Teaching for Excellence Paperback – Student Calendar, June 1, 2013

If you are a teacher, you NEED this book! I love EVERYTHING about PEAK and so do my students! Awesome ideas and strategies!!!

I became interested in Teaching for Excellence at a PEAK training because it was one of those rare but awesome trainings that sends you home with practical and applicable strategies that you can use in your classroom the very next day. These strategies didn't take a ton of preperation and were actually fun for my students. It wasn't until getting deeper into the book and attending another training that I realized 'strategies' were not the only thing that made it back to my classroom. It was a whole new way of thinking about education. When guests come in my room they say how well behaved my students are and they talk about how it seems like everyone is 'on task'. What they don't realize is that is just a symptom. The PEAK philosophy means that kids are learning at high levels in a safe enviroment. Kids will say they don't worry about being wrong because everything seems so easy. What they don't realize is that it IS easy because I have been exposing them to the information over a long period of time, and my test scores prove they are learning at high levels! Since implementing PEAK learning in my class, my student's state assessment scores have doubled! I still use the book all the time to find fresh ideas, and will continue to attend any PEAK trainings I can. It is THE book for any new teacher and it is THE philosphy I want my children's teachers to understand.

Even though I have been teaching math for 25 years, I continue to read and re-read Teaching For Excellence looking for new ideas and fresh approaches. Although my enthusiasm for teaching has not waned over the years, the need for new ways of doing things is greater than ever and this book has been a practical resource to that end. To illustrate how useful this book has been, I recently moved and my Teaching For Excellence book was packed away several weeks in advance of the move. One evening, I realized I needed to look something up and I spent half an hour opening sealed boxes looking for the book until I found it - much to the dismay of my wife who had packed them! So, if you are a teacher of anything including school subjects, company procedures or even Sunday school, I highly recommend you buy, read and apply the literally hundreds of ideas in Teaching For Excellence.

Teaching for Excellence needs to be in the hands of every classroom teacher for sure. Contained within this resource book are endless tools, strategies, thoughts, ideas, structures, directions, common sense ideas, reasons "why", critical attributes....enough said? A teacher can engage all students in each lesson using this book as your guide. It fits any content, any level,any teacher approach, any person who wants to make a difference for the students in the classroom. As a Principal, I continually urge teachers to go through the book and find 2-3 "tools" each year that work well for them and their students. Directions are clear, critical attributes are listed (pay attention to those!) and enjoy the best year of teaching that you have ever had! Be prepared to take on more as you practice these in your classroom. STUDENTS will ask you to use more! Be prepared for a fun and engaging clssroom each day!

Peak is often preached as the magic bullet of education. If you are looking for a magic bullet, look no further... it doesn't exist. I taught in a PEAK school for some time and will say that there are some good things in the methodology and some not so good things. Like any other approach to education, the discerning teacher needs to take what he finds to be good in this system, make it his own, and apply it.Launch buttons, content posters, repetition (28/3)= some really good practices.Parallel assessments that students become dependent on rather than diligent study (my daughter stopped studying for tests since if she failed the first one, she could just retake form b)= maybe we should rethink a few things.Conclusion: Not perfect, not the end all be all, but contains some good strategies to reach kids. These practices combined with a good, discerning teacher... should produce good results. NOT A MAGIC BULLET.

I use this book to guide instructional practice with my staff. There are practical strategies that teachers can use to engage students in the learning process. These strategies truly assist teachers in creating a student-centered classroom. I keep a copy on my desk at all times! I believe every pre-service course in a college of education should mandate the use of this book as part of their curriculum.

Regardless of your number of years experience, Spence Rogers' Teaching for Excellence is the most practical book for engaging lesson ideas. For each idea, you will see its critical attributes, how to do it, and when to use it your lesson cycle. I am a high school teacher, and I use it for almost every lesson.

This resource is like no other...tools, strategies, and more along with the explanantions of why they will work in any grade level or content area.