Your First Year

Your First Year
Author: Todd Whitaker
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2016-04-28
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1317296850

Learn all the essentials for making your first year of teaching a success! In this exciting new book, internationally renowned educator Todd Whitaker teams up with his daughters--Madeline, an elementary teacher, and Katherine, a secondary teacher--to share advice and inspiration. They offer step-by-step guidance to thriving in your new role and overcoming the challenges that many new teachers face. Topics include: Learning classroom management skills such as building relationships and maintaining high expectations and consistency Setting up your classroom and establishing procedures and rules Planning effective lessons and making your instructional time an engaging experience Managing your own emotions in the classroom and dealing effectively with misbehavior Working with peers, administrators, and parents to build support and foster collaboration The book is filled with specific examples and vignettes from elementary, middle, and high school classes, so you’ll gain helpful strategies no matter what grade level and subject area you teach. You’ll also find out how to make tweaks or hit the "reset" button when something isn’t going as planned. Things may not always go perfectly your first year, but the practical advice in this book will help you stay motivated on the path to success! Bonus: As you read the book, get even more out of it by discussing it with others. Free study guides for practicing teachers and student teachers are available as eResource downloads from our website (www.routledge.com/products/9781138126152).

Everything a New Elementary School Teacher REALLY Needs to Know (But Didn't Learn in College)

Everything a New Elementary School Teacher REALLY Needs to Know (But Didn't Learn in College)
Author: Otis Kriegel
Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2013-03-06
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1575426439

Not your typical how-to manual for new teachers, this no-nonsense, jargon-free guide offers a wide variety of tools and tactics for getting through every school day with grace and sanity. Covered in glue, glitter, orange juice—or worse? Make a quick change into the spare set of clothes you keep on hand for just this purpose. Butterflies in your stomach before your first-ever Meet the Teacher Night? Keep your cool by writing the agenda on your board—it’ll double as a crib sheet for you. These tips and hundreds more, covering virtually every aspect of teaching, have all been learned the hard way: from real-life classroom experience. Otis Kriegel’s “little black book” will be a treasured resource for teachers who want not only to survive but to thrive in any situation.

A Letter from Your Teacher

A Letter from Your Teacher
Author: Shannon Olsen
Publisher: Life Between Summers
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-03
Genre: Children's stories
ISBN: 9781735414140

From the author and illustrator of Our Class is a Family, this touching picture book expresses a teacher's sentiments and well wishes on the last day of school. Serving as a follow up to the letter in A Letter From Your Teacher: On the First Day of School, it's a read aloud for teachers to bid a special farewell to their students at the end of the school year. Through a letter written from the teacher's point of view, the class is invited to reflect back on memories made, connections formed, and challenges met. The letter expresses how proud their teacher is of them, and how much they will be missed. Students will also leave on that last day knowing that their teacher is cheering them on for all of the exciting things to come in the future. There is a blank space on the last page for teachers to sign their own name, so that students know that the letter in the book is coming straight from them. With its sincere message and inclusive illustrations, A Letter From Your Teacher: On the Last Day of School is a valuable addition to any elementary school teacher's classroom library.

The New Teacher Book

The New Teacher Book
Author: Terry Burant
Publisher: Rethinking Schools
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2010
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0942961471

Teaching is a lifelong challenge, but the first few years in the classroom are typically a teacher's hardest. This expanded collection of writings and reflections offers practical guidance on how to navigate the school system, form rewarding relationships with colleagues, and connect in meaningful ways with students and families from all cultures and backgrounds.

The Knowledge Gap

The Knowledge Gap
Author: Natalie Wexler
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2020-08-04
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0735213569

The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis--and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty. It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware. But The Knowledge Gap isn't just a story of what schools have gotten so wrong--it also follows innovative educators who are in the process of shedding their deeply ingrained habits, and describes the rewards that have come along: students who are not only excited to learn but are also acquiring the knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to succeed. If we truly want to fix our education system and unlock the potential of our neediest children, we have no choice but to pay attention.

Success from the Start

Success from the Start
Author: Kathy Ernst
Publisher: Mitchell Beazley
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2014
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 9780873536783

This book highlights how students learn math and the pedagogy behind it. Using vignettes based on real classroom discussions, the authors illustrate effective teaching practices to support math learning. Success from the Start: Your First Years Teaching Elementary Mathematics acts as a supportive and reassuring companion that you can return to throughout your journey as an elementary mathematics teacher. As a beginning elementary mathematics teacher you might already be asking yourself these questions: How can I differentiate my teaching to meet the diverse needs of my students? What assessments best advance student learning? How can students understand math if I do not show them different strategies and tell them about the underlying mathematical structures and properties? What advice do I give parents about how to support their children’s math learning?

