Teach with Your Strengths: How Great Teachers Inspire Their Students
Defying the orthodoxy that teachers, to be more well rounded, should work to strengthen their weaknesses, this book, drawing on research by the Gallup Organization, maintains that great teachers are those who teach with their greatest talents and abilities. But how does one identify those talents, and how do teachers apply them day-to-day in the classroom? Liesveld and Miller use the Gallup research and interviews with teachers to define important characteristics of teacher strengths: creating flexible structure, showing emotion, and sharing control with students. Early chapters define talents as deeply ingrained personality aspects. Strengths are based on these talents but can be developed with a combination of skill and knowledge. Later chapters direct readers to a Web site to use the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment. The authors then describe the 34 varieties of talent measured by the test and suggest how to use them to increase teacher effectiveness. Though the book is directed at teachers and relies heavily on assessment testing, it offers basic strategies that would be of interest to parents as well.Vanessa BushCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved