Notes on Teaching: A Short Guide to an Essential Skill

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.