Jodi- Everything a New Elementary School Teacher REALLY Needs to Know

This past week I had the opportunity to speak with a middle years school principal and he mentioned that one of the biggest challenges that new teachers face in their first years of teaching is not the teaching itself, but all of the other things that are required on the job like collecting permission slips, attendance, report cards, parent phone calls or parent teacher interviews.  I found that the book that I selected called “Everything a New Elementary School Teacher REALLY Needs to Know (But Didn’t Learn In College)” by Otis Kriegel addresses all of these situations and more.

At the time that this book was published, in 2013, the author Otis Kriegel was a “12-year veteran elementary school teacher” (p.233). During the author’s sixth year of teaching he reflected on the exhaustion, confusion, mistakes and mystery that come with the first years of teaching (p. 1).  With some encouragement he developed a workshop “How to Survive Your First Years Teaching & Have a Life” (p. 233). He followed up his workshop with the publication of this book which he describes as the “Meat of that workshop: the systems, tips, strategies, and ideas that will enable you to thrive in any situation, from how to organize your classroom to how to deal with an angry parent-and everything in between” (p. 2).  

The author recommends that you use this book as a “travel guide or manual” and read the sections “before you need them” (p. 3). The sections that are in the book include: Before the School Year (approximately 90 pages); During the School Year (approximately 50 pages); Your Students’ Families (approximately 30 pages) and Your Life as a Teacher (approximately 20 pages). The topics within each section of the book change with every turn of the page offering a wide variety of information. I will highlight a few topics within each section to provide a glimpse into this first year survival book. 

Before the School Year

The section, Before The School Year, is equally divided into three chapters; Making your classroom work for you, Learning your school’s culture and Setting up for a terrific year.  In the chapter making your classroom work for you, some things that a teacher needs to consider is how the traffic flow in the classroom can affect learning.  The teacher will need to consider smooth traffic flow for transitions to the meeting area, keeping the door area free from desks so students aren’t distracted by the adults coming and going, and most importantly the teacher should be able to see everyone from anywhere, so they can be aware of any situations that might be on the rise (pp. 6-10).    

Learning your School’s Culture prior to the start of school may be an area that is not consciously given any thought by a first year teacher with all of the other beginning of the year preparations taking place, but the author claims that learning the culture is as important as setting up your classroom (p. 29). This section includes highlighting the people who you should get to know, day-to-day routines and rules, teaching and student assessment, getting to know the parents, and responsibilities beyond the classroom.  After following the advice in this section, the first year teacher should start to feel the rhythm of the school and will be less of a stranger to the other staff in the building (p. 61).

Setting up for a Terrific Year covers topics like making the daily schedule, student portfolios, recycling, pencils, new students and IEP’s. The IEP or Individualized Education Program is one topic area that I have heard many new teachers wish they had more information about.  This book doesn’t go into great detail about IEP’s, but offers a general description of the wide range of Individualized Education Programs.  It is also stated that a teacher is required by law to follow a student’s IEP and the teacher can face repercussions if they don’t follow them (p. 85).  It is important that if the teacher doesn’t understand something on a student’s IEP, that s/he finds out who they need to speak with to be clear of the expectations.

During the School Year

The next big section “During the School Year” is divided into two chapters; working with students and working with your principal.  Working with students includes some classroom management advice as well as community building, and teaching.  The topics in this section seem to be familiar as some of them are touched on in the education program for early years teachers. 

Working with your principal is a chapter that offers advice on what principals can do for the teacher and how the principal is also in need of the teacher’s help. The author suggests that a teacher should develop a good working relationship with the principal of the school because the principal has many years of experience, is a resource, can provide advice for in-class ideas and on balancing the teacher’s time and energy (p. 140).  Additionally, the biggest benefit that the principal offers is that s/he will support or defend the teacher if there is a conflict with a parent or other outside observer (p.140).

Your Students’ Families

The section “Your Students’ Families” is a valuable section on partnering with the families of your students and communication with the home.  It includes how to prepare for meet the teacher night, parent teacher conferences, notes home for communication and advice for dealing with angry parents. The author reminds the reader that as a teacher, a big part of the job is working together with the parents and generally the more the parents are involved the better working with parents will be (p. 204).

Your Life as a Teacher

The final section, “Your Life as a Teacher” reminds the reader that to be an effective teacher it is important to have balance between the classroom and outside the classroom.  A big portion of this section is devoted to providing helpful suggestions to the teacher to prepare for a successful formal observation, including informing your students, to the importance of time management, planning the lesson with a strong beginning and ending the lesson on a key note (p. 214). This final section ends by informing the reader that teaching is a journey and plenty of mistakes will be made along the way.  The teacher should use those opportunities to grow and continue to inspire the students (p. 226).

Critique

It is impossible to summarize the abundance of valuable information that is presented in this text.  I was interested in reading it from cover to cover, because even though I have worked in an elementary school for over 5 years, and have a pretty good idea what is all involved for the day to day responsibilities of a teacher, I was still presented with some great new ideas that i have not been exposed to and this will help make my transition into teaching less chaotic.

As indicated by the title of the book the information is not typical of the content taught in college, however some of the information in this book is relatable to the themes that we discussed in class. In this book there is information related to sustainability, community building, finding a balance in life, and inclusive education. The book introduces these ideas with easy to use guidelines.

I think that this 226-page book would be very valuable even for those who don’t wish to read it from cover to cover. This book can effortlessly be used as a resource book, allowing the reader to easily find the information they are looking for from the table of contents or index.

The neatly organized table of contents includes the 4 main sections of the book, chapters, headings and subheadings.  The pages of the book are also well organized.  The written information within each subheading varies between half a page to two pages and can quickly be read. In addition, the author has included some true stories within each section that relate to the heading.  The reader can pick these out with ease because the author chose to use a different font to indicate that it is a story.  Additionally, the author has included some small “BTW” sections found in a shaded box; they include extra little snippets of valuable information.

Again this format also allows the reader to quickly pick out the information that they find most valuable or important. The index at the end of the book is also well organized; listing the main topics and subtopics.

I would recommend this book to anyone in the teaching profession.  I think that because of the wide range of topics, there is something valuable and ready to be used by anyone. I personally plan to keep this book close by and will use it as a resource during my teaching career. 

Kriegel, O. (2013). Everything a New Elementary School Teacher REALLY Needs to Know (But Didn’t Learn in College). Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing Inc.