Teach Like Yourself
How Authentic Teaching Transforms Our Students and Ourselves
Corwin Teaching Essentials
What your students need is you. Your fullest most authentic self.
Gravity Goldberg’s Teach Like Yourself helps you be the biggest, boldest, and most powerful version of your teacher self. It reminds you why you became a teacher and coaches you to bring your unique gifts and talents into the classroom. The difference between a so-so lesson and one that leaves a lasting impact on students has everything to do with how confident and connected you feel to yourself and your students.
Read this book when you need an extra shot of bravery. It’s a perfect resource if
- You want to coach yourself into fulfilling your teacher potential
- You are looking for more balance in your teaching and personal life
- You want a pep talk for saying no to what doesn’t help students and yes to what you know does
- You want to grow and deepen your practice without losing yourself in the process
In this, her fifth and most personal book, Gravity uses her gifts for developing teacher agency as she invites you to take on five powerful practices:
- Naming your core beliefs
- Viewing teaching as a practice
- Building balanced relationships
- Driving professional growth
- Taking care of your whole self
To support you as you make these five practices lifelong habits, Gravity includes illuminating stories, reflection questions, short videos of advice from her and other educators, a full-color Teach Like Yourself Manifesto poster, and a Teach Like Yourself Facebook group moderated by the author.
Free resources
Teach Like Yourself Manifesto Poster
Use this poster from Teach Like Yourself by Gravity Goldberg to remind yourself of the importance of teaching in a way that is true to your own self.
Teach Like Yourself: Interview with Gravity Goldberg
Watch this interview with Gravity Goldberg about her book, Teach Like Yourself, and why she is devoted to encouraging teachers to teach like themselves, rather than trying to emulate others.
Webinar: Teach Like Yourself: Why Your Students Need You to Be You
This webinar from Gravity Goldberg, author of Teach Like Yourself, offers special insight on how to use your gifts to be the teacher you’re uniquely intended to be.
"Gravity Goldberg is shining a light on the truth of what it means to be a teacher that makes a difference. Every child deserves one, and every teacher is capable of becoming one."
“Gravity Goldberg reminds us all that successful teachers are driven less by curriculum guides and more by the relationships they take the time to build with colleagues, students, and families. Goldberg’s personal stories give us more than a glimpse into her own continuous-improvement journey; in this way she builds an effective and instructive relationship with readers at any grade level. I highly recommend this book for teachers and administrators.”
“We often forget that to give our students the best, we need to be at our best. Gravity provides avenues within our practices and outside the classroom to rejuvenate our passion to teach authentically.”
“What I most love about Teach Like Yourself is Goldberg's ability to focus on what really matters. A must read for both experienced and novice teachers who are looking for a practical resource that gets to the heart of why we teach.”
“Gravity Goldberg's book provides an essential teacher guide to self-reflection. It offers challenging questions we must consider in order to be effective and fulfilled teachers over the long-term.”
"I love this book! Gravity Goldberg addresses many important issues of our profession during this digital age. Too often what we see on social media creates an insecurity in ourselves, when those images do not tell the whole story. She believes this obsession with the next bandwagon gets us away from our why. Instead of getting caught up in teaching like someone else, Goldberg shows us the importance of teaching like ourselves."
"How I wish this book was out when I started teaching! The principles and strategies here will make me a better teacher even as a veteran. It is a gift to the field."
"Like a spa day, reading Teach Like Yourself affirms and pampers teacher soul. Goldberg vividly pulls together personal stories, research-based practices, and reflection invitations into a gorgeous bouquet of support for teachers."
"Gravity Goldberg understands the power of story! In Teach Like Yourself, she urges us to find and use our core stories about teaching and learning to become more than a person who delivers a program or teaching script. She shares her personal accounts of when she practiced in ways that weren't true to herself, when she was, and how she has learned to be more deeply attuned to her own authenticity, more often. She poses questions to help us explore how reflection, creativity, and imagination lead to responsive teaching and trusting relationships with students, colleagues, and ourselves. Each chapter moves us deeper into a process that puts us in touch with our core beliefs about teaching and learning and how to nurture and broaden those beliefs. Gravity shows us how to learn from students and other educators and take ownership of our teaching lives. Finally, her call to action—join the movement of #teachlikeyourself—invites us to transform the culture of accountability, teaching to tests, and blame into a culture that helps us find our teaching greatness."
“Gravity Goldberg’s Teach Like Yourself offers a masterful instructional lens through which we get to view—and take on— a transformative process leading to professional ownership. Gravity dedicates her book to ‘brave’ teachers everywhere and then shows us how to nurture our inner brave. Through her wisdom, we learn how to turn teaching inward, to our strengths and to discovering and nurturing our innermost beliefs about learning. Through this reflection rises new knowledge and renewed courage. Owning this book is like having Gravity Goldberg as our personal professional life coach, for she gently nudges us to authenticity while ever reminding us to keep self-care in our sights. Three simple but powerful words suddenly loom large throughout this book, and will inspire us all to bring her words to life – ‘You are enough.’”
