Teacher’s
Toolbox
In his book, Everything a New Elementary School Teacher
REALLY Needs to Know (But Didn’t Learn in College), Otis Kriegel offers real-life
practical advice to new teachers who are just entering into their first years
of the profession. The tone of the book is conversational and encouraging. At
times it felt like I was listening to a mentor giving tips on how to run a
classroom from his tried and true strategies, and telling anecdotes of his and
other teachers’ successes and failures. Every piece of advice in this book has
been tested and has worked in real-life classrooms. The author aims to provide
advice to avoid awkward or dangerous situations, and to keep teaching fun. One surprising
thing that I have learned in practicum is that the actual time spent teaching
is only a very small part of what a teacher actually does. There is so much
going on behind the scenes that I, as a student learning how to be a teacher,
had no knowledge of. This book aims to fill in the gaps of teacher education
that two years of university seem to miss. Some details of the teacher profession
are not taught in university classes, but there are things we will have to do
but have no way of knowing how to deal with them except through our own or
others’ experiences.
There were many
times throughout the reading of this book where I found myself nodding along,
and making notes in the margins. There were many things that stood out to be as
beneficial and strategies I could use going into my second block of practicum
this upcoming week. The three things that stood out to me the most were getting
students started in the day, managing responsibilities in the classroom, and
handling transitions with ease.
I was surprised
to learn that much of what I need to know about my classroom, my school, and my
job is by asking questions of everyone. This would be challenging for me as I
like to do things on my own and figure them out “as I go along” but some things
I have no way of knowing except by asking. For the first couple months of my
teacher career I will have to be that person who just cannot stop asking
questions.
The idea of
using a meeting time is a great idea for getting kids settled and ready for the
day. Often it cannot happen in the morning, as kids are still coming in and
getting settled, and there may be late comers who would just distract from the
meeting. A better idea would be to have it later on in the morning. I could use
this strategy in the next few weeks in my practicum, as my students have a real
issue with getting to school on time. Putting the morning meeting later on in
the morning would allow us to begin the day settled, focused and aware.
I appreciate the
way the author handles the idea of responsibility: that it belongs with the
students. The author suggests a way of checking homework is to assign student
monitors to go around and check other’s work, as to “put the responsibility
back on the students, where it belongs” (Kriegel, 77).
Going along with
the idea of responsibility, a big part of daily classroom life is supply
management and the responsibility of classroom supplies. I really liked the
strategy of only putting out the number of materials for how many kids are in
your classroom. This will prevent waste and have students be mindful of
materials and learn to take care of what is not theirs. This also “encourages a
sense of community and teaches responsibility”(Kriegel, 83), both very
important aspects of a working classroom.
Continuing with the
material responsibilities, inventing a system to keep track of the classroom
tools is also crucial if you don’t want anything to go missing. One teacher
from the book traces the outline of scissors, staplers, or sharpeners with a
black pen on a shelf. That way, at the end of the day, a simple glance would
let her know if she was missing anything (Kriegel, 101). One thing I would do
to improve on this strategy would to make the outline of the object only
visible when the object was missing. I would trace the outline of the tool with
a pencil, and then fill in the inside of the outline with a red permanent
marker. When the tool is in its place, I won’t be able to see any red. If I
glance over and see any trace of red, I know that something is missing.
Transitions from
one activity to another are something that I have been working on with my
students. This is very important as transitions are one of those things that
have to happen several times in a day and can eat up valuable learning time. One
thing in particular where I am yet unsure of is how many directions to give
them at once during a transition. The book suggests that before you give
instruction, make sure you have thought about the what, when, how, where and why
for the most effective transition. This textbook suggests that you give
students one clear concise direction at a time and wait until all have finished
before continuing on to the next step (Kriegel, 106). With practice, students
will become more effective at transitions to the point where they might be able
to complete all the tasks with a simple prompt.
Overall, I found
this book to be very useful for its purpose. The author teaches teachers what
they might be missing before they go into their first year of teaching through applicable
anecdotes, sound advice and tried-and-true strategies that will work across all
grades in the early years and in classrooms around the world. When I go into my
first year of teaching, this book will be a handy reference and a guide as I
navigate through the beginning of my professional career.
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