an Essential Skill
    Notes on Teaching: A Short Guide to an Essential Skill
    Notes on Teaching: A Short Guide to an Essential Skill
    Ebook267 pages1 hour

    Notes on Teaching: A Short Guide to an Essential Skill

    By Shellee Hendricks and Russell Reich

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Notes on Teaching delivers utterly relevant guidance, lucid explanatory commentary, and helpful examples that will help anyone become a better teacher. Like its siblings in the Notes On series (Notes on Directing and Notes on Cooking), the book’s clear, accessible, and practical insights into the art and craft of teaching invoke the spirit of Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style and Sun Tsu’s The Art of War, giving its audience the information they need in the way they want it: brief, efficient, direct. The notes are designed to provoke strong reactions--either in agreement or dissent--that will guide anyone who teaches to acknowledge, test, and debate their own beliefs.

    By turns provocative, funny, and unerringly blunt (#166 “Steer clear of the grumblers”), the authors understand that HOW the information is delivered is as valuable as the information itself. The book's afterword is by Taylor Mali, a teacher and one of the most well-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement, famous for his poem, "What Teachers Make."

    Notes on Teaching is endorsed by: Wendy Kopp, Founder, Teach for America. Geoffrey Canada, President and CEO of Harlem Children's Zone. Michael Thompson, PhD., co-author of Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Lives of Boys and The Pressured Child. Jack Covert, Founder and President of 800CEOREAD and co-author of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. Marc Tucker, President, National Center on Education and the Economy. Leon Botstein, President, Bard College. William Durden, President, Dickinson College and Former President of Sylvan Learning Systems.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRCR Creative Press
    Release dateJul 1, 2011
    ISBN9781937295004
    Notes on Teaching: A Short Guide to an Essential Skill

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      Book preview

      Notes on Teaching - Shellee Hendricks

      PRAISE FOR

      Notes on

      TEACHING

      Teaching is as much an art as a craft. It’s also joy-filled and heartbreaking, satisfying and frustrating. This deft little book gives professionals—new and old—a quiet moment to ready themselves for the rollercoaster ride of teaching and will spark great ideas for the classroom.

      —GEOFFREY CANADA

      PRESIDENT AND CEO OF HARLEM CHILDREN’S ZONE

      I can’t believe how much teaching wisdom is stuffed into this short (and beautiful) little book. So much truth and inspiration!

      —WENDY KOPP

      FOUNDER OF TEACH FOR AMERICA

      In this wonderfully crisp, wise, and useful book, Hendricks and Reich have given teachers a guide that will last them a lifetime. Notes on Teaching can and should be absorbed whole on the first reading, but I suspect readers will discover its true value only when they return to it. In times of uncertainty and lost bearings, I can think of no better compass than this little book, which abounds with humanity and good sense.

      —LEON BOTSTEIN

      PRESIDENT OF BARD COLLEGE

      "Notes on Teaching is like eating potato chips: You can’t read just one note. You can try but you soon will be compelled to pick it back up to read a few more and then a couple more and then and then…. What really makes me mad is that so much of what I regard as my special knowledge as a school consultant is right here, available to everyone, almost for free. Damn!"

      —MICHAEL THOMPSON, PH.D.

      CO-AUTHOR OF RAISING CAIN: PROTECTING THE

      EMOTIONAL LIVES OF BOYS AND THE PRESSURED CHILD

      "Notes on Teaching, with its comprehensive collection of pithy and perspective-altering advice, is the perfect reminder to leaders that to teach is to lead and to lead is to teach."

      —JACK COVERT

      FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF 800CEOREAD

      CO-AUTHOR OF THE 100 BEST BUSINESS BOOKS OF ALL TIME

      Bravo to the authors for giving teachers a written mentorship—a disciplined, knowledgeable, and generous companion—to accompany a most demanding, yet rewarding profession.

      —WILLIAM DURDEN

      PRESIDENT OF DICKINSON COLLEGE

      FORMER PRESIDENT OF SYLVAN LEARNING SYSTEMS

      This really is a wonderful book! It is the help you had hoped to get from your teachers college but didn’t. It is the mentor you wished for but never had. It is pithy, funny, practical and—mainly—wise.

