Building the Best LSAT Teacher
I wrote a while back about our selection process //www.atlaslsat.com/lsat/blog/index.php/2009/11/16/what-makes-for-a-good-lsat-teacher/ but an article in the Sunday NY Times Magazine made me think some more about what makes for great LSAT teaching: //www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Teachers-t.html?ref=magazine
Doug Lemov, the main subject of the article, went around and videotaped teachers to create a catalog of effective teaching moves. He actually filmed me when I used to teach 5th and 6th grade math at North Star Academy in Newark (if I recall, it’s a clip of me telling a kid to sit down — over and over again). I truly admire Doug’s work — it provides a way to look at and work on some of the tangible ingredients that make a teacher great, and thus, students learn. At times, I find the focus on moves a bit too narrow, but as the article suggests, the moves are just part of the package — a teacher needs to know the content backwards and forwards, and have a great curriculum.
It turns out that a lot of the moves that are effective in a middle school math classroom are the same ones that make an LSAT classroom work. Not that we need to tell students to sit down (or at least not over and over again), but keeping every student engaged is part of an Atlas LSAT teacher’s job. Sure, people who sign up for an LSAT class are self-motivated, but if they’re bored they’re bored! So, cold-calling (read the article) is needed for adults too! Be ready, the next question may be yours….