Customer Reviews

Never Work Harder Than Your Students and Other Principles of Great Teaching

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I'm a 7th grade Social Studies teacher (with 16 years of HS and MS experience) and curriculum geek who was intrigued by the title. However, that is only one of seven principles of "master teaching" delineated in the book. Several times I found myself facing ideas that I've been resistant to in the past, but Jackson makes a compelling case for each of the principles and the steps to incorporate them into classroom practice. Her focus is consistently on student achievement in humanizing, empowering ways for students, teachers, and (to a much lesser extent) parents. The book is not touchy-feely (one segment describes dealing with the "brutal facts" of some of the constraints we face), but quite practically inspirational. In truth, "Never Work Harder..." verbalized a lot of what I've been looking for to guide my teaching in the future. I've differentiated, used multiple intelligences, incorporated RTI, along with many other strategies and protocols - this book helps me see the big picture that brings these together in a much more effective way.

With its beguiling title, NEVER WORK HARDER THAN YOUR STUDENTS & OTHER PRINCIPLES OF GREAT TEACHING will certainly attract the eye. The good news? The book is a lot more than just a catchy title. It's a well-grounded argument for seven principles teachers should all adopt to help their students learn. It also draws pieces from a lot of the disparate research we've seen in other tomes: Marzano's and Wiggins', to name two of the more well known. Yet much of it remains her own, and her voice is both confident and distinct.

Robyn Jackson breaks her book down into seven principles that -- with time, patience, and practice -- can make any teacher a master teacher (she contends they are made, not born, thank God). They are:

1. Start Where Your Students Are
2. Know Where Your Students Are Going
3. Expect to Get Your Students There
4. Support Your Students
5. Use Effective Feedback
6. Focus on Quality, Not Quantity
7. Never Work Harder Than Your Students

As you can see, Jackson saves the best for last. Still, among these seemingly obvious principles, there's more than just a little controversy. What I liked best was how Jackson relates her experiences presenting this very material at professional development sessions. Better yet, she shares anecdotes of some of her toughest audiences (e.g. veteran high school teachers) who met her presentation with rolling eyes, crossed arms, and at times open derision. Jackson turned off her overhead and politely went toe-to-toe with them by opening the floor to their objections and concerns. The transcript is eye-opening, and there's more than one instance of such Doubting Thomas Moments included in the text.

Yes, this book is of equal value to both rank rookie and seasoned veteran, and yes, it will make even seasoned veterans reconsider some of their most cherished habits. If you're not up for that, then why are you reading this review? To my mind, any teacher willing to read books on teaching is a teacher on a mission. This book will help that mission, I promise. Theory, pragmatic ideas, and even naysayers' doubts. It's all here. Recommendation: buy, share, and discuss with a fellow teacher (or, better yet, a fellow teaching staff).

I'll be honest here--I am not a good teacher.

The longer I teach, the more that I think this is true. It's not that I don't try or don't care. Instead, I think that I am not effective. Entertaining, perhaps, but not effective. Every once in a while, I'll read a book on how to be a better English teacher, and these books make me feel worse about my chosen career. Teaching books work opposite as teaching movies do. After I watch Dead Poets Society or Freedom Writers, I feel invigorated to go back into the classroom to kick some pedagogical booty. Reading teaching books by those who are master teachers makes me feel like I am pedagogical booty. See the difference?

Knowing that most of you reading this are not teachers, I won't bore you with Robyn Jackson's methods in detail. Her main thrust is that becoming a master teacher is something that can be attained with seven principals ("Use Effective Feedback" and "Start Where Your Students Are" are two of the seven). Jackson takes teachers through the changing of a teaching mindset, rather than merely adding activities or procedures to our already overflowing toolbox. Her focus is pairing down our classrooms and activities to only essential ones and do those well. I liked this idea, and it can help me. I have noticed that at times, I'm seeking ways to fill a class with interesting activities, but they may not go where I want them to in meeting core objectives in reading and writing. I have already started to think more about why I do the things I do in class, and I have contemplated places to trim the fat.

Jackson also encourages ways to support students, and I need improvement in this area. I liked her idea of not letting kids off the hook by simply giving them a zero for a missing assignment. Instead, make them come in to do it, either after school or at lunch. If I planned a valuable activity or lesson, then it should be completed. After I trim down to the essentials, why let a student off easy by not having him complete it? As I read, I found my brain quickly jumping to objections, "How can that work?" "What if they don't come?" I need to put those aside, and figure out what I can do, rather than what will not work.

My criticisms are few, and I'll only share one here. Jackson does the one thing that annoys me most about listening to teachers tell stories about their classrooms and interactions in children. When relating a story of a lesson, teachers will often tell how the class objects to something the teacher says by using the teacher's name in unison. It would be like me telling you about class today, and the students said, "But Mr. Coia, how does the conflict/resolution work in movies?" It rings so false when I hear teachers recounting the events like that; students do not object in one voice! Next time you are listening to a teacher talk about his day, please listen and tell me how correct I am. I say all this because Robyn Jackson loves this storytelling feature, except with the added bonus of the kids protesting, "Dr. Jackson..." By page four, I was reminded a few times that Ms. Jackson earned a Doctorate. While mildly annoying, it did not impede my enjoyment of this book.

