Rethinking Teaching

Classroom Teachers as Collaborative Leaders in Making Learning Relevant

By (author) Mickey Kolis

Publication date:

22 February 2013

Length of book:

128 pages

Publisher

R&L Education

Dimensions:

237x163mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781475801064

Rethinking Teaching is based upon one very simple idea – teachers teach people. That very simple idea is expressed as “Teachers as Collaborative Leaders.” Teachers wishing to redefine how they work in the classroom must focus on three key ideas:
1) They must build and maintain relationships with and among their students,
2) They must view Content as the foundation for personal learning (not the end product), and
3) When people change (and learn), they get to keep much of what they already know and can do.

Veteran teacher Mickey Kolis provides the background information to implement those three key ideas as well as skills to make them work in the classroom. He also offers a mechanism to manage that change process: a 3 (changes) in 30(days) model.
As a classroom teacher, I have often felt alone, isolated, and overwhelmed. After 12 years in education, I was searching to re-charge my batteries and re-connect to my initial core-beliefs and understandings about my content and my craft. Dr. Kolis' book reaffirmed my basic concepts of teaching and learning by providing a vivid, specific portrait of mastery-teaching and collaborative leadership using clear, precise and concise language and terms. Not only does this book define high-quality teaching and collaborative leadership and set it as goals we should all strive for, it provides the reader with a framework and process to achieve those goals. This book invites educators to become part of the process of revitalizing schooling on the personal, classroom, curricular, building, district, state, and national levels.