"Teach Like a Champion" Revisited

I had an interesting conversation recently regarding Doug Lemov's book "Teach Like a Champion." My colleague introduced me to a criticism on the book: it is too formulaic. My knee-jerk response was to be defensive, so I took a moment to think. My reply was fairly non-committal: New teachers need strategies to use in the classroom. This book provides strategies.

Then I started to really think. Was I defending the book because I liked it when I first read it and haven't taken a critical look at it since? Is it in fact, too formulaic? So I reflected and hoped to come up with a really complex provocative response. Instead, I ended up with this: Doug Lemov's book "Teach Like a Champion" provides teachers of all ability levels with tools to use organically as they work to create the classroom culture that empowers all students to succeed.

It's up to us, the teachers, to use these tools as we see fit and to remember to vary our approaches to increase student learning. That's a formula for success!

Success

We live in a world of 140 character tweets, 6.5 second vine clips, and emoticons. Everything we think or feel and want to share with the world must be distilled down to its purest form - its essence - so that our followers, viewers, and friends will know what we are experiencing the instant they view our post.

Within this instantaneous world, I am working with students toward success - their success as well as my own success. I am working on both because they are inextricably intertwined.  I measure my own success in challenging questions a student is finally acting bold enough to ask, connections between concepts that students uncover on their own, and "aha" moments when a student's eyes light up with sudden and deep understanding.