Every­one agrees that a great teacher can have an enor­mous impact, yet we still don’t know what, pre­cise­ly, makes a teacher great. Is it a mat­ter of nat­ur­al-born charis­ma? Or does great teach­ing require some­thing more? Build­ing a Bet­ter Teacher by first-time author Eliz­a­beth Green intro­duces a new gen­er­a­tion of edu­ca­tors who are reveal­ing the hid­den sci­ence behind their art. A yeshi­va alum applies his close-read­ing skills to divin­ing the nuances of teach­ing; a for­mer prin­ci­pal stud­ies the coun­try’s best teach­ers and dis­cov­ers a com­mon set of tech­niques to help chil­dren pay atten­tion; two math teach­ers video­tape a year of lessons and devel­op a new approach that has nine-year-olds writ­ing sophis­ti­cat­ed math­e­mat­i­cal proofs. Through their stories�and the hilar­i­ous and heart­break­ing the­ater that unfolds between chil­dren and teach­ers every day�Green explores the dynam­ics of tru­ly effec­tive teach­ing. Explor­ing the aston­ish­ing­ly diverse skills excep­tion­al teach­ers must devel­op, Green pro­vides a new way for par­ents to judge what their chil­dren need in the classroom�and con­sid­ers how to make every teacher great.