Kendra - The First-Year Teacher's Survival Guide

The First-Year Teacher’s Survival Guide - Julia G. Thomson

This book is split into five parts, which are further divided into 17 sections. The five parts include Assume Your Professional Responsibilities, Establish a Learning Community, Promote Student Achievement, Design and Deliver Effective Instruction, and Maintain an Orderly Environment. This particular copy also comes with a DVD that contains downloadable versions of the Teacher Worksheets found throughout the book, as well as bonus articles.

The first section is titled Know What it Means to Be a Twenty-First-Century Educator. This section emphasizes maintaining professionalism at all times. It also outlines the professional responsibilities of a teacher, and how to ensure that these responsibilities are met. A second emphasis of this section is personal growth and development as a teacher. Reflective practices, peer observations and professional development conferences are all recommended, and how to make the most of these is explained.

Section Two is called Develop the Practical Skills You’ll Need to Manage a Classroom. This section is devoted to organization of all kinds. Classroom supplies and organization, file storage, student information, and time management is all covered. A final topic is classroom safety.

The third section is Collaborate with Others in Your School and Community. This section emphasizes the importance of collaborating with colleagues. It gives tips on how to deal with conflict with coworkers. It also details how to behave when interacting with administrators, parents and guardians, and support staff. It explains the importance of a transparent classroom, going into great detail in explaining how to communicate effectively with parents, even when they may be unreasonable or uncooperative.

Section Four is titled Begin a Successful School Term. This section is essentially what to do on the first day of school, including what should be a priority, what should be in a welcome packet, potential activities, and tips for learning names quickly. It also includes sample “get to know you” sheets for early, middle, and senior years.

Section Five is Develop Positive Classroom Relationships. The goal is to have a positive relationship with students, and this section dissects how to relate to students and become a good role model. It explains what not to do, as well as what you should be doing. This section then outlines how to create an environment that helps students get along with each other. It goes into particular detail on the topic of bullying. One strategy to help create a risk free classroom that is advocated in this section is to allow students to “phone a friend” if they are struggling.

The sixth section is called Control Class Time. It details how to avoid wasting time, giving tips on effective transitions and managing requests to leave the classroom, among other things. This section recommends using a kitchen timer to let students know they only have one or two minutes to switch activities, making them more likely to move quickly.

Manage Your Classroom is the seventh section, which describes how to achieve a successfully managed classroom. Expectations, policies, procedures, rules, and consequences must all be decided upon beforehand, and then communicated to students clearly and consistently.

The eighth section is titled Motivate Students to Succeed. It advocates positive reinforcement over punishment, discusses the merits of extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation, and explains how to make directions clear to maximize success. It also discusses how to make homework an effective learning tool.

Section nine is Choose Appropriate Instructional Strategies and Resources, which details the types of instruction, the pros and cons of each, and different technology to supplement instruction.

The tenth section is Design Effective Instruction. This section is about planning: how to begin, how to make unit plans, and how to make effective daily plans with backups just in case.

Deliver Engaging Instruction is the eleventh section. How to make your oral presentations engaging, how to run an effective discussion, and how to make play a learning tool is covered in this section. For example, this section suggests videotaping yourself several times over the course of the term. While watching, ask yourself questions such as “What annoying verbal and nonverbal tics do I have?” and “Do I project enthusiasm, authority and confidence?”

Section twelve is titled Meet the Needs of All of Your Students. This section explains differentiated instruction, and how to use it, including students who may need extra attention in order to succeed, or have other disadvantages such as English as a second language.

The thirteenth section is Assess Your Students Progress. Assessments that are covered in this section are formative assessments, tests and quizzes, and authentic assessments. It also briefly covers how to keep track of grades and deal with cheating. One form of formative assessment suggested is exit slips. Exit slips can be a problem or set of problems that are quick to complete but are directly related to the day’s work so you can get a grasp of their understanding. They are handed in as the students leave the room.

Section 14 is Level the Playing Field by Covering Basic Skills. Skills that should be taught in order to best allow the student to achieve success include media literacy, speaking, listening, writing, critical thinking, and reading, among others.

Section 15 is Prevent Discipline Problems. This section does not advocate punishment, but instead creating self-directed students through consistency, positivity, and monitoring the classroom carefully. One way to take a positive approach to discipline is to photograph students when they are working productively and display these pictures around the classroom as a gentle reminder.

The penultimate section is called Manage Discipline Problems, going hand in hand with section 15. This section encourages teachers to stay calm when faced with discipline problems, to not lose their temper, and then details appropriate responses and strategies to deal with a range of behaviour problems.

The final section is Learn to Solve Classroom Problems. This section gives examples of classroom problems that are likely to arise, and suggests appropriate responses to each.

Overall, this book is a good resource for teachers with any level of experience, but as it is aimed particularly at first years, it covers all the basics of teaching very thoroughly. I found the many examples and ways to deal with specific problems helpful, as opposed to generic advice that may be hard to apply. The detailed table of contents make it very easy to find what specifics that teachers may be looking for. It also has many worksheet examples throughout for both students and teachers to complete.

One prominent theme in this book is reflective teaching, which aligns with the teaching of this class, as well as the overall stance of the Faculty of Education. The first section in particular has many reflective practices, including a worksheet to fill out that guides the teacher through daily reflections. Each section also has a “Time to Reflect” section at the end, which encourages teachers to think more deeply about the material, as well as discuss with colleagues. A second common theme between this book and the course is inclusiveness, with an entire section of the book devoted to it.  

One theory that I did not find in this book that was emphasized in the course is outdoor learning. We spent a fair amount of time as a class learning about the importance of getting outdoors and experiencing nature, and that was not covered in this book at all. However, I do not think that this is necessarily a negative, as first year teachers should probably ensure they have the basics of teaching covered before they focus on outdoor education.

Thompson, J. (2013). The first-year teacher's survival guide. (3rd ed.). San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.