The Passionate Teacher

Book excerpt: This brilliant guide shows how to bridge the gap between the passionate ideals all teachers have and the realities of day-to-day frustrations in the classroom. Combining actual accounts of teachers who have successfully brought enthusiasm into their classrooms with inspiring philosophy and practical advice, Robert Fried proves that passion is learnable - that it's not a mysterious trait of personality. The Passionate Teacher shows you how to put passion to work by introducing you to the challenges of a new brand of teaching. You'll discover how to develop partnerships in which teachers are fellow learners working alongside students; limit what you teach so that you get to the heart of a subject; inspire students to produce quality work that's applicable to the real world; confront the obstacles to learning that Fried refers to as "The Game of School"; and test new approaches to teaching both specific lessons as well as entire courses.