Wednesday, January 30, 4pm
Bellas Artes, Hernandez Macías 75
free

Listening is Learning - book launch

Book launch: Listening is Learning: Conversations between 20th and 21st Century Teachers

Why come to the Sala Literaria at the Belles Artes to hear Frank Thoms talk about about a book on teaching? If you teach in San Miguel, whether poetry, writing, art, religion, language, et al, you will learn about innovative ways to connect with your students. Teaching, first of all, is not about talking; it’s about engagement, about paying attention to what the learner needs. Good teachers enable people to become agents of their learning. Each time they leave a session, they feel empowered knowing they can pursue learning further on their own.

A second question: Why hear about a book on teaching primarily in the U.S.? Teaching is teaching regardless of context. The ideas in this book offer innovative approaches for engaging learners. You will come away with a deeper appreciation for teachers who face students addicted to their digital devices. And, you may want to read the book or decide to give a copy to a teacher friend or family member.
Teaching, as most people realize, is an under appreciated profession. The notion of ‘those who can, do; those who can’t, teach’ resides deep in the culture. Listening in, however, on conversations with veteran and younger teachers will lift your spirits, lead you into the intricacies of engaged teaching, and inspire you to think there’s hope for our schools.

Of Thoms’s three books with Rowman & Littlefield publishers, this one is unique. In sixteen chapters, readers listen in on discussions of ways to engage students whose lives center on their phones––a challenge that previous generations of teachers did not face. But from his research and experiences, face-to-face classrooms may be the last vestige of hope for young people to learn the essential importance of personal interactions and relationships.

While the people in this book are fictional, they recount real experiences of Thoms’s classroom in public and private schools, mostly with eighth graders. The depth of the conversations emerge from explorations of his ideas and methods. As happens with writers of fiction, sometimes the younger teachers took over the dialogue. Throughout the book, Thoms is optimistic about the future of the profession.

Frank Thoms brings forty years teaching in four countries and twelve years serving as a consultant into Listening is Learning: Conversations between 20th and 21st Century Teachers. The launch for this, his fourth book, will be held on January 30th at the Sala Literaria in the Belles Artes beginning at 4:00 pm.