      —MARC TUCKER

      PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL CENTER

      ON EDUCATION AND THE ECONOMY

      Also co-authored by Russell Reich

      Notes on Directing

      Notes on Cooking

      Notes on Teaching: A Short Guide to an Essential Skill

      by Shellee Hendricks and Russell Reich

      © 2011 by Shellee Hendricks and Russell Reich. Printed and bound in the United States of America. All rights reserved. First printing 2011.

      Published by RCR Creative Press Incorporated, New York, New York. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. Contact via RCRcreative.com.

      Although the authors and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and completeness of information contained in this book, we assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any inconsistencies herein.

      NOTES ON is a trademark of RCR Creative Press Incorporated and may not be used without written permission.

      Jacket design by Julia Reich and Daniel Tamman. Illustrations by Andre Junget. Interior design by Pneuma Books, LLC.

      Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication

      (Provided by The Donohue Group)

      Hendricks, Shellee.

      Notes on teaching : a short guide to an essential skill / Shellee Hendricks [and] Russell Reich.

      p. : ill.; cm. — (Notes on—)

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      ISBN: 978-0-9724255-4-4

      1. Teaching—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Teaching—Quotations, maxims, etc. I. Reich, Russell, 1963–II. Title.

      LB1025.3.H46 2011

      371.102                                              2011904577

      PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

      on acid∞free paper

      20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11       01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

      TO OUR PARENTS

      AND

      OUR CHILDREN

      Table of Contents

      Notes on Notes on Teaching

      More Notes on Notes on Teaching

      I. The Teacher’s Role

      1.   Share what you know

      2.   You don’t need all the answers

      3.   Cut your own cookie

      4.   Play the role required

      5.   You’re the most important person in the room

      6.   Practice what you teach

      7.   You’re the leader, but you’re not alone

      8.   Love them

      9.   Be decisive

      10.  Learning should be tough, challenging, and…enjoyable

      II. Planning and Preparation

      11.  Know your subject

      12.  Read your materials

      13.  Read them again

      14.  Plan from the finale

      15.  Identify essential questions

      16.  Come prepared

      17.  Don’t over-prepare

      18.  Prepare to be unprepared

      19.  Picture success

      III. First Class Meeting

      20.  Shake hands

      21.  Learn names quickly

      22.  Introduce them to the course and to each other

      23.  Know your students

      24.  Tell your story

      25.  Say why

      26.  Dive into the subject

      27.  Start with the known

      28.  Engineer early success

      29.  Send it home

      IV. Setting Expectations

      30.  Reflect what you expect.

      31.  Involve them in setting goals

      32.  Tell them that their education is their responsibility

      33.  Don’t tell them they’ve achieved what they haven’t

      34.  When you believe that someone can’t be taught

      35.  Champion failure

      36.  Set no limits

      37.  Encourage them to surpass you

      V. Classroom Rules

      38.  Establish the rules together

      39.  Be on time

      40.  Heed a speedy opening ritual

      41.  Raise hands

      42.  Write down your questions and comments

      43.  Speak out against bullying or rude behavior

      44.  Disagree without being disagreeable

      45.  Correct without being critical

      46.  Stay on topic

      47.  Break the rules

      VI. Classroom Staging

      48.  Establish your space

      49.  Use the whole stage

      50.  Consider sightlines

      51.  Contain negativity

      52.  Clear the path

      53.  Ensure physical comfort

      54.  Keep it cool

      55.  Value sunlight

      56.  Bring in the props

      57.  Rearrange the furniture

      58.  Time scene changes

      59.  Take an intermission

      60.  Dress the set with signs of progress

      61.  Costume them in future possibilities

      62.  Stimulate all five senses

      63.  You are the director

      VII. Building Blocks

      64.  Teach the skills you wish were taught in other classes

      65.  Teach the rules and beauty of language

      66.  Teach public speaking

      67.  Teach discussion skills

      68.  Teach discernment

      69.  Please, PLEASE teach logic

      70.  Know that you are teaching values

      VIII. Leading a Class

      71.  Be an emotional leader as well as an intellectual one

      72.  Let them think

      73.  Let them talk

      74.  Let them teach

      75.  Elevate mundane tasks

      76.  Change it up

      77.  Test your own success

      78.  Give them choices

      79.  Don’t give them too many choices

      80.  Create eustress

      81.  Call on them randomly

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