The Challenge of Greatness

Students, schools, and their communities benefit from the legacy of great teachers. Good teachers push their students, but great teachers teach their students to push themselves within and beyond the walls of the classroom. Gose is one of these great teachers, and his book challenges the good to become great. -- Erin Shitama, Fulbright scholar, former student, and Assistant at Sunset Magazine The Challenge of Greatness is one of those books that takes on that complex and profound idea of how great teachers really do make a difference with clarity and passion. Every teacher, aspiring or experienced, should know about it. -- Rosanne Liesveld, Senior Consultant, Gallup Consulting Gose (Pepperdine Univ.) seeks to clarify the difference between good teachers and great ones and explore and recognize the legacy of great teachers. Gose selects 32 participants who met specific criteria as set forth in the Houston Peterson analysis of great teacher characteristics. Readers may wonder: what makes a great teacher, and have I ever had one? Other chapters address topics such as what great teachers do differently to achieve their reputation and how these teachers identify factors and strategies for meeting the needs of all students in their charge. Gose provides concrete practices, suggestions, and considerations for the educator; however, he counsels that teaching has a creative and artistic side and teachers who confront day-to-day pressures of prescriptions, controls, and meaningless processes may experience frustration. All in all, the author achieves his goal of describing the abstract concept of what good to great teaching can be. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. CHOICE