Kevin Lister - Teach Like You Imagined It: Finding the right balance

We all have a unique backstory, and when this background is filtered into current practice it can produce some really fascinating insights. This is the case with Kevin Lister. With a professional background in engineering, Kevin has some very interesting and pertinent questions to ask about efficiency and lean organisations and in Teach Like You Imagined It he provides plenty to think about when it comes to refining our practice.

A really enjoyable and accessible read.

Mary Myatt, adviser, speaker and author of The Curriculum: From Gallimaufry to Coherence

Too often the discourse on teacher workload and wellbeing has focused on the symptoms and causes rather than the solutions. Kevin Listers Teach Like You Imagined It reverses this by reflecting on the reasons why people join the teaching profession, why it is such an awesome and exciting career, what we can control, and why all of this is so vitally important for future generations.

Drawing honestly and with humility on his extensive experience as a teacher and school leader and on his previous roles in the engineering industry, Kevin forensically analyses specific aspects of being a teacher in order to help readers reconnect with the teacher they imagined they would be and manage their wellbeing and workload more effectively.

This excellent book contains a wealth of practical advice, thus providing a blueprint for teachers and school leaders to take back ownership of their professional and personal lives in the interests of the young people they serve. I wholeheartedly recommend it to teachers and school leaders.

Brian Lightman, former general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders

I have long believed that every good teacher is committed to becoming an even better teacher, and in Teach Like You Imagined It Kevin Lister offers advice to everyone at any stage of their career for whom this is true. He encourages teachers to explore how they can identify specific areas for improvement, build on their strengths and develop those areas in which they are less competent and confident through reflection, specific action and, crucially, a determination to work more efficiently.

While he accepts that the profession needs to exert what pressure it can to address those externally imposed factors which can make teachers work draining, at the same time he exhorts educators to consider the agency they have and to strive to use it positively. This is such an important message, and Kevins advice is balanced and sensible grounded in his own practice, in his reflections from the front line of teaching and in his experience as a senior leader.

Teach Like You Imagined It will be useful to classroom practitioners and school leaders in challenging and supporting them on their journey to becoming the teachers and leaders they dream of being.

Jill Berry, leadership consultant and former head teacher

Kevin Lister is clearly a man of considerable experience and wisdom. The personal reflections he shares in Teach Like You Imagined It are excellent, built as they are on his very evident passion for teaching which adds huge authenticity to what he writes. The guidance Kevin provides is all so perceptive and practical too, making the book an insightful and helpful resource for teachers.

Sir John Rowling, founder of PiXL

What Kevin Lister brings in Teach Like You Imagined It is the analytical mind of an engineer to the teaching profession. His career in the car industry prior to entering the teaching profession enables him to view educational challenges through a different prism to most, and in this thought-provoking book he rallies teachers to work more effectively and achieve successful longevity in the profession.

The eyes of an engineer question the costbenefit analysis of going the extra mile, now specifically lauded in the new Ofsted framework, in working long hours beyond reasonable expectation noting that in education there is rarely any evaluation of the cost of a task because it usually only costs the time of those involved. Kevin rightly articulates there is a tipping point beyond which more teacher effort does not necessarily translate into more student progress, and he applies the law of diminishing returns to suggest that going the extra mile may be no more effective than going the extra inch. This is followed by specific guidance on how to prioritise what to do now, do next, do last and what not to do.

The delicious irony of the teaching profession is that teachers are often good at advising students on how to spend their time, yet they are not so good themselves at practising what they preach. The challenge set out loud and clear in this book is to take back control and plan what you do most notably how you choose to allocate your precious time to make teaching an enjoyable, impactful and ultimately sustainable job!

Teach Like You Imagined It offers a timely reminder of why you became a teacher and will help you rediscover, nurture and make use of that passion and enthusiasm.

Neil Wallace, Head Teacher, Stratford upon Avon School

This excellent and accessible book will support and challenge teachers to become better educators without sacrificing the life they lead outside the school gates. With a retention and recruitment crisis across the UK, Teach Like You Imagined It is important reading for teachers and school leaders alike.

Damian Benney, Deputy Head Teacher, Penyrheol Comprehensive School