Who’s Being Served?

Asking “Who’s Being Served?” reveals who truly benefits from what gets planned, implemented and assessed in today’s classrooms. Think about what student-centered classrooms and good restaurants have in common: they each put the customer first! Education is a service industry where relationship building matters. Learn how to transform schools and learning opportunities to be more engaging and effective for students. In this helpful and relevant volume, John Hayward offers advice from over twenty years of teaching about how and why to make the move from teacher-centric control to student-centered facilitation. Each chapter references secrets from the dining industry in regards to how research, planning and observation influence how one serves others. Whether you are an administrator, instructor or school staff, your daily interaction with students needs to be at the level outlined in this book to make a lasting, positive difference. When students choose more, interact more and fully live their learning, their education serves them for longer than a unit or a year. If schools focus on students personally, putting relationships first, the experience and the positive results will last for a lifetime.

How much is a student-centered school classroom like a good restaurant? Plenty, John Hayward shows, as he walks us through the thinking, steps, and elements of the high-quality teaching involved in creating such a learning experience – quoting a savvy pair of sandwich-shop owners along the way. New teachers will appreciate the cheer-leading and concepts that this excellent, deeply experienced teacher provides. And veteran teachers will grab onto many of the thoughtful strategies Hayward shares. I already used one of them just as soon as I read about it!, Hayward has written a guide that both new and veteran teachers should follow if they want to truly make a difference in their students' lives. Hayward creates a unique analogy that showcases just how important it is for teachers to not only respect, but celebrate, their students. Using his extensive experience in the classroom, he shares a series of concrete behaviors that bring introspection, observation, adjustment and connection with students to the forefront.

In over twenty years of teaching, John Hayward has learned many strategies for reaching, including and celebrating students. He currently serves others as a husband, father, high school teacher-librarian, college adjunct, and a writer.