Johnson writes that the purpose of the book is to help teachers enjoy teaching while helping their students to grow academically and personally. She has the following chapters: Are You Teacher Material; Do Your Homework; The Big Three-Preparation, Preparation, and Preparation; Discipline is not a Dirty Word; Motivation and Morale Booster; Three Three Rs- Reading, Reading, and Reading; Teachers Talk Q&A, Letters to her; Time and Energy Wasters; and Twenty years from now.

The book is a “how to be a good teacher” book that even veteran teachers will find valuable. Johnson, the author of Dangerous Minds, enriches the book with many personal examples. She discusses how the teacher can build a classroom persona based on strengths, dress for a lesson, and prepare classroom materials for a smooth flow. She stresses that the first day of class should not be a day of giving class rules but of engaging the students and getting their brains working. Classroom teachers should determine their real agenda (What do you want your students to know when they leave your class at the end of the year?) and focus on it through the year. Johnson emphasizes that many students misbehave or do poorly because they are not challenged enough; teachers should maintain high standards regardless of where they teach.

Johnson argues that effective teaching is more psychology than pedagogy. She believes that when students believe success is possible, they will try. She helps her students to learn problem solving skills; likewise, she teaches them how to talk to teachers about academic problems. This teacher guides her students to realize that they are responsible for their own actions through many activities such the discussions on have/can't, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and Bloom's taxonomy. Johnson assists her students in setting goals for themselves personally and academically. She looks for opportunities to praise her students and allows them to shine through independent projects. This veteran teacher gives her students many choices. For example, they can vote on whether to continue reading a certain book when they are half-way through it.

Her discipline follows the same psychology mindset. Her one classroom rule is “Respect yourself and everyone in the room.” She models respect to her students. She may give a misbehaving student a discipline card such as “Your present behavior is unacceptable. Please be more polite. Return the card to me-in person- after class." Johnson talks to students outside of the room so that they cannot show off in front of the class. She politely listens to the complaints of any student and asks that student to listen politely to her constructive comments.

Many of her techniques illustrate sneaky ways of getting students interested and involved in learning topics that they would normally want to avoid. She has students bring in songs that are good example of poetry and explain why. Johnson draws the characters in a Shakespeare scene to help the student want to find out more about the play. She has them read a book for five minutes, score in on scale, read another book, score it, and continue until they find a book that they want to read.

Johnson presents very practical suggestions that can be easily implemented; she often includes a form such as her "Getting to Know You Questionnaire." She provides excellent advice that shows that she has used the suggestion successfully in her class. For example, she explains that teachers should expose students to different procedures for oral responses such as raising the hand before speaking, speaking out, and using silent thinking time; then the teachers simplify identify which procedure will be used with the present activity.

On reading the title of the book, the reviewer thought that the book would deal with critical thinking. Although the book does not focus primarily on the topic, there are many examples of helping students to think about their choices and their learning. Teachers can read this book to get re-inspired about their teaching and the impact it can have on students.

Dr. Harry Grover Tuttle focuses on assessing and improving student learning through low- and high-tech tools.

 _{POSTED ON HOTCHALK.COM} 

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