« Maryland Tops Ed Week Report Card | Main | How Are We Grouping? »

January 13, 2009

Never Work Harder Than Your Students

Neverworkharder In her new ASCD book, Never Work Harder Than Your Students and Other Principles of Great Teaching, educator Robyn R. Jackson makes a bold assertion: Any teacher can become a master teacher with the right kind of practice. The book makes the case that high-quality teachers concentrate on seven essential principles of effective teaching before implementing specific classroom strategies. One of Jackson's seven principles is that teachers should "never work harder than your students."

"The starting point comes when teachers embrace the messiness that is learning," says Jackson. "We have sanitized learning; we want to make it so clean. Everything in a classroom has to go just like we planned it. But if you leave spaces [in lesson planning] for kids to occupy, that's when they'll start to take control. You're creating situations where the kids have to do the work. We think kids are lazy, but kids want to work. They'll work in ways that are authentic to what they need."

Jackson, a former National Board–certified teacher and middle school administrator, not only shares how she learned from her mistakes but also explains how other teachers helped her think and act like a master teacher. Watch Jackson talk about her book on ASCD Talks With an Author.

How do you embrace the messiness of learning in your classroom?

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341e3ea353ef010536c3a4e2970b

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Never Work Harder Than Your Students:

Comments

I embrace the messiness of learning in my classroom by having my students gather and replace their own needed tools from a class predesigned designation.

I am interested in others comments on the subject.

I have been working to embrace the concept of messy as my groups of students work. We are trying to find a learning contract that works for them and for me. It's messy, but learning is happening!

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment