This week I read Strategies and Techniques of Law School Teaching: A Primer for New (and Not So New) Professors, co-authored by Howard Katz and Kevin O'Neill and published by Aspen Publishers in 2009. Here's a description from the publisher's website:
Strategies and Techniques of Law School Teaching is intended to
help
you, as a new law teacher, prepare for your first semesters in the
classroom. It begins at the preliminary stages of planning a new course and takes
you all
the way to writing and grading your final exam. Authors Katz and O'Neill
offer
experience and insight to the tasks of coming up with teaching
objectives,
choosing your book, crafting your syllabus, and creating a classroom
atmosphere that is conducive to learning. The day-to-day teaching
techniques
in this primer for new (and not so new) professors will prepare you to
successfully field students' questions, teach legal analysis to
first-year
students, and make the most of today's pedagogy and technology to
support your
teaching.
There's something in this book for everyone, regardless of experience. But I highly recommend it to anyone who will soon be starting (or just started) a law school teaching career. Contact the publisher, or ask your academic dean to send you a copy. I'm glad I read the book. You'll enjoy it, too!
I'm extremely privileged to have Howard Katz as a colleague. And Tim will be interested to know that Howard is a huge baseball fan.