Would you rather watch three episodes of 'CSI' or three episodes of CI?

What is this, an early Christmas gift from Boice? Chapters that make me feel better about teaching?

First, in chapter 7, he’s all like, “let other people work for you.” Cha. I’m on board, Robbie, I’m on board.

Chapter 8 confronted me with a scary situation—his suggestion that two of every three classrooms experience these CIs. It will probably happen to me. But I think that Boice has given some good advice here.

His point about timing echoes what we heard from J+R. If something is going wrong, shut it down immediately. Establish your authority early on or you’ll never get it back, and then the value of the class will suffer.

I also like Boice’s approach because it endorses a removal from self. It’s like when a jazz soloist escapes self-consciousness to reach his potential. Being self-centered is a quick way to problems with student behavior.

I think we—the MAs, I mean—we’ve got an advantage because we’ve been students so long and so recently. I think teachers run into trouble when they can’t imagine themselves in their students’ seats. As long as we ask ourselves what we’d want as one of our students, I think we can maintain strong connections in the classroom.