10
Things New Teachers Need to Succeed
By:
Robin Fogarty
10 Things New Teachers Need to Succeed
is written by Robin Fogarty, a retired school teacher who has received her
doctorate in curriculum and human resource development (pg. xiii). From her
work with multiple school teachers both experienced and new, she has come up
with ten common themes that she believes each teacher needs in order to
succeed.
#1-
A Knowing Colleague as a Counsel: About the Policies, Practices, and Politics. Proactively
seek out a colleague who knows the school inside and out so you feel
comfortable asking them for advise on policies and practices of the school.
Become friends with a leader, not a follower.
#2-
A Place Called “My Room” for students to Grow, to Groom, and to Zoom.
Try to create a safe learning environment that encourages learning and
mistakes. Make the classroom your room as well as the children’s room. Create a
place to call “my own.”
#3-
A Method for Managing 1,500 Decisions on Your Seat and on Your Feet.
If you are in a rush let common sense make the decision. Later on take time to reflect and see what you
could do differently next time.
#4-
A Discipline Plan That Works on Paper and on Students. Use
your best judgment but be consistent and flexible. Keep the consequences for
one action the same for all students and follow through with the discipline
every time. Be flexible by taking in to consideration home life and external
factors for each child. If need be, ask for help from the principal, social
worker or guidance councillor.
#5-
A Standard Understanding of the Almighty Standards.
It is impossible to get through the entire curriculum tackling one topic at a
time. The trick is to overlap and cross different subject areas together,
killing two birds with one stone.
#6-
A Known Knowledge Base of Core Curriculum Content.
Over the summer plan out a unit and get to know the content well before classes
even begin. That way you know what to expect and you know where you want to go
with your students.
#7-
A Fail-Safe Lesson Design for Teachers to Teach and Learners to Learn.
Scaffold. If you teach the students the necessary skills to perform a task,
then they will be able to perform the lesson you are expecting them to,
creating a fail-safe lesson. Teach skills, then the lesson.
#8-
A Repertoire of Teaching Strategies: Different Strokes for Different Folks.
Not everyone learns the same way so take time to learn the needs of each
student. Also, present information in multiple different ways; visually,
orally, hands- on etc.
#9-
A Love Affair With Assessment: Rubrics Are Our New Best Friend.
Share the rubrics and your expectations of the students work before the task is
given. That way the students know what is expected of them. This allows both
you and the students to be on the same page of the expectations of the
assignment.
#10-
A Winning Way With Parents: To Report, Relate, and Celebrate. Keep
the parents in the know on their child’s learning progress. Send home weekly
newspapers, make phone calls and ask for volunteers in the classroom. Phone
calls home are not just for the misbehaviour, they are for the good behaviour
as well. Take the time to let the parents know how well their children are
doing in school.
Connections
In
general, I found that this book relates to our course and our overall theme of
keeping yourself healthy and well balanced. The author implies that if you
achieve all ten of her suggestions, you will succeed as a teacher. I think that
the author is not just talking about achieving great teaching techniques, but
rather a well-rounded educator that is able to handle any situation. If you are
able to make good connections with colleagues, have a good relationship with
parents, create a classroom that fosters growth and acceptance than I think
mentally and emotionally you will become a more stable teacher. Creating many
support systems within your school can help you relieve stress knowing that
there are friends around you to help you when you are unsure where to go or
what to do. Creating relationships is part of sustainability and I feel that
relationship building was one of the underlying topics of this book.
Critique
What
I liked about the book was that it was an easy read. I wanted a handbook that I
could grab and easily find what I needed. I did not want a book that took hours
to sift through all of the information because I feel that as a first year
teacher you do not have spare time to piece information together. As a teacher, you need straight to the point
facts and I think this book was just that. I also liked the organization of the
book. It starts off by listing the suggestion, then explains what she means by
it and ends with a section on how to achieve it in your school or classroom.
Their suggestions are given to help new teachers have success in the
educational field. It is organized for easy comprehension of the content being
presented. I also liked how the author seems to be a reliable source. According
to her autobiography she has been in the educational field for many years and
has done her research before publishing this book. It is reassuring to know
that she has experienced what it is like to be a first year teacher an d she is
able to use her experience to help other teachers succeed.
What
I did not like about this book was that it was meant to be used as a book study
more than a self-help book for teachers. Its content is based on new teachers
but it was not made as a handbook, it was made to be discussed every week with
other teachers. With that being said, it could be helpful to create a book
study with other teachers, but it just was not what I was expecting from this
book. I was also confused the first time I read through it because at the end
of each chapter is has an activity and focus questions. I assumed that these
activities were ones that we could use in our classrooms. It turns out that
they are activities to do in your book study, not with the children. The
activities relate to the chapter but are not ones that can be used in the
classroom.
In
general this book did not really stick out for me. I was looking more for a
handbook to have in the classroom that I could glance at every once and a while;
not a book study. I agree that each successful teacher needs the ten things listed
but I feel that having them on a list in the classroom is good enough; I do not
need an entire book on them. I was looking for more ways to contain the madness
in the classroom or deal with behaviour issues etc. From the title I thought
that is what it would be about. The book just was not what I expected and I
feel that there are better books out there for first year teachers.
Fogarty,
R. (2007). 10 Things New Teachers Need to
Succeed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
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