Teach Like a Champion

Lemov, D. (2015). Teach Like a Champion 2.0: 62 Techniques that put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass., 468 pp.

- Doug Lemov holds a BA from Hamilton College, an MA from Indiana University, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He is a managing director of Uncommon Schools and leads its Teach Like a Champion team, designing and implementing teacher training based on the study of high-performing teachers.

- Teach Like a Champion became a global bestseller because it offered concrete, engaging, easy-to-implement techniques teachers could use to keep their students engaged, focused, and learning.

Teach Like a Champion is a great addition to my book shelf and is definitely a book I will refer back to during my years of teaching, especially my beginning years. The book is broken up into 4 different parts; Check for Understanding, Academic Ethos, Ratio, and Five Principles of Classroom Culture. Each part is broken down further into detailed strategies and methods to try in your everyday classroom instruction. Lemov gives specific ideas and strategies used by teachers from all over. Teach Like a Champion offers techniques for every type of teacher that aligns with the wide variety of students we may one day instruct. Some of the techniques are more invasive and can take time to implement, however majority of them are simple techniques that can make the world of difference in your classroom.

While I found many useful and new strategies I would like to try in my future classroom, there were a couple that really stuck out to me and caught my attention. One was in Part 4 the Five Principles of Classroom Culture and more specifically chapter 11, High Behavioral Expectations. I found many simple techniques I would like to try that include, but aren’t limited to using radar and how to make yourself be seen looking. This helps keep students on task and is really simple. We can keep our head on a swivel and strategically stand in angles of the classroom that allow us to see the entire class at a simple glance. Also, as we are walking around the classroom we can change our route so that we are unpredictable and they know they should be on task at all times. It is little techniques like this that can aid in keeping our students on task and hold them to high expectations.

Another strategy that really resonated with me in part 2 Academic Ethos, Chapter 6 is called “Cut Off Rally Killers”. When I first read through this strategy it made me giggle and recall many instances where I could have used this strategy. It is a technique to respectfully cut off students who are talking off topic or talking about something that is not contributing to the learning or lesson. This happens to me during my PE classes as well as with my soccer girls I coach. I know there has been times where I let them finish or I cut them off abruptly, but not always in the best manner. Ether I walk away feeling bad for cutting them off or we lost 5 minutes of practice time. This method gives you techniques to redirect the students respectfully and quickly.

I would give Teach Like a Champion 2 thumbs up!! A great book to have for an easy reference with some creative classroom techniques.