Tuned In and Fired Up: How Teaching Can Inspire Real Learning in the Classroom [Hardcover]

Sam M. Intrator (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2003

Every teacher has powerful memories of becoming swept up in an electric moment when the classroom hums with energy and students are wholly engaged in learning. During such moments of real learning, teenagers find genuine meaning, worth, and value in their academic experiences. And their teachers find in these heightened and exuberant moments the embodiment of their best hopes and ideals as educators. How can such "teachable moments" be encouraged? What can teachers do to inspire more of these educationally vital episodes? In this book, Sam Intrator scrutinises powerful learning moments in a high school classroom. He offers five detailed portraits of these experiences, describing in each case how the teacher shaped the culture of the class, made critical pedagogical decisions, and connected students to the subject matter. Intrator confirms that seemingly magical learning moments can be cultivated, and he suggests numerous practical ideas to help teachers do so.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Intrator is both thoughtful and articulate in this study of educationally vital moments. His book is engaging, intriguing, and inspiring." Robert W. Roeser, Stanford University "In this beautifully written book Sam Intrator lets us in to the detailed workings of the teaching/learning relationship at its best." Denise Clark Pope, author of Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students.

From the Inside Flap

"Great teachers, like Sam Intrator, know what matters most in the classroom. They connect, care, conspire with students; they listen, laugh, and love them into learning. With this terrific book, we can too." - Rick Jackson, co-director, Center for Teacher Formation

"If you seek faith and hope, I invite you to spend a day here with Mr. Quinn, a master teacher, and Sam Intrator, a master writer." - Marianne Novak Houston, facilitator, International Courage to Teach Program

"In this beautifully written book Sam Intrator lets us in to the detailed workings of the teaching/learning relationship at its best." - Denise Clark Pope, author of Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students

"Sam Intrator is one of the brightest lights in education today. His excellence as a teacher, his commitment to our public schools, his passion for the well-being of the young and those who teach them, his remarkable way with words, and his unwavering integrity mark him as a key leader in the rising generation of scholar-activists who can help bring meaning and purpose back to education. But do not take my word on this. Find out for yourself by reading this lively, compelling, wise, and truly extraordinary book." - Parker J. Palmer, author of The Courage to Teach and Let Your Life Speak

"Intrator is both thoughtful and articulate in this study of educationally vital moments. His book is engaging, intriguing, and inspiring." - Robert W. Roeser, Stanford University

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300100221
• ISBN-13: 978-0300100228
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,665,602 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Instant Inspiration, August 3, 2005

By 

Sarah M. Michet "smichet" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tuned In and Fired Up: How Teaching Can Inspire Real Learning in the Classroom (Hardcover)

I am about to begin my first year teaching high school art, and this book has sparked more excitement for the career I have chosen than any other. I expect to return to it again and again when I need a pick-me-up during my upcoming "difficult first year" of teaching - it makes me feel LUCKY to be able to be in the field of education. Any teacher, novice or experienced, would find inspiration in this wonderfully easy to read and engaging book on meaningful teaching.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True Insight Into the Classroom and "Real Learning", October 8, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Tuned In and Fired Up: How Teaching Can Inspire Real Learning in the Classroom (Hardcover)

A wonderful book for teachers and those preparing to become teachers. Intrator clearly understands the complex and vital world of the classroom, and shares it with his readers as well as anyone writing today. With clear and compelling prose, *Tuned In and Fired Up* lets the classroom have the center stage; Intrator's deeply thoughtful commentary weaves in theory and research, but never lets it overshadow the portrait of "real learning" he presents. This book is beautifully written, and offers tremendous insight and encouragement to anyone interested in teaching and schools.

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring Learning in the Classroom, December 27, 2011

By 

Robert T. Hess "The Data Coach" (Lebanon, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tuned In and Fired Up: How Teaching Can Inspire Real Learning in the Classroom (Paperback)

I like the structure of this book. It opens with Intrator's theory about learning and the importance of inspiring learning in the classroom. He then discusses specific examples of inspired learning that he observed during his 124 classroom observations. Being able to sit on specific meaningful lessons was a great way to show me as a reader what inspired learning looks like. The stories brought me back to some of the better moments I was able to have during 10 years in the classroom as a language arts teacher.

The end of the book moves beyond these specific examples and Intrator presents his theory about the conditions teachers can create so that inspired learning won't be such a rare occurrence in American classrooms.

On page 125 he summarizes the evidence that occurred during moments of inspired learning. These three things are the common denominators: 1) students tuned into the lesson with sustained focus; 2) students connected with the material/connect emotionally; 3) once they were focused and passionate, the students were able to express their thoughts via projects, presentations, conversations, writing, or creation of something.

All of this brings up the most salient question of all. Are we focusing on the wrong thing in our quest for educational "excellence?" Most of our excellence measures are what Inatrator refers to as "fixed-end excellence," (p. 123). Fixed-end excellence is a measure against an external, inflexible standard. You got it, standardized testing. I am beginning to wonder that our focus on testing may actually hinder real learning in the classroom because the three elements listed above never happen when all our time is spent drilling and killing on skills designed to improve test scores (hear explicit instruction if you can understand ed-u-speak).

Quotes like this make me wonder even more..."Excellence must mean something more than standardized test scores. The triumphs and failures of schools involve dreams, hopes, relationships, and other abstractions that elude fixed-end calculations. No fixed-end system, for example, could measure the importance of moments of inspired learning. In fact, a fixed-end system would not even recognize their value," (p. 124)

Hmmmmm