In Authentic Educating, Leahy describes teaching methods that can be used in every discipline and strategies that work in classrooms from elementary to graduate school. Authentic educating integrates several philosophic perspectives to yield theory and practice that encourages high levels of teaching and learning in elementary through graduate school. Authentic educating helps students to understand concepts from mathematics to chemistry to music and language arts in ways that engage them cognitively and emotionally. Authentic educative events are project-oriented and include personal and academic products. Projects entail students doing and making things guided by powerful learning tools. Personal products include: reaction papers, personal journals, concept maps, performing plays, and constructing Vee diagrams. Academic products include: essays, term papers, field journals, exams, concept maps to summarize novels and articles, panel presentations and discussions, and Vees. The aim of this book is to create authentic relationships that resonate within the principles of democracy upon which this country was founded. Readers can gain a deeper understanding of the teaching methods described in this book by viewing the video samples featured on the Authentic Educating website, www.authenticeducating.com.
