Books, Books, Books: New Teacher Tips
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The following titles relate to this month’s theme: New Teacher Tips
The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher, Third Edition
Grades 1–12
The First Days of School offers anecdotal notes for new teachers and seasoned veterans on how to successfully facilitate your classroom in the first few days. These strategies will set the stage for the degree of success in your classroom over the course of the school year. This text includes suggestions on classroom management, lesson planning, and building a rapport with students.
Teacher Research: Stories of Learning and Growing
Grades 1–12
NSTA Press
Think you do not have time to do research? How about professional growth—that seem out of reach, too? Let your peers take you on their journeys and inspire you through their stories in Teacher Research. Gain insight into teacher research—the kind that can take place when you reflect on how one question is leading to another, or on a colleague’s observation that offers a different lens through which to view the classroom, or on a conversation with a student that sheds light on classroom performance issues.
The editors do not define research rigidly, and the book reads more like a journal than a research report. The chapter authors range from first-year elementary teachers to doctoral candidates. But, even when the authors have not set out to do formal research, they come to see that they are engaging in exploration that can bring the same insights into better teaching that more formal research provides. They ask questions about practice, collect evidence, make sense of the evidence, and share conclusions.
The book is organized into three sections:
If you are a science teacher, this collection will show you the paths that others like you have found to deepen their understanding of the philosophy and practice of teacher research. If you are a science-teacher educator, it will give you examples to share about the many ways in-service teachers can conduct inquiry into their own work. Either way, Teacher Research provides a memorable passage into what its subtitle promises: learning and growth.
Visit NSTA Recommends to search for New Teacher Tips–related resources such as this . . .
A Better Beginning: Supporting and Mentoring New Teachers
NSTA Recommends
Grades K–12
For new teachers, it is important to have a focused, well-grounded mentoring program. A Better Beginning lays such a foundation. It will be valuable for new and veteran teachers and their administrators.
The book is a series of essays, all written by educators who have either been part of developing such programs or have successfully participated in them. They describe the steps that should be followed in order to set up a successful program—how to set up classrooms, how to make the mentoring relationship work, and how to listen to one’s peers. They suggest methods that work, such as workshops and released time.
It is not logical to assume that new teachers can make the quantum leap from college to the real world without support. Such support is found in the business world and should be within the realm of education, from preschool programs through graduate level teaching. A Better Beginning presents a variety of worthwhile systems for developing viable programs. The editor does not lock into a single formula for mentoring programs, but leaves the reader to decide which parts of successful programs they could incorporate into the individual schools and districts. This book would be best used by educators seeking to initiate a mentoring program into their schools.