How to Accelerate Learning and Change Lives The Best Teacher in You (Paperback) - Common

by Robert E. Quinn

What does teaching look like at its very best? How are great teachers able to ignite a love of learning and change students lives? In this book you ll learn from seven remarkable teachers who stretch beyond the conventional foundations of good teaching to transform their classrooms into exciting, dynamic places where teachers and students cocreate the learning experience. Based on six years of extensive work, the book outlines a framework that identifies four dimensions of effective teaching and learning that are integrated in these highly effective teachers classrooms and that all teachers can use to recognize and release the potential in themselves and their students."

Genres: Education

Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Karen JEC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overview: I love the idea of the matrix, the BFK Connect with the yellow, green, blue, and red quadrants. It's a visual cue and easy to remember, plus it puts things into perspective almost immediately. If only all teaching could be this simple! The authors lay out the book in segments of stories, each about a different difficulty experienced by a Highly Effective Teacher and how they decided to overcome it. I would recommend this book to all new teachers, but especially to those who are in years 4-8 of teaching, for people who want to step up their game a little now that they know a little of the mechanics of their environment. Fantastic.

Favourite quotes:

"If we were to teach teachers the way the best teachers teach students, teacher development might accelerate and lives might change."

"What did you think your job was in the first place? It is not about teaching math. It is getting them to want to learn." ~ Kelli, on reaching every student

"Math is simply a reason to be with her students."

"The best teacher in you is an elevated version of your current self. It may be a version that is more complex, more dynamic, and more unique. Perhaps it is a self that is continuously emerging and has to be continually reconstructed. This may explain why it is so hard for researchers to find linear relationships between teaching practices and effectiveness... Given that highly effective teachers have different starting points, it is reasonable to assume that multiple paths exist to uncover the best teacher within."

"When goals are clear, feedback relevant, and challenges and skills are in balance, attention becomes ordered and fully invested."

"There are two things we should give our children: one is roots; the other is wings."

"The ability to see your own hypocrisy and then change yourself is a very powerful form of learning."

"In the end excellence is its own reward."

[Travis Standley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the most impactful book on teaching and dynamic, co-creative learning I’ve read. I now have terms and a framework for many of the concepts and practices I’ve valued and believe in. I’ve read this book in light of preparing for a teaching presentation and Thai made the study even more worthwhile. I recommend this to any teacher, leader, or trainer looking to improve and increase and elevate their effectiveness. This is the most impactful book of the year for me this far.