Elizabeth Green

We romanticize teachers, and we vilify them, but we don’t do much to help. This beautifully written, defiantly hopeful book points the way to a better future for American teachers and the children they teach.Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed

There is no such thing as a natural-born teacher, says Elizabeth Green. As a Spencer fellow, Green penned a cover story for The New York Times Magazine, dispelling the myth that good teaching is purely instinctual. The article was so wildly popular—sparking a national conversation on the state of education—that she was offered a full length book deal. Now a New York Times bestseller, Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone) shows us that teaching is a complex skill—one that requires infrastructure for support and training. How do America’s best educators master their craft? What techniques do they use in the classroom? And what could America’s education system learn from other countries in the world? Green considers all of these questions, and more, in a book that has been called “required reading” for every teacher and tax payer.

Elizabeth Green is also co-founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief of Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization that covers educational change efforts across the country. Fiercely independent and mission-driven, Chalkbeat believes that strong press is the key to improving education for children everywhere—especially those who have been historically denied access. In addition to The New York Times Magazine, Greene has written for The New York Sun and U.S. News & World Report. She was an Abe Journalism Fellow studying education in Japan and a Spencer Fellow in education journalism at Columbia University. She serves on the board of the Education Writers Association.