Customer Reviews

The Skillful Leader: Confronting Mediocre Teaching

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved reading this book for all it taught me and for all the important things it reminded me of. . . . Arguing passionately and convincingly that supervisors must have competence, conviction, and control, the authors provide the information and the tools supervisors need to help teachers mired in mediocrity, that sometimes discouragingly long stretch of the continuum between the incompetent and the skillful. Absent an uncommon talent for denial, you cannot read this book without being transformed as a supervisor.

Management and leadership issues are interspersed with well-constructed, specific profiles of mediocre teachers. Ineffective and effective supervisory responses are detailed following each profile, making for an instructive contrast. Observation and self-assessment templates offer useful starting points for the particular demands of addressing the needs of a teacher(often an entrenched veteran)who is neither effective nor disastrous. My team of department chairs have appreciated this book tremendously.

Excellent book with short insights into dealing with mediocre teacher. Any administrator who would like practical and up date insight on how to make teachers better teachers should read this book.

The book itself is very good. The book is in high demand so you better get your copy as early as possible as you will encounter price inflation due to the lack of availability of the book. Even Amazon got into the rip off game and charged about 50% over the list price.

I had to read this book during a class on evaluating teachers. It was extremely helpful as I had to practice on unsuspecting student teachers. I also thought it fit right in with Professional Learning Communities and the DeFours (spelling?)ideas of "What will they learn, how will you know if they learned it, and what do you do if they don't". Since taking this class, my school district adopted this book as a book study for all current administrators.