Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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

Why do so many books meant to "inspire" teachers end up sounding the same? And why do so many of them take 150 pages to convey information that, at best, might be the basis of an article? Intrator's book is one of these; you'll find yourself skimming after the first fifty pages. One of the arguments of the book is the importance of engaging students in their study of literature by connecting it to their own lives. Another is the importance of treating students with respect and acknowledging their ideas. Kind of obvious, huh? If you need this book, get it used.