Sarah McQuaid – Everything a New Elementary Teacher REALLY Needs to Know (But Didn't Learn in College)

I was particularly interested in this book because I was sceptical of it. I read the title and thought, “How can a book cover all the information that a teacher needs to know?” However, this book surprised me with the vast amount of information it contains in a short read. It is definitely a good book that I believe could help all new teachers as well as experienced teachers gain many great ideas. It also answered many of the questions I had about teaching.

Summary:

Kriegel gives many great ideas on how to get ready for the school year. How you organize your classroom is explained as being very important in determining the atmosphere of the room. He stresses the importance of thinking of the traffic flow that will occur in your classroom. The desks and furniture should be arranged in a way that will allow the teacher and students to easily move around the room. He suggests to get rid of furniture that collects clutter and is not beneficial to the learning environment (such as the teacher's desk). I used to think of a teacher's desk as a necessity in the classroom, but Kriegel states a good point by explaining that oftentimes the teacher's desk uses a large amount of space, but is mostly used for storing supplies. Instead a filing cabinet and a small table can be more useful in staying organized and having a clear space to work with students.
Instead of spending a lot of money on new books for the classroom, Kriegel gives many great ideas on ways to get books for the classroom without spending your personal money. I like his following ideas:

(p. 19-20)

Kriegel explains the importance of being on good grounds with the school secretary, the custodian, the teacher (or union) representative, and the principal as they help to make your life as a teacher a lot easier. Showing appreciation to your custodian really stood out to me. It seems like we oftentimes take the custodian for granted and usually only contact him or her when we need help to fix or clean something. The following story is an eye-opener to the fact that we should not take our custodian for granted:

(p. 31)

Kriegel encourages teachers to continually learn by seeking information and advice from other teachers. He suggests to often observe other teachers when you have a spare so you can learn and gain ideas from them. A great idea given is to share lesson plans with other teachers who teach the same grade as you. An example is given of teachers who taught the same grade, but both planned for opposite subjects so they could then exchange their lessons. By doing so they had lessons for all subjects while only doing half the planning.

Having a daily posted schedule is stressed as being very important in helping teachers be aware of what their goal is for the day and to keep students informed on the plans. I found the following idea to be a clever and fun way of incorporating math into the daily schedule:

(p. 63)

Kriegel gives ideas on ways that teachers can give more responsibilities to students and get them more involved in their learning and the learning of their classmates. As a way to save a lot of time, the following idea is given as a way to decrease the amount of time spent on grading:

(p. 77)

Kriegel provides many great reasons for having a scrap paper bin in the classroom. Many of his reasons are common sense, but the following story demonstrates a clever way to use scrap paper that I had never heard of before:

(p. 79)

Since working as an educational assistant and doing my practicum, I have come to realize how school supplies can quickly be misplaced. I think the following idea is clever in preventing supplies from getting lost:

(p. 101)

I have often thought about whether or not first year teachers should inform parents of the fact that they are new to teaching. Kriegel suggests to let parents know such information: “Give families some biographical information about yourself, such as how long you've been teaching (and yes be up front if it's your first year – everyone has one)...” (p. 157).

As a way to help parents be involved in making the classroom an enjoyable place to enhance students' learning experiences, Kriegel suggests to have a list on the outside door of the classroom of items that could be beneficial in the classroom (that go beyond the usual school supplies).  Parents can then choose to donate items as needed.

(p. 164)

The last two chapters stood out the most to me because it helped me to realize how it is possible and crucial for teachers to have a life outside of school. If we set reasonable expectations on ourselves, it is possible to have a good balance between both school and home. Kriegel strongly suggests to leave all work at school even if it means staying later. He stresses the importance of separating school and home so that teachers are not constantly tempted to work (and to prevent themselves from burning out). By only working at school, Kriegel states that teachers generally become more efficient with their time and tend to accomplish more in less time.

(p. 207)

Critique

Contrary to what was emphasized in this course, Kriegel supports and gives ideas for ways to reward students extrinsically by giving them points or stickers on behaviour charts. After the students have reached a certain amount of points, he suggests to reward them with an activity they enjoy (p. 113). He also encourages the use of behaviour charts to help monitor and modify a student's behaviour and to have a behaviour contract with students who struggle with behaviour issues. If the students follow the contract, they can gain points towards a reward (p.119–120).

However, I also found that the book connected well with aspects of what we learned in this course. The first chapter of the book (Making Your Classroom Work for You) reminded me of the presentation five of my colleagues did on the book “The Third Teacher.” The chapter talks about the how the organization and atmosphere of the classroom affects the way students learn. The last chapter (Balancing Your Responsibilities) reminded me of Mike's sharing of how it is so important for teachers to have a good balance between their work and home life.

I would definitely encourage all new teachers to read this book. I found it to be an easy and interesting read. The book contains tons of information in a small book. The chapters and subject areas are well labelled and organized, which makes it easy to quickly find specific answers. I am sure that I will often refer to this book in my first year of teaching, but also in the years following. This book was my favourite read this semester and one that I will definitely keep among my teaching resources.

(p. 137)

Kriegel, O. (2013). Everything a New Elementary School Teacher REALLY Needs to Know (But Didn’t Learn in College). Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing Inc.