Introduction

This Introduction explains how the best educators profoundly understand and “feel” their teaching, responding, and shifting to meet students' constantly changing individual needs and those of the entire class. It introduces the intangibles of teaching that the book deconstructs and then details: the parts teachers play, flows teachers choose to connect the parts, and responding to or waving off the many informing or alerting signals. It emphasizes how intuitive teachers know the power of visualizing their performance in the classroom as athletes do through self-observation—watching yourself teach in your imagination—observing how your students feel and react and how they benefit from your decisions.