As a teacher myself, I always like to find things that I can use to inspire my daughter and give her the initiative to want to always do her best. Teach With Your Strengths is a book about finding your strengths in teaching and creating an environment that can appreciate a great teacher.

There are a total of 34 Signature Themes discussed in this book. These themes are found by taking the Clifton Strengths Finder Test. After taking the test and finding your strengths you are well on your way to learning how to be the best teacher you can be. Just to give an idea about the Signature Themes that are discussed in this book, I will list 3 of them and give a description of how each theme can be helpful and how it can help you to have better habits, not only with teaching, but in every aspect of your life.

1. Achiever - People who have a great deal of stamina and work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive.
2. Ideation - People who are especially talented in the ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connection between seemingly disparate (completely different) phenomena.
3. Strategic - People who can create ways to proceed even though faced with any given scenario at any time, they can quickly spot relevant patterns and issues.

By understanding that weaknesses can be built upon, as well as the idea that strengths can knock you down, these themes can be used to build effective teaching methods and make learning easier for everyone. Here is how this works -- someone who is considered an Achiever has lots of stamina and works hard is always great to have on the job, however, this same person could have a weakness in that same area because they cannot redirect their focus onto other tasks that are just as important. A person with Ideation would be just as great to have around because their full of ideas and seem to have fresh thoughts on things anytime it's necessary; however, this person may not have good communication skills or does not develop the ideas well. The last theme mentioned is a Strategic theme and the person who has this talent may be a great planner and organizer, herein lies the weakness from that, this person gets things too advanced with strategies and follows through too soon without an adequate plan or amount of time. What does one do with this information? Follow and nurture your strengths along with someone who has the strength that you might lack in, according to the authors of this book. Finding balance can be a struggle for anyone and I'd say is for most people. This program could be extremely expensive if paired with the Strengths Finder Test and would not be affordable for most individuals. I would highly recommend it if cost was not a factor.

Product Review by Nancy King, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, November, 2008