During the time I read this last week, I really did feel low about my teaching performance compared with the teachers outlined and highlighted in this book. But I now liken it to the way one feels after reading Paul's letter to the Romans. This Biblical book makes us feel low, sinful, and ashamed because we do not measure up to the ultimate Master Teacher, while, at the same offering a great hope because it shows a way to bridge the chasm of imperfection. The New Testament often shows our distance from God and our ability to enter into His presence. We are both saint and sinner at the same time. We see our sin and also the way to our rescue from it.

On a much smaller and less significant scale, Never Work Harder than Your Students showed me my problem and offered solutions to help me to cross that gap.

Excellent philosophical book on the principles of great teaching. Not really a 'grab it and go' idea book for teachers though. This is something you need to read and digest, rather than something you can use immediately in the classroom. This would be a great 'literature circle' book club book for teachers.

This book offered many ways to improve my teaching. I was overwhelmed while I was reading it, but it ends with a very helpful section on how to take small steps to get started and to not bite off too much at one time. As a teacher, I never want to forget to be a life-long learner, and this book helps with that.

This book lays out nice plans to take intuitive skills and make them intentional. The author describes "natural" teachers and breaks down the critical skills needed to take any teacher to the next level.
The title refers to the idea that students should be processing and learning rather than the teacher working hard presenting information but I cringe at the idea that people may interpret it as the teacher working as little as possible. This is not the case, as explained in the book, but it's just my bias against that particular expression.
Overall, the book has great anecdotes and clear plans for any teacher to improve their craft. I would recommend it.

I just went through student teaching and came out of it completely exhausted. I was not an education major but went through the alternative certification. I saw the title and knew I had to get this book (I also read the pages on Amazon.com which is something you should do before buying this book). I worked myself sick planning, making handouts, presentations, grading, etc. In the end I did not feel like a teacher. I felt like I had barely survived. While I taught the curriculum (which is not exactly like the standards) I often felt like I did not know why I was doing this they way that I was. Reading this book has cleared my vision considerably. The seven principles are GOLD. They make so much sense and now I feel like I can teach towards a goal. This book is for teachers who know in their gut that they need to improve considerably. For teachers that are not getting results from their efforts. This book may be just what you need to become a master teacher.

I obtained this book from a district sponsored professional development day that was led by Robyn Jackson. It was by far the worst professional development activity that I have ever been to and most of the teachers left after the break and never returned. This book contains no empirical evidence that has been peer reviewed and her lack of experience as a teacher really comes through here in her "x number of easy steps to be a master teacher". It is interesting that she is no longer in practice as a teacher and instead had opted for a lower stress higher paying job as a consultant writing books full of her personal stories and ideas based on her limited years in the classroom. The only bigger failure than this book was Dr. Jackson's presentation to a room full of experienced AP teachers. Nobody went "toe to toe" with her, because people were too busy grading papers and having side conversations and laughing at many of her ignorant statements (ie "AP English is the hardest AP class because you have to be able to DO things, vs chemistry where you just have to know things"). Poor presenter, poor author, poor product.

I'm a experienced teacher, and I'm finding useful advice that I can implement right away in my classroom. It's a quick and easy read. It's structured such that I can read a chapter, focus on it for awhile, and then read a different chapter. You do not have to read sequentially - you can read the principles that you are most interested in first. I wish I'd read this book years ago.

The title of this book has led to misconceptions. It is not about teachers slacking off, but rather doing fewer time-consuming nonproductive activities in favor of many time-conserving productive ones. The "working hard" aspect also addresses the problem of the teacher doing too much of what the students should be doing.

Another misconception addressed is that regarding the Pygmalion effect. It is not about non-achieving students doing well if only the teacher forces himself/herself to blindly believe that they can do well. It is about the master teacher truly believing that he/she can reach every student and, to the extent that he/she has not done so, that he/she has not yet discovered the way to do so, but eventually will. Also, having high standards should not be confused with having high expectations.

All this is about realistic optimism, not blind optimism. An analogy is given with American POW's attitudes while being in North Vietnamese captivity. Those who believed that they would be released by a specific date (e. g., by next Christmas) often died when this did not happen. Those who remained confident that they would be released, but no one knows when, were the ones who prevailed.

A major theme in this work is student accountability. Students who come unprepared for class must still do the work, and face a logical consequence for getting a pencil from the teacher so that they can do so. Students who fail a test must do an online tutorial, extra review worksheet, etc., and then take the test over again. The teacher does not accept shoddy or incomplete work.

One part of this book that stands out is the extensive self-test that enables the reader/teacher to see where he/she stands on the continuum from beginner to master teacher. What's more, the test is divided into subcategories, and the teacher is told how to improve, beginning with his/her weakest area.