Tuned In and Fired Up

Every teacher has powerful memories of becoming swept up in an electric moment when the classroom hums with energy and students are wholly engaged in learning. During such moments of real learning, teenagers find genuine meaning, worth, and value in their academic experiences. And their teachers find in these heightened and exuberant moments the embodiment of their best hopes and ideals as educators.

How can such “teachable moments” be encouraged? What can teachers do to inspire more of these educationally vital episodes? In Tuned In and Fired Up: How Teaching Can Inspire Real Learning in the Classroom, Sam M. Intrator scrutinizes powerful learning moments in a high school classroom. He offers five detailed portraits of these experiences, describing in each case how the teacher shaped the culture of the class, made critical pedagogical decisions, and connected students to the subject matter. Intrator confirms that seemingly magical learning moments can be cultivated, and he suggests numerous practical ideas to help teachers do so.

Praise for Tuned in and Fired Up:

“Should be required reading for every teacher and every student contemplating teaching as a profession.”— Mary Lynn Collins, Teachers College Record
“I yearn for our society to change its vision of education, to remember that hearts must be engaged in order for minds to be put in gear. [Tuned In and Fired Up] adds to my sense of hope. . . . I am grateful for this book.”—Kathy Simon, Horace

Endorsements for Tuned in and Fired Up:

“Great teachers, like Sam Intrator, know what matters most in the classroom. They connect, care, conspire with students; they listen, laugh, and love them into learning. With this terrific book, we can too.” – Rick Jackson, co-director, Center for Teacher Formation

“In this beautifully written book Sam Intrator lets us in to the detailed workings of the teaching/learning relationship at its best.” – Denise Clark Pope, author of Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students

“Sam Intrator is one of the brightest lights in education today. His excellence as a teacher, his commitment to our public schools, his passion for the well-being of the young and those who teach them, his remarkable way with words, and his unwavering integrity mark him as a key leader in the rising generation of scholar-activists who can help bring meaning and purpose back to education. But do not take my word on this. Find out for yourself by reading this lively, compelling, wise, and truly extraordinary book.” – Parker J. Palmer, author of The Courage to Teach and Let Your Life Speak

“Intrator is both thoughtful and articulate in this study of educationally vital moments. His book is engaging, intriguing, and inspiring.” – Robert W. Roeser, Stanford University