See Me After Class

See Me After Class
Author: Roxanna Elden
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2013-11-07
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1402297076

The Most Dog-Eared "Teacher's Edition" You'll Have in Your Classroom Teaching is tough. And teachers, like the rest of the population, aren't perfect. Yet good teaching happens, and great teachers continue to inspire and educate generations of students. See Me After Class helps those great teachers of the future to survive the classroom long enough to become great. Fueled by hundreds of hilarious—and sometimes shocking—tales from the teachers who lived them, Elden provides tips and strategies that deal head-on with the challenges that aren't covered in new-teacher training. Lessons can go wrong. Parents may yell at you. Sunday evenings will sometimes be accompanied by the dreaded countdown to Monday morning. As a veteran teacher, Elden offers funny, practical, and honest advice, to help teachers walk through the doors of their classrooms day after day with clarity, confidence...and sanity! "A useful, empathetic guide to weathering the first-year lumps...a frothy, satisfying Guinness for the teacher's soul."—Dan Brown, NBCT, Director of the Future Educators Association, and author of The Great Expectations School "See Me After Class is a must-have book for any teacher's bookshelf. On second thought, you'll probably want to keep it on your classroom desk since you'll use it so much!"—Larry Ferlazzo, teacher and author of Helping Students Motivate Themselves "This is the kind of no-nonsense straight talk that teachers are starved for, but too rarely get...Roxanna Elden tells it like it is, with a heavy dose of practicality, a dash of cynicism, a raft of constructive suggestions, and plenty of wry humor."—Rick Hess, Director of Education Policy Studies at AEI, author of Education Week blog, "Rich Hess Straight Up"

First Year Teacher's Survival Guide

First Year Teacher's Survival Guide
Author: Julia G. Thompson
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 462
Release: 2009-05-18
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0470493313

The best-selling First Year Teacher's Survival Kit gives new teachers a wide variety of tested strategies, activities, and tools for creating a positive and dynamic learning environment while meeting the challenges of each school day. Packed with valuable tips, the book helps new teachers with everything from becoming effective team players and connecting with students to handling behavior problems and working within diverse classrooms. The new edition is fully revised and updated to cover changes in the K-12 classroom over the past five years. Updates to the second edition include: • New ways teachers can meet the professional development requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act • Entirely new section on helping struggling readers, to address the declining literacy rate among today’s students • Expanded coverage of helpful technology solutions for the classroom • Expanded information on teaching English Language Learners • Greater coverage of the issues/challenges facing elementary teachers • More emphasis on how to reach and teach students of poverty • Updated study techniques that have proven successful with at-risk students • Tips on working effectively within a non-traditional school year schedule • The latest strategies for using graphic organizers • More emphasis on setting goals to help students to succeed • More information on intervening with students who are capable but choose not to work • Updated information on teachers’ rights and responsibilities regarding discipline issues • Fully revised Resources appendix including the latest educational Web sites and software

Finding Mrs. Warnecke

Finding Mrs. Warnecke
Author: Cindi Rigsbee
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2010-03-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0470486783

Finding Mrs. Warnecke tells the inspiring story of Cindi Rigsbee, a three-time Teacher of the Year, and Barbara Warnecke, the first-grade teacher who had a profound and lasting impact on Cindi's life. Cindi, an insecure child who craved positive attention, started her first-grade year with a teacher who was emotionally abusive and played favorites in the classroom. Two months into the school year, her principal came into the classroom and announced that half the students were being moved to another classroom--a dank, windowless basement room, with a young and inexperienced teacher. This change turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to Cindi. Her new teacher, Mrs. Warnecke, made learning come alive for her students. She went overboard caring for each child, made her classroom "magical," and encouraged students to pursue their dreams. Although Cindi was reluctant to explore her creativity as a student, Mrs. Warnecke encouraged her to read and write poetry, which became a lifelong passion. The two kept in touch for several years but lost track of each other when Mrs. Warnecke moved out of state. Cindi spent many years trying to reconnect so she could thank Mrs. Warnecke for making such a difference in her life, but to no avail. Eventually Cindi became a teacher herself, and thirty years later she has taught more than 2,000 children and been named Teacher of the Year for her home state. She later came to realize that all those years she wasn't really trying to track down Barbara Warnecke, but rather, she was trying to "find Mrs. Warnecke" within herself. In Fall 2008 Cindi and Barbara were reunited on Good Morning America; the show's producers had tracked Barbara down and brought both women on-set for a tearful reunion. Barbara was floored at this attention--she had no idea she could have made such an impact on a former student's life. As Cindi travels around talking with new and veteran educators, she is always approached by audience members who are moved to tears and want to share the story of the "Mrs. Warnecke" in their own lives. Finding Mrs. Warnecke not only tells the story of this teacher who made a lifelong impact on her students, it illustrates the importance of the teacher/student relationship in the classroom, and offers principles for other teachers to follow to make a positive impact in their own classrooms.

The Joyful Classroom

The Joyful Classroom
Author: Responsive Classroom
Publisher: Center for Responsive Schools, Inc.
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2016-03-16
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1892989832

Students learn more—and with more joy—when lessons connect with their lives and interests while challenging them to stretch and grow. In this book, you'll find practical, ready-to-use strategies for creating active and exciting lessons. You'll learn about: Partnering and grouping students for optimum learning Using interactive learning structures such as Maître d' and Swap Meets to support active learning Incorporating acting, drawing, debating, and more into daily lessons while still meeting rigorous learning goals Infusing lessons with choices in what or how to learn to increase students ownership of their learning Incorporating student self-assessment tools to help children monitor and evaluate their own work and identify ways to improve their learning Filled with lesson plans, precise directions for interactive learning structures, planning guides, and more!