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

by Sam M. Intrator, Elliot W. Eisner

Every teacher has powerful memories of becoming swept up in an electric moment when the classroom hums with energy and students are wholly engaged in learning. During such moments of real learning, teenagers find genuine meaning, worth, and value in their academic experiences. And their teachers find in these heightened and exuberant moments the embodiment of their best hopes and ideals as educators.

How can such “teachable moments” be encouraged? What can teachers do to inspire more of these educationally vital episodes? In this compelling book, Sam M. Intrator scrutinizes powerful learning moments in a high school classroom. He offers five detailed portraits of these experiences, describing in each case how the teacher shaped the culture of the class, made critical pedagogical decisions, and connected students to the subject matter. Intrator confirms that seemingly magical learning moments can be cultivated, and he suggests numerous practical ideas to help teachers do so.

Genres: Education, Teaching

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great! Read for my Teacher Prep class. Really interesting study of how to keep kids interested in the class room, involved in their learning. Every teacher should read this.

[Barbara Atlas · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is full of somewhat interesting anticdotes, but there's nothing here that will help me in the classroom next year. The summer is too short to take time to read about someone's observations of how a teacher inspired his 11th grade English students by asking them to write about grass. Anybody can inspire; the trick is doing it every period, every day. Or at least more than occasionally.

[Jenna Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It is about a teacher who really cares and wants his students to get something from school. He has great lessons and amazing conversations. I hope to one day be as effective as this guy was.

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for anyone who teaches adolescents!