Summary
With practical advice for both before and during the school
year, as well as relationships with students’ families and managing your life
as a teacher, Kriegel’s book is a great resource and well worth reading. The book is divided into four sections, each
with pertinent information for a first year teacher. The first section, “Before the School Year,”
discusses many considerations of setting up a new classroom, learning the
school culture, and implementing simple classroom routines and other ideas to
save time and sanity heading into that first year of teaching. There is a seemingly overwhelming amount of
information in this first section, however, having useful systems in place
before the students ever arrive will allow for a better teaching and learning
experience for all (p. 92).
The second section, “During the School Year,” offers strategies
for management, reward systems, community building, and whole class, small
group, and one-one- teaching. Also
included in this section is a chapter on building relationship/working with the
principal. The biggest take-aways from this section are to be flexible as plans
don’t always work out the way you had hoped and that your principal can be a
great resource to you, helping you learn from your mistakes and develop as a
teacher.
“Your Students’ Families,” the third section of Kriegel’s
book, is an excellent resource for working with the parents/families of the
children in your classroom. From the
parent-teacher relationship to when families/family members are in your classroom,
Kriegel offers sage advice. Offered in
this chapter are tips on mutual support between parents and teachers, the how
and whys of communicating with parents/families, your first meet the teacher
night, and encouraging, as well as working with, parent volunteers plus even
more.
The book’s final section, “Your Life as a Teacher,” is all
about balance. As future teachers we
will be giving of ourselves mentally, emotionally, and physically every day. Kriegel reminds us that balancing responsibilities
and taking care of ourselves is very important to being effective in the
classroom. Timely advice on personal boundaries
between home and school, lesson planning, delegation, and life outside the
classroom is all shared in this last section.
Resources
Kriegel’s book has so many helpful ideas that I cannot even
begin to list them all. The ones that I
have chosen to share here, however, are those that may not be immediately
obvious. These are suggestions and tips
I certainly would not have thought of, yet I believe may prove very useful in a
classroom. The resources are divided
into the same categories as Kriegel’s book.
Before the School Year
1. In designing your classroom, Kriegel
suggests it is important to consider traffic patterns (p. 7-10). After putting your desks or tables in place,
he suggests doing a walkthrough.
Kriegel, p. 8
After the rest of the room set up,
reconsider your design and make sure there are no problem areas.
2. It can be a daunting task, trying to fill
your new classroom library with books.
Here are a few suggestions from Kriegel.
I particularly like the idea of calling publishers.
3. Have your supplies put away at the
beginning of the year and introduce them slowly. This teaches the kids how to use them
properly, creates a community space, and fosters respect for the classroom and
supplies.
Kriegel, p. 23
4. Have
an extra set of clothes that you keep in the classroom for those unexpected
accidents that might occur in your classroom.
5. A very
practical tip about bulletin boards: “Try covering your bulletin boards with
fabric instead of paper. It won’t tear
so you won’t need to replace it for every new assignment” (p. 50).
6. Some
schools collect student work throughout all their years there for a portfolio
which is then given to them at the end of their final year. If you are in a school with such a practice,
here is a bit of timely advice.
Kriegel, p. 58
7. What do you do when students finish their
assigned work early? Here is a great
idea.
8. Cubbies or desks can get very messy and even
quite gross. Here is some timely advice
about keeping them clean.
9. Here are some handy tips in prepping for
field trips.
10. And finally,
balancing work with your personal life is always important!
Kriegel, p. 207
Critique
Everything a New
Elementary School Teacher Really Needs to Know (But Didn’t Learn in College)
is an excellent resource for first year teachers. Kriegel offers practical advice, real life
anecdotes, and lots of tips to help make the first teaching year a
success. His strategies, for the most
part, support the theory outlined in our course (Psychology of Learning and
Instruction), but there are also some contradictions. Here are a few examples.
In class, we watched a CBS interview with Alfie Kohn about
no more homework for elementary school aged children. Although Keigel mentions each teacher will
need to find out their school’s norm for giving homework (p. 72), he is an
advocate for homework himself. He
dedicates 6.5 pages to talking about different aspects of homework and even
mentions homework for children that “aren’t yet capable of reading or writing”
(p.75). This clearly goes against what
we spoke of in class!
We also talked about having students intrinsically
motivated, rather than offering rewards as extrinsic motivation. Again, this differs from what Kriegel suggests
in his book where he suggests “rewards are a way to acknowledge positive
actions in the classroom” (p. 114) and one could use charts or points to keep
track of good behaviours. He does let
the reader know, however, that he gives fewer points as behaviours become
established as he recognizes “the goal is for students to understand the
intrinsic value of making positive contributions to their community” (p. 114).
There are many points that also line up with ideas we
discussed in class. One such idea is to
have a scrap paper bin from which kids can take paper to use if they need
before it gets recycled (p. 79).
Although it is just one small part, this double recycling of paper lines
up with the many videos we watched and discussions we had about sustainability.
Although I could mention many more, one final example is
Kriegel’s suggestion to use the various forms of technology available today in
our classroom (p. 89-92). He talks about
how technology, like laptops, tablets, interactive whiteboards, digital and
video camera, and document projects, as well as Web resources like blogging
platforms, social media, Google Docs, YouTube, Skype, and the like can all be
great teaching tools. In class, a
variety of Web resources were used as teaching tools and technology was used to
provide a paperless classroom for us.
The only other slight drawback I considered while reading
Kriegel’s book was that it is American based and we are Canadian. The school systems in the two countries are
different and, therefore, some of Kriegel’s suggestions may not be applicable to
us or may need to be tweaked a bit to be made more relevant. That said, this is certainly not a huge
drawback, and Kiegel’s book is still one that is valuable and pertinent to us
in Canada.
Overall, Kriegel’s book is an excellent resource, well laid
out, and has lots of readily accessible and indispensable information for those
embarking on their first year of teaching.
I know that I will refer to this book often when I get my first teaching
job and I really think others ought to also.
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