In Never Work Harder Than Your Students, (published by ASCD) Robyn R. Jackson makes a radical assertion: Any teacher can become a master teacher with the right kind of practice. This mindset is achieved by rigorously applying seven principles of the master teacher mindset to your teaching until they become your automatic response to students. The more you practice these principles, the more you begin to think like a master teacher.
- Start where your students are
- Know where your students are going
- Expect to get your students to their goal
- Support your students along the way
- Use feedback to help you and your students get better
- Focus on quality rather than quantity
- Never work harder than your students
Using these seven principles, you’ll learn how to become a master teacher no matter where you are in your practice. Each chapter provides a detailed explanation of one of the master principles, the steps you need to take to apply them to your own practice, and suggestions for how you can begin practicing the principles in your classroom right away. Using practical advice and stories from her own practice as well as from the teachers she’s helped, Robyn shows you how to put these principles in to action. Teaching is a hard job, but using these principles will help you and your students reap the rich rewards of that hard work.
My question as I read this book online is: Did Robyn just have one class in her stories? Is she talking about
her AP class? How would I apply these principles with 6 classes of 7th graders a day and one class of 11th grade
chemistry? I liked the discussion about how a particular assignment helps reach a learning goal but I can’t be
changing my plans each period! Please comment on secondary level teaching with multiple classes of the same
subject. Thanks!
The classes I mention in NWH come from several years of teaching and involve AP students as well as my on-level eleventh and twelfth graders. I typically had two to three preps when I taught and the strategies I used, I used with all my students.
The key to making sure that you don’t switch plans each day is to think carefully about the connection between your assignments and the learning goals during your planning stage. The reason I had to shift gears in class is that I didn’t take that step. If you are thinking about this as you plan, then you won’t have to revise your lessons on the spot and you can help students make that connection during class.
The key to cutting down on the work is to do a better job of planning and thinking through these issues BEFORE you go into the classroom to teach. Although every class period will be slightly different, by planning effectively (as outlined under principle 2 and in my upcoming book How to Plan Rigorous Lessons which will be out in January) you can avoid creating extra plans when you teach multiple classes of the same subject.
Robyn R. Jackson
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