Product reviews for How To Teach

Phil Beadle is a legend. His appearance in Channel 4`s The Unteachables was one of the iconic moments of television during the Noughties: his Kung-Fu Punctuation exercises and teaching Macbeth to the cows not only showed the public that difficult subjects could be made fun and easily accessible for the most challenging pupils, but also that great teaching can make a real difference. His new book develops many of the ideas and techniques that he revealed so entertainingly in the TV show. As he says himself, it is not a survival guide but the hard-won wisdom of a practising teacher who confronts the reality of the classroom still. This book is packed full of practical advice from someone who has to deal with pupils chewing gum, eating crisps, not listening, drifting off task, and generally getting up to no good on a daily basis. The solutions he offers are both imaginative, sensible and, above all, WORKABLE. Even though I`ve been teaching for twenty years, I found huge chunks of this book really useful. Even when I disagreed with him - there`s a brilliant but controversial section on ICT in the book - I felt that I had to modify my teaching in the light of what he said. The advice isn`t comforting, it`s more of a wake-up call to the whole profession. To be honest, every teacher should read and act upon this book because there`s a gem on nearly every page.