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.
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