Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone)

by Elizabeth Green

“Andrew, I need you with me, just like Jeremy and Anne and David. Now we’re looking sharp!” Doug modeled at the workshop. “So I corrected Andrew publicly,” he explained, “but I did a couple of things. One, I instantly diverted the gaze from him to someone else or something else, and, when possible, that something else is much more positive. So if I said, ‘Andrew, I need you with me,’ then you’re all going to divert your gazes to Andrew, and we’re in that situation where I have to win, it’s all public, and then I can’t afford to lose.” Instead, he let Andrew take the stage for half a second before quickly moving on to Jeremy, Anne, and David and the idea that “we” (read: everyone, even Andrew) were now “looking sharp.”