The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching: A Checklist for Staying Focused Every Day, Aug/2013

"The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching summarizes what we know about effective teaching under three principles: be demanding, be supportive, and be intentional. The touchstones–conveniently organized as a checklist–explain how to realize those principles in daily teaching. If every teacher who read this book changed their teaching to reflect the 12 touchstones, the education of thousands of children would advance immediately."
--Susan M. Brookhart, Ph.D., Consultant, Brookhart Enterprises LLC
Senior Research Associate, Center for Advancing the Study of Teaching and Learning, Duquesne University, Helena, MT

There's no way to boil everything teachers must do in the classroom down to simple, step-by-step directions. But some days, there's so much going on in schools and classrooms, it's tough to focus on the big things that absolutely, positively must get done. Here's help. Find out how a simple, practical checklist—distilled from thousands of research reports, books, and articles—can help you cut through the clutter of information and make more deliberate, thoughtful decisions in your everyday practice. Bryan Goodwin and Elizabeth Ross Hubbell explain that—just like doctors and nurses use checklists to make medical decisions—educators can use the same tool to take the right actions and engage in more thoughtful behaviors. Discover why the complexity of teaching drives the need for checklists that

Develop a teaching theory of action that helps you filter and assimilate the barrage of new ideas coming at you all the time.

Help you stay focused on what matters most: being demanding, supportive, and intentional.

Support professionalism among colleagues, share best practices, and identify exemplars to follow.

Drilling down into 12 daily touchstones of great teaching, this book makes it easier for you to stay focused on the hallmarks of effective instruction.