Pursuing Greatness
Empowering Teachers to Take Charge of Their Professional Growth
You’ve probably heard the saying that teaching is a journey.
So . . . where are you on your journey?
That question likely has more than one answer, depending on what you’re trying to get better at right now. Most teachers, if not all, have a “problem of practice” or two about their instructional planning or delivery that they’re trying to solve. That reflective journey toward improvement can be a tough road even for the best educators, often presenting navigational challenges that can leave you feeling directionless, running in circles, or even in uncharted territory.
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PROBLEM OF PRACTICE #25
Pursuing Greatness Readers: Get additional resources, download a template to solve your own Problem of Practice #25, and join a conversation with the authors.
Solving problems of practice
We’re giving you the reins!
In Pursuing Greatness, five leading thinkers, consultants, and writers on teaching and learning have organized two dozen of the most common teacher problems of practice into six pathways and provided self-reflection guidance and tools to solve them. You’ll gain research-based insights into why each strategy works, tips for how to apply it, and an opportunity to reflect on how it affects your own teaching and learning.
Pete Hall, Alisa Simeral, Bryan Goodwin, Bj Stone, and Bess Scott demonstrate the power of self-reflection to help you take charge of your own professional growth, achieve deeper insights into your own strengths of practice, and get better engagement from your students.
The teacher talent development journey consists of four refinement phases along each pathway:
CONSISTENCY
Teacher-owned,
Student-experienced
CONNECTEDNESS
Teacher-directed,
Student-connected
DIFFERENTIATION
Student-engaged,
Teacher-facilitated
EMPOWERMENT
Student-owned,
Teacher-guided
Your starting point on the pathways is less important than your destination:
a student-owned, teacher-guided, empowered classroom.
Book Reviews
Six classroom improvement pathways
Use Pursuing Greatness to begin your improvement journey on any one of these six pathways.
Start anywhere in the book with the problem of classroom practice that seems most urgent to you right now.
Nurturing a positive learning environment
Challenging students to commit to mastery-level learning
Designing engaging learning
Motivating students with feedback
Assessing for learning
Creating dynamic group learning
Information & Resources
Videos
Pursuing Greatness: Helping Teachers Solve Their Instructional Challenges
In this video, Bryan Goodwin, co-author of Pursuing Greatness: Empowering Teachers to Take Charge of Their Professional Growth, gives an overview of the 24 problems of practice the book addresses and the self-reflection guidance and tools the co-authors provide to help teachers solve them.
Pursuing Greatness: How to Self-Reflect for Professional Growth
One of the most effective, efficient ways teachers can grow their instructional skill and savvy is to learn how to self-reflect frequently, accurately, and deeply on their classroom practices. In this video, co-author Pete Hall describes the four-stage reflective cycle used in the book to help teachers better understand a problem of practice, set a growth goal, intentionally select a few new things they can try in their classrooms to get better, and then reflect on outcomes and next steps.
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Schedule a free 30-minute consultation with one of our instructional experts to discuss your needs.
About the Authors
Pete Hall
Pete Hall is a veteran school administrator, keynote speaker, and professional development agent who has dedicated his career to supporting the improvement of our education systems. Pursuing Greatness is Pete’s ninth book—and his fifth collaboration with Alisa Simeral, including their book, Creating a Culture of Reflective Practice: Capacity-Building for Schoolwide Success (ASCD, 2017).
Alisa Simeral
Author and consultant Alisa Simeral has guided reform efforts as a teacher, instructional coach, administrator, professional developer, and leadership mentor in K–12 and adult education settings. She is a co-author of numerous publications, including the bestseller, Creating a Culture of Reflective Practice: Capacity-Building for Schoolwide Success (ASCD, 2017).
Bryan Goodwin
Bryan Goodwin is president and CEO of McREL International. For more than 20 years at McREL, he has translated research into practice, scanning the world for new insights and best practices on teaching and leading. A frequent conference presenter and keynote speaker, he is author and co-author of numerous books on education, including Out of Curiosity: Restoring the Power of Hungry Minds for Better Schools, Workplaces and Lives (McREL, 2018), Instructional Models: How to Choose One and How to Use One (McREL, 2019), and Curiosity Works: A Guidebook for Moving Your Schools From Improvement to Innovation (McREL, 2018).
Bj Stone, Ed.D.
Dr. Bj Stone is an independent consultant and owner of Advantage Learning and Leading, a co-author of the second editions of Classroom Instruction That Works (ASCD, 2012) and A Handbook for Classroom Instruction That Works (ASCD, 2012), and the author of the second edition of the Facilitator’s Manual for Classroom Instruction That Works (McREL, 2012). A former middle and high school science teacher, university instructor, and central office administrator, she served for 12 years as a consulting director at McREL International, working internationally and nationally with K–12 teachers and administrators.
Bess Scott, Ph.D.
Dr. Bess Scott is an associate professor of educational leadership at Doane University in Lincoln, Nebraska. Prior to working with McREL for several years as a managing consultant, she spent her 36-year public school career in Omaha and Lincoln teaching French, English, physical education, and health, serving in multiple leadership roles culminating with director of continuous improvement for Lincoln Public Schools.
Synopsis
View or download our book synopsis to share with your school or district administration staff.
Unleashing Curiosity Quick Guide Series
Our Unleashing Curiosity guides are part of McREL’s Curiosity Works® resources. Based in part on a successful system-wide effort in Melbourne, Australia, that improved student achievement by unleashing student curiosity, these resources give teachers and school leaders tips, suggestions, and ideas to encourage professional dialogue with other teachers and increase student curiosity. Combining these insights with McREL’s analysis of best education practices from around the world, our Curiosity Works resources support a better way of transforming schools—not through top-down pressure, but through helping teachers and school leaders work together to develop shared professional expertise and leverage the power of motivation and curiosity.
The six key practices in the series are:
- Creating challenging learning tasks
- Providing feedback that motivates
- Helping students commit to mastery
- Encouraging dynamic cooperation
- Framing quality questions
- Committing to assessment for learning
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Classroom Instruction That Works®
Improving instruction for better student learning is about science, not guesswork. McREL’s research and analysis of hundreds of instructional strategies used in thousands of classrooms and, most importantly, their impact on student achievement, reveals which ones work best. Together, these nine best categories of instructional strategies form the heart of McREL’s Classroom Instruction That Works (CITW) books, resources, and professional learning services for teachers, instructional coaches, and school leaders worldwide. CITW gives educators a clear, consistent approach to instruction, providing recommendations and tools for developing stronger lesson plans, effective classroom delivery, and a common vocabulary for teaching and sharing of best practices across schools and districts. In addition, we help teachers use the nine strategies most effectively within a three-part instructional planning guide designed to: create the environment for learning; help students develop understanding; and help students extend and apply knowledge.
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Instructional Coaching
Use effective instructional coaching practices to create a unified, collegial, and supportive environment for teachers to collaboratively learn with, and from, each other. McREL can help your school or district create effective teacher teams that use peer observations and feedback to address specific instructional goals and spark innovative practices to improve overall instructional practice and support better classroom learning and management.