In Case You Missed These Stories

Tim Whitaker — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:21:46 +0000

“Building a Better Teacher,” by Elizabeth Green
Excerpt: “But what makes a good teacher? There have been many quests for the one essential trait, and they have all come up empty-handed. Among the factors that do not predict whether a teacher will succeed: a graduate-school degree, a high score on the SAT, an extroverted personality, politeness, confidence, warmth, enthusiasm and having passed the teacher-certification exam on the first try. When Bill Gates announced recently that his foundation was investing millions in a project to improve teaching quality in the United States, he added a rueful caveat. ‘Unfortunately, it seems the field doesn’t have a clear view of what characterizes good teaching,’ Gates said. ‘I’m personally very curious.’” New York Times

“Book Tour? More Like a Safari,” by Carolyn Kellogg
Excerpt: “As the business of publishing changes, book tours increasingly look like bad risks. ‘In 99.9% of cases,’ says Peter Miller, director of publicity at Bloomsbury USA, ‘you can’t justify the costs through regular book sales… Book tours used to be about local media. ‘You would go to these places to get reviews, interviews, TV and radio,’ Miller explains, but with print outlets closing down and cutting coverage and new technologies enabling long-distance video interviews, ‘it is becoming less important to do that kind of tour.’” LA Times

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In Case You Missed These Stories