‘Ok, hands up …. Who is a geek? No correct that, who is a Teacher Geek?’
For those of you who work in the classroom leading the learning of others, I hope that you all are. Education needs teacher geeks like us who are perhaps slightly obsessive about teaching and learning and are always on the look out for new ideas, tips and tricks to try and to include in a teaching toolkit.
In Rachel Jones’ new book, Teacher Geek, she emphasises just tweaking one’s teaching can make a significant impact upon the learning of students. Written in an engaging, yet informal style, Rachel takes us through key areas of teaching and learning encouraging us to use everything to hand, from technology and the classroom to setting written tasks with a twist. The toolkit offered here is a real mix of unique and innovative thinking to reminding us of some of the more traditional teaching methods which still have a place in the modern classroom if applied correctly. All are certainly worth trying and experimenting with finding out what suits your teaching style. Regardless of what your teaching style is there will be something here for everyone.
What I particularly like about this book is that is it clearly written by a current practioner who understands the pressures of the role of the modern teacher and the need for updating one’s teaching methods yet realises the difficulties that we face in terms of the lack of time to explore new ideas. This can help explain that the ideas in this book are very easy to implement with the emphasis upon tweaking rather than radical overhaul with the constant focus upon improving the learning of our charges.
The book is very readable and accessible with each chapter full of ideas with clear examples and can be read in a short space of time. This enables you to read the book in small chunks guaranteed to make you think about your own work and what you can tweak to maximise your impact. A highly recommended book which deserves a place on every CPD bookshelf.
jivespin 