Exciting Classrooms: Practical Information to Ensure Student Success

Frank Thoms writes with passion to invite principals and teachers to make changes that will allow all students to succeed. In this book he urges them to reconsider traditional practices in light of today’s media-driven culture and digitally wired students. Exciting Classrooms is sensitive to the challenges schools face and is relentless in offering strategies to meet these challenges. Schools must do better. Rather than focus on improving test scores, this book advocates that teachers teach to a child’s whole symphony, not only to one note. If students only learn to succeed on bubble tests, they will not have opportunities to discover their true potential. Thoms sees the teaching process as a joint venture between teacher and student where the teacher brings learning to the student and, at the same time, brings the student to the learning. This process demands at least as much listening as talking, a new habit that teachers and principals need to learn.

Table of Contents:
Meet Dan Hilliard Introduction I: What Can We Do Immediately? 1 Implement 10-2 Thinking 2 Instill Skills 3 Teach Literacy 4 Design Invitations 5 Make Meaning II: How Can We Expand Our Teaching Practice? 6 See the Big Picture 7 Search for Wisdom 8 Stay Current 9 Seek the Higher Road III: What Must We Change? 10 Abolish Tracking 11 Abandon the Crabs in the Cage 12 Stop the Interruptions 13 End One-Size-Fits-All Teaching IV: What Can We Learn from Beyond the Culture of Schools? 14 Become a Gadfly 15 Leverage Tipping Points 16 Teach As If 17 Take the Long View 18 Imagine the Ideal 19 Invoke the Cosmos V: How Do We Find Our Calling? 20 Grow Our Seeds 21 Rethink Our Philosophy 22 Achieve Our Dreams 23 Become Stakeholders 24 Begin at the End CODA: Make a Difference EPILOGUE: Hidden Expectations APPENDIX: Teaching Manifesto Index Acknowledgments About the Author

About the Author :
Frank Thoms has been an innovative public and private school teacher known for his unique ideas and ability to connect with colleagues, students and parents. He has taught in four countries: the US, England, Mexico, and Russia and the former Soviet Union and has served as a consultant in more than one hundred-twenty-five schools.

Review :
Frank Thoms is a passionate teacher, and his powerful book is all about ‘stance’––how a teacher places himself or herself physically, emotionally, intellectually, and organizationally—with respect to students, knowledge, and learning. Every teacher, from a first-timer to an old hand, will learn much that is practical, and even more that is inspirational, from reading this book and so will everyone else who cares about the classroom. Exciting Classrooms provides teachers, leaders, and anyone who works within schools a robust model for instructional improvement, an inspirational set of insights, and a pragmatic toolkit of strategies to sharpen pedagogy and engage learners. I am so proud of you and honored to have had you for two of my “growing experiences.” It is so nice when a person’s dream come true, especially an educator. After reading this I know I will become a better teacher. Thank you very much and I wish you continued success. I love how it feels as if you are sitting in my living room with me having an important conversation about education. I am challenged to think critically about everything you share, and I love your thinking and pushing around the Big Shift. Thanks for causing me to question and grow! I want to be a Gadfly, too! I really like how every chapter in the book is short and you have included tips and summaries at the end of each one. It makes it very easy reading. I believe I have read every chapter, though I jumped around, reading the ones that I was really interested in first! Chock full of practical ideas deployed with reverence for kids and good humor! I wish I had it earlier in my career. You put together a number of things that we have known but have never knitted. I have very much appreciated Frank’s book. It's so important, truly a labor of love, mindfulness, and attentive care. I hope it gets all the audience it deserves. It is the best book on education I have read. I love how it combines some of the best ideas for really engaging the students. If any teacher embraced the attitudes, approaches, and methods in your book, she would be catapulted into “master teacher” status more quickly and effectively than she would from reading any other book on education, or just learning by experience. I thought your book had a really welcoming style. You write as a teacher, not an academic––a good thing, I think! I couldn't help but be struck by the similarity between the way you introduce Dan and his initial dilemma and Ted Sizer's description of Horace and his compromise. I enjoyed reading Exciting Classrooms, learned from it, and am a better teacher because of it. The American educational system has gone through round after round of “reform.” Most of these efforts have been top-down. Frank Thoms reminds the reformers that genuine change can only come when teachers change. Exciting Classrooms is an inspiring yet wonderfully practical guide to classroom change. Teachers who read it need not wait for system-wide reform––change can begin tomorrow. While educational reforms trend toward global reach, testing, and data-driven analysis of outcomes, Frank Thoms draws our attention back to the locus of learning—the synergy between teachers and students. He offers empathetic and passionate teachers the thought tools and practical steps they need to invigorate a collaborative classroom.