Heinemann / ISBN 0-325-00402-1 / 978-0-325-00402-0 / 2002 / 168 pp / paperback
Availability: In Stock

This title is recommended for:

• Student Teaching--Elementary
• Introduction to Elementary Education

Product Information

Student teaching can be the worst experience of your career.

OR it can be the best. This delightful collection of stories—emotional, poignant, funny—comes at the experience from every direction. It provides what is lacking from textbooks or how-to guides for student teachers: literate, engaging, and most of all HONEST appraisals of what to expect.

Assembled by writer and newly minted teacher Molly Hoekstra, these 29 essays reflect the experience of seasoned veterans considering their own beginnings, teachers recently inducted into the profession, and even teachers-not-to-be. The stories represent the grade-level spectrum in schools across the country, from Tekla Dennison Miller's elementary teaching experience in post-riot Watts to Anne Holzman's enjoyment of a Wisconsin eighth-grade graduation that included her special-needs student to Dee Birch Cameron's decision, despite her success, that teaching high school in Pittsburgh was not meant to be.

Explore the humor, the heartbreak, the frustration, and the inspiration provided by teacher training. And be better prepared to undertake that most complex of arts—helping others to learn.

Table of Contents

Contents:
I. Anticipation
1. The Student Teacher, Chantelle Edwards, L. Stapleton
2. Dissecting the Teaching Experience, J. Paschke
3. Notes to My Master Teachers, S. Ferguson
4. Olympia's Gift, A. Holzman
5. Am I Necessary? C. Panciera
6. Poco a Poco, J. Ferrar
7. Mission to Mars, A. Cole
II. Living Life in the Fast Lane
8. Chiffon Bit the Para, B. Tramonte
9. Best and Brightest, J. Verlenden
10. Give Me a B, C. Schwalberg
11. One Step at a Time, A. Robb
12. The Advantages of Deep Water Swimming, G. Gacosta
13. From the Mouths of Students, M. Sutton
14. Theme for English 9, C. Alessio
15. Dollars and Points, M. Goodyear
III. To Teach or Not to Teach
16. Going to the Library, D. Cameron
17. Delivering the Truth, J. Keats
18. Counter-Inquisitive, S. Whitson
19. Awakening, AP
20. Why I'm Sorry I Don't Teach English, C. Skolnick
21. To Be or Not to Be a Teacher, J. Goldenberg
IV. Reflections on the Beginnings
22. The Template in My Head, M. Worth-Baker
23. Michael, the Student Who Pushed Me On as a Teacher of Reading, A. Headlam
24. The Ed Block, B. Lucey
25. A Classroom Exchange, D. Donoghue
26. Street Syllabus, T. Miller
27. We Learn from Our Mistakes, S. Voorhees
28. Thanks to Kay, A. Sandmann
V. Final Word of Advice
29. Duty Free, D. Walders

Sample Chapters

• Read an excerpt from Section II: Chiffon Bit the Para
• Read an excerpt from Section III: Delivering the Truth: Confessions of a Teaching Fellow
• Read an excerpt from Section IV: A Classroom Exchange