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Saturday, June 25, 2016

Positive Teaching and a Bonus for Teachers


Doug Lemov's Teach Like a Champion belongs on every coach's bookshelf. Here's a sample from the chapter Building Character and Trust:

"Your purpose may be to correct, praise, inquire, or instruct. You may be referencing previous conversations, explicitly or implicitly. You may be preparing for future conversations. You may be seeking to change his perception of himself, of you, of schoolwork, of education, of his peers, of certain values, of who he can be. You may be attempting to do this with humor, warmth, sternness, subtlety, or bluntness.

Are you changing lives? Are you respected? Is it worth it? Should you just get your real estate license?"

He densely packs concepts and strategies while using specifics. For example, emphasizing POSITIVE FRAMING:

"Make corrections consistently and positively. Narrate the world you want your students to see even while you are relentlessly improving it." 

For example, we might say, "focus on the drill, Marcia" not "stop looking at the boys at the other end of the gym." 

When we change attitudes, behaviors, and habits, we change lives. We help students develop values and goals. We scaffold relationships and memories. 

Bonus: Weave into backscreen pick-and-pop