Hard Work

While I’m on the reading mode I should also mention Robyn Jackson’s book from ASCD:  Never Work Harder Than Your Students (and other principles of great teaching). Coming from an environment where we’re trying to take the language from ‘work’ to ‘learning’ I wasn’t super-keen on the title but it came free with the subscription to Educational Leadership, and it does contain some great principles. In essence, they are:

• Start where your students are
• Know where your students are going
• Expect your students to get there
• Support your students
• Use effective feedback
• Focus on quality, not quantity
• Never work harder than your students

And, truthfully, haven’t we all come out of a lesson at some stage thinking that we (the teacher) are doing all the work?  Exhausted? Jackson would argue that often these lessons haven’t worked that well, for the learners.