New teachers losing their way? Getting bored? Thinking that their time-tested strategies no longer work with the groups of learners they have? Eric Jensen is a prominent speaker about the research-based practices all great teachers possess in reaching their students. He lists six characteristics of what he terms fierce teaching used as the acronymn: BE Fierce:
• BE –Body and emotional connections
• F – Feedback and error correction
• I – Input to output ratio
• E – Elaboration for depth
• R – Recall and memory management
• C – Content Coherence
• E – Environmental management
This is a book that a professional learningcommunitycould read in bits and pieces – everyone reading one of the chapters since they are fairly short and then spending 10-15 min. discussing the ideas presented and applying them to everyday teaching strategies. It would be a chance for the successful teachers to provide tips in a non-threatening atmosphere, and who knows, some troubled faculty just might hear and apply some of the tips It is worth a try and while the list seems a bit clouded by the terms used here, the common sense backed up by research will be a good review for anyone. Recommended as a chapter, thing, next chapter, think…